Canyonview Camp's 1998 Canadian Bike Adventure
Itinerary
This
itinerary is tentative and is based on my best estimate of our group's
ability. Mechanical breakdowns, ferry problems, illness or adverse
weather may result in changes. If a scheduled overnight stop is changed,
I will call to that campsite and inform them where we are staying and
ask them to refer any calls to our new location. Please pray for our
group's safety and for twelve days of unforgettable Christian adventure.
Monday 8 km Drive from Canyonview via Portland to Port Angeles, WA. Catch ferry
August 17 6 miles at 5:15 to Victoria's Inner Harbor to Ft. Victoria Campground.
Tuesday 64 km Cycle fro Ft. Victoria to Brentwood Bay. Catch ferry at 1:15 to Mill Bay
August 18 40 miles and cycle toward Chemainus and stay at Bald Eagle Campsite.
Wednesday 56 km Cycle from Chemainus to Nanaimo. Catch 1:00 PM ferry to Vancouver
August 19 35 miles (Horseshoe Bay). Catch 3:30 PM ferry to Langdale. Cycle to Gibsons
and on to Bonniebrook Campsite.
Thursday 60 km Cycle from Gibsons to Madeira Park. Having fun in the sun, we'll stop
August 20 38 miles unwantingly at Lowes Resort Campground.
Friday 42 km Cycle from Madeira Park to Earls Cove, 12 miles. Catch 12:25 PM
August 21 26 miles ferry to Saltery Bay and cycle to Lang Bay. Stay at Seabreeze Resort
Campground.
Saturday 48 km Cycle from Lang Bay to Powell River, and then on to Lund, where we
August 22 30 miles will enjoy all the beauty and ice cream humanly possible. Lund RV
Park.
Sunday Zippo Kick back, relax, and worship God in a tiny town. Same as yesterday.
August 23
Monday 100 km Cycle from Lund to Powell River. Catch 9:15 ferry to Comox. Cycle to
August 24 61 miles Bowser Bills Resort.
Tuesday 66 km Cycle from Bowser Bills through Qualicum Beach, Parksville and
August 25 42 miles Nanaimo to Living Forest Campsites on the Nanaimo River.
Wednesday 56 km Cycle from Living Forest to Chemainus to see the murals and have
August 26 35 miles lunch. Cycle to Crofton to catch 3:30 PM ferry to Salt Spring Island.
Cedar Beach Campsite.
Thursday 50 km Cycle to Ganges then to Fulford Harbor, 13 miles. Catch ferry at 11:00
August 27 32 miles am to Swartz Bay. Cycle to Butchart Gardens at Brentwood Bay. Cycle
to Ft. Victoria Campground, Victoria.
Friday Nada Enjoy Victoria via the legs, giving our thighs and "tushes" a well
August 28 deserved rest.
Saturday 8 km Cycle to downtown Victoria to catch 10:30 AM ferry. Drive from Port
August 29 6 miles Angeles to Portland. Arrive Canyonview at approximately 8:30 PM -
Meet at Fir Lodge at Canyonview's main camp.
558 TOTAL KILOMETERS
351 TOTAL MILES
The group consisted of our leaders Matt Price, Stacy and Marilyn and the campers/trippers Andrea, Iyana, Mike, Nick, Gary, Eric, Scott, Gabe, Zeb and myself."On Monday, August 17th, we left Canyonview Camp's parking lot at about 9:30am. Matt Price, our leader was driving. At noon we stopped at a park to eat lunch. We drove through Portland, across the Columbia River and into the state of Washington until the 13 of us bikers arrived in Port Angeles. Matt parked the van in a parking lot by a gas station. When that was done, everybody helped unscrew and unwrap the bikes in the trailer that the Silverton Church van was pulling along.
We finally got on our front wheels and rode our bikes a quarter of a mile to the ferry we caught at 5:15. The ferry to Vancouver Island was approximately two hours long.
We cycled six miles to Fort Victoria Campground and stayed there a night. During our stay,, we met a guy camping right next to us. He told us that he rode his bicycle from New York to Fort Victoria where we were camped that night. That is amazing! Also the same night when I wandered into the bathrooms (which are washrooms in Canadian) and a guy saw me wearing my Canyonview green staff shirt and he said, "I like your shirt, it says 'I am too, we are Ambassadors for Christ!'" Either the first or second night, Matt got borrowed a guitar from a fellow camper and led us in songs such as 'Sweet Adoration, Tear Drop, Father I adore you, As the deer, and All in All.' He did that one during the trip also.
Early in the morning we set off to Brentwood Bay and caught the 1:15 ferry to Mill Bay and cycled toward Chemainus and camped at Bald Eagle Campsite. At that campsite they had a playground filled with little noisy kids. At Bald Eagle I called Dad to tell him I made it. That day we cycled 40 miles.
On Wednesday we cycled to Nanaimo, caught the 1:00 ferry to Horseshoe Bay near Vancouver. We then caught a 3:30 ferry to Langdale, cycled to Gibons and on to Bonniebrook Campsite. The day before Eric (one of the bikers) had trouble with his bike - one of his screws from the gear shifters came loose and fell off while biking. At first they duct taped his gear shifters and he could not shift gears for the rest of the day. The next day he spent an hour and a half in the bike shop fixing his bike up. We cycled 35 miles that day.
On Thursday, the group cycled to Madeira Park and stopped at Lowes Resort Campground. We cycled 38 miles that day.
The next day on Friday, the bikers cycled 12 miles to Earls Cove and while waiting for the 12:25 ferry, we all bought ice cream at an ice cream parlor nearby. When the ferry came, we went to Saltery Bay and cycled to Lang Bay. On the way to Seabreeze Resort Campground, the group stopped on a bridge, locked the 13 bikes up and went down an off trail to what they call "7 Pools," to go swimming. Everybody except Zeb and I jumped off a 40 foot or so waterfall into a 20 foot deep pool of water. That night at Seabreeze Resort there was a trampoline to play on by the beach. Matt would do flips front and back and sideway flips. At that sight there were these two dogs that were always around us bikers. There was a Black Lab and a Golden Retriever that looked exactly like Roscoe and Gunner (except for the tail). He looked like he had two! Those two dogs were bugging all of us. At night we had a campfire on the beach and the dogs were bugging Gary, Eric, Zeb and I. The black lab especially liked me during our stay. He was the most whiny dog I have ever seen in my life (more than Kissi). The black lab also looked like he was limping around the whole time.
In the morning I woke up with the black lab in my face. The golden retriever woke up Gary. Marilyn, one of the leaders, told Gabe to give the left over eggs and muffins to the dogs. The first plate they fought over. So Gabe gave them their own plate. They ate it in two seconds flat or at least the golden retriever did. The black lab took longer. Not too much longer, the golden retriever left and went toward the beach. Later the black lab smelled him and followed to the beach. Most everyone went down to the beach to finish their quiet time that day. At the beginning of the trip, Matt gave us a quiet time booklet. We were studying Ephesians. Each day we read a couple of verses and did what it says - such as "Rewrite each of the verses in your own words." When I finished quiet time I was playing catch with the two dogs with a stick. I was also loving on the black lab. I thought they would end up following us the next morning. We cycled 26 miles that day.
The next morning we cycled to Powell River, then went on to Lund and stayed at Lund RV Park Lund was a beautiful little fisherman's town. It had an ice cream parlor where we all bought refreshing ice cream cones. We bought stuff from the general store also. Stacy, one of the other leaders bought a frisbee earlier and Nick, Eric, Gary, Zeb, Scott and I were playing 500 with his frisbee. When Nick was the person throwing it, he said, "Whoever brings the frisbee to me, himself gets to be the thrower." So when he threw it, all five of us tackled for the frisbee. Ten hands were on the frisbee when it split into four pieces. Stacy was watching the whole thing when it broke. Nick and Gary later duct taped it together. Later on we all paid $50 for the frisbee and gave the money to Stacy. At the Lund general store (which was a very small store for just a small town), I bought a few candy bars and a 600ml pop - Bargs Cream Soda. Throughout the whole trip, I bought Bargs Cream Soda and Cursh Cream Sode - 600ml. Only once did I buy a 2 liter Bargs. Both Bargs and Crush were red sodas. Bargs Cream Soda tasted exactly like Big Red from Texas. They were both really good though! That day we rode 30 miles.
The next day there was a shaggy dog that took a liking to our group. When we woke up, we ate a quick breakfast, locked our bikes up and caught a water taxi. The shaggy dog got on the boat and wanted to go with us but then the captain/driver put him off. The water taxi was headed for Savery Island. The water taxi dropped us off and we took a short walk across the small island to the opposite beach. We stayed there all day and played on the beach. While we were there, the group played ultimate frisbee with Stacy's duct taped frisbee (it did not break anymore). Then we had fun in the ocean and on the hot beach. After we did that for awhile, Eric, Scott, Andrea and I buried Iyana and shaped the sand around her as a mermaid. We had lunch from the items we brought with us in backpacks. During lunch, Zeb dropped the peanut butter in the sand along with the knife, so we did not have any peanut butter for lunch that day. After lunch, most everybody helped bury Mike, Marylin's son, and made him with big biceps. A lot of the bikers took pictures of both Iyana and Mike and later we buried Matt sitting up and made him driving a race car. Identical sea shells were his two mirrors and another was his steering wheel. We took pictures of him too.
Later, Eric and I tried to build a medieval sand castle with two tall towers, but we weren't very successful. So we gave up. While that was going on, others were making a sand octopus from Matt's sand race car remains. Nick started to build a log fort (shade area) and so was Gabe later on. Zeb and Gary found a really tall, skinny log with a yellow rope and said it would or could be Canyonview's flag pole. It was heavy! After they played with that a while, Zeb found a really flat board and ran toward the ocean with it. He was going to use it as a surfboard. He was not very successful. So he stopped. I was sitting on a log with others, Eric was reading his book he brought. I saw Iyana's sprite bottle a couple of feet away from us, so I threw a rock at it to see if I could knock it over. I hit it dead center. I then got the yellow mini football that Stacy found earlier and played catch with Matt. I filled the football with a bunch of sand so it was heavy. I threw it at the bottle. Iyana saw Eric and I throwing the football at it so she moved it. I put it back. We continued. Gary, Scott, Eric, Zeb and I were then throwing the two-thirds full sprite bottle around. We threw it against some rocks and threw it backwards and forwards far in the sand and this bottle never broke. Some tough bottle! We also kicked it around everywhere. Finally Zeb picked up a big stick and said for me to pitch it to him. so I did. He hit it with the stick. The bottle, filled with sprite, burst it's top. Sprite went everywhere. We all laughed.
That day I kept my shirt off while we were on the island. I baked in the sun. My upper arms, my shoulders, my whole back, nose and my chest were all so red and pink from sun burn. That sun burn peeled a lot. It still peels as I write this letter/journal today. My legs, lower arms and face all got really tan!
When we were about to leave Savery Island, Eric and I saw the fort that Nick had built earlier. Eric picked up one end of a big, heavy board and said "Penn, get the other end." So I did. We started to charge toward Nick's fort. We yelled, "Charge!" and conquered half of Nick's fort. We then glanced up and saw Gabe's fort in the distance. Eric and I needed Scott for this one. We all picked up a huge log and charged Gabe's fort and conquered it completely. We then turned around and charged Nick's fort again, but only this time we completely conquered it. The three us together declared, "We conquered Savery Island." We saw yet another fort far away from our settlement. But only this fort had some people in it and around it. Eric and I saw some cute girls in that fort and we told each other, "If we conquer that fort, there will be a prize in it for us!" We decided to leave them instead. Every night later in the trip when Eric and I saw planes go toward Savery Island, we kept on saying that 'we already conquered it, but the planes are conquering it again!'
At 5:00, we packed up and went across to the other beach, went out along the really long dock and waited for the water taxi to return. When we arrived at this beach, all 13 of us saw this old group of old men and women on the beach and playing some sort of game. They were throwing or rolling "balls," which looked from this distance like coconuts. Out in the middle of nowhere Andrea thought it was some sort of croquet. But instantly I thought it was bocce ball. I still think it is to this day. While we were waiting several of us bikers jumped off the dock several times into the water. One of the two water taxis came back to pick up a group and left. It was not ours because it was wood. Ours was metal. When it came, we left for Lund and slept there another night. That was a fun filled day!
At one of the earlier campsites (Lowes Resort I think), there was a little swimming area. When we arrived, some of us went swimming and stood on an underwater statue which was visible in the morning as the tide went out. They also played on a surfboard and took pictures.
Matt woke everybody up very very early Monday morning - 5:45am. We ate a quick breakfast and got ready to go. Marylin, the girls (Andrea and Iyana) and Gabe left around 6:15 because they were part of the "slow group." The "middle group" left next, Scott, Eric and myself about 15 minutes later. The rest of the group left a little bit after that. I caught up with the slower group shortly. We all stopped at the same gas station to wait for everybody where the guy recommended Dinner Rock Campsite. The reason we left so early was because of two viscious dogs on either side of the road. The slow group would wake them up but get by them safely...then the rest of us would pedal for our lives. Stacy's panniers were ripped from the dogs and mine even got scratched some. After we filled our water bottles we rode from Lund to Powell River 20 miles away to catch a ferry to Comox and cycled to Bowser Bills Resort. That day we rode 61 miles.
The next day we left Bowser Bills Resort and cycled through Qualicum Beach, had lunch at Parksville and cycled through Nanaimo and stopped at Living Forest Campsites on the Nanaimo River. That night we saw what looked like a forest fire across the river. It kept getting bigger and bigger, and we at first thought it was a factory until it grew bigger and brighter. We then forgot about it. Later that night, Gary, Zeb, Eric, Gabe and I were sitting around the fire. I was holding a stick in the fire, shifting some logs, playing with the fire when all of a sudden a huge spark flew up and landed right into my left shoe. I felt the burn quickly - so bad that I jumped up, ripped off my shoe with all my might and threw it clear across that camp toward the tent, that they had to move away from the fire earlier. Later I saw that the spark burnt a little rubber and leather out of my shoe and burned a hole in my sock and burned my foot. It hurt that night and the whole next day. I still have y mark on my left foot that the spark left. That day we cycled 42 miles.
The next day we cycled from Living Forest to Chemainus and stopped to see the murals and have lunch. The murals are awesome! In Chemainus I bought a couple key chains to add to my collection, and also a cheap pocket knife. Chemainus was a beautiful town. When the group left Chemainus, we cycled to Crofton and caught a 3:30 ferry to Salt Spring Island where we saw the "forest fire." We cycled past it and realized it was just a small factory on the island. We stayed at Cedar Beach Campsite. Cedar Beach contained a swimming pool, a hot tub and a sauna. We all had fun with all that. We hung out with other campers in the pool and hot tub. That night we ate really good steak. That day we cycled 35 miles.
One of the other campgrounds I remember had a ping pong table and a basketball hoop. I played both of those exciting things.
The next day was our last day of hard cycling. That day we cycled to Ganges, then to Fulford Harbor. During that stretch, one of the girls, Iyana, crashed her bike on the biggest hill that day. When I was riding along with Scott right behind me, we reached the biggest hill and went down it at approximately 35.5mph. That was the fastest I went the whole trip. We turned the corner and we saw Iyana's bike in the middle of the road, with her standing right next to it. Gabe was stopped and Andrea was going back toward her. Scott and I thought everything was alright. We thought something was wrong with her bike or something like that. We were going too fast to see anything like she was bleeding or anything. Luckily Stacy and Marilyn were behind us so they stopped and flagged down a van coming their way. He gave Iyana a ride. Mike came to where we were stopped and yelled, "Did you see Iyana? She is in the van." We zipped to the ferry where the van was parked. Gabe came yelling, "She biffed it hard." After the 11:00 ferry to Swartz Bay, our plan was to eat lunch at the Butchart Gardens in Brentwood Bay. Instead we ate lunch by the hospital. Iyana had bandages all across her left leg and left arm. Some of the other bikers carried all of her packs so she could ride her bike unburdened.
Earlier, we had a snack at Mickey's (from Canyonview - she is in charge of the junior counselors) parents' place.
We then cycled to Fort Victoria Campground in Victoria. That night we put Canadian pennies on the train track. The train ran right next to our campsite and the train ran over them and flattened them. I have one as a souvenir. They did that more too. That day we cycled 32 miles.
In the morning, along with other mornings, my sleeping bag was drenched with dew and there were slugs on my saddlebags. Also that morning, Matthew (Marilyn's oldenst son) and Chuck (Woodchuck) met us there. We locked up our bikes and walked down to the bus stop. We took the bus to downtown Victoria. We spent all day there in the city sightseeing. We saw the Parliament Buildings (at night too! all lit up!), Empress Hotel and we went to the Royal British Columbia Museum. Those were fun. We then ate lunch by the Parliament Buildings. We split into groups and looked around the city of Victoria. I was with Eric and Scott. We all bought ice cream and went and looked through stores where I bought postcards and a lot of key chains along with other items. We had fun that night. While hanging out at the waterfront that evening, a girl approached Eric, Scott and me saying, "It looks like you guys need something to do tonight." We looked at each other a bit nervously. She handed us a pamphlet of some sort and we laughed about it later. But it turned out that it was only a concert or something of that sort that she was inviting us to. We all met at a statue across from the Empress Hotel and went to Pizza Hut. It was just around the corner from Zombie's Pizza. Matt said we did not go there because he did not want anybody to be scared of the vampires and zombies. Everybody stuffed themselves with so much pizza we were about to puke. Two or three bikers actually did - in Pizza Hut's "washroom."
Later we had fun listening to the bands on the street like "Shillelagh." Then we took the bus back to Fort Victoria Campground - right after we enjoyed ourselves in Chinatown. We stayed there another night.
On the morning of Saturday, August 29 we cycled 6 miles to catch a 10:30 ferry and cycled a quarter of a miles to the parked van. We then drove a couple of miles to a park to eat lunch. We drove to Portland and dropped off Gabe with his Dad. Then we drove to back to Canyonview Camp. We said our goodbyes and went home - went our separate ways.
We caught all of our ferries and I stayed in the "middle riding group" the whole time with Zeb.
It was an experience of a lifetime...and more adventures have followed...
Canyonview's Canadian Bike Trip
Rules of the Road
- Wear your helmet whenever riding. Straps on snug. Not on the back of your head.
- Ride single file on all roads and highways.
- Alert other riders to all hazards. Yell out and/or pass back "glass," "rock," "grate," "pot hole."
- Don't follow too close. At least one bike length between riders. Allow more distance as speed increases or if roads are wet.
- Pass other riders on the left only and announce the fact that you are passing.
- Always cross railroad tracks at right (90 degree) angle. Watch out for low curbs that can catch your peddle. Announce both as hazards
- If you go off the paved shoulder onto the gravel, slow down gradually and get back on roadway only when clear and at a strong angle.
- Stop at stop signs, yield at yield signs, turn with hand signals. Use turning lanes properly and always check behind before merging or changing lanes. You are not a snake when going through intersections as a group. Remember that cars and trucks are big. DON'T BE DEAD RIGHT!!
- Don't ride alone. Find a friend to ride with. Stay within 50 to 100 feet. Watch out for each other.
- If you stop to rest, talk, walk, or make a repair, get well off the roadway. Don't stop on the road and do stay single file when in a group.
- If you have a question about the route, a turn, an intersection or road - don't guess. Wait for a leader. It may cost you and the group miles and hours if you don't.
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