Yearly Archives: 2023

Island View Beach to Smonecten National Reserve Park (12 mi)

This morning A and H wanted to draw, so we set them up while Daisy and I broke down camp. The hill to get away from the beach and back to the bike trail was steep. Like stop a couple times to rest, steep. During one of those stops a family with two toddlers in an Urban Arrow Family cargo bike passed by and we cheered them on. We have one of these bikes too, and they are great. The only downside is that when you run out of electric assist the bike is so heavy it is nearly impossible to ride uphill. … And that is the condition we found the family in near the top of the hill! The battery was empty! (There was no power available in the campground last night.) We had a nice chat for a few minutes before heading down the other side. Luckily for them there was a restaurant/store just a half mile away.

We passed several neighborhoods as the bike path went from being separated to on low-traffic neighborhood streets. Eventually we made our way to Sidney, BC. I was looking forward to some yummy interesting lunch food but unfortunately hungry H won out and we quickly got grocery store sushi and a box of blueberries again. After lunch the kids and I visited the Shaw Center for the Salish Sea while Daisy had a coffee and stayed with the bikes. This aquarium was pretty cool, and we got to explore another touch tank. We were a little overwhelmed to be overrun by summer camp kids, though!

Not much farther along and we arrived at Smonecten National Reserve Park campground. It was entirely in the forest, and the walk/bike-in sites were separated from the drive-in sites. After dinner we enjoyed our walk around the campground. There were signs telling about native plants. Also, there were a bunch of berries! I learned about “trailing blackberries” which are different than the typical “Himalayan blackberries” that we normally see. They are native to the area, and are much sweeter and more delicious than the more common variety we usually encounter. They were a little harder to eat since they ‘trail’ on the ground more like a vine than like a bush. There were also thimbleberries, which tasted like jam to me. We had a good dessert!

Kids know how to set up the tent – all on their own

Port Angeles to Island View Beach Regional Park, Canada! (19 mi)

So excited to get on the ferry to Canada!

We quickly packed up from our restful indoor sleep, and headed down the hill to catch the 8:20 AM ferry to CANADA! It was quite full, and we were excited to see a few other tandems on the bike racks on the bow deck.

It was busy and the ferry was quite crowded

In the middle of the trip the boat suddenly rocked sharply to one side. Let’s just say that when a large boat does a sharp maneuver like that your heart is likely to skip a beat. But, we quickly recovered and suspected that the captain was altered the course to avoid whales. A couple humpback whales had surfaced right in front of the boat! The girls were delighted to have their first ever whale sighting.

In Victoria we went first to the floating house boats. I thought the kids would be excited about them, but in reality they didn’t care. They were a little interested in the wildlife growing off of the floaters under the houses though, haha. Victoria is absolutely amazing for cyclists. There are tons of separated bike lanes in the downtown area and the bike trails are also great. We stopped at a Whole Foods to grab some lunch items (sushi and blueberries!) and then headed north out of town on the Lochside trail. The trail felt like a bike super-highway that would make it easy to commute downtown.

On the (very civilized) Lochside bike trail

The bike trail was quite flat and pleasant. We stopped for ice cream at a lovely little shopping center with stores circling a center courtyard. It was perfect for us. We stocked up on fresh veg and supplies for future meals.

At one point we got cooled off by an industrial “sprinkler” watering some crop in a farmer’s field. After turning towards the regional park we passed over a couple hundred foot climb before coming down towards the beach. It was quite windy so we felt thankful for the trees in camp.

What a mess our picnic table is in the middle of our arrival!

Can you believe Daisy carried all this here for dinner? (+the milk for breakfast)

Dungeness to Port Angeles (19 mi)

This is a popular hiker/biker camp area!

Bizarrely, the camp ranger woke us all up at 9:45pm at this site to check if we had paid (we had!). The kids make no allowances for sleep disruptions though, and woke up full of wiggles and demands. Daisy cooked pancakes for us again for breakfast. Gotta keep those kids eating!

On our way out we stopped to take a picture of this hilarious road crossing. We weren’t there only ones, either. I imagine the people that live on this road shake their heads at us tourists taking pictures but… How could we resist?

We made our way out of the park and back to the ODT. We were excited to finish this section of trail to Port Angeles because that meant we were heading to Canada the next day!

The section of riding today looked good on paper, but in real life it was actually pretty miserable. The Olympic Discovery Trail was away from the road all day, but it goes up and down steeply for every creek. We were exhausted after spending our morning pushing the bikes while the kids walked.

We missed the slightly-off-route market where we planned to buy something appetizing for lunch. Instead, we kept riding, looking for a picnic table to eat what we could scavenge from our bags. That ended up being a fruitless search; there were no tables to be found. We even looked in a car/highway rest area which had bathrooms but no tables!

Not thrilled by these insanely steep hills on the bike path

Eventually we decided to just eat lunch without a table. It was at a nice boardwalk section of the trail, finally. During our lunch we saw about 10 touring cyclists pass in small groups. That was a lot since we hadn’t seen any yet all morning!

Finally refueled, we made the final push to Port Angeles. The path went down to the water, and then followed the coast for the last few miles. We could see our destination while being buffeted by the wind. We made it, but were definitely feeling tired. The day was unexpectedly harder than we were anticipating. Daisy laid down on the sidewalk by the bikes and actually fell asleep while Jason took the kids to buy coffee and treats.

The kids and Jason went into the Marine Life Center that is right on the water in Port Angeles. They have awesome touch tanks! Next up was getting Jason’s brakes checked, and yes they needed some adjustment. We then headed up the hill to our Warm Showers host’s house. We had a great time chatting, and also sleeping inside. (Thanks, John!)

Sand dollars, tube worms, hermit crabs, snails, cucumbers, stars, and more in this one

Well behaved children at the bike shopping checking out some maps of the area.

For those out there that don’t know about warm showers, it’s a hosting network for touring cyclists. In cities it can be impossible to camp and extremely expensive to stay in hotels. When cyclists aren’t on tour they offer to host other cyclists that are. We have hosted in Pennsylvania, but not yet in Colorado.

Sequim Bay to Dungeness Spit National Recreation Area (18 mi)

We awoke to a fog so heavy it was slightly drizzling. For the first time on this trip we all put on rain jackets as we left camp. The riding was pleasant all day, primarily on the Olympic Discovery Trail. We are trying out as many bike trails as we can on this trip, and they are quite hit or miss depending on the section.

A very nice section of the Olympic Discovery Trail

We have discovered that the best place for our family to buy lunch is actually at a grocery store with a deli. The kids love the prepackaged sushi rolls – usually a California roll – and we usually just eat whatever they don’t. No one seems to mind us just sitting on the sidewalk eating huge amounts of food.

After lunch the cloud cover burned off and the sun came out. It was mostly quiet riding on the trail until we turned off to head to camp.

On the way we stopped at a lavender farm, since this region is famous for lavender. The kids enjoyed seeing the flowers and we all enjoyed some blackberry lavender ice cream.

We camped at Dungeness Spit, which is a wildlife refuge with a campground managed by the county. The hiker/biker area was packed – there were five different groups that night! This is a funny spot, since hiker/bikers are allowed to stay in one place for up to two weeks. At the state parks you can only stay a single night.

We took a long walk down to the water. The kids loved running along the trail after yelling ‘turbo fart!!!’ and pretending that their monstrous gas propelled them along. I mean, as long as they keep moving we are here for it.