Cycle Touring - Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Day 0 Planning and Packing

Tomorrow, Friday Jul 27, I will be embarking on a 3 day, 2 night bicycle trip to Victoria, BC. Armed with a little more knowledge and experience from previous cycling and camping trips, my goal for this trip is to go slow, no rushing, and be as relaxed as I can be. I am going solo. I have no actual destination. Only the city of Victoria comes to mind. There will be no backup plans, no one to contact while I am there and no one to 'rescue' me if I get into trouble. It's gonna be great.

The plan is to start riding by tomorrow (Friday Jul 27) afternoon.  Make my way out to Tsawwassen BC where the Ferry terminal is located and camp the night there.  Luckily, I already have my first campsite booked up.  It is at friends' place who happen to be out of the country at the moment and have given me permission to set up camp in their backyard.  This will be the first leg of my journey.  At the first crack of morning sunlight, I will have to get up early and try to catch the 7am ferry to Swartz Bay ferry terminal.  And from then on, I have the full day to cycle to Victoria.  I am still undecided where I will be camping on my second night.  This I will decide along the way.

Today, Thursday, DAY 0, was spent planning my trip and packing up all my gear.  Experimenting on how to pack as efficiently as possible and make use of the limited real estate that I have on my bike and trailer.  I am already realizing that I need smaller gear...  small, small gear.  My tent is big, my sleeping bag is huge, and my sleeping pad is gigantic.  I know I have to pack as minimalistic as possible but these items are necessities, I could barely fit them all in my trailer.  Does this mean I will have to purchase the smallest gear I can afford?  The smaller the more expensive things get...  sigh.. :( .  For now, I will make due with what I have and I'll think about buying new gear in the future.

All the gear that I will be taking with me

I created a video blog of what I am taking with me and how I packed all my gear into my trailer and bike.  I also would like to show you how my Mayacycle trailer connects to my bike on the second video I made.  Please click on the links below.

-->The gear I am taking and how I pack them into my Mayacycle trailer<--

-->How My Trailer Connects to my Bike<--

Tomorrow I set off for my trip to Victoria.  Nerves are somewhat setting in but I am very anxious to get going.  There is a chance of rain tomorrow but I don't think I will let that stop me from going.  Rain or not, I will have to eventually endure all sorts of weather nature throws at me.  I can only gain experience from it and a necessary one at that.  It is almost midnight and I am still wide awake.  My biggest problem right now is that I may not get any sleep tonight as I am too excited to get going.

My next blog update will be tomorrow night at my first campsite.  I know most of you will be following me through Facebook through my Twitter updates., but to those of you who are not on my facebook list, you can visit me via Twitter here https://twitter.com/604Bluelight .

Good night for now.

Canada Day - My First Century Ride

Today I hit a milestone in doing my first (metric) Century Ride. 109.63 Kilometers in total.
After having one of the roughest roller coaster month I've had in a long time, there was only one way to top it off, by riding for 100+ Kilometers on my bicycle!  And on Canada Day to boot!  Happy Canada Day to everyone!
As mentioned, quite the roller coaster month of June has passed with so many highs and lows, ups and downs, that it has become emotionally draining.  With the toughest work month I've had in a while, the ups and downs of the Canucks on their Cup run, along with the advent of the hockey riots here in Vancouver, and personal lives getting in the way, I've become very drained.  It was as if there was a grey cloud over me these past few weeks that I couldn't shake.  Was also the reason for the severe lack of blogs lately..  I just didn't feel like writing.
Well today gave me that chance to do that epic ride I've been longing for.  Something that would allow me to relieve some stress.  I will say it once again that cycling is a great form of medicine, it has helped me out once again.

On River Road with the Alex Fraser Bridge on the backdrop.

GPS tracking of the whole trip. Using Everytrail app on my iPhone.

The above map shows the whole bike ride from start to end.  Please see http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=1167160 for more details.

The bike ride started off from Burnaby to Tsawwassen, from Tsawwassen to Westham Island, back to Tsawwassen and then back home to Burnaby.  My good friend Ian, who lives in Tsawwassen, joined me from his home to Westham Island and there we visited the Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary in the Alaksen National Wildlife Area.  It was nothing short of a relaxing bike ride, the weather was perfect, it wasn't hot, it wasn't cold, just perfect.  We got to travel on a mix of pavement and gravel and we saw many wildlife including beautiful eagles and huge cows!  The ride ended off with me rushing to get home before it got dark as I did not have any lights on me on my bike.  I made the 2hr trek home from Tsawwassen with plenty of daylight left.  This bike ride I can say was truly Epic!

Tsawwassen Road overlooking the Ferries.  Very low tide!

Old chapel with an old boat beside it. Random

Some of the many eagles and birds we've seen today. So awesome.

These cows were the biggest cows I've ever seen!

Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary

Crossing the narrow bridge into Westham Island

Checking the GPS for directions. No, I wasn't playing with my crotch.

Parting ways from my good friend Ian.
edit - I just noticed the nasty farmer's tan on my arms and legs. Or is that dirt??!

Total Kms for the day.  This is a great accomplishment as it shows I can do it. A great start for future plans.

I'm feeling much better now.


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