The ferry system in both the San Juan Islands (in the US - Washington State Ferries) and in the Gulf Islands (Canada - BC Ferries) is so easy I just wanted to write a note about it.

They're both all set up for bicycles. You just show up 10 minutes or more before the scheduled departure and roll your bike on and put it where they tell you.

Schedules are published on the web and in brochures that are widely available. Once you understand where the islands are it's really easy to figure out what gives.

Schedules for the Washington Ferries are at http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries/schedules/current/index.cfm?route=ana-sj&direction=west. It's pretty easy to figure out what's going on using the map. We spent about $15/person with our bikes for all the travel in the islands we wanted. Then we spent about another $15 to get over to Vancouver Island (Sidney) to get to Canada.

The Canadian ferry terminal is less than 5 miles from the Sidney terminal (on Vancouver Island) of the ferry from the San Juans, so it would be easy to just continue from the San Juans over to the Gulf Islands in one day. However, you might not want to miss Victoria and all its beautiful attractions just an easy and beautiful 20 miles south of both terminals. The BC Ferries schedule is at http://www.bcferries.com/schedules/southern/. We spent about $6/person for each ride on the BC Ferries. What a deal!