August 12, 2014
Day 1: Amelia: Victoria to Sidney: A Whirlwind of Fun
We turned up at Amelia's place a little early, but found her up and raring to go. Her graphically gifted Mom had explained yesterday and today to her eloquently in pictures. Amelia had added to this, depicting her Dad, with his tie, Mom, with a striped sweater, and Avi and Violet - best known for their long legs!
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Over the past week I had developed a severe crick in my lower back, and Dodie was still coughing from her week long illness that had seen her pass most of the time in bed. So while the Grampies were present and accounted for on this ride, they had not reported in exactly top shape. Darlene brought out a remedy that did seem to work on the back, though we have not yet tried it on the cough. It is a Chinese product called Kwon Loong oil that so far she has only found in one shop in Calgary. With a vial of this in our back pocket, we were on our way!
The first stop was the spot we are counting on as home base for these travels - Aunt Karyn and Uncle Erhard's house. This has the advantage of not only Karyn and Erhard, but also it is directly on the Galloping Goose, at Swan Lake.Karyn and Erhard have a nice bedroom we can use, but we went to check out the back yard too, for its tenting potential. The back yard features as well a giant rock, useful for practicing mountain climbing. Amelia found a direct assault on the east face a bit daunting, so Karyn guided us to the easier south face. Soon we are all on top!
Amelia also got to meet Misha, Karyn and Erhard's dog. Misha was just the first of many dogs and other animals that would be part of the day.
It was easy to connect the Weehoo and pop on the Ortlieb bags, and soon we were off on the Goose, heading for the Lochside Trail and Sidney. These trails are well loved by Victorians, and especially since this was a weekend, there were lots of people cycling, running, and walking. It was immediately noticeable how friendly everyone was, and greeting each other was most common. In Europe, path users do also greet each other, but there are places where the usage is so heavy that, like Crocodile Dundee in New York, it becomes rather tiring and futile.
An unexpected treat was that we very quickly heard "Hello Grampies!" This does happen, but it is rare and always a surprise. This time, our greeters were Rosemary and Dale Cook. They said they have followed most of our blogs, and themselves have just returned from a trip from Amsterdam through Belgium and France - down the Normandy coast, to Nantes and the Loire, and finally to Paris!
We continued along the trail, which is perfectly well marked, continuing to absorb the happy vibes of all the people out there with us. Very quickly (after 4 km) Dodie declared it time for sandwiches and chocolate milk. I thought this was pretty clever, since it established the idea that this ride would be all fun and have no gruelling long stretches. At least it had that effect for me!The stop gave us the chance to meet more of the people on the trail, and especially their dogs, who enjoyed the dog water fountain nearby.
The path proceeded through forest and over trestles, in the Blenkinsop Valley area. The margins of the trail had an abundance of blackberries, which are ripe right now. We stopped to pick a bunch, eating half and saving half. We then entered an area of rather upscale homes. This area is also known for deer, and sure enough we came upon one right away. The very bold animal was nibbling the blackberries from the bushes. Amelia was impressed to see a deer of any type, while I was impressed that the thing had no interest in the leaves, but was taking the time to pick the luscious fruit.
Our dubious fame seems to have preceded us, as yet another couple proclaimed "The Grampies" as we rode by. We unfortunately failed to ask the names of these folks. They too were long distance fellow cyclists, having cycled the west coast, as we did two years ago. He was most impressed by the time I fell off my bike in Cannon Beach. This shows how hardship can improve the hit count! Amelia gave the lady one of her cards, though the lady said she had already seen this, on the blog, last night!
Weeks ago, Amelia had made clear her expectations for a cycle trip: pedal, eat ice cream, sleep in a tent. We were impressed that for most of the distance so far she had pedalled (and in the right direction too!). Now it was time for part two. Mattick's Farm has long been a favourite on the Saanich Peninsula - with a tea house, restaurant, and even a golf course. But it was the ice cream we were after this time. The price of $4.50 for one scoop in a waffle cone was pretty steep. But for $5.00 you could get two scoops. Clearly they were establishing a strong incentive for a double serving! Amelia and Dodie were unimpressed, and went for one scoop, in a dish. Amelia conservatively chose chocolate, but Dodie went for sea salted caramel.
Mattick's Farm also has some small shops, including a toy store. Amelia found a deer figure, which she felt would be a goog souvenir of her encounter with a real deer earlier.She named her deer Rudolph. Rudolph later had a lot of fun prancing in the sand of a playground that we came across.We were a little slow leaving Mattick's, since our goofy looking Friday/Weehoo setup had attracted some attention from the many cyclists coming off the trail for the tea and/or ice cream. No matter, we enjoy answering the questions about what we are up to.
Seemingly before we had done much pedalling at all, we arrived at another of Saanich's favourite stops: Mitchell Farm.Mitchell Farm has tables set up in front of the farm store, and goodies for sale inside, most notably fruits. We bought... blackberries. It's not as if there were not pounds and pounds available by the trailside. But these were bigger!
Even better than giant blackberries, Mitchell Farm had a field of cows. These were three year old Herefords with their yearling calfs. I know the age because I read the tag in one of their ears. I then tried to impress Amelia with the idea that they were the same age as she. I think she expressed interest in this to humour me.
When we got to the town of Sidney the signage faltered - as often happens with bike trails in towns.There were bike symbols painted in the roadway, and even signs indicating that cycles were expected to take the whole lane. Signs or not, it's not advisable to challenge drivers on "their" turf, and we made a beeline for where we knew the bikes only trail continued.
As we had hoped and expected from our preliminary research trip, McDonald Park was essentially deserted. Certainly in the hiker/biker sites there is noone but us! We had a fine time setting up the tent, with Amelia pounding in the pegs very expertly With the fly up and the pegs secure, we will becompletely protected in case of rain. No rain is forecast, though. On the other hand, the light is so low in this forest that one could believe it is cloudy even if it is not.
We took a walk to go make our honour system payment of $13.70. Much as we enjoyed Europe, we feel so much more "at home" here camping in a forest, all by ourselves, for an honorarium of less than 10 Euros! After our walk to the deposit box, we followed another path. It was intriguing because I had seen a couple go down it with a dog, and they had never returned. We found out why:
The path came out onto a large playing field, where people had set up market type tents along the edges. In the centre they were holding time trials for dog agility. We got a rundown about the trials from one of the participants, and walked along the tents meeting the dogs. As with horse racing, the times that were being turned in were a combination of the ability of the trainer and of the dog. We watched a poignant episode where a dog that was clearly the fastest, and able to do the course without guidance broke off and returned to where his trainer had slipped and fallen down. Once the dog was sure the trainer was ok, it finished the course in what still ended up being one of the fastest times.
Back deep in our forest, we passed the time doing crafts, like lacing a dolphin cutout. A lady, not one of the time trialers, came along with three small dogs and checked with Amelia if she would like to pet them. I started to take a photo of this encounter, and in the forest my camera clearly was choosing a slow shutter speed. I suddenly decided to switch from landscape to portrait, and so got this shot, which maybe captures our whirlwind cycling day!:
Today's ride: 28 km (17 miles)
Total: 28 km (17 miles)
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