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.

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!

Day 4: Gordon River Dispersed Site To Halfway Up Summit To Fourth Lake (40-ish miles)

Nocturnal birds flapping in the night kept waking me up, but I otherwise passed the night peacefully.  I was up and out early as I knew my route for this day was going to be my hardest and most grueling day.  While the sunny skies were beautiful, they were also brutally hot.  I battled confusing road signs, steep gravel road grades, roads rarely if ever travelled anymore, and had the adventure of a lifetime.  It was a quintessential bikepacking day and it felt triumphant to successfully navigate this section of the trip.

Finally ran into my first logging trucks... the lack of rain lately has made for a lot of dust.  Luckily, I just had a few miles before I turned off onto smaller gravel roads.

Seriously, though, those flowers!

Hmmm... surely that means only for cars.  The handwritten note that "Google Lies" had me thinking it was not closed just for logging... I made a gamble and just went for it.

Exposed, sunny, steep, and still beautiful... so much hike-a-bike!

Remnants of logging long past.  Clearly it had not been used recently.

One of the biggest gambles I made this day was to ignore the "Road Closed" sign.  I thought maybe it was closed for logging, but it was clear that there hadn't been any logging up this way recently.  As I slowly progressed further and further, my mind wandered in circles, and desperately hoped that I would not have pushed my bike up the steep summit only to have to turn around and figure out a new route.  And then, I discovered that I was right.  The road was only closed to cars because it had washed out and just a small bit of singletrack connected the route through the washout.  A weight lifted off my shoulders as I walked my bike and panniers separately over the loose singletrack.

Where the road ends for cars.

Clearly, nothing had really been through here in a while.  I battled tree limbs and loose rocks the whole way down.

It was barely rideable due to the fist sized rocks and I wiped out.  Oops.

After basically having to walk my bike down the other side of this summit, I finally reconnected victoriously with the main dirt road.  I was so pumped until one of my panniers kept popping off the rack.  Turns out I broke the latch on one of them when I crashed my bike, so I ziptied the pannier to the rack and then it was clear sailing from here to Lake Cowichan where I planned to have a late lunch and a swim.

Logging trucks, no matter how respectfully they passed me, still kicked up a ton of dust.

Cowichan is beautiful!

Found my own private swimming spot where I hunkered in the shade to eat lunch and got to go skinny dipping.

Energized by a leisurely lunch and swim, I loaded up on water and headed towards Nanaimo.  I knew I had a killer summit ahead of me and vowed to get up as much of it as possible tonight.  This meant I might have to dry camp, so I carried 3 extra liters of water.  Again, the signs tried to fool me and emboldened by my previous endeavor, I forged ahead.  I was a little worried that "no access" meant there would be active logging since the other sign had just said the road was closed.  As the day wore on, I was in high spirits.  There wasn't a single car and I saw two ultralightweight bikepackers zooming down the other way.

Nope.  Ignoring you, too!

The mountains still had a wee bit o' snow left on them.

The crushing summit earlier had sapped a lot of my energy so I was trudging up the summit in a painfully slow manner.  I had to push my bike up so much that I started getting blisters and finally decided to call it quits and find a big pullout to set up camp in.  Bear poo was scattered on the road here and there, so I knew I was going to have to be careful with my food and sure enough, right as I was cleaning up from dinner, I saw two big black bears with their baby cub.  Even though black bears aren't known for attacking humans, I scrambled to hang my food, snapped a quick picture, and dove into my tent.  They ambled by peacefully and didn't bother me or my food stash at all, but my brain was racing... did I have enough reserves to make it to Nanaimo with no food?  Would I have to punch a bear in the face?  Will this be the adventure that ends all adventures?

Black bear family from afar.

Not really a bad campsite though, really, even if it was just by the side of the road.

 A few tips for cycle tourists:

• This area has a ton of dispersed camping and while I had intended on staying at an established campground, I preferred to rough it.  

• This is also some of the most remote cycling I've done and just know that you need to be able to be 100% self-sufficient for at least a day to do this part well.  And have a good GPS.  Maps.ME was great and accurate and made navigation easy.

• Yup, there are bears.