- Cycling & Cycle Touring, Gulf Islands and Sunshine Coast, Trip Reports, Trips with Kids, Vancouver Island
Gabriola Island: A Relaxing Weekend on a Quiet Island
After our success on the previous weekend in Victoria we decided to head to Gabriola Island. As is typical for us, we didn’t check the ferry schedule and discovered in the morning that if we don’t leave within half an hour the next ferry would only be at 1pm. We probably broke our all time record for leaving home, biking downtown just in time to catch the bus to Horseshoe Bay. Luckily there were no other cyclists waiting for the bus. The waterfront in Nanaimo is awesome, but for some reason bikes are not allowed to use it for part of the way… Neil rode his bike, and we arrived…
Victoria: A Three Year Old Pedaling the Bike Trails
Spring seemed to finally arrive to Vancouver just on the week before this trip, but alas on Saturday morning we woke up to rain. We contemplated what to do, not too excited about a whole day of riding in the rain. In the end we decided that it would be an important lesson for Neil, not to cancel the trip because of the rain… Neil started riding his own pedal bike about a month and a half before this trip, and we wanted to see how far he’d be able to ride on his own. A few days earlier Gili bought a trail-gator, a pole that connects a child’s bike…
Family Cycling Close to Home: Vancouver Island, Hornby, Denman & The Sunshine Coast (Video)
In September 2017 we left our home in Vancouver on our bikes with our toddler in tow and cycled for ten days on Vancouver Island, hopped over to Denman and Hornby Islands and went down the Sunshine Coast. We took eight ferries, stayed with three Warmshowers hosts, camped, swam at many beautiful beaches and ate an endless amount of blackberries. There was something very magical and yet simple about leaving home on our bikes and returning ten days and 330 kilometers later on our bikes. This video gives a taste of this amazing trip.
- Cycling & Cycle Touring, Gulf Islands and Sunshine Coast, Metro Vancouver & North Shore, Trip Reports, Trips with Kids, Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island-Sunshine Coast Loop: Blackberry Summer Ride
All great trips start with a single idea, and we had been thinking about this one for quite some time. Although we have visited most of the southern Gulf Islands, many of them several times, we had yet to explore the northern Gulf Islands. They are a bit farther away and more complicated to get to from Vancouver. In addition, a weekend, or even a long weekend is not enough time to do a decent bike tour there. The stars finally aligned in early September when we decided to take off for ten days. While it didn’t make sense to fly anywhere, combined with the fact that we don’t have…
Victoria: A Wet Ride and a Warm Stay
On the last weekend in November, literally hours before selling our car, we headed to Victoria for the weekend. Of course, the car only served us to reach Tsawwassen – from there we were on our bikes, as usual. We had about 7 km to ride to the ferry terminal and our mission was to keep Neil awake so he would fall asleep on the other side. That included leaving his trailer open and it was very cold. He wasn’t the happiest camper, but once we arrived to the Kids Zone on the ferry everything was better again. Those Kids Zones have proved themselves to be very useful. After getting…
- Cycling & Cycle Touring, Gulf Islands and Sunshine Coast, Trip Reports, Trips with Kids, Vancouver Island
Gabriola Island: Escaping the Rat Race
As much as we hate to admit it, we are sometimes part of this ongoing rat race too. We live in a big city, Gili is working full time for a successful start-up company, I started my own cycling education program and peak activities were this April. And then there is Neil, of course – who is growing and changing every day, and who is now walking, even though it feels like it was just yesterday that he started to crawl. Between all of this it is sometimes hard to slow down, disconnect, get away. But we must do it, we know it, since really this is what life is…
Vancouver Island: The Quiet After the ‘Storm’
On Easter long weekend we headed to Vancouver Island again. The last time we headed in that direction was on New Year’s and it was our last getaway before our son Neil was born in late February. Incidentally (or not) this was also our first getaway with him five weeks after he was born. Our dear friends Jan & Warrick invited us to spend the long weekend with them and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to get out of the city for a bit. Last time we visited they were in Australia (and we stayed at their place), but this time they were around, and it was great to…
Vancouver Island: The Quiet Before the Storm
Another year was about to start, and this time we didn’t have plans to travel too far. We are excited about this upcoming year since in less than two months we are expecting a new addition to our little family. At the same time we are aware that life is going to change and quiet times may be a bit more difficult to have, at least for awhile. Our good friends from Vancouver Island, Jan and Warrick, were away for the holidays and generously offered us the use of their house. It was perfect, since they live in a rural area, by the river and it’s always quiet there. We…
Flower Ridge: or Cloud Ridge in This Case
On an early Sunday morning we found ourselves on the ferry to Vancouver Island again. This time no bikes, but rather backpacks, hiking poles and boots. We found an isolated corner on the ferry, rolled out our sleeping pads and slept so hard that one of the workers had to shout at us: “time to wake up!” when we were almost in Nanaimo. Jan and Warrick picked us up and we still had a few more hours of driving till we reached the trailhead for Flower Ridge. By the time we finished lunch and were ready to start hiking it was around 2:30pm, not exactly an alpine start. The trail was mostly in…
Port Renfrew Loop: Discovering the Backroads of Vancouver Island
I honestly didn’t think we would do another cycling trip so soon after returning from five months of cycling in Central America. But blisters from the previous weekend’s hiking trip prevented me from wearing my hiking boots for a while. So this is how we found ourselves cycling not so early on Saturday morning towards the ferry after finding (free) parking in Tsawwassen. When we arrived to the terminal we were told that the 10am ferry was full, even for foot passengers! After sticking around for a bit it turned out that we could actually board the ferry. While the ferry was packed by enthusiastic tourists who were taking pictures…
