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…
Darkside Lake: The Dark Side of the Duffey
Gili probably had this hike on his bucket list for quite some time and finally it was an appropriate weekend to go. But only as we started driving I realized how far we’d have to drive to get to the trailhead. I guess Gili kept that fact hidden behind “it’s a short easy hike”. We also didn’t get an early…
Trophy Meadows: In the Clouds of Mosquitoes
Sometimes we only think of the big problems and forget the small ones. Prior to this trip we had heard that there was an encounter with a grizzly on the Trophy Meadows Trail, so it was closed for a while. We checked every day for updates online, and Gili called the ranger station a few times. That’s when we found…
- 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…
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…
- British Columbia (and nearby), Cycling & Cycle Touring, Gulf Islands and Sunshine Coast, Trip Reports, Trips with Kids
Pender and Galiano: So Much More to Discover
We don’t plan much in advance. The reasoning is somewhere in between a spirit of adventure and an unwillingness to commit in advance. Anyway, when a friend emailed around asking who’d be interested in making a reservation for camping on the May long weekend, FOUR months earlier, in January, my first thought was “there’s no way we can commit to…
Keats Island: From Kits to Keats
It was time to try camping with Kai. The forecast looked good, we had just purchased a four person tent and we had a destination. We decided to head to Keats Island, a place we had wanted to explore for a while. After a bit of research we decided there was really no point in bringing our bikes and that…
How to Pack Your Haul a Day in Two Regular Sized Boxes
Recently we bought a Bike Friday Haul a Day cargo bike and cycle toured with it in Greece for five weeks. We flew with United Airlines, which wanted to charge us $200 per bike, per direction. I knew that the Haul a Day frame can be dismantled, so I was curious if our bike could fit into two regular boxes…
Big White: A Very Short Ski Season
Back in April, about ten days after we got back from our trip to Israel and Greece we headed to Big White for a few days. It became somewhat of a family tradition to spend Easter on Big White so we thought we’d keep it going even though our trip wasn’t exactly in Easter. We found a reasonable Airbnb on…
Greece: Cycling Through Seven Islands with the Double Fours
Do animals have a belly button? How can a volcano be sleeping if it doesn’t have eyes? What do fish eat? Where is the shadow of the sea? How come the rules in Greece are a bit different? Where are our bike boxes? Why is Kai sad? Which side to ride on? Which side is the right side? This is…
