I’ve often wondered what it would be like to live life without the internet. One of my best friends’ books, Strangerland, is about how her parents migrated with just letters, some really bad quality (and expensive) international phone calls and the power of asking other people for help. At one point, a relative of one character goes to every bus station in the city just on the off-chance that’s where my friend’s mum arrives, because you can’t just SMS your partner your destination, and things were very fluid. When I finished my first rotation in my seasonal job in Canada, in mid-June, I was thinking hard about how to spend my first two weeks off. ‘Just go to the lake and do some shrooms,’ someone said to me, but I didn’t think that was much to go on for a fortnight. I have a bike in Canada anyway, but it’s a real midlife crisis road machine with skinny tyre clearances, and doesn’t have the hardpoints for racks and bags. So I spoke about this dilemma with a few friends, and my buddy asked me, ‘what would you do normally?’ I said ‘I’d go on a bike tour’, and he said ‘well, just do that, then,’ and that was the problem solved. I’d just solve the problems. I’d visited Vancouver Island a few years before as a tourist, and really felt like I’d only scratched the surface, so back I went, getting the ferry across from the Vancouver mainland, and then the bus, and stayed away for four nights.
This is a short-ish blog post outlining some key stuff I learned. I hope you like it, and maybe it’ll inform your own future plans.
The Galloping Goose trail is unbelievably smooth. A regular touring set-up is fine
I rented a bike from Cycle BC Rentals and Tours, because they were situated close to the bus terminal in Victoria, which I reached after crossing on a BC ferry from Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal to Swartz Bay. I didn’t book anything in, I just presumed either they’d have a bike ready, or I could go to another shop. They also kitted the flat bar Norco hybrid out with bags for my general travelling nonsense, and lent me a hex key for me to use in putting my head unit mount on the handlebars. I had a good time with them and would recommend them. The brakes (cheap tektro hydraulic discs) were really responsive, the pannier bags were high quality, and I had more than enough gears to get up the inclines with all my stuff. The people in the shop seemed a bit surprised when I told them ‘I’m not sure really’ when they quizzed me on where I was going. One of the huge pluses of bicycles, to me, is that you can be completely free with your planning, and don’t need to stick to a routine. Oh well.
I didn’t wear bibs, either. I just wore regular shorts with elastic boxers, normal running shoes, and a cotton floral shirt I’d bought on the road a few weeks before. At absolutely no point during this tour did I regret ‘not wearing cycling stuff.’
I’d heard about the Galloping Goose trail from talking to friends. I jumped on the trail and was very taken aback at how smooth it was. I’ve spent my cycling life hardened by the ‘UK cycle network’ and ‘being Sustrand-d’ by riding on surfaces that not unlike the surface of the moon. It was a real surprise to me that I’d come across a ‘bike trail’ that was pleasantly smooth to ride on. “Smoother than some “actual roads” here,” commented one person on LFGSS seeing the state of the trails in Vancouver Island from my photos. I’d still call it a ‘gravel’ trail, just since really wide-ish tyres were good to have, but in a pinch, I bet you could use a road bike with 25mm tyres and still have a great time.
It’s flat, too. Previous ‘gravel’ routes I have done have, in reality, been mountain biking routes. Lots of lumpy and bumpy sections where a dropper post and a suspension fork really come into their own. By comparison, the GG was champagne smooth for all of it. When there was gravel, it was fine-grade stuff and kept level through grading, not the rocky nastiness I’d been used to. I didn’t even get dusty. Inside the towns, you’ll be on asphalt, which is basically untouched by any damage from tree roots.
In terms of bags, I was just using the supplied pannier rack, two pannier bags, a rack bag and my own handlebar bag, which also doubles as my personal laundry bag when I’m at work. I did have to reverse one of the hooks on one bag to stop it sliding into the back of my feet as I went along, but that was no big deal. I did notice also that if I’d done something like push the bike up a bumpy incline, like at the Sooke sinkholes, a pannier bag’s hook might come loose. These bags could be just pulled off, and the rack hooks weren’t ‘captive’ in any way, but everything did stay pretty much in place. If it got really annoying, I could have taped stuff in place using duct tape I keep wrapped around a water bottle (it stays sticky, so long as the tape is stored anaerobically).
You really can just play it by ear, accommodation-wise. Just check on the cruise ships first
Speaking with the Cycle BC rentals people, it seems like a really huge amount depends on the comings and goings of cruise ships in terms of how congested stuff might be. I had no problem sourcing the bike I wanted. Cycle BC also provided me with a spare tube, pump and levers, plus a lock, which was very cool of them. In terms of accommodation, I found I could just ring around, and there would always be availability. I got super super lucky and found that ‘Birds of a Feather,’ a BnB I found online looking for ‘rooms in this area,’ had somewhere that was available for short-term use, and it was priced very affordably. I enjoyed staying there so much that I did it again the next night. In the very worst case scenario, in Canada, you can get a bus with your bike on the front of it back to town and get a hotel or hostel, but I never had to resort to this.
In Victoria, I paid for a private room in the Ocean Island Inn hostel, which I think I booked in the morning of the same day during breakfast coffee. This was a really good place to stay. I don’t think they have bike storage, but I just asked Cycle BC if I could keep their own bike there overnight, as it was just around the corner, and that was fine. I had a really good time here, and I’d recommend it. Like with many hostels, you are going to be sharing a bathroom with other people. I had no issues with this. I’d stay again.
Like in any place, I always take a minute to strip the bed linen off the sheets, and put it somewhere convenient for the housekeeping, and leave a presentable room. It costs nothing to be nice, and it is a good way to show respect to the people clearing up after you.
What I will say is that, like many Canadian places, you need to book using a credit card. If you’re like me and had lived your entire life just using a debit card beforehand, this can be a bit of a scare. Better to prepare now.
Touring is fun in a really cool place – but it is tiring, so make time for yourself
I did this cycle tour after a full ‘rotation’ on my job, which isn’t the subject of this blog. I like my job a whole lot, but there is no two ways about it, it’s tiring. By the time I went on this tour, I had been ‘off’ for three days. On the third day of the tour, I overegged it a bit and did 100km of laden cycle touring. I had a great time, but it has taken it out of me a bit. The day I got back, I napped for two hours in the afternoon, and then had a full night’s sleep. I had aimed to get up for 0530 to ride with a friend (that’s today, on 20/6/26), but my ass was really kicked, and I’ve spent today writing letters, being treated to some ‘second skin’ by a dear friend’s partner, getting some first aid supplies to top up my kit, and writing this blog post. That has been it.
I still feel a bit of ‘I could try harder’ guilt about this, especially letting my friend down this morning. But I’m really tired. Cycle touring is really a huge part of my life, but there is no getting around that it is physically exhausting stuff. If you want to make this more of a part of your life, be ready for that. I like it heaps, but I’ve found knowing my limits and staying inside them has been really rewarding.
This has what this tour has been really great for. I didn’t feel at any time that I ‘had to do x distance on the route’ today; just playing it by ear and going with what felt right. At one point on day two, I just stopped at a place by the Sooke potholes for two solid hours. I think we could maybe all do with more of that. So often we go planning our routes with ‘daily maximums’ in mind, and it’s really great to be able to say ‘actually I’ll just take the bike out and do what I feel like doing.’ That’s been my big takeaway. Hope it helps you.
Trip gallery
Acknowledgements
A big thank you to Cycle BC rentals and tours for providing such a cool bike with bags and whatnot at such short notice.
Big thanks to the teams at Birds of a Feather BnB and the Ocean Island hostel for providing really great accommodation.
You can find some info about the Galloping Goose trail and so on here.
Calum On Wheels 