Day 6: Mayne Circuit

October 25, 2019

My brother from Montreal phoned at 7 this morning to tell of a storm warning for our area that he had just heard. When we had pried our eyes open a little more, we looked from our sliding door toward the sea, and saw this:

Wind blown droplets helped us believe it would be a rainy and blustery day.

So we suited up with all our foul weather gear. The possibility of staying in our cozy cabin did cross our minds, but of course we would never actually do that!

What we would do, rain or shine in fact, would be to make the bakery our first stop. Baking is double good in the wind and rain. It seemed like the nearby and inappropriately named "Sunny Mayne" bakery had a bit of French DNA. The first clue was a stack of (ok, let's face it) donuts, labelled donut "croissant". The second clue was the presence of "pain au chocolat", though labelled "chocolate croissant". The last clue was a hand painted sign that read "Boulangerie". In fact, I hauled the baker out of the back. Under interrogation, she denied any "French Connection". Her stuff was really good nonetheless.

Not only did the baker not mind me taking this shot, she helped me arrange it!

Fortified by donut croissants, we headed up the coast. Our plan was to cycle over all the island's main routes (which add up to maybe four or five, mostly dead ends). We did pretty well, missing only Horton Bay Road. Here is the overview:

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As in almost every place where we cycle, we had been speculating on what it would be like to actually live in the place, and if so, in what house. We had of course already decided that our two bedroom cabin would be swell, but just a short distance from the bakery we came upon this:

The house was built in 1901, is fully renovated, and big selling point, is blue! It sits directly on Miners Bay and has a 180 degree view of Active Pass. Wow, and just $699,000. When we got back to the cottage and looked up the listing, Dodie was ready to go home, get a hammer, and crack open the piggy bank right away. Only the thought of using the same small change for a house in France gives us any pause!

The next thing up the coast was another of our favourites - a church. In this case it was the Polish Church of Mary Magdalene.

I hiked up from the road to try the door - locked! How can they save any souls if not open for business?

The bit of road that we were heading north on fronted Active Pass. Active Pass is burned into the minds of all residents of Victoria, who have repeatedly taken the ferry to Vancouver. If you zoom out the above map, you will see how a boat leaving Swartz Bay (Sidney) will pass between Saltspring and Pender before squeezing between Mayne and Galiano, Active Pass. After Active Pass it's a straight shot through to Vancouver.

This simple geography will be well known to Victorians who are intelligent and minimally aware of where they live. But that did not exactly include us. It's a bit like Switzerland. Before we started cycling in Europe, yes, we sort of knew where Switzerland was. But what countries did it border, exactly, and where or what was "Basel"? - not so much. Same for Active Pass. Yes, we sort of knew where it was, and we gazed out at the nearby houses sliding past as the ferry churned its way through. But where was it, really?

Now, as cyclists, we can say Active Pass is right there! Look at the ferries. We are the people on shore that the ferry passengers are idly gazing at, without really knowing where they are!

Ferries pass each other with much whistling, in Active Pass

Our education about Active Pass was furthered as we came to Cotton Park and the Georgina Point Lighthouse, at the entrance to the pass. No doubt because of its "active" rip tide nature, the pass is home to all manner of marine mammals, and many species of birds. Parks Canada, of course, is adept at explaining:

A local told us that killer whales had passed by here yesterday, no doubt heading for the San Juans.

Naturally there is a lighthouse at the entrance to the Pass.

Here is the story of the lighthouse, and below, what it looked like in the old days.

From the lighthouse, you can see Tsawwassen, and to the left of this shot, just make out the high rise buildings of Vancouver.

We gazed quite long at the beautiful waters around Georgina Point, before heading back toward the centre of the island.

The rain had stopped, but the wind continued.

A wading bird in the distance, does not seem to be doing much wading.

The next, inland swing of our route was also gorgeous. And not only has there been beauty at every turn here, but the roads have been wonderfully free of traffic. Everywhere save just out of the ferry terminal there has hardly been any need to think about cars.

There is a tiny commercial area just up from Miners Bay, featuring a grocery store, clothing store, book store, and art/craft store. The art store is owned by Cat, our server from the pub. It's her main interest, while the pub job pays the bills. But she said any plug in any social media for any of it it would be swell.

The grocery is called the Farm Gate Store. It was very impressive for the high quality of produce and baking on offer. Of course, I chose to focus on some sticky buns, shown below. That is quite a fabulous price, but in fact the quality warranted it!

Less nutritious but as interesting are those mushrooms that we spotted the other day. Of course they are well known locally, and so made it to a poster advertising some mushroom seminars coming up soon:

From the Store our next major destination was the Japanese Garden, at Dinner Bay. We did stop off at Bennett Bay, the site of a rather luxurious development we almost stayed at, before settling on Miners Bay.

We almost stayed here, but we see now it would have been quite remote, and too expensive.

On the way, another excellent fence effort.

Around 1900, some families began to come to Mayne Island from Japan. Like other immigrants, they established themselves with hard work, focusing on fishing and canning and agriculture, including greenhouses. But in 1942 when war commenced with Japan, they were famously rounded up and shipped away, their lands and possessions ultimately auctioned off.

These events on the whole North Amereican Pacific coast comprise a famous episode in Canadian (and American) history, and in 1988 Prime Minister Mulroney and President Reagan both apologized for what had transpired.

On Mayne Island, from an idea that began in 1987, to completion in 2002, a commemoration of the former Japanese community was created, in the form of a Japanese Garden. We went to see it, at Dinner Bay. Here are some of the explanatory posters or plaques:

The Garden itself was extremely well done, and just as they are supposed to do, produced a great sense of calm and well being, plus some great photos, I think!

All that remained from Dinner Bay was to "zip" back up to our cosy cabin, where the wind is howling off the bay rattling the chimney. But this had been the best day of all. We are looking forward to another fish and chips at the pub, a good night's sleep by the water, and then the short hop across Active Pass to Galiano.

Active Pass? Yes now you know all about it!

Today's ride: 32 km (20 miles)
Total: 218 km (135 miles)

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