Day 123 – From Richmond to MacDonald Provincial Park

We are saying good bye to our tremendous hosts Alastair and Nancy and are headed South towards Tsawwassen to catch a ferry to Vancouver Island. We probably will make it to Victoria tomorrow, then we’ll be entering the Unites States on Monday or Tuesday.

Update from Katherine:

This morning we got up and reluctantly left our amazing hosts, Nancy and Alistair. They cooked eggs benedict and made sure that we were all set to go. As we left, we took some photos with them (and their daughter Breanne). It was nice to visit with them and catch up over the last week.

We headed out around noon and took the dyke all the way around Richmond to the George Massey tunnel. There we had to wait a few minutes for the shuttle across the tunnel. You aren’t allowed to cycle through the tunnel and they only offer rush hour and weekend shuttle service. If you miss the shuttles, you have to detour around to another bridge (the Alex Fraser bridge), adding 25kms to the route.

The ride along the dyke was gorgeous. When I used to live in Richmond, I spent much of my time running on the the dyke, so this area brought back nice memories. We also cycled through Steveston, an old Japanese fishing village, turned yuppie tourist area.

After the bridge, we quick joined the Delta bike routes that took us along back streets and along roads with bicycle lanes. The route was really well signed and you hardly needed a map. The bike route takes you right to the ferry docks. They even have a bike lane for you to head to the gates to pay your fare. This is the most bike friendly ferry experience we have ever had.

Once on the ferry, we parked our bikes and head up to the lounge. There were lots of people on the huge ferry, including groups of Japanese schoolchildren on field trips. The views from the ferry were brilliant, particularly as we sailed through the Gulf Islands. Adam got some nice pictures of the islands. We even saw an orca fin poke it’s way through the air.

As we landed, we were the first ones off the ferry and the bicycle route started right back up. We cycled down the road a short ways to MacDonald Provincial Park near Swartz Bay and set up camp. The park was nice, large private sites, but basic in terms of amenities (dry toilets and potable water).

Click here for today’s photos

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