Vancouver Island Tree to Sea Mini

My friend Aparna rallied us all to meet up on Vancouver Island for some mountain biking. She and her husband already had some plans to climb and ride in Banff, and welcomed us to join on any or all of their plans. At one point, we had our whole crew and our respective partners in on the trip.

• Aparna and hubby -- doing an epic with a trailer to Banff and then to Vancouver Island
• LeeAnn (me!) and Patrick -- preferring to keep our whole trip on Vancouver Island and bringing so many bikes for bikepacking and mountain biking
• Ani and Mark -- Ani was going to join me and Patrick for bikepacking, and then Mark was maybe going to join for the mountain biking
• Elisa and hubby -- joining Aparna and Jamie for their whole shebang
• Nicole and her boo -- coming up just for mountain biking

Team Ani and Mark ended up feeling like the logistics were too complicated and backed out. Then Elisa's husband broke his wrist mountain biking just a week before the trip. And we were down to Aparna, Nicole, and me with our partners.

One of the epic Vancouver Island bikepacking routes is the Tree to Sea route, that typically takes well over 2 weeks to finish. Whelp, we did not have that kind of time. We had 3 - 4 days max. I saw some mini versions and created a route. I loved this 3.5 day route so much. It was hard, it was magic, and it made me fall in love with this corner of Vancouver Island. 

Patrick and I had only done a few easy overnighters together and always with other people. This would be our first bigger bikepacking trip just the two of us. I knew this guy loved me when he was excited for this part of the trip because it would be really romantic to get sweaty and struggle through some Type 2 fund together.

Magical paths in the rainforest.

Waterside biking.

We actually didn't get rained on too much, but we did find this tiny shelter at our first campground. Ha.

Little Bear Bay magic. It rained like the dickens overnight, but was magical both the day before and the morning after.

OMG bear fishing! Apparently at night, the salmon sleep in the bay and the smart bears come early morning for an easy meal. We were told this is a "good local bear" and just comes to eat without messing with campers.

Steep steeps.

We figured out how to securely strap a pizza onto Patrick's bike!

Last night camping!

One of a gajillion farm stands.

When you run out of space in the panniers.

The infamous salsa battle.

A few tips for cycle tourists:

• The caretakers of Kin Beach Provincial Park were so lovely -- the guy was also a bikepacker and was so excited to host us and talk bikes with us. They let us park our car there for free. There is also hiker/biker camping as well. We camped there our first night. It's right on the water and we missed some whales passing by just a few hours on our return.
• The first 15+ miles of the route and the last 15+ miles are the same, but those miles are dotted with farm stands that are a joy! Including competing salsa makers. 
• Dispersed camping is hard. Why? Because the undergrowth out here is dense. Luckily, people are nice. We relied on two first come first served campsites (Upper Campbell Reservoir Campground and Little Bear Bay) and while both were full, we managed to find a space to camp. The third campground had first come first served campsites and reservable ones (Miracle Beach), and while it was booked up, we were able to find a site that had been vacated early. If you want to rely on Miracle Beach, I'd recommend making a reservation in advance.
• If you stay at Little Bear Bay... and you absolutely should... it was a GEM, you will need to explore a little to find a water source. My research showed from a kayaker report that Pye creek was a reliable source and it wasn't too hard to find since there was a use trail there.
• Chonky tires recommend.

The Great Granby

The Fourth of July is one of my least favorite holidays. I wanted an excuse to not bear witness to the shitfuckery of lighting our great outdoors on fire, noise, and nationalism that the United States becomes. So I gathered a few of my favorite people and went north across the border to the motherland (literally, my mother is from Canada!). We looked at routes on Vancouver Island and in other parts of British Columbia, and landed on The Great Granby primarily because of the ease of a beautifully vetted route. We were not disappointed. 

Whelp, turns out that we ended up in Canada on Canada Day, but luckily they manage to celebrate it in a very polite Canadian way. While the original route had two options, we opted for the well graded rail trail instead of adding gratuitous road climbing. 

There isn't anything I can share here that the fine folks at bikepack.ca haven't shared, so just go, enjoy, and live large! And don't be too surprised if you bump into other bikepackers on this route like we did.

Flats happen and Ani is a great helper.

Magical lakeside campsite during peak season.

So much lake joy.

Mountains, water, and dirt roads.

Whoops, wrong way. I suppose the overgrown path was a sign.

Gnarly trails.

Bears! We took one bear spray for three of us, but no actual bears. Just prints.

Magic light and magic scenery.

Just some shitty views.

Collapsed caves are the coolest. This one is historic and left to be how it is.

There is a history of Japanese internment here... my grandad was also born and raised here. Now, since I'm adopted from South Korea, there's no relationship to this history. But I shared this story and someone thought that my grandfather was interned here. Whoops.

Some campsites come with the best swimming holes. Also, it's a great way to get away from the mosquitos.

Dave saved Elisa... it was so hard to find a "bike shop" that was open. Sometimes, you just have to find a guy who knows about bikes and he'll make sure you can shift into all your gears.

Huckleberry season! (Also, black raspberries and salmonberries!)

From wide dirt roads to doubletrack.

Magic at dusk.

Did I mention that Canadians are nice? We scored these free beers from a family across the way.

A rare photo of the three of us.

Just me n' the mountains.

Ooh, we are gonna get on a boat!

Just a little hike-a-bike.

Rest days = fun at museums.

Tunnels = natural air conditioning.

A few tips for cycle tourists:

• Folks in Canada are real nice. Finding long term parking is as easy as asking a local business owner if you can park at their establishment.
• For some wonderful reason, there are samosas widely available in British Columbia. No one knows why, but why question it? Even in the tiniest quaintest towns, there are samosas.
• Poutine is less available than samosas. Weird.
• Some of the entrances to old rail-to-trails, especially near the collapsed tunnels, may be hard to find, but I promise they are there!

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. 

Day 5: Summit Before Fourth Lake To Newcastle Island (34.9 Miles)

I woke up with the sun at 5 am after a glorious bear-free sleep and was happy to see my food pannier still in tact and hanging from its spot down the road.  After a huge breakfast, I attacked the rest of the summit while the air was still cool.  It's worth looking back every so often to see where you've come from, and in the morning light, I admired a waterfall I had missed in my misery the day before.  And then just a short hour later, I had made it to my last big summit!

Taking a break to admire the waterfall... photos never really do the experience justice.

Even enough energy for a crooked summit headstand!

The maps showed that eventually, the gravel was supposed to give way to a secondary paved road and then it would be sweet pavement all the way into Nanaimo.  It was mostly right.  The gravel gave way to a gravely sometimes paved road that looked like had seen better days.  Regardless, it was pretty smooth sailing.  My GPS tried to take me a funky way up and an exposed crumbly dirt road and after some investigation, there was a longer paved way that I decided to take and I was happier for that.  I passed by a  mountain bike trailhead where I saw locals heading out for a day ride and resisted the urge to drop my panniers and ride... I was exhausted and ready for some real food and maybe even a beer.

Yup, a Nanaimo coffeeshop sign nails it.

This cute place owned by an aging granola hippie was a lovely lunchtime stop.  It came complete with really a really nice gentleman who wanted to know all about my tour and gave me some tips on where to relax on Newcastle Island, my destination for the evening.

Craft beer and salmon tacos with a huge spinach salad?  Yup.  Thanks.

I didn't linger too long after lunch because I wanted to have some lazy time since the last few days were fairly hard.  I found my way to the passenger ferry for Newcastle Island and managed to roll right on board and be off right away.  The lovely thing about Newcastle Island is that it only has passenger ferries, which means it can only be explored by foot or bike.  It boasts a small campground, cycling trails, hiking trails, and lovely beaches.  It is just a hop and a skip away from Nanaimo, so many folks just head there for the day and then magically, the daytrippers disappear and it is pretty peaceful at night.

I'm on a little boat!

I finally got to admire one of the infamous totem poles of the area... I had been in such remote areas, I didn't see as many as I thought I would!

When we reach Newcastle Island, some law enforcement officers were escorting a drunk man off the island... in the polite way possible.  Turns out he had crashed a wedding ceremony and unfortunately for me, his wife and sons were occupying my campsite and looking a little bewildered and overwhelmed by all the gear they had to break down.  Even though it was well past the checkout time, I felt for her and so I told her to take her time and decided to explore the island for a few hours.

Beaches!

Boo, no bikes past this point so I parked and continued on foot.

Amusing myself.

I could see the big ferry that would take me to Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver from Newcastle Island.

Enjoying a dip!

At long last, my site was vacated, I was able to settle in, read my book, write in my journal, and otherwise just relax in my hammock.  I splurged on a shower and called it night early!

Cozy amongst the trees.

A few tips for cycle tourists:

• The campground on Newcastle Island sells out on the weekends, so book your reservations in advanced if you are arriving on a Friday or Saturday.  The quietest sites closest to the beach are 15, 16, 17, and 18.  The ferry runs about every 30 minutes, but just know they might get full for the first and last ferries each way.  It is a good idea to doublecheck the ferry schedule since it does change seasonally and it is important to note it does NOT embark out of the same dock as the ferry to Vancouver City.  Since bikes take up extra space, you might have to wait for the next boat.

• Bring your own food as I did not see any sort of restaurant or cafe (although I thought I had read there was one there seasonally...).  Make sure to use the food boxes at the campsite.  No, there aren't bears, but there are very determined and brave raccoons that will steal anything!