- Carfree, Cycling & Cycle Touring, Metro Vancouver & North Shore, Trip Reports, Trips with Kids, Urban
Vancouver to Coquitlam: The Boy Who Biked 80km in a Day
Our son Neil (then eight) had been asking to break his cycling record of 72km in a day for a while. I figured that the long warm summer days would be a good time for this. My dad was visiting, and he loves riding, so he joined us. We didn’t train for this ride, but a steady diet of riding to get around, as well as a few weekend trips (such as a five day trip to the Gulf Islands) were likely helpful. Crossing the Coquitlam River I used RideWithGPS to plan an 80km loop, using as much dedicated bike infrastructure as possible and without too much climbing. Our ride…
Galiano & Salt Spring Islands: A Birthday Bike Trip
The Gulf Islands are truly magical. So, when we had the opportunity to take a few days off around my birthday, I knew it would be an awesome place to spend my birthday. Combining this with biking, one of my favourite things in the whole world and with my favourite people, guaranteed me a great birthday. Getting ready to roll! However, the ferry schedule was tricky and our time was limited. We also hadn’t reserved any camp sites, so we wanted to avoid the weekend. I had to scratch my head a few times before coming up with a plan. We spent Saturday at the Folk Fest in Vancouver and…
Vancouver to Chemainus: Once Again, But More Planned
May long weekend was sneaking up on us. It’s been a while since we’d seen our friends on the island and we thought it would be nice to visit again. Last year we had a rushed bike ride to Horseshoe Bay Ferry Terminal. We figured we could have a much more relaxing experience if we’d actually plan to bike there and take enough time. Biking along Beach Ave., Vancouver We now knew Neil was capable of biking the entire route – 72kms, with some hills. We made one stop at Ambleside Park before connecting to Marine Drive and the narrow, windy way to the ferry terminal. Quick stop at Ambleside…
Olympic Discovery Trail: Ending the Summer on a Positive Note
This summer did not start in the best possible way… In early July while making dinner I managed to cut myself pretty badly, cutting 70% of the way through one of the tendons in my right hand. Of course, after the initial shock of first going to the ER followed by a small procedure a couple of days later, my next question was “can I ride my bike”? The intern who did the procedure looked at me like I had just landed from the moon – “of course not”. I kept asking my physiotherapist the same question and her answer was even worse, maybe in 8-10 weeks, like mid September. …
- British Columbia (and nearby), Carfree, Cycling & Cycle Touring, Trip Reports, Trips with Kids, Vancouver Island
Vancouver to Chemainus: The Boy Who Biked 72km in a Day
Neil woke up, and exclaimed, “I want to ride the whole way to Chemainus”. We tried to convince him that maybe it would be best to catch the bus part of the way, as we had planned, but he would have none of that. Finally, we decided it would be easier to go along and see what happened. The problem was that we had timed everything based on Maya and the kids catching the bus, so we had to hurry. On the Burrard Bridge We skipped breakfast (?!) and headed straight out, with Kai biking on his own till the Burrard Bridge. There I finally managed to convince him to…
Porpoise Bay: Car Camping by Bike
This camping trip was organized months in advance. Well, two months, to be exact, so that everyone would be able to book a campsite at the ever popular Porpoise Bay Campground near Sechelt, on the Sunshine Coast. The families who were part of this trip are all from the outdoor preschool Kai was going to start in September. Since we’re good friends with a few of them we were invited as well. We liked the idea of spending a few days by the beach with friendly campers. After thinking about it we realized that biking to the campground shouldn’t be too complicated, and would make the trip more interesting. It also…
Sidney Island: Another World
Bus, SkyTrain, bus, ferry, bus, ferry. That bewildering series of six transportation modes was how we got to Sidney Island from Vancouver using public transportation. It took only five hours… Since we knew it would be a bit of an ordeal, we decided to go for two days. It helped to adopt a mindset that the journey is worthwhile, not just the destination. Still it was a bit tiring. Neil fell asleep on the bus to Sidney, and after we got off continued sleeping on the sidewalk, to the amusement of passerby. With difficulty we finally managed to wake him, with promises of a visit to the Sidney Bakery. One…
- Carfree, Hiking & Scrambling, Metro Vancouver & North Shore, Random Thoughts, Trip Reports, Trips with Kids
BCMC Trail: How to Get Kids to Go Farther
Do we hold our children back by making assumptions about their abilities? I think we do, at least some of the time. Our four year old son Neil recently cycled 30 kms, despite us urging him repeatedly to ride the cargo bike part of the way. This really surprised me and got me thinking. Perhaps by steering clear of experiences that challenge our kids’ comfort zone, we don’t allow them to discover where their limits are, nor to expand them. If we accept that, the natural question is: how to get kids to go farther? Leading up to this trip, I was curious to know where Neil’s hiking limits are.…
Newcastle Island: Same Same But Different
I never thought we’d be the type of people who do things annually, but lately it seems to be happening more frequently. For the past three years we’ve gone to Big White around Easter time (trip 1, 2 & 3), and as of last year we’ve started going to Newcastle Island in June with a bunch of other families. I like the old saying that you can never swim in the same river twice as the water is always changing. So even though it was a trip to the same destination, at the same time of year, and with mostly the same friends some things were still quite different (and…
Newcastle Island: All Ages and Weather Camping Trip
Our friend Pascale sent out an email back in January about a families’ camping weekend on Newcastle Island at the end of June. Since most times we are not sure what we’ll be doing on the next weekend, let alone a weekend in five months, it was extreme advance planning for us. My dad was planning a visit to Vancouver for the same time, so I figured we could already commit to it. I wasn’t sure how he would react to the camping idea (he lives in NY and has a pretty urban lifestyle) but he was actually excited about it (or at least tried to be). As the trip…
