My Trans Canada Bike Journey

  Huge trees found on Vancouver Island Monday, September 14, 2015 With a successful ride today, this would be my last on Vancouver Island.  The day started near Duncan, picking up the Trans Canada Trail at my ending point from 2013. Today’s route would take me through the communities of Crofton, Chemainus, Ladysmith, before ending at the ferry dock in Nanaimo.  My goal was not just the city of Nanaimo, but also an arrival in time to catch the final ferry back to the mainland at Horseshoe Bay. A couple interesting memories as I left Duncan.  Duncan is the home of the largest hockey stick in the world. It’s about 60 feet long. But the  strongest memory for me is the rest day I took on Sunday.  In Canada, my sport of curling, gets a lot more publicity than we see in the US. On Sunday evening, one of the channels carried coverage from a large  Eastern Canadian bonspiel.  Many of the top men’s teams in the world were competing.  At that bonspiel, ...

   Strait of Georgia and Salt Spring Island Saturday, September 12, 2015 After a one year hiatus, I decided to return to the Trans Canada Trail in September of 2015.  I drove my car on a vacation of Western Canada. I first visited Banff National Park and then continued into British Columbia with a plan to continue my bike trek. My goal was to get back to Duncan on Vancouver Island where I had stopped two years earlier. Just as in 2013, the logistics of getting back on the Trans Canada Trail was the most challenging aspect of the trip. I needed to leave the car someplace and then ride the bike to Duncan on Vancouver Island. Continue on the TCT  northerly to Nanaimo, at which the TCT  takes the ferry back to Horseshoe Bay on the mainland.  Continue on the bike, leaving time to get back to the car, for the trip home.   Fortunately for me, the geography of the region gave me the opportunity to make some progress on the TCT, yet return to the car without ne...

From coast to coast: The longest trail in the world Oct. 17, 2013 My final day on the Trans Canada Trail for 2013; well, the final day for actual forward progress. The rest of the bike miles would be devoted to returning to Victoria and Seattle.   My route on the TCT  enters this map in the lowest right corner, and proceeds about 70 km to get to the sign which is indicated by the red circle on the map. My estimate of the distance from the low right corner to the red circle is 20 km, ‘as the crow flies’. So the distance devoted to the western jog of the TCT here is an extra 50 km; the first place in which following the TCT was going to add some serious mileage to the ride.  I was faced with the fundamental decision on whether this was a ride of the Trans Canada Trail specifically, or whether this was a ride which might eventually cross all of Canada.  The latter could be accomplished by taking short cuts, and would be the normal way to cross Canada by bike. But I deci...