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Published: October 13th 2006
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No that is not Victoria Australia, Victoria Texas, Victoria Kansas or even Before Christ… It is British Columbia! We were surprised to find that there were so many Victoria’s when we were searching for the weather… Talking about which, it looks like another good one today, and perhaps not even as cold - great for biking! Our plan was to see if we could check out of the hotel at 2pm, grab the bikes, go riding, clean up and leave in time to catch the 4pm ferry… But, the best laid plans…
Statistics
Starting Destination: Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Ending Destination: Port Angeles, Washington
Ending Destination GPS: N: 48° 06.955’ W: 123° 25.502’ Elev: 105’
Miles Driven: 19.4
Distance Biked: 21.52 miles
Distance Cruised: 22 miles
Number of Bears Spotted: 8
A Little Bit of Excitement to Start the Day
Ok, our Type-A personalities were creeping in around the edges - so life had to make a few small adjustments! Adjustment Number 1: The latest the hotel would give us for check out was noon - not really long enough for us to get a decent ride and then clean up. So our solution - we would get changed into bike gear in the room and then unload the truck, get the bikes and reload the truck in the parking lot of the hotel, ride then come back later and reverse the process. We would just have to ride the ferry on the outside!! Adjustment number 2: All was proceeding according to plan, we got the bikes ready and set off in the general direction of down town where we thought the scenic path started… We couldn’t find anything specifically signposted so we stopped in at the Visitors Center and Maria asked for a map—it turned out that most of the path we saw on the map was for walking, despite the little “bike” icon in the key! No problem, we would just follow the road… Adjustment Number 3: While at the visitors’ center Maria asked about the ferry to Port Angeles and found out that you could park your car at the ferry as soon as the previous one left. The ferry terminal was just down the street and we had heard the last ferry leave, so we rode down there and talked to the attendant at the gate—there was one car in the lot and they were only taking stand-by reservations for the 4pm ferry as 10 semi-trailers had booked, almost an unheard of number. The result: Carl got on his bike, sprinted up Douglas Street back to the hotel, packed his bike in the back of the truck and drove back down to the ferry terminal; all while Maria purchased the ticket, assuring the ticket agent that the truck would be arriving momentarily… Rather a hair-raising experience for both involved!!
Beach Road
After all the excitement we took off along Beach Road, our original plan - but now confirmed by the attendant at the ferry as the thing to do… Our first of many stops was Mile ‘0’ for the Trans Canada Highway. We had driven, biked and walked along this road in several locations so it was interesting to see where it all starts. It also turns out to be on the tour bus circuit so we shared the park with the latest set of visitors. Out next stop was Clover Point - we rode out to the end, where we could look towards the US and back at the island… It also had a handy location spotter, so we found out that the mountain we had seen yesterday was actually Mount Baker in the North Cascades - it seemed to have a lot more snow on it than when we had been closer! We could also see another point along the coast so we hoped that we could ride our bikes out there and get an even better view. Continuing on, we passed lots of lovely homes most with wonderful gardens and flowers of all different types and colors. Our next stop was Gonzales Park - we had stopped briefly at Gonzales Bay and looked up to see a building that looked like an observatory, so-much-so that we had to go investigate! After a pretty steep, but thankfully short climb we found the building, didn’t find out whether or not it was an observatory, but did find that it seems to be a favorite spot for artists! By they way, the view was wonderful - and made us feel a little silly as the point we had seen previously was actually Trial Island, and we were probably not going to be able to ride our bikes out there!!
Not to be deterred, we retraced our route (a little faster than when going up) and investigate the Chinese Cemetery. We were interested to find out that the early immigrants (from all over Canada) all wanted to be buried in China, so they were only temporarily interred in the cemetery and then, after 7 years, were transferred back to China. Unfortunately, China stopped accepting remains in 1939 so the cemetery was used in the ‘normal’ western fashion until it filled. We continued on, past several parks, a war memorial, a golf course and many lovely looking (and probably expensive) houses before realizing that we were quite a bit further out than we expected! So we looked at the map and found the best way back to town… We lucked out as there was a dedicated bike lane for most of the way and we had our own lane!
We did, however, make a few stops along the way to take photos of the Bears. Victoria was in the midst of a “Great Bear Auction” to benefit the Easter Seals and the Bear Mountain Fund - it was similar to the plane auction in Wichita, the Peanuts Characters in Minneapolis/St. Paul and the Buffalo auction in Custer, South Dakota. Maria’s favorite was Dr. Bear complete with Pager “Paging Dr. Bear;” Carl’s was Solicitor Bear - who, when complete had glasses, briefcase and pocket watch! Back at the ferry we found it hadn’t taken us all that long to get back and we had an hour to spare—so we gathered up all our Canadian change and rode around to the other side of the Inner Harbor for lunch… Watching the comings and goings of the whale watch boats, Harbor Taxi’s, Float Planes and of course, people!
Sailing across the Strait
Arriving back from lunch it was time for us to do our “quick change routine,” and pack the bikes back in the truck - we accomplished this feat in under 10 minutes, which is a record! But it also meant that we had 80 minutes to kill before finding out whether we would make it onto the ferry. Not surprisingly there were lots more cars and trucks in the waiting area than when we had started on our biking adventure and more kept arriving! So Maria got out the computer to work on the blogs and Carl read our National Park Book, trying to figure out where we would go next!! Finally, things started moving and we were loaded onto the ferry - we loaded from the side and our position was in the front of the ship… So Carl got his wish and had to reverse during unloading!!
Thankfully the seas were calm so we got to enjoy the various sites along the way from the outside deck—
Views of Victoria Harbor,
Watching the float planes take off on top of us, more views of Mount Baker (now that we knew it’s name it felt like the mountain was following us around…),
Jelly fish, seagulls catching rides on logs floating in the ocean and glimpses of whales—Carl even got a photo of one spouting, hopefully you can see this in the photo… We arrived in Port Angeles, tired but thankful the day had turned out so well - all we had to do now was find somewhere to stay! We tried the local campground, but the office was closed for the night - so we found this little motel, aptly called the Royal Victorian, where the manager showered us with gifts—bottled water and a new razor for Carl… He was looking a little disreputable!!
Carl’s Travel Trivia
Yesterday’s Answer: The biggest tree is a Douglas-fir - 76m high, 9-feet diameter and 9m in circumference
Today’s Question: If Mile ‘0’ in Victoria is the beginning, where is the end of the Trans Canada Highway? For extra points... Has either Maria or Carl been to both ends of the Trans Canada Highway?
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Marv Bush
non-member comment
Trans Canada Hwy
It starts in St. John's Newfoundland. Yes you have been at both ends. MB