Ride Day 1: Victoria to Port Renfrew

Our first day in the saddle takes us from Victoria westward along the Straight of Juan de Fuca to Port Renfrew.  It is mostly flat along the coast but we expect a headwind this time of year.  And to be honest, we expect a lot of rain on this ride.  That's fine.  We've got great rain gear and the temperatures should be fairly mild.

Here's our standard map with today's route:
 

Today’s theme: lumpy with a head wind.  We’ll get to that later.  First, catching you up with our so-fars.

Victoria, July 1

We arrived on the noon, ish Coho ferry from Port Angeles in the middle of what is probably Victoria’s biggest day of the last 150 years – Canada Day and Canada’s 150^th Birthday.  Happy B-Day Canada!

Turns out that we’re not the only people visiting Victoria today.  In fact, the ferry is packed with all sorts of travelers.  We got our car on the ferry as one of the first-on, and happily, we were about the third off.  We cruised through customs in a flash and made our way through downtown – many of the roads were closed for the celebrations.  Tons of people.  Fun.

Boarding the Coho in Port Angeles

Canada Day 150 in downtown Victoria.  Happy Birthday Canada!

It didn’t take long to connect with the AirBnB proprietors and get tucked into our place, which is right on the inner harbor and has a great view.

The View from our room -- that's the Harbour Ferry dock

We headed down to the Parliament building to take in the action.  There were five or six stages with live music, lots of food and crafty arts booths, and many many people wearing red and white “150” shirts.  We tried some peorgies (Russian potato buns) and they were tasty, then headed back to the apartment to get organized. We did get sidetracked along the way at a brewery that had mediocre beer, but it was good to be landed, so to speak.

The fireworks started at 10 p.m. and we went down to the harbor wall to get a good seat on the grass.  What a show!  The photos don’t really do justice, but it is the best we could do!  The fireworks were right over the harbor and all the boats.  Very nice!

Whoo Hoo!

Oh Canada!

Then some sleep because we are off to the ferry slip at Swartz Bay early in the a.m. to pick up Haley and Jesse, who are coming down from their home in Galiano Island to visit and have some fun.

Victoria, July 2

Early morning and the ferry is on time; we aren’t, though. No problem as we find the guys in short order and head back to town for some food and exploration. Fortunately, Jesse knows Victoria pretty well and he has friends who are running restaurants so we have some great brunch-type food at MoLe in Chinatown.  Check it out if you visit.

Dinner was at Pagliacci’s, one of our favorite Italian places.  Nothing fancy, just honest Italian food in a wonderful chaotic small busy place.  We waited about 45 minutes but the weather was pretty good (no reservations at Pagliacci’s) and our dinner lasted late into the night with lots of great catching up with Haley and Jesse, lots of food and wine and Cynar.

Our Guys having a beer from Bend, OR (Crux!) at "The Drake" in Victoria.

My Fav Italian Joint

A Yiddish band in an Italian joint playing a couple of conches...

So-Long, Victoria

Riding, July 3

We had the two of them back to Swartz Bay at 5 a.m. and were on the bike as soon as it was light enough.  The route today goes west along the Juan de Fuca straight to Port Renfrew, about 75 miles and a lot of rolling hills. There was a gale warning for westerlies down the strait and I was worried about nasty headwinds on our first day out.  But the sun was shining, even if it was chilly.  The forecast for strong headwinds proved to be pretty accurate, and when we were on exposed sections of the road it was blowing pretty hard.  It took us about 25 miles to get used to the weight of our bike with all the crap on it – panniers front and back and a trunk on each end.  It is the same adjustment we go through every year.  The bike just handles very differently, and of course it takes a lot more work to go up the rollers.

We rode pretty much non-stop – we wanted to get down the road.  There was quite a bit of traffic and the road is narrow, but the drivers were mostly very courteous to our slow-moving RV-of-a-bike.  Lorie says that I almost head-on’d a car on one of the one lane bridges, but there was plenty of room.  Really! 

The views are amazing of the strait.  It is very pretty and the weather is about as good as we could hope for.  We got tucked into our Hobbit Hut for the night, and then cleaned up and went to the Port Renfrew brewpub for a beer (the only place in town with wifi, too; what a deal!).

Looking south toward the Olympic peninsula, across the strait of Juan de Fuca.

Lots of one lane bridges (out of focus)

Our Hobbit Hole for the night

Tomorrow we’re off to the Cowichan Valley over some bigger hills.  Nothing too serious, but short compared to today.  Which is good, because we’re both knackered.  But there's good beer at the Port Renfrew brewery:

Wilderness Within Reach.  Hmmm...

And terrible internet speed.  More beer while we wait for photos to upload!