Our last day in Vancouver was another beautiful day which started early with a ride around spectacular and deserted Stanley Park. Although the sun is up at 5.30 am, seems like most Vancouverites don’t venture out onto the cyle/walk paths until late in the morning.
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- Stanley park cycle path right along the waterfront. This is a great city for cycling
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- Siwash rock – or pineapple rock
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- Perfect morning for a ride and hardly a soul in sight.
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- Beautiful blooms in the park
This serene start to the day was soon to come to an end! We tackled busy Burrard St feeling very safe on the cycle paths as we made our way to JJ Bean for coffee. So far so good. Next we needed to get onto the underground and out to the ferry terminal that would take us to Vancouver Island. We located the station and as Grieg lifted his bike over the curb, the trailer fell off and rolled out into downtown central traffic. With haste and mirth we lumbered the thing onto the sidewalk where we faced our next challenge – piling two bikes with panniers, two people and one trailer into an elevator…not just one elevato, but three! From the elevator we moved onto the subway gymnastics – picture the train rolling into the station FULL of people and us trying to squeeze all our stuff onto the train in amongst them all. People are great though and some help we finally got our gear and ourselves under control.
Coffee first, then we’re on our way.
Two more incident-free elevator crammings and a bus loading later we were on our way to Tsawwassen ferry terminal and Vancouver Island.
The ferries give special treatment to cyclist – first on and first off – nice! We had a rendezvous with Brian and Jen along the Lochside trail cycle route leading to Victoria. These guys are a fantastic pair of adventurers, full of life and enthusiasm. We rode on through Victoria and out to lovely Oak Bay where some serious planning with maps, gear scrutiny and plenty of laughs took place over the next few days.
Lochside Trail
Janet and Jen when on a sewing blitz making bags of all shapes, colours and sizes for us to put stuff in. Clothes, first aid, cooking gear – a bag for everything. so easy to find things.
Terry cooked us brekkie while we watched Eugene Bouchard get soundly thrashed in the Wimbledon final
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- Comparing tents in the backyard.
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- Mile 0 Vancouver Island, the official start and westernmost point.
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- Thetis Lake on the Galloping Goose Trail
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- Until we meet again – iWA. 2015
Brian spent a good long while working on our bikes including adding front pannier racks to mine because I was in danger of back flipping with so much weight in the back panniers. The front panniers have turned out to be great and we’re now ready to strike out into the wild blue yonder.
Olsen's Odyssey 
I see that you’re making SURE you have a grand adventure…! At least you are now out of the big city and into more bike-trailer friendly territory. Hopefully free of elevators, escalators, crosswalks and curbs for a while! The blog looks great–keep the stories coming. The most exciting thing I’ve done this week is sous vide some chicken breasts so I’m loving hearing about your trip. Hee hee. Which tent is yours by the way? They both look enormous! xx
Hey Rhonda, great to hear from you 🙂 We’re sitting in a lovely little cafe in Agassiz on the way to Hope. We just ate enormous brekkies and are set to go burn it off. Yesterday as we were crossing some massive bridge out of Vancouver I ran over a piece of wire that wrapped itself around the cog. We had to stop immediately and it wasn’t fun at all with all the traffic roaring past so close. We got the wire out and the bike rideable to Maple Ridge a few kms away. The bikes hop guy fixed it in a flash and off we went again.
Yeah our tent is pretty huge, it weighs in at 4kg or so and is the one on the left. Jen and Brian’s is huger at 7.5kg – that makes us lightweights really!
I’m still behind by a week or so with the blog but will catch up soonish…Time to hit the bikes again, hope the chicken was delish xx
Hi Jules and Greig . Have just started reading your blog and am already cacking myself, at the vision of you both trying to squeeze into as many ridicously small spaces as possible! Sounds like you are having a great time, I love the photos. All cold and wet down here. Mos and I off to Broome soon for a few days and a fishing charter. Missing you both, will send some picks when I work out how to! Off to Eagle Bay Brewery soon, as the sun is currently shining. Will raise a glass …happy anniversary. Have fun, how about squeezing into a phone booth as your next challenge? XxxxxRozzi and Mos
Hey Guys, great to hear from you. We’ve had a mammoth day on the bikes today, 6 and a half hours and uphill pretty much all the way. It rained all day too which was kind of a blessing cos it kept us cool, a bit too cool actually. We got to our destination of Manning Park cold, wet and exhausted and apparently there are no campgrounds with showers or laundry facilities so we’re in luxury accom tonight 🙂 having a really great time, it’s beautiful everywhere. Will get another post on the blog up shortly. Have a fab time in Broome, heaps of love from us xxx
So many experiences you will have. Wire in cog on bridge not good. As long as positives and laughs at end of day. Assume a few hotels might pop into the itinerary especially on wet days. We’re enjoying the ride with you. Thursday morning here and we have sunshine. Glorious. Xxx Jen ps we had games night last week missed you. I’m doing a dry July only a week to go! Bit tough when you work in the industry!
Thanks for the message Jen. Hope dry July is going well, no way am I doing that, nothing like setting up the tent then kicking back for a glass of vino after a days ride!