Day 1 - Nanaimo To Abbotsford

So, we start our vacation by getting up at 3am to finish packing the bikes. Should probably finished that the day before, as we were trying to make the 30km ride to the Duke Point Ferry terminal in time to take the 5:15am boat. We actually left the house before it was light out, so we were riding in the half-dark morning, while I was hoping neither of us happened to get a flat or have any other problems. But, in spite of all my worrying (which Marilyn didn't seem to understand-maybe she thinks I can take care of a flat in 10 seconds like the pro racers do) we did make it to the ferry terminal in time- just in time, like roll the bikes on and off we sail. It's so awesome starting a vacation all relaxed like that.

Rolling off the ferry in Tsawwassen, we got to face the issue of getting across the Greater Vancouver region. There are some roads that are closed to cyclists, generally with good reason. I imagine there are some that aren't closed, but probably aren't nice riding either. We made use of the map Bob had printed up for us-he had found a fairly relaxing route  using (primarily) 16th Avenue. This runs south of most of the traffic and high density anything. There were actually a lot of horse stables, and other semi rural operations alond the road. The one problem we did have as a result was that we ran out of drinks and snacks. We had just planned on picking some more stuff up, but all of a sudden we had left the 7-11 world behind. I'm sure if we were desperate, we could have gotten water at one of the horsie places. We persevered until finding a corner store along the route out by the Abbotsford airport. Got some refreshments, and got a little annoyed that the storekeeper wouldn't give us the deposit on the bottles when we emptied them-he had no trouble taking the deposits like 5 minutes earlier. 
We didn't have too far to go to get to our first destination-Abbotsford Campground. Other than the fact you have to climb a hill to get to it, its perfect. The tenting sites have the softest grass that you can imagine, and the sites are fairly well separated be trees and hedges. They have a pool and hot tub too-the perfect place to go after a day on the bike. A great place, but I suspect that it is no longer there with the incredible amount of development going on in that area. A current look at Google maps seems to show a construction site where the campground was. too bad, as good campgrounds are very rare nowadays.
We ended our day watching the hockey game on TV-we were actually getting ready for bed, used the waashroom, and weregoing back to the tent when I asked some people at an RV who were watching the game what the score was. They invited us to watch, and it went to triple overtime before Detroit won.

We did see a group of Randonneurs heading out on a 600km bike ride shortly after we got off the ferry, at the gas station in Ladner. Something  I wouldn't mind trying one day, although I don't know if riding 600 km in essentially one shot is in my future. Their rides start about 100km, but go as high as 1200km. Not touring, but not really racing either. They are timed events, but I think they are done more as a "personal challenge" than a "try to beat everyone else". There are various Randonneur clubs around the world, but here's the link to the BC Randonneurs  http://www.randonneurs.bc.ca/


Riding Distance 112 km

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