Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008

I’ve only been on Vancouver Island one time before: on a day trip with my family in 1989. This was my first time alone, and my first time on the far western coast of the Island. I was excited to get there, but before I was able to let Silver loose on the Island highways, we would need to ride a ferry between Horseshoe Bay and Nanaimo.

I learned something about ferries before I even boarded: motorcyclists are treated like royalty. I approached the ferry terminal to discover a long line of cars that were all waiting to board the same ferry as I was. After paying my fee, I was told to head down “Lane 1”…which was confusing since all of the cars were lined up in lanes 5, 6, and 7. It turns out that Lane 1 was completely empty, and when I reached the front, after passing what seemed like hundreds of waiting cars- people who have probably been waiting for hours- I was ushered to the very front with the 4 other motorcyclists that were given the same treatment.

On ferries, the rule for motorcycles is “first on, and first off.” Rock stars.

I enjoyed the ferry ride, although I did my best not to be such an obvious tourist. I figured a lot of these people were commuters or Island inhabitants who traveled to the mainland for Canada Day, and there I was taking pictures of everything I could for the nearly 2 hour trip.

After arriving in Nanaimo I headed straight toward Port Alberni, which meant I had to ride through a little town called Coombs.  I stopped there for a minute to check out an emporium with goats that live on the roof that my friend told me about.  He didn’t lie- there were goats on a roof.

After Coombs I headed west and passed through the Cathedral Grove. The grove is an old growth forest that straddles the highway. I stopped to walk around for a bit and was mesmerized by the place. The forest had an amazing presence, and even though I was alone in there, I didn’t feel alone. The forest had eyes, and I felt like I was being watched…but not in a scary way. Some of these trees are 800 years old, and are massive in size. There is life everywhere in this forest.

Oh, and one other thing about the forests of the Pacific Northwest (and especially the cathedral grove): they all look like Endor. I kept expecting an Ewok to pop its head up from the ferns.

After another few hours of riding I finally made it to my destination: the west coast of Vancouver Island and the Pacific Rim National Park. I pulled over at Long Beach as soon as I got there and walked out to see the ocean. I had made it: this was as far west as I could possibly go while still standing in Canada. As I breathed in the salty sea air and looked out over the ocean I realized that the next island out there was Japan. It was an amazing feeling.

I found my motel easily and traveled into Tofino for dinner. I had a halibut sandwich. Fresh halibut that somebody caught earlier that day. Gotta love that fresh seafood.