Blog - bike travels & such

Cycle Touring Vancouver Island

This section is my chance to ramble on, to have an ongoing conversation with readers. I'll post updates & photos as I do more rides, get gear worth noting, or come across interesting stuff about cycle touring or bikepacking on Vancouver Island & the Sunshine Coast (and beyond).

See the 'search tags', listed in alpha order down the right side below. Check this list out if you want to find out if there is a post about a location - click on a tag of interest, and any relevant blog post(s) will show along the left.

Sayward & Beyond - Exploring the NE Island

I'd passed by Sayward a few weeks past on a backroads ride. I thought I'd best go back and do it a little more justice. I had a few days, so I drove up late in the day and headed out NE on my rough road touring bike the next morning. It turned out to be a fine overnight adventure to a cool new (for me) corner of Vancouver Island. Marina on Kelsey Bay, with the log sort (depot) in the background). I had a fine dinner here at the Straits View Cafe. Sayward, population ~400, is

Gold River, Tahsis & the Far West Coast

Gold River, tantalizingly named by the Spaniards way back in the 1700s, is 90kms west of Campbell River, all on paved Highway 28. Traffic is sparse. One passes grand Upper Campbell and Buttle Lakes, with great camping and riding options, then through Strathcona Provincial Park, Vancouver Island's crown jewel, with a succession of Recreation areas just off the highway for hiking, scenic viewing and picnicking. Highway 28, alongside the Elk River, in Strathcona Provincial Park