From the new to the familiar........Parksville to Victoria, BC

The Big PictureMore detail if you desire.

August 29 - Friday - We stopped at this store in Parksville for some supplemental breakfast only to be greeted by this tank full of live crabs and lobsters. Several seemed intent on escaping. There was something amusing about seeing this first thing in the morning.

It was a cool and calm morning with moderate terrain. We entered Nanaimo about 10:00. This sign left us with no doubt about our location.

Many things touched our funny bone today and this "Sushi Eh" sign tickled Doug's as we navigated our way towards downtown.

Fortunately they have a very nice bike trail that covered most of the route through town. The E&N is also the name of the train that runs up the coast from Victoria and parallels a part of the bike trail. It's whistle was our sound of the day.

This 81 years young man, Don, ran into us just after we joined the trail. He offered to guide us downtown since he lives there and needed to get home anyway so he wouldn't be late for his afternoon golf date. We really enjoyed his company but had to part ways just a few blocks from his condo when Doug's rear tire went flat.

This mural commemorates the sinking of this 366 foot destroyer escort in 1997 to become an artificial reef just east of Nanaimo.

We made it to the harbor in time for lunch then went looking for the museum that was listed in the tourist info. After a couple of circles around and climbing to the top of a small hill we found it. Except that it had moved..........to a location we had probably passed twice during our search!

At least there was a good view of the harbor from the top of the hill.

Jordan was quite helpful and let us stow our bike luggage behind the desk while we visited the very brand new museum. That was very comforting since a couple of locals told us that it might disappear if we left it outside.

Bathtub Race - a local tradition

Some local "celebrities" whose product, logging equipment, we just happen to have seen in action. Jazz singer, Diana Krall, is also a native of the area.

A local First Nation's history exhibit.

This carving was hung in the lobby. Ironically, we had just watched the First Nation's carver working on this exact piece during a TV program the night before.

Forest products is big part of the economy of the area.

Also note the ferry on the horizon.

Nanaimo was not kind to Doug's tires. The sidewall was split and Doug had to use our folding tire which didn't want to stay seated. It took an hour which is definitely longer than our usual 15 minute quick fix. Fortunately the shoulder was extremely wide at this spot where the bike trail joined the highway.

It was a good thing we had decided ahead of time to stop in Ladysmith for the evening since we didn't get there until 5:00 and the motel only had 2 rooms left. We took the kitchette room complete with pink stove and really funky table and chairs. Quaint and quite clean.

Pizza was on order. It was actually a take out place but they let us use this little table on the front porch to eat since we had walked several blocks to get there.

After dinner we took in the outdoor museum (Heritage Artifact Route)

that is all along the main street.

This little guy insisted that we take his picture......

and it had to be done while he was on top of the hydrant.

His sister didn't want to be left out of the action either.

Just in case you were wondering about our latitude........It made a fine stop for stocking up on Powerade for the next day. It actually stayed dry all day today despite the forecast.......a quite pleasant surprise indeed.

August 30 - Saturday - The motel provided a food voucher to this very nice coffee shop across the street called "In the Bean Time"......good food, good coffee, and good service. Then we were off into the bright cool morning.

We took Road 1A to keep us off Highway 1. It was being reconstructed but we decided it was worth going slow on the dirt which turned out to be well packed the whole way. Didn't have much traffic either.

We would have missed this roadside art if we had taken the highway!

Our "off-highway" route took us along the bay for awhile. We are always impressed with the madrone trees that they grow up here.

This little town is full of art and was quite the popular place on a late summer Saturday morning.

This elaborate water feature/sculpture documents a locally famous snipe hunt.

From here we headed toward Duncan. We should have known better than to follow a road that looked very straight on the map. It went straight up hill and down dale. After a couple of those we opted for the highway and its more moderate grade to get us to Duncan. We were there a few years ago (2005) so didn't take any pictures of it this trip. We can give a good report though, on Coffee Moon and their beverages and fruit bars which made a nice little breakfast #2.

We stopped in Cowichan Bay for lunch at the Rock Cod Cafe. It was probably the best clam chowder in a bread bowl that we've ever had, so good it deserved a picture! It was so filling that we couldn't eat it all. It also made the legs feel like lead when we had to climb the 10% grade to get out of town!

We planned on catching the 1:50 ferry in Mill Bay and thought we would make it with about 20 minutes to spare. Then we discovered that the ferry terminal was 3 miles from the intersection that we were using to calculate our time. Fortunately it was mostly flat (except for that darn little hill at the end!!) so we put the pedal to the metal arriving just as the cars were unloading off the arriving ferry. Whew!

This ferry is quite small compared to the others we've used this trip.

Donna is about midship checking out the map.

This gentleman spent the 30 minute trip across sketching the ferry.

The area between Brentwood Bay (the ferry terminal) and Victoria is quite lovely, rural and agricultural. We followed the bike route along Wallace Drive and then the Interurban Rail Trail most of the way down the Saanich Peninsula. We also heard our sound of the day as jets taking off from Victoria Airport passed overhead in big contrast to the otherwise very quiet countryside.
Our home for the evening....Fort Victoria RV Park. We have stayed here on previous trips as it makes a stay in Victoria a little easier on the pocketbook. And we love visiting Victoria.

Doug and Doug were chatting when Donna returned from the shower. He and his wife are from Williams Lake, BC. He is a retired elementary school principal who happens to like photography and forestry so they had a lot to chat about. A little later a family from Germany pulled in next to us. Teenage son Jonah came over to visit. They had been on the road for a month touring all over British Columbia and were headed back home in a couple of days.

Crossing Over.......the Strait of Juan de Fuca....BC to WA

That white line in the middle of the Strait of Juan de Fuca is the international border.....we must have blinked at the wrong time because we didn't see it during the voyage across! August 31 - Sunday - Our route to downtown Victoria and the ferry terminal.

We decided to get an early start and have a proper breakfast downtown. We passed several of these spruced up utility boxes along the way....a nice touch!

Not much traffic at that hour so we made good time.

We were at the ferry terminal to buy our tickets by 8:45.

The British Columbia Parliment building

These lovely sea turtles were swimming in the store window where we parked our bikes for breakfast.

Relaxation.........Sunday paper, hot chocolate, and breakfast at Sam's Grill.

The Victoria waterfront is always pretty festive on weekends but this day it was particularly lively because of the Classic Boat Festival.

Donna's new buddy

Here comes our ferry!

More wooden boats than we've seen anyplace besides Port Townsend's Wooden Boat Festival.

This little boat is locally famous for having sailed around the world.

We boarded about a half hour before departure and spent the time watching the harbor activities. Our sound of the day was Canadian geese honking and sea gulls calling mixed with the brass band that was playing across the harbor.

Bet it is really pretty with all the sails unfurled.

This was one happy dog.

You can tour the harbor on these little boats which we've done on a previous trip. Today they are preparing to do their Harbor Ferry Ballet for the Boat Festival. We took a short movie of them practicing but it is too many megabytes for the blog. They were quite entertaining.

Alas, we have to leave Victoria behind. It was a little sad to have to leave one of our favorite cities on such a festive, pleasant day.

Looking for that international border.....and watching the horizon dip and tilt. It looked smooth but there were some pretty long swells coming from somewhere.

Back in the USA, Port Angeles, Washington. The crossing took an hour and a half and then it took about an hour to get through customs. It is a lot easier on a bike than in a car. This is our decision point.....to go east or west around the Olympic Peninsula. It is shorter to go east and we decide that it will be too tight timewise to go west.

In case you can't quite read it - "If you aren't living on the edge, you are using up too much space." Lou Whitaker - one of Doug's favorite sayings.

The most colorful restaurant booths of our trip.

Donna is eagerly awaiting her crab quesadilla...yummmy!

The hold-the-camera-over-your-head-while-you-are-pedaling shot. We are on the Olympic Discovery Trail which is a paved trail that currrently connects Port Angeles and Sequim (pronounced sort of like "skwim"). The trail is new since we passed this way in 2004 (headed the opposite direction).

Guess there must be a shortage of log trucks in the area!

This part of the trail is a railroad trestle Rails to Trails conversion. The trestle is the centerpiece of a small park. Since it was a sunny Sunday there were a lot of people hanging out and lots of people on the trail walking and biking.

One kind soul helped us out by taking our picture. Just after this we discovered that the only way off the east end of the trestle involved stairs. That was a little tricky with fully loaded bikes!

The perfect place to take a break......it has all the essentials. This was in Sequim where we also picked up some food for dinner since we decided to stay at Sequim Bay State Park which is about 5 miles east of town.

This is currently the east end of the paved portion of the Olympic Discovery Trail. It is on another railroad trestle. The ravine was so deep that we were looking into the tops of the trees as we crossed the big sweeping curve of the trestle.

Sequim Bay State Park - we were the only bikers so there was a spot for us even though it was Labor Day weekend. The rest of the campground was full by early evening. There is a nice little interpretive center highlighting bivalves of the area.

The trail is gravel through the campground. The lady in the entrance booth told us that the long term plan is for this trail to go all along the north side of the Olympic Peninsula from Forks to Port Townsend. The part we did today was very nice.

September 1 - Monday - Labor Day - Sequim Bay State Park to Brinnon

It was pretty cold this morning so there wasn't much incentive to get out of the sleeping bags. Sooo we didn't get a very early start. We are pretty sure that 7 Cedars - this very fancy gas station/convenience store/gift shop was not here in Blyn on our bike trip in 2004.

A lavendar farm and gift shop.

Discovery Bay - we stopped here for warm drinks. A motorcyclist was waiting for some buddies and he told us that his bike's thermometer said it was 47 degrees!! No wonder warmth sounded good. We stopped here on our 2004 trip as well. There are new owners this time around but the service was still good. From here on south we are once again in new bicycling territory.

This was our lunch stop in Quilcene. We also hung out in the laudromat for a little while drying out some clothes and towels. It is very much a community built around the timber industry that has had some hard times.

A familiar sign........sort of like visiting a long lost cousin that you've heard about for years.

The road through the National Forest took in the one real long grade (5 miles) for the day. The top of Walker Summit is in sight. Time to put on our jackets so we can enjoy the zipping 4 mile ride down the hill.

Our first glimpse of Hood Canal. We were pleasantly surprised to find that they have reconstructed this part of the highway and the shoulder is not nearly as narrow or non-existent as we remember from a long ago road trip.

It stayed cold all day so we decided that a night in a motel would be worth it. We checked into the one motel in Brinnon and then went exploring at Dosewallips State Park. It turned out that the campground had yurts available which would have been a good alternative. These fish are swimming under the highway bridge along the road that connects the 2 parts of the campground.

The trail takes you all the way out to the low tide waterline.

Funny way to moor a sailboat!

The motel in Brinnon was on the second floor above the senior/community center. The carpet was a wonder to behold. Donna is working on the journal and logistics........it looks like we can make Astoria by Saturday if all goes well. The weather report said it was 10 degrees below normal today. We ended the day watching the first Dirty Harry movie. Clint Eastwood sure looked young! All in all a very interesting day.