I’m not sure if this was the first bikepacking trip I did, but it was certainly one of the earliest examples. I had bought a Salsa Vaya the year before, and had completed the Ride to Conquer Cancer from Vancouver to Seattle on it about two months prior. I had transitioned from primarily riding fixies and mountain bikes to taking a sudden and unexpected interest in touring bikes.
At this time my partner Aimée and I had a sheltie, Esme, who was about 11 years old at this time. Since Aimée was much less into riding hills and longer distances than I, I carried much of our gear as well as the dog trailer. My setup was therefore quite the truckload.
To make the trip more accessible, we drove to and parked at the long term lot by the ferry. In order to transport all the bikes, I swapped my Golf with my dad’s Tacoma for the weekend. My Golf was just a few months old at this point, my first new car. My dad hit a bear with it during the two days he had it. Thankfully, the damage was largely cosmetic. The bear ran off after the event, hopefully their injuries weren’t too severe.
The setups! My Vaya fully truck’d out, Aimee and Erin’s matching Linus bikes at right.
I don’t have any photos of the rest of the ride out, it seems, but that’s probably for the best. The ride is about 25km, and I had never done it before this trip. Knowing my partner Aimée had limited endurance, I studied the route’s elevation carefully. I knew it had some hills, but most of the route was below 100m elevation, so how bad could it be?
Turns out, quite bad. The rolling hills are pretty steep and never-ending. But what made matters much worse is that I missed an in-land turn, and we ended up descending down to sea level on a dead end road. Tears were shed and very few words were spoken as we climbed back out of that situation, as everyone was already exhausted.
Thankfully, Ruckle campground delivered vibes that quickly reset everyones moods. I’ve been many times since, but this was my first Ruckle experience.
This was also Esme’s first camping experience, and she loved it. Exploring the scents along the ocean’s edge was her favourite part.
It was hot, which also contributed to the toughness of the ride out, but the ocean provided wonderful respite.
Esme meets a starfish. She knew it was a living creature, but she could not figure out its deal.
We made fires and did all the camp stuff.
Note Esme on the bench, tired out after such an adventurous day.
On the ride back, we took full advantage of both farm stands and lakes that we passed along the way. Best way to beat the heat!
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