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.

Zeballos & Fair Harbour - rugged NW ride

This is a specialty ride, for hardcore backroad riders who like to get into remote corners of Vancouver Island. There's rugged beauty amongst steep rising valley slopes (including Zeballos Peak - 1,578m) and sharp, tough up and down riding hills, though the route elevation tops out near 400m. Riding the grand shores of NW Zeballos Inlet. just south from town, on the road to Fair Harbour It's ~45km into Zeballos (the toughest part of the ride), and a further ~37kms to Fair Har

NW to Incredible Side Bay

Check out the pics below. Looking in opposite directions from my campsite at Side Bay, one of Vancouver Island's grand wilderness destinations, west from Port Alice in the far north of Vancouver Island. Side Bay is a series of small oceanside bays south of mighty Quatsino Inlet, north of the Brooks Peninsula (see map below). You're on your own here, as there's no formal campsite or facilities. Word of mouth has been spreading and it's getting some visitors in summer. I visite