<\/a>Highway 14 terminates at the Port Renfrew Hotel, a long, wood-frame structure perched at the head of a long pier on a quiet bay. The last few kilometres into Port Renfrew were accompanied by typical West Vancouver Island weather, overcast, threatening to rain and about 15 degrees cooler than in Sooke.<\/p>\nIn years past, the road to Port Renfrew ended there, and the only way back to Victoria on a paved road was by reversing your route. Recently, Hwy 18 was paved. It runs over the island\u2019s central mountain range to Lake Cowichan and then to Duncan on the east side of the island, making a nice circle route. Travel time on Hwy 18 to Duncan is about two hours.<\/p>\n
After arriving in Duncan, I headed south for a short distance on Island Hwy 1, and then a quick ride along Cowichan Bay Road brought me to scenic Cowichan Bay, where I decided it was time to take a break. This is another of those quaint little villages that appear up and down the east coast of the island. Places like the \u201cUdder Guys\u201d ice cream shop, \u201cHillary\u2019s Cheese Co.\u201d and the \u201cRock Cod Caf\u00e9\u201d are some of the more popular spots located along the short street that runs parallel to the ocean.<\/p>\n
I had one day left on the island, and a trip over to Tofino was a must. Tofino has become the island\u2019s west-coast hot tourism spot. Surfing, whale watching and fishing are available to the many tourists who make the trip, and the trip itself is an adventure. The intersection of Island Hwy 1\/19 and Hwy 4 to Tofino and Ucluelet is well marked. In recent years, the provincial government has started widening and straightening Hwy 4 along here, but the middle section, over the island\u2019s central mountain range, has not been touched. That central section contains narrow roads, steep inclines, no guardrails and precipitous drop-offs. A challenge in good weather, it\u2019s hazardous in the rain, where one mistake on a bike can spell disaster. It\u2019s not uncommon on Vancouver Island to leave the east side of the island in the sunshine and ride into heavy weather as you climb and proceed west. The west side definitely has a remote, wild feel to it, which explains why most of Vancouver Island\u2019s population resides on the more sheltered, east side of the island, but also why there\u2019s a steady stream of tourists making the trip to discover the rugged western side.<\/p>\n
While in Tofino, make sure to venture down to the government wharf and get your picture taken next to the \u201cmile zero\u201d marker denoting the questionable western starting point of the Trans-Canada Highway (Victoria also claims to be the western starting point). Unlike many communities on Vancouver Island, Tofino has experienced only sporadic growth and has not lost any of its west-coast charm. Tofino\u2019s tiny downtown has remained mostly unchanged for years now. Unfortunately, my ride over to Tofino was very wet, both going over and coming back. While I was in Tofino, the rain held off and I was able to browse the many Aboriginal art galleries and indulge in an awesome bowl of clam chowder at one of the restaurants overlooking the ocean. Upon my return to the east side of the island, I cut off Hwy 4 onto 4A and headed to my campsite in the tiny village of Coombs, where I had time to visit the Coombs Old Country Market and the home of the \u201cGoats on the Roof\u201d general store. This is a great little spot where live goats do indeed graze on the sod-covered roof. They are probably the most photographed goats on the west coast, and it\u2019s quite a story as how they came to be there.<\/p>\n
Make sure to visit the bakery in the store, and also sample the pizza in Cuckoo\u2019s Italian eatery. My final morning on the island was nothing but an early, quick, eight-kilometre ride over to Parksville, and then a 40-kilometre, 35-minute ride down the Hwy 19 to the Departure Bay ferry terminal in Nanaimo to catch the first morning ferry back to the mainland. After arriving back on the mainland at the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal, I looped back off the freeway and down into the tiny village of Horseshoe Bay. I enjoyed a coffee at a caf\u00e9 across the road from the water \u2013 I needed to soak up a little more West Coast charm before I started my three-day, meandering return trip to central Alberta.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A quick trip from Central Alberta to Vancouver Island reveals some amazing motorcycles roads and some premium island time. Vancouver Island, known to many in western Canada simply as \u201cthe island,\u201d is accessible by scheduled air and ferry service, with one ferry route landing mid-island and the other arriving at the southern tip, just north […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26748,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[214,228],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Motorcycle Trip and Route across Vancouver Island<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n