Ride Day 8: Denman Island to Campbell River

North, north, along the east coast to Campbell River.  We're taking a day off here to go fishing.  Lorie has connected with some fisherman guy who will take us out and, hopefully, help us find some fish.  So what if we're successful?  I guess that we'll send it to Olympia in a big (hopefully) freezer box?  We'll see, so stay tuned...

OK, I’m not going to belabor this but I am pretty sure that our GPS is haunted.  Really.  Here’s the deal.

We had a fantastic night in a very secluded and idyllic spot on Denman Island.  Conversation with our host long into the night (well, by my standards at least) about how goofed up we Americans are.  After a sound sleep, a wonderful breakfast and picking up the convo from the night before.  And because we yakked too long, we missed the first ferry off the island.  No worries, they run hourly.

Heading to the ferry; better late than not at all...

Das bike in the ferry queue

Denman is worth a visit -- a lovely place

The eagles like it here, too

So we turned north into a brutal headwind.  Fifty miles into a 20 knot wind sucks the life out of one’s bones; it is just so discouraging.  Our route was simple: follow the old seaside route 19A from Denman Island to Campbell River.  Nothing difficult about that.

But about 20 miles from Campbell River our GPS started screaming about a right turn.  Both Lorie and I said “what the heck?”  But automatons we are, so we turned right.  In about 100 meters there is the Shelter Point Distillery and the road just ended.  Weird.  Or maybe the Shelter Point Distillery has figured out how to hack GPSs to send everybody to their front door?  That’s scarier than a haunted GPS.

So we naturally rode into the place, which is very nicely done and has huge barley fields all around.  But it was closed.  As we turned the bike around a pickup truck pulled in and the guy jumps out and says “Hey, do you guys want a tour?”  “Well, sure, but you’re closed, right?”  “Yeah, but we’ve been waiting for you.”  OK, haunted.

Shelter Point Distilleries' wares

The distillery tanks (is that what they're called?)

The distillery proper

So we went into the distillery and had a great tour and then, of course, had to try their wares.  I was circumspect since I was at the helm of das bike but Lorie liked the single malt and did some damage.  I guessed that I wouldn’t have much contribution from the back seat for the final 20 miles.  But their product was really, really good (they cannot call it Scotch, of course, but only “single malt.,” but it is nice).  We did not want to carry the weight of a bottle on our bike so we slid out the door with nothing more than a big thanks and a question: “what just happened?”

Somehow the last 20 miles flew by and we rode into Campbell River.  There were a few raindrops but nothing serious.

This is a very busy and active town that is done up very nicely with flowers and trees lining the roads, and numerous marinas on the water.  We got squared away in our AirBnB and headed to the marina where we meet our guide for fishing tomorrow.  The marine forecast for Johnstone Strait looks good, with moderate southerlies for most of the day.  We’re hoping for good luck and if we catch fish we are shipping it to Tim & Geri for keeping until we get home (tough to carry 30 kg of salmon on the bike!).

Riding into Campbell River

We will of course let you know how we do, and will of course embellish!