Ride Day 7: Port Alberni to Denman Island

Back to the east coast of Vancouver Island and to the artsy Denman Island.  We're staying at an AirBnB place (the only one on the island, I think) that is at the end of a long dirt road.

The gradient on the road up the west side of the Alberni pass is much more civilized than the east side.  That made our morning much better!

We got up to cloudy skies but nothing falling from them.  We had another great breakfast and were on the road at about 0730 – we wanted to get going on the pass before the Sunday-coming-home-from-Tofino crowd got on the road.  Maybe we did.  Maybe not; there were still lots of cars.  But the 10 km road up wasn’t bad at all and we were over the top in no time.  The descent down the other side was super fast.  Lorie doesn’t like me to get above 60 kph (about 35 mph) but going down the east side with its 12 – 15% gradient we hit just under 80 kph (almost 50 mph).  That’s too fast, but the road was new and smooth and there was no traffic…

We got to the east side of the island and turned north on the old seaside highway.  We are taking a ferry out to Denman Island for the night; neither of us have any idea why we picked Denman other than it looked fun.  We stopped for coffee in Qualicum Beach and had a nice and relatively fast ride.  We covered about 100 km at just about a 25 kph average, which isn’t bad for an RV of a bike, especially since we were riding into a strong northwesterly wind.

Back to the east side of the island

Tide's out

One of the things that has been great about this trip is meeting very nice people who are very curious about what we’re doing.  Our hostess at the Edelweiss BNB in Port Alberni was was wonderful.  And today on the ferry an older couple were walking onto the ferry as we walked on with our bike.  We struck up a conversation – they were on the way to visiting their daughter on Denman.  He’s a retired RCMP officer and has been to Sisters several times.  Small world.  Once on the island we stopped at the store (there’s only one) to grab some stuff for dinner and a beer for a lunch in a seaside park that we planned to visit on the way to our AirBnB for the night.  We rode to the park and met a couple of women from Comox who were just getting started on riding and they were fascinated by what we were doing.  Maybe they’ll continue.  As we rode up the steep hill out of the park, very slowly, a local kid, maybe 13 or 14, passed us on his mountain bike.  He smiled as he overtook us and I said to him “Hey kid, that bike can take you anywhere.”  He probably thought “what a goofy old dope” but maybe someday he’ll ride it somewhere far away.

The cable ferry to Denman Island

Coming into the ferry dock

Looking south down the Georgia Strait

The only store on the island; a community hangout, apparently

There are more churches than stores

The park where we picnicked -- that's Hornsby Island across the channel

We walked down the beach and did some beach combing

Some great tide pools, too

Now, we’re at the AirBnB, which is at the end of a long dirt road and down a steep hill to lake.  The place is really cool – alive with flowers and vegetables and the private lake with a dock.  We take a quick swim to cool down and doze off on the dock.  A great day on the bike and off.

On the way to the AirBnB

Our casa for tonight

Our private lake -- a swim is in order

The water is cold but it was great!

To Cambell River tomorrow to fish on Tuesday.