Our trip north commences on July 15th when we board an Allegiant Airlines flight from San Diego to Bellingham. I attended graduate school at Western Washington University and have a deep love for the city, and this will be my first time back since graduating in the midst of the pandemic over four years ago. 

My dad and I intend on spending 3 days in town to catch up with friends and family before heading out on July 18th. After crossing the border into the Lower Mainland of British Columbia and taking a short trip along Boundary Bay, we will board the Coastal Renaissance to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. From Nanaimo we will loosely follow Highway 19 and secondary coastal roads to Comox, where we will then link up with the Tree to Sea Loop. This is where the true adventures are likely to begin. The Tree to Sea bike packing loop "links massive valleys, oceanside villages, towering coastal mountains, and deep fjords via an impressive patchwork of forest service roads" as it makes a 1,000km circuit around the island. We will be following the eastern edge of this route for approximately one week as we make our way up to Port Hardy on the northern coast. Our plan is to ride at a leisurely pace, ranging between 35-55 miles/day, though this number will likely vary depending on route conditions, weather, options for resupply, climbs, and how we're each feeling. Port Hardy is where our road ends on Vancouver Island, and on July 27th we will board the Northern Expedition for a 16 hour sailing through the Inside Passage to Prince Rupert, back on the British Columbia mainland just south of the Alaska Panhandle. From here our trip must come to an end, and we will fly back to San Diego from Prince Rupert on July 29th. My plan is to pick up in Prince Rupert next summer and complete my northward journey to the Canadian Arctic on the Dempster Highway to the small hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk. But that is a tale for a different blog. 

Below is the approximate route we intend on following, including the ferries from Tsawwassen to Nanaimo and Port Hardy to Prince Rupert. Total elevation gained along the route is 25,935' over approximately 400 miles of riding. I will be recording my rides every day using my Garmin Forerunner 945 smartwatch, so each blog entry will now include a detailed map of our exact route and riding stats (e.g., average speed, total climbing).