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Ryan and I had a chance to take off for the weekend on our Harleys, so we did!

The wife was away so that meant that we had the weekend to ourselves to do with as we saw fit. Like a trip up the Sunshine Coast and over to Vancouver Island on the bikes. The Sunshine Coast is part of mainland BC but is only accessible by water or air, there are no roads into the area. The terrain is simply too steep and severe to make roads possible. However, once there, there are three small towns and several villages all connected by Highway 101.

We saddled up and left Squamish about mid morning and pulled in to Horseshoe Bay in time to catch a ferry over to Langdale, just outside of Gibsons. One neat thing about taking a ferry when on a bike, you go right to the front of the line when boarding, and you get off first as well. Just the way it should be. You may remember Gibsons from the old CBC TV show ‘The Beach Combers’. We checked out the wharf and other attractions including Molly’s Reach. It had been fake restaurant in the TV show, now it is open as a real restaurant. From Gibsons we headed on up the coast to Sechelt where we grabbed some lunch. The highway hugs the coast and the towns all face the open St of Georgia. The highway is very winding and demands full attention from anyone driving or riding it. Most of it is posted at 80k but you’d be hard pressed to do more than 50 in most places. The Sunshine Coast has some of the nicest stands of Arbutus trees I’ve seen.

Here's Howe Sound looking north from the deck of the ferry as it departs Horseshoe Bay.

Ryan's '07 Nightster 1200 parked in Gibsons.

The 'Beach Comber's' restaruant.

We continued to follow Highway 101 up through the Sechelt Peninsula to Earls Cove where it just stops and a dock. There is a ferry that crosses from Earls Cove to Saltery Bay but it is not timed to work at all with the other ferries. There is no way of traveling along there without having to wait to do the crossing but that’s OK if you are not in a hurry. We weren’t and so were able to enjoy a leisurely ride without any rushing or concerns about missing the ferry.

Parked at the side of Highway 101.

The ferry crosses Jervis Inlet. When we were about half way across we spotted a pod of killer whales swimming along. First time I’ve ever seen them in the wild from the deck of a BC ferry. Pretty cool I must say.

Out on Jervis Inlet.

From Saltery Bay on up to Powell River is another leisurely ride along the twisty highway. Once in Powell River we fuelled up, grabbed some supper and then caught the ferry over to Comox on Vancouver Island.

Parked at the Powell River ferry terminal. We would end up being 25% of the vehicles on board so finding room on the ferry was not a problem.

Sunset over the St of Georgia, thats the Texada Island ferry out on the water.

The sun went down as we were making crossing the St of Georgia giving us a spectacular sunset. By the time we docked it was dark and had gotten quite chilly but it was a short 15-minute ride into Courtenay and the motel we use whenever we are there.

The next morning (Sunday) we headed up to Campbell River, staying on the Old Island Highway (19A). A new, faster, modern inland highway was build several years ago to move traffic faster but the old route follows the coast and is more enjoyable. We walked out onto the Discovery Peer and enjoyed the view over to Quadra Island and then rode a bit further into town.

Discovery Peer.

By the way, Campbell River sits right on the 50^th parallel line, in case you are interested. We followed the Old route back down-island to Qualicum Beach and then headed west on #4 to Cathedral Grove. Never get tired of looking at those trees.

At Qualicum Beach, looking out over the Strait. The tide is out at this time. When we were on the Discovery Peer, the tide was racing by causing the water to roll and boil. The narrow channels create incredible tidel runs.

The tall trees of Cathedral Grove.

We grabbed a bit of lunch just east of Cameron Lake on our way into Nanaimo where we caught a ferry back to Horseshoe bay. We were on the newest ship in the ferry fleet. It is big but it always seems that the bigger the ship, the less fun it is to be on. Oh well, we made the best of it anyway and spent most of the crossing down at the bikes with several other bikers. Thats what bikers do!

Heading back toward the Mainland from Departure Bay in Nanaimo.

An hour later we were home, we’d had a great father and son weekend of riding. Can’t wait for the next run.