Day 2: Victoria To Jordan River (46.2 Miles)

I slept like a rock and then slept a bit more.  My body was obviously fighting something and I was determined not to get sick.  After coffee, a huge fruit salad, and some toast, we took a leisurely walk by my Grandad's old house.  It wasn't until about noon when I finally got on the road... it's hard to leave such great hospitality.

Hamar tells me stories of my Grandmum and Auntie Edith.

Blissful urban cycling connecting me to the Galloping Goose Trail.

Quick peek into a Chinatown alley in downtown Victoria.

And then before I knew it, I had found the Galloping Goose trail, a gorgeous tree lined rails-to-trails bikeway that connected me to Sooke.  Vibrant green moss and ferns lined the trail and a trailside cafe beckoned me in for lunch and an iced coffee.  The cafe even came equipped with a bike repair stand!  A pair of cyclists lingered at a table outside and chatted with me a bit before I hit the road again.

The Victoria harbor on my way out of town.

The Galloping Goose trail boasts some pretty amazing art.

Bike repair shops all over... this one right off the Goose refurbish bikes to keep bikes out of the landfill.

Beautiful paved sections.

And beautiful gravel sections.

A lovely invitation to lunch.

As I neared Sooke, I lamented having to jump off the Galloping Goose trail.  While the trail does go further, my dreams of sleeping next to the ocean meant that I would have to peel off onto Highway 14 to stay on the West Coast.  Luckily, I had a pretty good shoulder through Sooke and then the traffic thinned out.  I had done a little research beforehand and a veteran bike tourer of the island recommended the Jordan River campground, so I pushed on past the first few camping options.  It was worth it.  The campground was right on the Pacific Ocean with views of the Olympic peninsula, plenty of hammock trees, and dotted with surfers and puppies.

Sigh.  Yep.  This is the life.

My friend for the evening... he was patiently waiting for his owners to come back in from surfing.

Watching the sunset from my campsite.

A few tips for cycle tourists:

• The Galloping Goose trail connects right to downtown Victoria.  There was some construction happening when I passed through which required me to reroute a bit, but I imagine that will be done for folks touring now.

• This was even a bit nicer than the Lochside trail because it was 100% bikeway.

• There are several camping options before Jordan River (e.g. French Beach), but they seemed more for RVs.  There are also camping options after Jordan River along the Juan de Fuca trail which could be accessed with a little work.  Jordan River was really nice because the RVs had a separate section and the walk-in sites and car sites were in another section.  There was a self-pay station but they were out of envelopes and the bin was full so I didn't end up paying the fee.

Day 1: Vancouver City to Victoria (58 Miles)

I spent a couple days meandering my way north via Seattle and Deception Pass State Park before heading to Vancouver City.  I spent a day putting my gear together and had a restless night stealth camping in the car on the waterfront due to some very loud drunken college students that decided to bring the party to my neck of the woods.  I got a bit of late start because I was feeling under the weather, probably some cooties I caught from my friend's kid in Seattle.

The only cloudy day I had on my bike tour!

After crossing from Vancouver City to Richmond, I was greeted by this lovely cycling map, which provided a better intel than both Google Maps and Maps.ME.

The route itself was relatively uninspiring as it wound through industrial areas and flat farmland, but I was impressed I could connect the entire route with bikeways and bike lanes.  Richmond was interesting because it was home to a large Chinatown as well as a robust Muslim community.  A local bike commuter chatted with me at a stop light and he regaled me with stories of getting lost on a bike tour on Salt Spring Island.  When I arrived at the ferry terminal, I was allowed to zoom to the front of the line and board first!  I was joined by another bike tourist, a gal from Ottawa who was on her first big bike tour and it was her first day.  We spent the ferry ride chatting about bike touring and her excitement was contagious.

Waiting area for the ferry.

Bike touring buddy!

Weaving through islands on the ferry.

Bikes are also first off the boat!  It was unreal to stand right at the edge and watch the ferry doors open as we approached.

After a bit of confusion getting out of the ferry terminal area, I found the Lochside trail which provides a lovely nearly car-free route to Victoria from Swartz Bay.  My mother is originally from Canada and spent some of her early years in Victoria and we would go back every so often to visit my Granddad and some of my mother's cousins there.  While my Grandad is long gone, I was able to connect to my mother's cousin Hamar, his wife Kathy, and their daughter Rachel.  I hadn't seen Hamar since I was 6 years old, but he welcomed me into his home with open arms.  Turns out Hamar rode his bicycle across Canada in the mid-1970s and wouldn't you know it, he's also a law professor.  

Beautiful gravel roads on the Lochside trail... Canadians really are nice.  A bike commuter offered to take my photo as she saw me taking a bici-glamour shot.

Cute honor system farm stands dot the trail as well!

Hamar and Kathy were amazing hosts.  After a hot shower, we settled in with wine and appetizers to catch up and then feasted on local salmon, a quinoa and cauliflower casserole, salad, sorbet with fresh fruit, and mint tea with cookies.

Luxury on a bike tour!

A few tips for cycle tourists:

• Make sure to check the ferry schedule as it changes seasonally.  There are limits for both vehicles and walk on customers for each ferry.  Cyclists are consider "walk on" but there are also a limited number of bike racks, so get there at least 20-30 minutes early if you can.  The ferry ride itself takes about 1.5 hours.

• I wish I had grabbed a cycling map of Vancouver City to identify the best route to the ferry.  Neither Google Maps nor Maps.ME did a great job of providing the best routes.

• The Lochside trail is pretty easy to find and is well signed once you actually on it, but it was nice having a printed map.  It connects you to downtown Victoria and the Galloping Goose trail which heads west out of Victoria. 

Day 4: Dayville To John Day

All good things must come to an end, and that's exactly how this tour ended.  With all of us wanting a few days more, just a few more miles, just a few more hilarious nights filled with word games and stories.  Facing another blazing hot day, we were up by 5:30 am and rolled out before 7 am to beat the heat.  We had a fairly uninteresting flat 30 miles to cover from Dayville to John Day, which was made more interesting by bumping into a lovely couple bike touring to New York.  Turns out they were both from the Washington DC area and quit their jobs to bike...

Glamour shots while we waited for Ani to go back and retrieve the food she left in the fridge.

Home again, home again, jiggity jig jig.

There is a lovely sense of support and camaraderie that I can't put my finger on, but that certainly exists in a way with this group of women that I've never had when touring with guys.  That's not to say one is better than the other, but that it's just different and special.  And maybe it will never exist in this way again... except that I have a feeling this will not be our last bike tour together.

Day 3: Big Bend Campground To Dayville (Where Dreams Come True)

Although we intended to take our time getting up, I managed to find myself up and out of my tent by 5:30 am and caught the tail end of sunrise.  Kate was already up and making her morning tea.  This was going to be our hottest day with temperatures around 90 degrees and not a cloud in the sky so we were anxious to get on the road.  Alas, we ended up being a little too efficient and rolled by the store in Kimberly before it opened.  We had planned to fill our water up there, but decided to push on and filter from the John Day if need be (despite the assured presence of agricultural runoff).

So many cows out here.

Heading into the fossil beds.

Despite our best efforts to beat the heat, by the time we got into the fossil beds, it was sweltering.  Our half-mile "hike" had us sweating profusely and dreaming of a cold swim hole with shade and hammock trees.

Otherworldly... and hot.  But some cool fossil replicas and informational signs.

Even hotter was trying to hike up to an overlook.

We found some respite for lunch at the Cant Ranch just opposite the John Day Fossil Bed Visitors Center.  It had trees, manicured lawns, and a little picnic area close to the river.  Despite the allure of throwing up hammocks, we wanted to take some time to explore the visitors center and see if we could get some local intel on a good swimming hole.

We got a good parking spot!

Learning things.

Alas, the folks at the visitors center refused to help us.  The water levels were too high and they couldn't tell us anywhere to swim.  As we approached the hottest part of the day, we had to make a decision.  Settle for the less than stellar spot at the Cant Ranch that didn't really have a swim hole, or power through to Dayville and relax there.  Maybe there would be a swim hole, hammock trees, and kombucha!

Winding though the canyon.

We had made Dayville out to be some magical land of happiness... and well, it was.  It was quirky and its residents were welcoming with that edge that you only find in the wild west.  The city park had a swimming hole with crawfish and hammock trees.  The local market had craft beer and kombucha.  The Presbyterian church was a bike hostel with a real kitchen and hot showers.  Seriously, the magical land of cycle tourist happiness.

Waiting out the heat of the day.

Uh huuuh.

Happy hour in hammocks!

After jumping in the river and letting the hottest part of the day pass, Kate decided she would push onto John Day and then drive back to meet us.  Since she had to drive back to Portland, she wanted to beat the traffic getting back in.  We decided to be lazy for a little while longer, taught Michelle how to fix her first flat tire, and then went to check out the bike hostel at the Presbyterian church and get showers.  But first, we got some reading material for the night.

Checking out the amazing selection of books.

Yup, looks like it is going to be scintillating evening of reading for all of us.

We settled into the church, setting up camp and taking showers.  There were four other bike tourists there who had just started a cross-country tour.  We socialized a bit, welcomed Kate back, made dinner, and then went outside to do some acroyoga and host our own MST3K style reading of our Little Library books.  Which really ended up being a semi-dramatic/traumatic reading interspersed with gut busting laughter.  Let me tell you, the clear winner was actually the marriage of the Blackfoot Massacre and the Dinosaur with a Sword.  That is all.

Ani loves real kitchens!

Storytime after dinner (photo credit: Kate).

Day 2: Austin Junction-ish To Big Bend BLM Campground (aka Ouch!)

So normally, I am a pretty chill bike tourist.  I like to stop and smell the roses, do side hikes, dip my toes in the river, and otherwise, just take my time.  Sometimes, you live 4 lifetimes in a day and end up biking 84 miles under the blazing eastern Oregon sun.  Beautiful and brutal miles, to say the least.  We took our time getting out of camp since we had rolled in just before sunset the night before.

Morning riding and perfect temperatures (photo credit: Kate).

Me taking pictures of you taking pictures of me... I like to get low sometimes (photo credit: Kate).

The picture I actually took.

Remember that time we saved the baby fawn from uncertain death by barbed wire and I almost bit it climbing back down this steep hillside?

Snack break at the Galena "ghost town."  It was a little underwhelming, but amused us for about 5 minutes.

River, road, cliff.  Lather, rinse, repeat.

As the sun rose and the cool morning temperatures gave way to hot summer heat, we battled through the last cruddy climb of the trip.  Each summit seemed to have a road or path up to a lookout tower, so Ani and I took the opportunity to walk up and see what we could see.  Michelle and Kate hunkered under the shade of a tree and rested while we took our side trip.  Alas, the lookout tower was locked, so instead, we amused ourselves and did a bunch of handstands.

The world looks good upside down and surrounded by lupine.

And then finally, we descended into the most beautiful canyon.  It was an explosion of colorful rock formations and we forced ourselves to stop and enjoy the view despite our urge to just let go of the brakes.  As we took in the views of the valley, we saw a small speck working its way slowly up the hill.  Was it a bike tourist?  Was that a trailer he was pulling?

Somewhere down there is a speck of a cyclist.

Michelle gets some love from Fearless Fred!

We thought we were in the home stretch and that we would find camping just past Monument.  Whoops.  All that part along the John Day river that we thought might be National Forest was actually farms... so many &*%&$-ing farms.  "Worst case scenario, we are at the BLM campground," I said.

Rolling rolling rolling...

Michelle is still in good spirits.

And well, guess what?  We ended up at the BLM campground.  All the established sites were taken, so we found a flat spot where one of the other folks told us someone had camped the night before, pitched our tents, and then made a bee line for the river to wash the salt and road grit off ourselves.  Holy crap was that water cold and the most amazing thing of my life.

Our neighbors in the RV let us use their picnic table since they had their "dining room" inside.

Michelle may have bonked a little and got a little support from this tree and ginormous sweet potato during her recovery.

A few tips for cycle tourists:

• We could have easily camped at one of two RV sites in Monument.  The first one was actually on the river and not so bad, but all of us are morally opposed to places like that.  If I had been biking alone, I probably would have stopped and knocked on the door of one of the nicely manicured farmhouses and asked for permission to camp on their property.  That said, the Big Bend BLM campground has beautiful river access and it was pretty chill (all things considered) for Memorial Day weekend.