Another 2 leg ride day starting with a ride from the Halfmoon Bay area to Hopkins Landing where we catch a ferry to Horseshoe Bay. From there we ride into North Vancouver. Here's our maps:
We’re on a
day off today, exploring Vancouver and basically relaxing in the lap of luxury
in a fancy North Van hotel. The day broke
sunny again yesterday on the Sunshine Coast and our AirBnB host had supplied us
with fresh eggs from his hens. We cooked
up a great breakfast and hit Redrooffs Road for a leisurely 70 km ride to the
Langdale ferry terminal where we’d catch the ferry to Horseshoe Bay, then a 30
km ride to downtown Vancouver.
Redrooffs
Road is the relatively smaller road with less traffic that lies between the
shoreline and the main, larger highway.
It only goes a relatively short distance, but it is nearly car-free so
that is nice. But it has these nasty
rolling hills that just bust our legs; the first hill yesterday rose about 150
meters but our GPS read a 20% gradient.
It was so steep that we zigzagged back and forth across the road (it was
early morning and we could hear any cars – happily there were none). By the time we got to the top, without
tipping over!, our legs were fully awake!
We had
plenty of time to make the ferry so we stopped in a small town for coffee, then
made our way to the docks.
We really
enjoy the ferry crossings – this area is just so beautiful.
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| At Langdale, the ferry approaching |
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| Heading away from the dock |
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| Looking north, the entrance to Howe Sound |
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| Approaching Horseshoe Bay |
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| The ferry docks right next to the cliff |
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| They let the cyclists disembark first; there is always a steep hill getting out of the terminal and the cars race to get off. We always wait to let the cars pass before we head up the hill |
It took about 1 ½ hours on the ferry to reach Horseshoe Bay just north of Vancouver. The road into town, Marine Drive, is busy but there are tons of cyclist out on a sunny Saturday morning so is a very comfortable ride. We’re tucked into our hotel by early afternoon.
I had set up a dinner with a bunch of friends who live in the Vancouver area and we met the gang at a restaurant just a few km from our hotel. We had a very nice evening and it was great to catch up on a purely social basis.
Today we’ll ride the Sea Bus across from North Van to downtown and just explore for the day.
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| Royal Vancouver Yacht Club |
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| It looks like a private island with a house on it... |
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| Downtown Vancouver from our hotel in North Van |
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| Looking west to the Lion's Gate bridge |
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| A cruise ship for the economy minded, SeaBus in the foreground |
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| The city as night falls |
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