We are back from our trip and I wanted to share a little bit about bike touring in the San Juan Island/Gulf Island areas. Almost anything one attempts is relative to another attempt.

This trip was relatively easy bike touring, compared to any of our other trips. Why, you ask? The places which we visited where much closer together and the islands we toured could be toured in one day.

On a typical day we would ride to a ferry, wait for the ferry, the ferry ride would take an hour or two and then we would take an hour, two or three riding to our final destination of the day. So we would not ride a lot of hours or get in lot of miles. We spent many evenings watching the sunset over the protected harbor, which takes about an hour, and then in the morning we would take an hour watching the sunrise. Randy called this part of the trip a theme park because there are so many wonderful things to distract one from riding a lot.

So if you are interested in riding a little everyday and want to have a casual schedule bike touring the San Juan Islands and the Gulf Island area is the place for you. But be aware there are many step hills and many descents on the Islands. With only a mile or two of flat terrain in the Victoria area and outside the Ferry terminal in Vancouver, BC., it seemed would climb a steep grade every twenty minutes and zoom down the other side just to climb up the next grade. The nice thing is you would get a break every 20 minutes or so and not have to climb for hours. My recommendation is get in shape for climbing and enjoy the tremendous views, the country roads and polite drivers.

This tour was a true vacation of biking and kayaking and eating as many blackberries as we could stuff into our mouths. Yum! I can never get enough of those huge plump berries, which are all along the side of the road ready to be eaten by anyone who has the time or appetite.