In 2001, Shane and I drove to Port
Angeles, Washington left our car in a parking lot for 10 days and
rode our bikes 500 miles on Vancouver Island from Victoria to Courtenay, camping
along the way.
We loved that so much that in 2002, we drove back to Port
Angeles, Washington, left our car in an RV storage lot for 6 weeks,
and rode our bikes 1000 miles. This time we rode the entire length of Vancouver Island,
again camping along the way.
Included on this stretch of our ride was a 175 mile section of road we nicknamed the “Highway of Death” (Campbell river to Port Hardy). From Port Hardy, we
took a ferry up to Queen Charlotte Island and rode the length of the
northern island.
From there we took the “poor man's cruise”
through the
breathtaking Inside Passage up to Skagway, Alaska. Then
we rode all the way back to our car. (We did end up renting a van
for the “Highway of Death” section.) Even back then we had enough
sense not to ride that section again!
During a backpacking trip a few years
ago, Shane and I decided to write a list of our 10 favorite trips
EVER!!! We wrote them in secret and then compared notes. We had 7
of the same trips (and believe me, we had lots of choices!) But, our
6 week bike trip was #1 for me and #2 for Shane. For me, it was the
first time in my life that I felt a real appreciation for what my
body was capable of doing. I had gotten to ALASKA on a BIKE!!! That trip healed body image issues I had had for a long time.
For years, I wanted to do another bike
trip, but then we had babies and were hardly going anywhere. By
2010, our girls were big enough that I could start camping again,
but bike trips were out of the question. That didnt stop me
from talking about it all the time.
I would say, “When the girls
are old enough we are going on a bike trip!” or “Maybe I'll go on
a bike trip by myself.” I think this is why I became so
passionate about biking. I bike everywhere.....the girls and I
probably bike about 800 miles a year.
This summer, we were supposed to do a big
car camping trip out to Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho and Oregon. The
problem is that our car is just not able to go where we want to go
(hence, the need for a car more suited for us). I brought up the
idea to Shane of doing a bike tour with the girls ( I dont give up easily!) – Alli on her own bike
and Jill on a trail a bike. Shane was into the idea and when we asked the girls if they would like that, they were WAY excited.
Fast forward to
Spring Break, when we did a trial run on Bizz Johnson. If you did
not read those posts you can click here:
What did we learn from that trip???
Alli COULD NOT be on her own bike.
While she is capable of doing a small trip, long term and long
distance would be difficult.
We COULD NOT use the current trail a
bike that we had – an Adams. It was so wobbly and very hard for
Shane to control.
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| Pile of stuff we WILL NOT be bringing on our trip! |
When we got back we went through every
single item and found 15 POUNDS of gear that we would not bring on a
long bike trip. Books, the hammock,
And of course we learned that no matter
what, a bike trip was how we wanted to spend our summer.
So the research started. The BurleyPiccolo was what I found to be the best trail a bike for what we
wanted to do. High weight limit – absolutely no wobble –
sturdy and strong rack – weighed less. They are $400, so I looked
on craigslist and found 2 of them $180 total (paid for with our
paypal money – remember we are saving for a used car). We had to drive to Sacramento and Redding, but it was WELL worth it.
There are some great rails to trails,
but none of them are very long. The Bizz Johnson is the longest in
California. There are lots in other states, but in Canada there is a
trail that runs from Coast to Coast! We wanted to do the section in
British Columbia from Victoria on Vancouver Island to Nelson on the
mainland, located above Idaho. Bruce and Sue were willing to drop us off in
June in Port Angeles and pick us in August in Nelson. We were SET! We ordered the book, got
the gear we needed and started counting down the days. We needed one more test ride with the new trail a bikes and loaded with gear.
One Wednesday in early May, Shane called me from
school and said that Lassen was having their Car Free Weekend. He
asked, “Let's drive up on Friday and bike to the summit as a trial
run!” Two days to prepare, but we did it! We had been talking about doing this ever since
moving to Chico, only took 15 years to actually do it!
Friday night we drove up after school,
got to the parking lot of the visitor center at about 5:30pm. Loaded
up the bikes and started riding. Let's just say – It was TOUGH!!!
Our average speed was about 3.5 miles per hour. That is crazy slow.
But Shane and I are pulling not only our kids up this mountain, but
all of our camping gear. We rode exactly half way (3.5 miles) that
night in 50 minutes of pedaling time, 2.5 hours total time.
Exhausted and hungry and cold, we set up camp on some snow. We
crawled into bed at 9:30 and all fell instantly to sleep.
In the morning we got up and as we were
getting ready to head up this massive, steep and windy hill, a couple
from France stopped to chat with us. They were on a long trip that
started in Seattle, went to San Francisco and now they were headed
back to Seattle. I remember feeling GIDDY as we talked to them
thinking – “In one month that is going to be US, out on the
road, with just the power of our bodies to get us from one side of
Canada to the other.” I couldn't wait!
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| Shane and Alli WAY down there at the bottom of the picture |
Once more we started up toward the
summit. We had another 3.5 miles to go. As we rode, there were lots
of road cyclist FLYING past us coming downhill. They always passed
us with a cheer of some sort – Awesome Family!!! – Way to go
Mom and Dad!! – You guys ROCK!! – Lucky kids!! – So nice
to see a family outdoors together! – Keep it up!
The girls love this kind of attention
and we appreciate it too. It is nice to hear encouragement for what
we love to do. It feels good to get kudos for doing what we love
instead of doing what is “normal” or “expected”. I will
admit, it also helped keep my legs pumping up this horribly steep
mountain. Somewhere along the way a ranger stopped to talk to us and
take our picture. We were the only family we saw out there the whole
weekend.
We reached the summit after 60 minutes
of pedal time – 3 hours total – this section was WAY more
steep, and we were totally spent! Shane and I were each pulling
about 150# up the mountain, not including our own weight. There was
a lot of shouting for joy when we finally reached the summit.
Now, it is true that on the other side
of the summit we could ride for as fast and as long as we wanted, BUT
we would have to ride BACK UP in the morning. We decided to go 1 –
1.5 miles downhill and find somewhere to camp. This took 6 minutes!
Is all the uphill worth the downhill? 100% YES! Is this the girls
playing in the snow without jackets and without shoes? 100% YES!
Now, the next day we had to ride 8.5
miles back to the car, the first 1.5 miles being uphill – but then
the icing on the cake – 7 miles of nothing but downhill. It was
so amazing and fun. We never had to pedal. It was 26 minutes of a
joy ride down the side of Lassen – no cars – just us and the
wind in our ears. (I think I vaguely remember that I could not feel
my feet because they were frozen, but WHO CARES!!!! 26 minutes of a
joy ride is worth it!)
This trip to Lassen was our last trial
run before Canada. All the problems needed worked out now before we
left for 7 weeks. What we found out was that we are READY! The
Piccolo is a perfect trail a bike for us, we could pack our 4 person
tent, we can survive without cooking (we only used our stove to make
tea), and most important – if there was a mountain that needed
climbed, we would be able to do it. We headed into the end of May
with happiness in our hearts for what would be sure to be one of our
favorite family trips ever.
UH -OH!!!!!
Shane and I kept procrastinating the
planning of our trip. We had the TransCanada Trail book, we had
learned about Warm Showers (a website designed to connect cyclist
with people willing to host them in their house or in their yard with
a tent), we just had not sat down to write out how EXACTLY we were
going to get to Nelson in 7 weeks. I finally started 3 days before
Shane's camping trip with his friends.
Early on, I found out that the stretch
of trail beyond Hope, BC was kind of a mess. There was almost no way
around it except to ride the highway. Now, when I think back to the
highway of death from 2002, I know FOR SURE that we are not going to
ride on highways with the girls. I start researching everything
that would help us get around this section– renting a van, renting
a U-haul, finding a shuttle service – it is all over $500. By
this time Shane is gone, off to the Eastern Sierras doing this:
I realize I must make an executive
decision. My decision – we turn around in Chilliwack –
nothing, and I mean NOTHING – is worth endangering our children.
Some of you may be surprised to realize that we actually do have
limits to what we will do! I was 2 weeks into planning and our whole
trip had to change. I had a big job to do. I had to plan 5 more
weeks and make sure that it was good since Shane would come home and
learn that we were not doing AT ALL what we set out to do.
We have been to the sunshine coast
(west coast of mainland, BC) many times. I knew the it would be
awesome, but I wasnt sure about the safety of cycling it, or if there
are backroads to get off the highway. With some research I found
some awesome websites.
CRAZY GUY ON A BIKE – an
UNBELIEVEABLE collection of cyclists journals about their trips. I
found a lot of info here on the safety/danger of different areas
I was sold. This could for sure be
done. It would take us one week to get back to Vancouver, then one
week to cycle to Powell River at the top of the Sunshine Coast. That
left 3 weeks to plan. The obvious next step is a ferry over to
Courtenay on Vancouver Island which is a place we LOVE!!!! So
another week to cycle down to Sidney.
2 years ago we went to the San Juan
Islands and fell in love with Lopez Island. It is mostly flat with
some rolling hills, people are SO friendly and it is a really
relaxing atmosphere. So from Sidney, BC we could take a ferry over
to Friday Harbor in the San Juans....then Lopez.....then Orcas. BOOM
– 7 weeks – 50 days – planned! Well, almost....
I will not have any cell service in BC
so I needed to write down the address of EVERY SINGLE PLACE we are
going to stay. Then I had to write the directions we would need for
every day to get from one place to another. I wont have MAPS on my
phone – or a GPS unit – every night I will copy the directions
from my notebook, onto a 5 x 7 index card and fasten it to my
steering wheel so we know where we are going.
This was a huge ordeal in itself.
Google Maps for Bicycles is a GREAT resource, but a lot of the GO TO
directions are for taking the highways, which I am not willing to ride with
the girls. I had to manually re-route each and every day, every
single section of our ride for 50 days, to keep us off the highway.
This also resulted in LOTS MORE MILES to ride. Taking back roads
will be safer, but we will be riding a lot more, too. One day the
original route was 30 miles, but after I adjusted the route to get
off Highway 1, we have to ride 38 miles! YIKES! Total
calculated(estimated) miles 720. Total hours on the bike 90 (so this
will probably be closer to 200 hours for us!)
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| Our Packing List |
Passports are packed, credit card and
banks are notified that we are leaving the country, bike tour list is
out and highlighted. We are chomping at the bit!! It feels good
to be all planned, packed and ready to go.
We have a few more days of enjoying our
beloved Olympia family. We get to spend Father's Day with Shane's
dad for the first time in forever, then Monday at 12:45 we leave Port
Angeles with only our bikes and the power of our own bodies for the
adventure of a lifetime.
Click below to follow our journey....
DAY 1 - SAFELY IN VICTORIA
