North Vancouver Island by Motorcycle

Aug 7

First things first we're the sleepiest.

Friday night we packed up our teeny tiny saddle bags for the weekend and heading to bed. The sounds of our alarm and our rooomates party at 5 am got us up to catch the first ferry to Nanaimo. This ended up being our first sunrise together, but we were too tired to think about that.. After a quick nap later the ferry had landed and we were back on two wheels. BTW Eggs Benny on the ferry is surprisingly good.

SO excited to get on the road we may have missed a little turn off or two but it wasn't long before we were cruising the coast with scenic ocean views! Whoops! Rerouting to the Oceanside Route we were able to catch a whiff of the sea breeze through our visors.

A pit stop for second breakfast and a top up on gas landed us in Campbell River where we were about to meet some influential and down right adorable characters of our trip. Outside of an A&W, Dash (the adventure kitten in training) and his parents gave us the inside scoop for our northern island adventure. Being from the island, they knew where the hidden gems of the north were hidden. With our itinerary now packed with sights to see, we hopped back on the hog. Norf here we come!

Our first stop off the recommendation list was Woss Vegas Baby! Home of old logging trains, 25 (count ‘em) painted fire hydrants, and the silliest little bird we named Wallace. After hearing a page of the book of a retired teacher turned train/hydrant painter, she pointed us towards a magical viewpoint just outside of town. Beneath a skinny bridge flowed a river that was brilliant blue with hints of turquoise. We could have stayed and hiked down to water to dip our toes but the road was calling. Waving goodbye to the friendly neighbourhood firehydrant painter, we headed to our next stop, the lil Huson caves.

Not so lil after all. The cave had 4 different entry points all with a river running through the channels. The cool water felt good on our sore bodies as we swam and the smooth rock felt good on our feet as we explored. Spelunking and swimming for all! We laid like lizards on the hot rocks to dry off in the sunshine while enjoying the spot for ourselves. This ended up being one of the biggest highlights of our weekend! The little gravel road in and out was a good warm up for what was to come. Scoots-&-puts-ing over to our next recommendation destination had us in scenic Telegraph Cove.

Running on almost zero sleep and some hungry bellies, Telegraph cove appeared as a haven for our sore butts. As we walked the boardwalk, both on bear watch, reading all the historical plaques on the 100 year old boat houses, we had people running past us to the view of the ocean. Weird, we thought. When we finally made it to the end of the boardwalk onlookers asked us if we had had a chance to see the pod of orcas that had just passed by the harbour. Devastated, in a sleepy delirium, with money to burn and fomo driven ambition we booked a whale watching tour. We knew we needed some yummy eats and most definitely a beer, so we sat at one of two restaurants on the boardwalk, which are actually the same restaurant. Same menu, different signs. Reading through the menu things everything seemed all too familiar and when our meals came out, there was no doubt, for sure, 100% that undoubtedly and unmistakably, this was Costco food. No complaints.

Now, still tired, but with full bellies, we did a little exploring around the marina and to the other side of the boardwalk overlooking the bay. As we approached, we saw a resident family of orcas swimming past. We sat our sore bums down, picking our jaws off the wooden planks and watched in amazement for the next hour as at least 25 orcas swam by, waved their tails out of the water and popped their heads up almost as if to say "hellloooo!"

We cancelled our whale watching tour.

Another quick jaunt up the coast and we arrived at our final destination Port Hardy. Our sweet hostel host was waiting for us even though we were a tiny bit late, not on purpose, from watching all those porpoises. We checked in, headed up to our little room and kicked off our boots which weren't even close to the stinkiest on the rack. Our only plan for the weekend was to head as far north as we could to watch the stars, but by the time we reached Port Hardy we were so tired we barely made it through sunset on the docks.

Meeting all of the personalities on the way and following all their recommendations led us onto unlikely paths and ended up in one heck of an adventure.

Sunday was all about mosey-ing our way home. An offroad adventure onto the Alice Lake Loop got us some good practice on gravely, bumpy roads. Who needs 4 wheels? A couple of spots to see on the way, like Devils bath, Canada's largest cenote and the eternal fountains were very whelming. Maybe we were just spoiled the day before. We definitely were.

Back on the highway and carefully following all speed limits, we made our way all the way back to Nanaimo with a couple of stops for pickles and ice cream. We stopped in Nanaimo for a couple of beers that went down way too easy and grabbed some loaded burritos for the ferry. With our impeccable timing we caught the sunset ferry and watched the sunset behind our burritos on the upper decks.

Not our exact route, but pretty close.

Vancouver welcomed us with some backed up traffic on the sea to sky, but on two wheels we can do anything we want, including riding the shoulder past all the suckers in cars.