I haven’t really been out of town much this summer, and I certainly haven’t been camping. This past week I hatched a fairly hasty plan to solve both of those problems and boy did it turn out well.

Salt Spring Island is the largest of the southern gulf islands located between Vancouver and Vancouver Island. Accessible by ferry from either Victoria or Vancouver, its geographic area of about 183 km² is less than 10% the size of the Metro Vancouver area and its population fo 10,500 is less than 1% of Vancouver’s total and Ruckle Provincial Park on the island’s southern tip seemed like the perfect place to pitch a tent.

Oh yeah…I decided to do this all by bike. I’m all about the low carbon footprint these days, though I’m not sure how much lower I can get it.

Getting to Salt Spring

Getting to Salt Spring from Vancouver means taking a ferry from the Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal which offers infrequent direct service to Long Harbour located on the Island’s north end, about a 22km ride from Ruckle Park. The alternative was to take a ferry from Tsawwassen to Victoria and then transfer to a smaller run from Victoria to Fulford Harbour: quite a bit closer to the park, but quite a bit longer in travel time. I opted for the direct route.

From my home to the Ferry is about a 35km ride, interrupted by the Massey Tunnel. Getting through the tunnel means taking a shuttle that runs hourly in the summertime (although hopping aboard a Translink bus is an option as well.) It took a bit more than an hour to get to the shuttle pick up point at Richmond’s 5th Avenue and Rice Mill Road.

On the shuttle I met Helmut and Verena from the Black Forest region of Germany. The two had spent the weekend in Vancouver and were on the first day of a trip to San Diego by bicycle. We cycled together to the ferry where they caught the next one to Swartz Bay while I had a couple of hours to wait until the next Long Harbour Departure of the day.

After an hour and a half ferry ride to Long Harbour I was well rested and ready to tackle the island. Salt Spring, like most of these islands, has a fairly substantial peak at the centre—in this case Mt. Maxwell. The 22km ride to Ruckle Park would take me through the Island’s largest village (Ganges) and up a steady climb before descending on the other side.

Loaded with gear, the ride took somewhere between an hour and a half and two hours in total. Ruckle Park was (as I’d been banking on) fairly empty and by 18:00hrs I had my tent pitched on the edge of the ocean and was boiling water for dinner. All told the day was a nice one of travel at a more human pace than the disconnect that cars can sometimes create.

Shortly after arriving I was joined at the neighbouring site by John, who had been on the same ferry as I. He was towing a trailer and took a more leisurely route than I which included a stop for dinner on the way. With both of our tents pitched and lanterns lit, the stars—each one a setting sun—revealed themselves overhead and we dozed off in our respective tents.

Monday: Salt Spring Cheese and Fulford Harbour

I had a stove and John had coffee so the next morning started with John and I having coffee together. He was packing up to head back to Seattle and I joined him on his ride out of the park with the intention of stopping at the Salt Spring Island Cheese company on the way. Of all the decisions I’ve made this summer, this may be the single smartest one.

The cheese company was an oasis of sorts for us, offering not only samples but free coffee as well. With friendly staff, friendly dogs and good food on hand we could have stayed all day—and very nearly did. It took about two hours to pry ourselves away from the sunny patio but eventually we did, both laden with the weight of purchased cheese. There are many more photos on my Flickr photostream of the cheese facility with notes from the self guided tour they offer. Don’t miss this place if you wind up over here, and don’t forget to bring some cheese home.

John and I said our goodbyes just around the corner of Beaver Point Road and Stewart Road where he headed for Long Harbour and I continued towards Fulford. John’s trip to Long Harbour was good and included a stop at Mt. Maxwell to hike it and a quick lunch in Ganges.

I spent the day in Fulford exploring the Morningside Cafe and chatting with the lovely Deborah, shopping for books (my constant weakness,) sitting on the swings and more or less waiting for the Fulford Inn to open so that I could grab a bite to eat. After an early dinner it was about a 45 minute bike ride back to camp and a sunset spent reading and dining on a baguette and soft goat cheese. Life was pretty good.

Tuesday: Ganges

On Tuesday, I decided to cycle into Ganges and explore the town a bit. The ride took about and hour and a half each way without just my single pannier. Ganges itself has plenty of small town charm: the Salt Spring Coffee Company cafe offers some of the best coffee to be had anywhere including a well made latte, the Treehouse Cafe has live music every night (although it was closed for a staff party the night I was there,) bookstores abound. A small farmer’s market was taking place while in the United Church’s yard, offering a range of fresh local produce for purchase.

After a latte I headed to Black Bond Books where I picked up a copy of Susan Orleans’ The Orchid Thief to read on the ferry ride home. The book store itself felt rather like home: I’d read about 3/4 of the books on their staff picks shelf already. There’s nothing quite like a good bookstore to make a town for me.

I headed to the Coast Guard dock to grab some fish & chips for lunch—tasty, though not nearly as good as the food at Vancouver’s Go Fish—before heading back to camp over the Stewart Road route.

Since I hadn’t had a shower for a couple of days I figured I’d see what the ocean offered. A five minute dip was about all the refreshment I could handle. The Island offers 11 lakes for swimming as well as a public swimming pool in Ganges, and in future it would be wiser to choose any of these options. Swimming in the ocean is pretty special though.

Satisfied with my day I looked forward to yet another beautiful sunset with a couple of books to finish. The Island didn’t disappoint, and after a couple of hours of reading I faded gently into as good a sleep as a 3/4” thick Therm-a-Rest can provide.

Wednesday: Homeward Bound

Wednesday morning dawned sunny and warm and though I had little desire to leave the park reports of an imminent change in the weather brought thoughts of home. I packed gear into panniers, said my farewell’s to the coast and headed towards Fulford.

Before leaving the park I visited the Ruckle Heritage Farm, rumoured to be the province’s oldest family owned farm. The farm is still in use and though the heritage buildings are maintained as an exhibition space the farm animals roam the entire area freely.

Naturally I stopped at the Salt Spring Island Cheese company again. I needed to stock up my fridge.

The ride home was shorter than the ride here, and the Fulford ferries are well scheduled to allow transfers to the Victoria-Tsawwassen route so the journey takes just slightly more than two hours. The volume of traffic on the Tsawwassen causeway was overwhelming compared to what I’d been dealing with for the last four days, but, but the shoulder on the road was wider. The trip from the ferry to the Massey tunnel shuttle took just slightly more than a half hour. A serious accident had obstructed the northbound on-ramp which meant waiting for about an hour with the driver. I was in no rush, and the flat ride through Richmond was reasonably pleasant—although the city of Richmond really needs to update its cycling route signage to make the new Cambie Line bridge easier to find.

Final Thoughts

This was my first time on Salt Spring Island, and my first really successful bike tour as well (an earlier attempt at the Kettle Valley Railway Trail ended when I got not one but two flat tires on the first day. I was quite happy with the trip.

My Kona Sutra held up well and was reliable, but special thanks go to Ed at Mighty Riders for finally finding me a front rack that fits this thing (and a very nice one at that.) The disc brakes on the Kona have made this a challenge, and it was nice to finally have confidence in those front panniers. I will upgrade the rear rack as well. I’d still like to replace the bike with a Surly Long Haul Trucker equipped with Campagnolo Veloce triple gearing, but that will have to wait a bit longer.

The North Face Slickrock tent that I’ve travelled with more than any other tent I own—and I own three—was as nice as always. The short poles fit in panniers easily and make it a good choice for cycle touring, which was one of the reasons I bought it. Putting the tent body on one side and the poles on the other does a fairly nice job of balancing the load. I still have a lot to learn about packing panniers.

My Coleman Exponent Expedition stove is on its last legs, having been discontinued by Coleman. The whole system uses a specialized fuel and I love the lantern but its useful life is roughly equal to the amount of fuel I have. It takes up a fair amount of space, and I may in the future switch to a SnowPeak butane stove that fits inside my titanium cooking pot to save space. I will be sad to see the end of life for the Coleman equipment, but that’s what you get for developing a proprietary fuel.

The complete library of photos is below and you can click through to see the images on Flickr.

Don’t worry Salt Spring Island: I’ll be back. A lovely time was had by all.

Posted by skooter at 4:08 AM This entry is filed under Cycling, Travel.
This entry is tagged: BC Ferries, bicycle touring, camping, Kona Sutra, North Face, Salt Spring Coffee, Salt Spring Island, Saltspring Island, vacation