Day 5: The Island

Distance 418.5

Cumulative distance: 1, 594 km

Top speed 127 kph

Moving average 82 kph

Temp range 18.8 - 30.0

What we counted. motorcycles plain and simple: 20

 For a pleasant change, a leisurely morning. Even though we were awake pretty early, we lounged around in bed drinking hotel-room coffee till it suited us.

As we were loading up, we chatted with two "senior" gentlemen who had parked their bikes next to ours. One bike was a pretty new FJR, which is a big, serious sport touring bike with small panniers. It must be compensating. The other was a pretty old R100GS BMW touring bike. We had noticed the bikes last night and admired them so it was great that we got to meet the owners this morning.

The BMW rider was from Surrey and the FJR rider from somewhere in Washington, judging by his plates. They were in Port Hardy to catch the ferry to Bella Coola but bailed because the road is now closed due to the Young Creek Wildfire. If you checked out the link I inserted in the previous posting, you will know that the wildfire is now straddling both sides of Hwy 20 on The Hill. They were motivated to do the ferry ride but not twice since that would be the only way back out. Now they were looking for roads to fill up the next eight days they had originally planned for riding.

These fellows were friendly and we exchanged tips on where to ride. I suggested some of my favourite rides around home but the Surrey guy had done them all. He was celebrating TWENTY-FIVE years of retirement, along with his 74th birthday and spent a lot of his retirement time riding, it seems. He told us about riding 7,000 km in New Zealand with his wife over 21 days. "Two-up" I ask? Nope, she rides her own bike. His buddy with his new-ish FJR was 82 years young. Both still going really strong. There's hope for us yet.

 On the road at exactly 10:00 am but straight to the gas station as we were low and stations are a little sporadic this far north in the island. Because we are having a leisurely start, we are already a little hungry. Normally, we like to ride an hour or more before breakfast as that helps break up the day but we could only last to Port McNeil, a whopping 35 minutes from Port Hardy. I had checked online earlier in the morning for what might be open and I had my doubts but we were rewarded.

We ended up at Tia's Cafe. Pretty non-descript. Tia's is in an outdoor strip mall and the parking lot is adorned with photos of kids from the 2023 high school graduation class. It's quirky, quaint and sweet all at the same time.

Tia is a Latina and she sells dried peppers, Quince and a few other goods from Latin America and some touristy stuff, like shopping-mall "original" art. I wonder how much of a market there is in Port McNeil for her Latin American products. What's great, though is that she is one hell of a baker. We each had a savory scone that was so good, we split a muffin for dessert along with our lattes. A little bit thin for a meal but it would keep us going for a couple of hours.

Northern Vancouver Island is under rated at a destination, in my mind. As you drive along the coastal highway, there are good opportunities to see a beautiful coast line. However, a good portion of the journey is inside a tunnel of trees so between Port McNeil and Campbell River, the only real view is of the trees. However, we know from other visits to the north of the island, there are great destinations to visit like Port Alice, Gold River and of course, Tofino. If you are o.k. with gravel roads, there are endless possibilities.

We stopped in Cumberland for a little break and check the bearings on the GPS, which is confusing me. It keeps wanting to send us back fr

Port McNeil high school graduates

Tia's. Can you tell someone was ready for coffee?

Either a drone or the blade from a windmill.

om whence we came. Back when we had decided we would move to B.C. for retirement but were unsure as to where we might want to live, we had been giving serious consideration to Vancouver Island. We had looked around Courtney Comox but on one trip, Nan had stumbled across Cumberland, which looked like it had numerous possibilities as a destination. While not on the water, it was a town with a rich mining history as well as “immigration” from China and Japan. There is so much character in the architecture and character that I suggest to Nan we should come back and have a camping holiday nearby.

We rode slab all the way to near Nanaimo where we are camping tonight at Englishman Falls. We had originally planned to ride side roads as much as possible however, we made a beeline to the campground because we were going to have a visit from my high school buddy Tim and his girlfriend Carol who live on the island.  They bring treats: a charcuterie board in a pizza box! And they bring their own lawn chairs, on their motorcycles. I figure out that the GPS was confused because I had originally programmed side roads into the route and it resisted my efforts to take us down Highway 19. It seems the GPS hates slab riding as much as I do.

Cumberland

Setting up camp at Englishman Falls