Posting from EveryTrail to see if it does a better job at posting my routes
Salish Sea Loop (short version)
Plan your trips with EveryTrail Mobile Travel Guides
Here’s the .KMZ download if you want to add it to your maps and GPS:
|
|
|||
|
The last three days have been wickedly hot and probably not a very cleaver idea to be bike touring fully loaded in these conditions. Yet we pedalled Monday in 38c degree heat from Nanaimo to Kooms (just east of Qualicum Beach). At one point after reaching the highway 19 and 19A junction we headed a bit inland on 19 where I began to suffer the effects of heat exhaustion. Feeling very dizzy, weak, and unstable we climbed a hill at a snails pace. Eventually we reached Parksville and stopped in the shade of the information centre where we had a frozen fruit bar and waiting for some time to pass and a cooler evening. Finally we reached the Old Alberni Highway in the cool of the evening and feeling better, arrived at our host’s farm safe yet tired, worn, and frazzled. This was the worst day of the trip so far and the worst I’ve ever experienced heat related illness, something I do not want to relive.
Tuesday July 28 we packed early to try and beat the expected 39c degree onslaught knowing that we would head east toward the water and hopefully cooler day of riding up to Denman Island. We made the 10 km ride east on highway 4A to Qualicum Beach in a quick 30 min as it was a mostly downhill ride. In Qualicum we stopped in the village shade to eat breakfast when I suddenly saw an older gentleman whom I recognized from our trip to Q-Beach last year. John was on his way to the pool, as he normally does, when he decided to ride through where we were having our snacks. It was a thrill to see him again and we talked for a while before heading off to Milner Gardens before returning to have lunch with him.
Lunch with John was fantastic and we weren’t surprise when he offered to ride with us half way to the Buckley Bay ferry we also weren’t surprised that like last year he lead the way. After ice cream at Qualicum Bay we again were on our own. We hope we see John again soon. Beth and I arrived at Buckley Bay just after the 7pm ferry left for Denman Island and so waited until the 8:30 but fortunately had a Subway right at the terminal to catch dinner (where we had lunch with John and met his significant other, Stella, last year). The ferry only takes about 10 min to get to the island but then there’s about a 19% grade hill from the landing into the main town/village. Beth promised me a beer was waiting for me at the top of the hill but the grocery store had closed at 6 and there wasn’t another place to get and cool refreshments until the next day… that is in normal times and normal temperatures.
The next day as record breaking temperatures were still cooking the islands and us we were told that the store’s refrigeration system broke and that they were closing at 1pm. However when we got there at 12:30 they had already been closed for 30 min and so my dream of a cold beer on a hot night was put on hold again but the forecast says that I will have plenty more nights to quench my thirst, by the weekend temp are expected to climb higher. We are on day two of our annual Vancouver Island and Gulf Island tour. Stayed in Victoria with a couple on the Warmshowers.org network and are headed to Sooke on the south coast of the island today. This trip we will be doing a bit more camping than on previous trips but with a small mixt of Wamshowers and Couchsurfing netwok hosts to stay with. Pictures and videos to come soon! Sorry for the belated follow-up to our two week trip to Vancouver Island and the Discovery Islands. Beth wrote a bit about our couple of days on the road and I will post what she wrote here: Day 1: Took the ferry to Sidney, B.C. (Beth slept the whole way.) Carl chatted with fellow bikers Adi and Todd, who were doing some ultra-light touring; just a large saddle bag and tent pole bag taped to their top tube. Upon arriving in Sidney, we headed for our favorite souvlaki place: Maria’s. There, we met up with our first CouchSurfing.com hostess, Yvette, and began to see what an amazingly cool person she was. Yvette drove us into Victoria that night for Luminara, a magical community lantern festival. There were many artistic light displays, sculptures, wandering and performance art of lanterns, and more light. The main attraction: the fire juggler. Nick Woolsey of PlayPoi dazzled us with his various choreographed routines, spinning balls of fire in more ways than one can imagine. Afterward, Yvette herself performed a 36-point turn to get out of a parallel parking space into which she had been sandwiched by an inconsiderate driver. A video by VegasWildfire (far better than the vids I took of that night)
 A blurry Nick Woolsey
 Fireflies
 Ginger Bread Men running very fast
 Glowing Wildlife of British Columbia
Day 2: Fueled by an amazing breakfast prepared by our hostess with the mostest, we headed onto the Lochside Trail toward Victoria. It’s a pretty nice way to go: part road, part trail, but always lots of cyclists. We saw a billboard for Obama, which we thought was interesting, since we were in Canada. Note that there was almost no place to pee on this stretch as the highway was on one side and expensive housed on the other.. The first park we stopped at had restrooms that were locked. Finally we found one that had port-a-potties. Whew! Once in Victoria, we turned onto the Galloping Goose Trail. At the juncture, there is a cool little bike shop, which I’m hoping Carl will say something about here. The Galloping Goose took us to our destination: Hatley Castle. We had wanted to tour this castle a year and a half ago, when we were there on New Year’s Day. Alas, it was completely closed at that time, so we were making another try. This time we got in on a tour and visited the elaborate gardens. Score! On the way there, Carl reached out while cycling to grab a flower for Beth. Unfortunately, he got stung by a bee in the process, which at least enhanced the romance of the gesture. Riding the Lockside Regional Trail
 Hatley Castle is the home of Royal Roads University, and it has a fabulous café. As we stood pondering the menu, we wondered where the “high carb” options were, as there seemed to be plenty of “low carb” offerings, which were not what we needed after all that cycling. Hatley Castle is also where the X-Men movies were filmed.   Wanting to maximize our time at Hatley Castle, and also not wanting to wear ourselves ragged on the first day, arriving back at Yvette’s in the dark, etc., we decided to take the bus back to Sidney. Unfortunately, the bike racks on the buses have only two slots for bikes, and it was a beautiful Sunday, so there was a lot of competition for rack space. We finally found a bus driver who offered to lash one bike in between the two that were fitted into the slots. Success! Still it was dark by the time we got back to Sidney. Beth started to get a sore throat this day, so we picked up zinc lozenges and echinasea. Back at Yvette’s, we gobbled up the amazing dinner she had prepared (candied salmon salad with dried cranberries–AMAZING), and then we soaked in the hot tub a bit before falling very fast asleep in the comfy sofa bed. |
||
|
Copyright © 2010 Blue Steel Roads - All Rights Reserved - Log in - Register |
|||
