It’s been more than a year since I was last on Vancouver Island. This spring I went to Jasper, then made a trip to Nelson (not documented here or anywhere) and decided that for my birthday, it was time. I had originally been thinking of another trip to Nelson and possibly continuing on to the Rockies, but wildfires an smoke made me reconsider. I love the Banff Hostel, but going there in smoke just didn’t seem like fun.
I also learned, sadly, that the Jasper Hostel where I have had so many fantastic experiences burned (along with much of the west side of the town of Jasper) during this summer’s tragic fires.
So, I decided to look for something closer to the coast, away from the smoke, and possibly to get to some of the places I hadn’t been before.
As is the case in many of these posts recently, the videos will tell the tale, and will be added as they are edited/published, but in the meantime enjoy some of the photos.
Day 1: Ride to the ferry, then on to Qualicum Beach
[Tuesday, 30 July]
I left Seattle in slightly unsettled weather. The “unsettled” turned quickly to on and off rain. I also started getting a tire pressure warning for my front tire. It went off as the tires warmed up, then returned, then went away again. I was pretty sure that the problem was that the pressure was marginal and since the sensor is pretty sensitive I didn’t worry much. I kept my speed reasonable, and in any case didn’t mind slightly lower pressures on the wet pavement.
I made a stop at my usual Tribal Land fuel stop, on the Stillaguamish lands, where I filled up with tax-free gasoline and added a few psi to both tires to bring them into the normal range. I took longer than I should have, and for some reason, I didn’t notice that I had three clocks going: on my navigation system, on the motorcycle and on my wrist. The two most prominent were both wrong, and I didn’t check my phone (always accurate) until I got to the Canadian border. At that point it would be almost too late.
The border was typically easy with my Nexus card, but that’s the point where I realized I had very little margin for making it to the ferry I had planned on. That wasn’t awful, but there aren’t many in the mid-afternoon and the next would be more than two hours waiting. So I didn’t worry about stopping anywhere, and just made haste to the ferry Terminal at Tsawassen, where I found out that the ferry was thankfully about 15 minutes late due to the weather that had been slowing me down.
The ferry ride was uneventful, as was the ride to Qualicum Beach. I had dinner on the beach, and followed it up with a stop at Ice Cream Dreams, where it was wonderful to be recognized after more than a year!
But on this trip, Qualicum Beach wasn’t the main point. Last year I was shut out of my trip to Tofino by bad weather. This year I’ll finally make it.
Day 2: Birthday! Across the Island to Tofino and check in to the hostel
[Wednesday, 31 July]
I took my time departing. Check-in at the hostel isn’t until 5pm, and they were clear that there would not be anybody in the office earlier. The Sand Pebbles Inn was nice enough. They suffered serious damage from a King Tide two years ago and are still recovering. Like many structures up against the ocean, it will eventually not be worth repairing and one section of the building was already lost in the past, but for now they continue on. I was glad to give them my business.
I rode across the island in nicer weather than we had yesterday, but still a bit overcast and chilly. I made note of places to stop along the way when I come back in two days. The weather is supposed to be better then.
It got busy as I entered Tofino, but I still made it to the hostel before check-in and took a quick walk around town.
Dinner was in Tofino, followed by a birthday sunset at the pier.
Day 3: Wander around Tofino and down to the beach
[Thursday, 1 August]
Yesterday’s video covers two days, so no new video today. I usually find that two days of riding and one day off tends to be a good balance for these kinds of trips. So today was the day off and I just explored Tofino. Had breakfast, wandered, had lunch, wandered some more. Lunch was my one “nice” meal of the trip, at Shelter Restaurant.
With most of the afternoon still ahead of me, I decided to walk to the beach. Water is cold this far north, even at the beginning of August, but I gave myself a few minutes of birthday dunking anyway. The beach was pretty abandoned, despite it being the peak of the season. I think most people are in the National Park to the south of town, or using the more exposed beaches that are suitable for surfing. Tonquin Beach is a very comfortable walk from the hostel, but has almost no parking, and even bike access isn’t great as you have to walk on a path and down some stairs through the forest from the closest road. So I guess people go elsewhere. That worked for me.
Dinner was fish and chips, for the second time on this trip. Big Daddy’s Fish Fry was wonderful. No alcohol, but after a day like this one, I didn’t want any.
Another sunset at the pier wrapped up the day.
Day 4: Back across the Island to Qualicum Beach, with a wonderful waterfall stop
[Friday, 2 August]
There were about half a dozen places I thought I might stop along the way from Tofino back to Qualicum Beach. I stopped in exactly one of them. Sadly, the camera had issues so footage is limited, but I had a great “15 minute stop” that lasted about three hours. The water cascades through, around and over the rocks here, making some wonderful pools and a few deep spots for cliff diving. I spent about an hour with 75% of The Islands premier surf punk band, Mean Bikini, on their way to a gig on the coast.
After that, there was no time to check out the three other swimming holes I had planned to go to, but I have few regrets.
Returned to Qualicum Beach and went to Shore Restaurant for more fish and chips, then more Ice Cream Dreams, and finally an end-of-day dip in the ocean before getting on the bike and making my way to the motel in Parksville, a few miles to the south. It was much less rustic than I usually go for, but a nice, clean, air-conditioned space was not a bad location for nursing my sunburn and collapsing for the night.
Day 5: Ride to a different ferry, stop in Victoria, ride home
[Saturday, 3 August]
I took a different ferry back. My original plan had me looping around the bottom of Vancouver Island to Victoria, then returning from there. I took my time departing and decided to skip the long way around. Instead I took the Malahat highway south into Victoria to catch the Black Ball Ferry, MV Coho, to Port Angeles in Washington State.
This was familiar territory for me, and I made a quick trip across to Bainbridge Island, and returned to Seattle on the Bainbridge Island Ferry.