Canada - Day 31 - Vancouver to Sefelt

 61.4 miles (some done on ferries), 3822’ climbing, deer, otter (kinda), heron

The air was cool and pleasant, and traffic was still minimal, as we left the Holiday Inn in Vancouver. It was the last day of our bypass-the-heat route which skipped northern BC in order to reach the cool breezes on the coast. It’s part of a trans-Canada route somebody rode in the opposite direction. The Trans-Canada route is known for being disjointed and incomplete, but it has put us on a lot of trails that avoid traffic, something we appreciate. Because the direction is reversed from the original, we have awkward route finding on one way streets, usually but not always simple to solve. Vancouver has a ton of cycling infrastructure, awesome but not always immediately clear to the out-of-town visitor.

This morning our route had a sight-seeing aspect. We pedaled around the Vancouver inlet, then expected to circumnavigate the beautiful Stanley Park. Soon we realized that we were headed the wrong way on a one-way path, an artifact of our reversed route. We backtracked, cut across trails, dodged traffic, eventually found a place for breakfast and caught the Waterfront to Lonsdale ferry for North Vancouver. 

North Vancouver immediately seemed more peaceful than the main part of town. Our route took us uphill along creeks, then we crossed a dam where a 10k race was being held. The path climbed and climbed, eventually reaching a fancy neighborhood where mansions had views of the harbor or possibly just trees and hedges which were most of what we could see. The steep climbs went on seemingly forever, then descended switchbacks. We thought the route was designed to show us a fancy neighborhood, but otherwise it didn’t seem like a reasonable route choice.

The road to the horseshoe bay was a mess, leading us up and down staircases, across what seemed to be private property. Finally we googled a route to the ferry, and we had to ride on the freeway shoulder for a couple kilometers. Not great, but we immediately boarded the ferry with around 10 other cyclists, enjoying the beautiful views up to the Sunshine Coast. On the recommendation of a local from Toverts Creek who was on the ferry, we rode into Gibson’s Bay for lunch. Then an up-and-down road took us up the coast. We stopped for an ice cream at a beach, and an otter was swimming in the waves, but we only caught a brief glimpse. We had booked a Sechelt hotel since it’s the weekend. It’s very comfortable, but the day felt long.