52 miles today. in the hoh rainforest, nw washington. now there are 8 of us, fun times.
from txt (Robert)

Notes on the Victoria Area

There are a bunch of really well signed bike routes in the Victoria area. We saw a ton of tandems and triples, later we heard that it was a yearly tandem convention. There are some crazy tandems. I think the weirdest ones are the mixed recumbent/upright tandems. They did look like they might have a shorter wheelbase as the front wheel ends up under the front rider, but man do they look weird.

We did get to visit a bike coop here, saw it right off the bike path and hopped on in. Got shown the works, traded some coop stickers, and pumped up our tires. If you are in the Victoria region, and need a coop, these folks seemed really cool. The Recyclistas!

Also, the US is absurd about entry. You start on the Canadian side (before getting on the ferry) with a customs officer quizzing you and taking a look at your passport, then have to get processed by the border patrol on the US side, who ask random weird questions. When we went to Canada, they asked 5 straightforward questions, and seemed happy to see us. And that was after processing a full train, and we were the last people to get to customs. The US side didn’t even give us a welcome home.

(Robert)

Bike path through town was great, mostly downhill- through farms, over bridges, some dirt paths, and straight in to the harbor.
from txt (SteveJo)

They let us back in the country. Victoria's nice, mostly an expensive tourist trap but we did find a well organized bike co-op.
from txt (SteveJo)

Down to half battery on the phone, but 30 min from being back in the us. this first week has gone well, 5-6 more to go.
from txt (Robert)

Notes on Salt Spring Island

Hunter and Kai stop by a sign carrying
important directions for ferry passengers.

This was where we really stopped enjoying the book. Salt Spring Island isn’t very well documented in the book, and so we got in after our first 80 mile day to have to wander around town looking for a campsite. There is a private campground there, which is pretty nice, and has nearby showers. We killed a few cans of Colt 45 (the stuff is too gross to drink in bulk) and a gallon of ice cream on the ferry ride to the island, which was a good idea, as we then had enough energy to beast it over the first set of hills into town. After the town there is a second set of hills, with a lake at the top. Very worth going for a dip.

(Robert)

Hanging out on salt spring island. first shower this morning good stuff.
from txt (Robert)

80 miles yesterday, taking it easy today. found a quaint private site: no public camps on salt spring island anymore. Soon, Victoria!
from txt (SteveJo)

Everyone's out for Canada day! Just had some delicious sandwiches and ice cream canada flag cake. Nanaimo, eh?
from txt (SteveJo)

40 m, eating in Nanaimo, which has the most fun name to say thus far. 25 m to go.
from txt (Robert)

Robert's Journal, Canada Day

Morning Day 6, Canada Day 7/01/09
Ended up about 20 miles short due to missing the ferry yesterday. One left at noon, and the other at 5:00. Ferry times are important when they fall in the middle of a 70 mile ride. Likewise, waking up and packing in an efficient manner are also important. Fortunately, the last 27 miles we covered were some nice low rolling hills, so we were able to keep a good pace somewhere in the range of 15mph. That was good riding, just bombing down 19. We are finally heading south, our most northerly point being Comox.

Notes: The huge supermarket we went to in Nanaimo was serving cake for Canada Day. There were also a lot of Canadian flags and whatnot about, as one would expect. They seemed to go in more for gatherings in parks than parades though, as we didn’t run into any. At the same time, we were riding later in the day, starting out around noon. Also, we found out, “Going to Nanaimo, eh?” is the best thing to say in a Canadian accent. It became a catch phrase of the group for the next several hundred miles.

(Robert)

Notes on Powell River

Have 5 hours to kill in a random small Canadian town next to what was once the world’s largest newspaper plant? Find the local pub, and get some burgers & beer. (On Joyce Avenue, almost directly uphill from the ferry dock.) And fish and chips. And more beer. And more fish and chips. These were really good burgers, and the fish and chips were fresh and delicious. Last time I had fish and chips this good I was in England. Hunter took a fancy to them, and we would periodically have to stop at other fish and chip places throughout the rest of the Canada-Oregon segment. Also, Kokenee Gold is better than the Blue. Which surprised us, and subsequently shaped our beer purchases of beer in Canada. This is also when we fully realized what loads of physical activity does to your alcohol tolerance: it goes back to your pre-drinking-experience tolerance. This reduced beer costs significantly, although they were still substantial.

(Robert)

On a ferry. missed the one at noon, had to wait till now. 20 m done, 27 more to go. will be a day behind bco the ferry.
from txt (Robert)

Waiting for the ferry at a pub. Still sunny, delicious foods.
from txt (SteveJo)

Waiting for the ferry. just missed one, chillin till 8. good ride, 40 m of hilly goodness.
from txt (Robert)

Weather's great, everyone is nice and helpful, thousands of bikers, ferry rides: It's great to be in BC.
from txt (SteveJo)

Robert's Journal, First Ferry, Day 4

Morning Day 4: 6/29/09
Woke up yesterday bright and early, broke camp as Amtrack employees started parking in the alleyway, and went back into the station. The train left at 7:40 am, so we arrived in Canada, unboxed the bikes and got through customs by about noon. While getting everything sorted out in front of the station we were approached by a young lady on a bike:
“Hey! You guys want to buy a bike? $30!”
“Uh, no, we can’t carry a bike.”
“Ok, fine, $20.”
“Sorry, we still can’t carry it.”
She then moved down 20 feet to ask some other people in our group the same thing, with the same response. Why you’d try to sell a bike to people who are already riding bikes is beyond me.

We rode out of the station to find some food in Vancouver, since we hadn’t had anything real to eat on the train. We immediately ran into some roadies, who were super cool and gave us directions to a pub as well as an area of downtown with a market and some eateries. Our food supplies needed to be restocked at least a little before the ride, so we found the market, and got some Canadian cash from an ATM. Next to the market there was a great little falafel place, reasonably priced. We all got the shwarma, which was excellent, and after we were done the manager offered to refill our water bottles. By asking directions and a bit of dumb luck, we found the bike path that runs along Vancouver’s waterfront. It was an incredibly beautiful day, and there were bikers of all descriptions out (and people other than bikers as well). It was really cool how many people were out, a fact only improved by a good percentage of them being attractive
women.

We had a few wrong turns in the city, but at length we found Lion’s Gate bridge, a huge suspension bridge. It’s a pretty cool bridge, and was very rideable, as it had a ped/bike sidewalk separated from the road. From there we took Marine Road, a nice rolling ride to the ferry.

While waiting for the ferry we met Peter, a fellow cyclist and a resident of the island that we were going to. We chatted with him about touring, riding in Canada, and the site that we were planning at staying at that night. He was super stoked on the idea of our tour, and since he lived near our campsite, he offered to ride us to the supermarket, and then give us directions from there. So, we stopped following the coast and took a pretty cool route over the center of the island to the market and the campsite. Peter was super awesome, and sent a picture of all of us on the ferry to our folks.

We got to the campsite around 7 or 8 and had dinner cooked and camp set up by the time it got dark. (Which, due to the latitude, was incredibly late, around 10 pm.)

The park attendant was cool enough to take USD rather than Canadian, and was even so nice as to give us the going conversion. People in Canada are apparently super nice.

(Robert)

Vancouver is awesome. on a ferry to some island. 20 miles done today, 20 more before we reach camp.
from txt (Robert)

In BC. Good weather for a ride.
from txt (Robert)

Oh Canada...
from txt (SteveJo)

Leaving Seattle, going to BC. 30 odd mile ride later today, and some ferries.
from txt (Robert)

Urban camping!
from txt (SteveJo)

Robert's Journal, Second Day

Second day on the road (written in the early morning of the 28th), and the first that I’ve felt up to keeping a log, an inauspicious start. Yesterday we left Santa Cruz at 1pm, biked over the Santa Cruz mountains, and into San Jose, arriving at 6pm. The last 10 miles were in Los Gatos and San Jose, and were really flat. The first 30 miles took us up 3500 feet, and was pretty brutal, as it’s just continuous climbing to the summit. It is the largest single day climb on the entire tour.

At the moment we are in Seattle, enjoying the comforts of the alleyway beside the Amtrack station. Those of us with hammocks, including myself, are certainly having the best of it, but the tent crew is doing ok. Hopefully we won’t be routed from the station as we were from the Quest Field parking lot. Speaking of landmarks, from my perch on an overturned luggage cart I can also see Amazon’s headquarters, and the cranes at the docks. At the very least we’re getting the most ardurus parts of this trip done with at the beginning (or so we hope).

We will be catching the 7am train to Vancouver in the morning, and taking some number of ferrys. As with everything that has happened thus far on this trip I have very little idea of WTF is going on. I’d be more O.K. with this if it was apparent that someone else knew what was happening. Our MO thus far has been simply to grab our gear and tickets and go.

Which is perhaps why we are sleeping in an alley.

(Robert)