I recently got home from a three day trip to Saturna Island, one of the most secluded of the southern gulf islands of BC and a personal favourite of mine. I am making a separate post for each day because I’ve got a lot of content!
Being one of the least populated of the southern gulf islands among those with ferry service, the ferry schedule is quite challenging: there are only three ferries a day typically, and often they are ‘milk run’ ferries that make multiple stops and run from Vancouver island instead of the mainland. So of the three options, one is typically madly early and one is very late, and then the one remaining sailing is the only reasonable option for me. In this case, it was mid-day: I needed to get from Tsawwassen on the mainland to Swartz Bay on the island first, then catch a 3:25pm sailing to Saturna. This meant either the 12:00 or 1:00 ferry from Tsawwassen. It’s about a three hour bike ride from home.
The first half of the ride is getting through town and into Delta, which is mostly farmland where I spend the second half of the ride. It’s 51km total. I stopped to say hi to some cows, as well as an eagle in a lone farm tree:
But mostly I kept moving because there wasn’t much time to waste – I worried about a flat tire or something jeopardizing my ability to get to the island at all. Thankfully, no mechanicals for the trip. Below was quite a sight, the double-decker train extending as far as the eye could see while a parade of trucks drive alongside it. A whole lot of goods being transported in this photo.
I arrived at the ferry in time to make the 12:00, which put my mind at ease about making the connection on the other side – they don’t guarantee them, and the boats to tend to run late regularly. Here’s the Bombadil all kitted out for the weekend:
My sleep system is all tucked in the huge rear bag along with a variety of sundry items, while the front pack houses my food and clothing primarily. I’ve also got 1L of water in a Nalgene in a side pocket in addition to the three bottles on the frame because there’s no water available at the campsite I’m headed to, Narvaez Bay.
Tsawwassen to Swartz, being a very popular route, has the biggest ferries and the bikes go on the bottom deck where they can’t be accessed during the sailing. I also dog-sat a lovely black lab for 15 minutes while her owner went for food:
Then I was on to the small boat to Saturna, Queen of Capilano. One of the oldest in the fleet, but I have a particular fondness for this boat. The bikes are stored on the open deck as seen below. On the right, the 8km unpaved road from the ferry to Narvaez Bay; most homes are along the other side of the island on a flatter, paved road, so cars are wonderfully uncommon on the ride to camp.
Here’s my spot, site 6, overlooking the small bay where a seal seemed to be always hanging out. At this point it was around 5:30 pm.
And here’s the point that creates that inlet, a really nice spot to enjoy the setting sun. With almost four hours of daylight left today though it was still high in the sky.
After setting up camp and a bit of food, I wanted to head up to the ridge line goat trail, and to my surprise, friend Eleni who happened to be camping here this weekend too, was game to join. It involved riding about 1/3 the way back to the ferry (almost all uphill), then up a steep and rough dirt road, then a bit of a bushwhack to access the goat trail. It’s a pretty tough ride for being only about 5km each way.
Thankfully, the promise of a strong pay-off comes pretty quick once in the meadow. There have consistently been goats the few times I’ve been up here, and we saw a small group as we approached (one visible in bottom, left), though they took off and didn’t return once they saw us coming.
This is the spot I wanted us to get to, which is not too far along the ridge. The trail keeps going for a few kilometres up to a 400m peak, but the view doesn’t change dramatically from this. Panoramic views of the San Juan islands on the other side of the border along with watching ocean currents collide.
The ride back was much faster thanks to being all downhill. Back and camp I fired up my new Simmershield for the first time and made ramen while the sun approached the hillside.
And here’s camp, with my not-so-taut tent which I later fixed. It’s a Durston X-Dome 1+ and this is just my second trip with it, but I really love it already. Eleni has the same, as can be seen in the distance. I climbed into bed around 9:15pm, before it was even fully dark, and passed out pretty quick.
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