Traveling - Vancouver ISland, British Columbia

Area Traveled: Vancouver, Comox, Courtenay, Cumberland, Duncan, Denman and Horby Islands

Outdoor Travels Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Thumbs Up:

- Beautiful scenery

- Outdoor activities are almost limitless

- Friendly people

- Vancouver Island has everything from busy cities to tiny towns

- Several wineries near Duncan make for an interesting and fun afternoon adventure

- Getting around on your own is easy - roads are easy to follow

Thumbs Down:

- Wish we had more time

- The hostel we stayed at in Vancouver City was loud and in a very nasty part of the city

Lessons Learned:

- If you need to stay near the airport one night for an early flight the next day. Do just that. Staying in the city only adds stress. Stay near the airport.

- Make reservations in advance for the Vancouver to Vancouver Island Ferry. They can get pretty booked up.

- If you fly out of Vancouver, especially an international flight, make sure you arrive 3 hours early. United States customs are extremely understaffed and therefore very slow. The lines are horrid. The airport also charges an additional $10 Canadian to all exiting passengers.

Lodging:

Riding Fool Hostel - Owner Jeremy is knowledgable of local trails and very friendly. Accomodations were affordable and very nice as was our overall stay. We can't recommend enough! Bunks for singles and private rooms for couples available.

2705 Dunsmuir, Cumberland, BC, V0R 1S0

Phone: 1-888-313-FOOL, Fax: (250) 336-8253, website

Bike Repair:

Dodge City Cycles - These guys know their chain ring from their head tube.

Dodge City Cycles 2705 Dunsmuir Ave Cumberland, BC 250-336-2200 website

Wineries Visited in Comox Valley:

The Cherry Point Winery and Shoppe - 840 Cherry Point Rd., Cobble Hill, BC.

(250) 743-1272

The Glenterra Winery - 3897 Cobble Hill Road, PO Box 411, Cobble Hill, V0R 1L0, Vancouver Island, British Columbia website

Godfrey-Brownell Winery - 4911 Marshall Rd. Duncan BC V9L 6T3 Phone: 250 715-0504 website e-mail

Vancouver Island Travel Diary

08/13/03

by Kelli Farnsworth

Day 1

Bear-spotting and searching for beer

We arrived in Vancouver, British Columbia at about 1pm, got our rental car and headed for the ferry that would take us to our destination: Vancouver Island. The ferry ride is a two-hour journey that is very pretty and enjoyable. With car and two people, the fare was about $75 Canadian each way. The ferries from Vancouver to Vancouver Island and vise-versa can get very busy and often get filled hours before their departures. We had made prior on-line reservations for specific departure times, which ensured us a spot on the departure we wanted. See our links page for information on reserving a spot on this ferry.

Vancouver Island is very wooded, mountainous and full of lakes and natural parks, but the southern tip has the city of Victoria, the Capitol of British Columbia. The island can provide vacationers with many options of city or country exploration. We chose the small town of Cumberland. It is located in the Comox Valley about 100 km (or 60 miles) North of the ferry in Nanaimo. After the 2-hour ferry ride (very beautiful, by the way), we drove north to Cumberland. During the drive up, we saw many deer and a bear in the road! He stopped traffic until he got startled and bounded back into the woods! That is pretty much all the wildlife we saw on land. We also stopped along the way in search of a six-pack of beer to take to the hostel. After searching at a gas station and asking a local (who looked at us funny) we found out that beer and liquor are only sold in liquor stores and at restaurants that have a package license. Once we discovered that, beer was easily had!

Cumberland is an historic old coal-mining town that used to have a bit of a reputation of being a wild place. It seems those days are mostly over and now there are many younger, earthy and outdoor-loving folks living in the area, especially mountain bikers and snowboarders or skiers. We stayed in a new youth hostel called the “Riding Fool” hostel that is above Dodge City Cycles bike shop and caters to those who love mountain biking. Jeremy, the hostel proprietor is an awesome cyclist and very knowledgeable about the surrounding area and activities to do. He was very helpful with directions, places to eat, bike, hike, etc. Once we arrived, we had dinner in nearby Courtenay (about 5 min away) and crashed for the night.

Day 2

Just another “Part of the Adventure” Moment - Forgot gas and wine

We packed our things for an overnight backcountry hike in Strathcona Provincial Park. The Park entrance is about 30 minutes from Cumberland and an easy drive. We started at the Mount Washington Alpine Resort. The resort offers lodging, restaurants, shops, getaway packages, scenic chairlift rides (sunset too), hiking, mountain biking (and lessons), horseback riding and of course skiing and snowboarding in winter. We decided to take the trailhead here and backcountry hike and camp overnight. Once we got there, Dana realized we forgot gas for the cook stove and this is how we discovered the Mt. Washington Resort. We found their store and bought some lighter fluid for the stove, wine for later that night at camp and snacked on a gourmet hot dog (very tasty). Then, we were ready to be off on our hiking adventure! If you want to read more about our backpacking adventure go to the backpacking section of the website. Dana will fill you in there.

Day 3

It’s Kelli’s birthday!

It was my birthday and we were sore and tired after a long day’s hiking. After we got cleaned up, Jeremy suggested a restaurant on the bay in nearby Comox, called the Black Fin. We sat on the deck and had a lovely dinner. The Black Fin is on the coast, so we were treated to a nice view of a dock area. We even think we may have spotted some seals swimming around in the distance near the marina, which had a beautiful backdrop of rolling mountains and sunset behind intermittent clouds. We headed back to the main road in Comox and stopped in for a beer at the Lorne Pub. They had band playing and outdoor seating so we hung out for a while and did some people watching.

Day 4

Many ferry rides and throwing a bow’ - That’s what you call dancing?

Well, today was going to be an adventure that we weren’t expecting! We got directions from Jeremy and some maps and details so that we could explore nearby Hornby Island and its mountain biking trails. We drove to the ferry about 17 km or 10 miles south of Cumberland, parked our car, got our bikes and caught the ferry to Denman Island. It was only about a 10-minute ride to Denman Island. While on the ferry, we saw a porpoise riding the waves of the ocean off in the distance. Very cool, indeed! Once we got to Denman Island, Jeremy had instructed us to ride to the other side of the island and catch the ferry to Hornby Island, where the trails were. He didn’t happen to mention that it was quite hilly and about 8 ½ miles to the second ferry. But the pedal was worth it, because we rode along beautiful country roads and had magnificent views of the water below and Vancouver Island. Oh, we also saw a bald eagle in flight! Once we got to the second ferry, I stopped off at a roadside eatery, where Dana picked on me for eating a taco at 10:30 in the morning (but later said how smart I was to eat when I did- as he starved!) We took the second ferry (round trip for both ferries for the two of us was only $20) to Hornby Island and rode around all day. For the details, go to our glorious biking section.

On the way back to the ferry in the evening, we stopped at a restaurant/bar where we could see the ferry dock and load up. We grabbed a couple of incredibly delicious chicken sandwiches and several beers and caught the ferry to Denman Island, rode to the next ferry and got back to our car about 5:30pm Whew! We had a blast, but all in all I don’t think when we headed out that we planned to bike 26 miles. When we got back to the hostel, we heard rumblings about a band playing at the local hotel and pub, The Waverly. So, after several hours of drinking and hanging out with some locals and other hostellers, we went down to see what the Corb Lund band was all about. I’d say they were alternative country - definitely not my kind of stuff, but the locals were flailing about in all manner of whirling gyrations. We even began a game of “name that dance”. One woman was displaying her mastery of “The Elbow Dance” while a gentleman in plaid practiced his “Shit On My Shoe” dance moves. We had a good laugh and a good time.

Day 5

Worn out!

Riding our mountain bikes was on tap for today. We got information on the Cumberland area trails that just happened to start behind the hostel, so after breakfast, off we went. See the biking section for great stories about a scary trail and gorgeous lake. When we got back into town (one main street, no stop lights) we ate at the café a few doors down from the hostel and saw the band from the night before hanging out for lunch there too. Afterwards, we did some packing of our bikes and cleaning up for our travels the next day. We then decided to do a little driving around the neighboring towns of Courtenay and Comox. We went to a great little restaurant in Courtenay called the Atlas and had a tasty dinner, then drove to the bay and marina area in hopes of seeing some wildlife – perhaps some seals again. No such luck, but the weather was incredible and the sun was setting so Dana took some great photos of the marina, boats and water.

Day 6

Vino and Totems - Follow the footprints

We had to head back toward Vancouver (City) so that we can catch an early flight the next morning, but decided to do some sightseeing in southern Vancouver Island before taking the ferry ride back to the mainland. On the drive, we stopped in Duncan, which is famous for its Totem Poles. Back in the eighties, the mayor commissioned the local Native American Artists to create totem poles for the town, which represent the history and culture of the Islands long ago. Today there are over 40 totem poles of all shapes, sizes and colors and there are “foot-prints” on the sidewalk that you can follow and take a self-tour of the Totems around town. We took the tour and checked out the Museum, grabbed lunch and then picked up a tourist brochure that had maps to some surrounding wineries! Wahoo! Off we went to several wineries in the area.

Comox Valley is a beautiful area with rolling hills and grape vineyards and other farms interspersed among small, one-horse towns. We stopped at 5 wineries, 3 were open: The Cherry Point Winery and Shoppe, The Glenterra Winery (the smallest winery and is organic too!) and the Godfrey-Brownell Winery. My favorite was the Godfrey-Brownell Winery. Dan Godfrey is a retired professor of Literature and bought the winery about 6 years ago. The winery is nestled in the fields away from the road and has a delightful patio area where you can order carafes of wine and appetizers. He scurried off and picked us fresh veggies from his garden (most notably the cherry tomatoes) and sliced up some cheese to go with our carafe of pinot grigio. It was lovely! The breeze was gently blowing as we relaxed on our last day, sipping wine, nibbling cheeses and sitting under the large oak tree on the patio. We had a wonderful time, but all good things must come to an end - it was time to head to the ferry in Nanaimo to Vancouver.

Just as we were arriving at the dock in Vancouver, one of the ferry engines stopped working and we had to sit on the boat an extra hour. This delayed our hostel arrival for the evening. I would suggest that if you need to catch an early flight, pick a hotel close to the airport for safety and convenience sake. A lesson learned for our next adventure. The hostel was fine, but it was crowded, in a very shady part of Vancouver that was crime ridden. We did encounter a surly little bitch at the front desk. She made a giant fuss over us storing our bike boxes. In contrast, the man working the front desk the next morning was very helpful. He wondered aloud why the bikes were stored very inconveniently in the basement when storage was available on the lobby level. We were only there for a total of 6 hours which isn’t worth the hassle of unloading luggage and bike boxes, but we couldn’t leave them in the rental car overnight as they wouldn’t have been there in the morning. I don’t think I slept 10 minutes all night for fear that we wouldn’t wake up in time for the flight. It was a bit of a shock to come from the peaceful Vancouver Island setting of mountains and trees and vineyards to noise, homeless people hounding you for money, prostitutes, drug deals and dirty streets. Vancouver is a pretty city, just not where we spent the last few hours of our trip! Oops!

Just a note, if you fly out of Vancouver, especially an international flight, make sure you arrive 3 hours early. United States customs are extremely understaffed and therefore very slow. The lines are horrid. They also charge additional $10 Canadian dollars to all exiting passengers. This fee is an “Airport improvement fee”.