Day 6: Newcastle Island To Vancouver City (16.9 Miles)

I woke up waaaaay too early... the first ferry off the island wasn't for hours.  So I went for a walk to see the island in the morning light while everyone except the wildlife slept.  It's amazing how different a place can feel in the calm of dawn.

Morning!

Deer running amuck as the humans sleep.

One of the infamous raccoons... this one was dragging a bag of marshmellows bigger than him for a while.  He feasted, then jetted off.

I decided to pack up and head to the ferry a bit early and there was already a line!  Luckily, the line consisted of two other bike tourists, who attended the wedding the day before, but had decided to arrive by bike.  Simon and Bridget have a lot of bike touring under their respective belts, including Peru!  Also, Simon and I immediately bonded since we have almost identical bike touring set ups... Surly Trolls with the same exact Marathon Mondial tires and Brooks saddles.  We managed to fit the three of us onto the same ferry and made it to Nanaimo on the second ferry of the day (we let a group of wedding folk and gear take the first ferry).  Simon and Bridget invited me to join them for a second breakfast at a cute cafe on the waterfront, and the Simon took off to bike up the island to continue his bike tour, and Bridget was heading back to Vancouver City.  We ended up buddying up for the entire trip back to Vancouver City and Bridget even offered me a place to stay there!  I thanked her profusely but already had a hotel lined up.  So instead, she gave me her personal copy of the Vancouver City cycling map so I could navigate back more easily.

Look at all those sexy touring bikes!

Bridget and Simon... lovely couple from Vancouver City.  Bridget actually just got a new job on Vancouver Island and Simon was getting ready to bike to an interview for a job there as well.

Lovely gift from Bridget.  I passed it onto my friend Stu who will be bike touring Vancouver Island in September!

Since I hadn't really explored much of Vancouver City and I had some time to kill, I decided to really enjoy the ride back.  West Vancouver and the route into downtown Vancouver is much nicer than heading out the south side of the city to the Tsawwassen ferry terminal.  Clearly, this is where all the money is, the houses built for views, and the fancy shops are.  This is also where cute farmers markets are and it took all my energy not to eat all the things... So I tasted a few things and then bought some local strawberries to munch on and bring back to share.  I intended on spending some time in Stanley Park, which boasts a really love set of car-free multi-use trails, but I missed the turnoff somehow, and was too tired to go back.  So I headed to the hotel, took a luxurious hot shower, and enjoyed the hotel.

Yay farmer's markets!

Mmm, fresh strawberries.

The bridge into Stanley Park... it was so cool riding over this bridge!

Views of Stanley Park and its amazing car-free mult-use path from the bridge.

More views on the way into downtown Vancouver.

A welcome change to my bear poo littered pullout...

A few tips for cycle tourists:

• It's important to check the ferry schedule from Nanaimo to Vancouver City and arrive at least 20 minutes early!  There are tons of amenities on the other side (unlike the Tsawwassen ferry terminal) and Marine Drive, the alternate to the highway leaving the ferry, is just fine to bike on.  While the shoulder isn't always great, it is a popular place for recreational cyclists (I saw a few bike clubs in pace lines) and so cars are used to going slow or around cyclists.

• It would be worth it to figure out how to get onto the bike paths in Stanley Park.  Had I not been on a bit of a deadline to meet up with David, I would have loved to spend some time here.

• Having a copy of the cycling map of Vancouver city was super helpful as neither Maps.ME nor Google Maps did a great job of identifying the best way to get into the city by bike.  The cool thing about Vancouver City is that it has a pretty great network of bike paths, bike lanes, and bikeways... so even though it is huge, it doesn't feel so bad to bike there.