August 25, 2016
Day 4 - Jordan River to Sooke River Campground: We see a bear!
Up again at 6:00. We took the time to make oatmeal and coffee and enjoy the morning view, as we only have 34 km to do today (she says naively) and just a couple of big hills. We really enjoyed our breakfast at the beach - didn't leave camp until 8:15!
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We did come up to a steep hill right out of Jordan River, which I was expecting. What I didn't expect (nor appreciate!) was the really long hill that showed up shortly after! Thankfully, Jim noticed a cafe about halfway up, so we pulled in to have a break. Here, we met Christopher, who runs the French Creek Cafe, a really funky little place with art for sale and coffee on the go. He's a very friendly guy who hopes to become the first premier of the Province of Vancouver Island when the island finally secedes from British Columbia. He makes a mean cup of coffee and is working on getting a full kitchen open there soon. Good on ya, Christopher!
While having our break, we met a little family out for a camping trip. The girls were adorable and chatted with Jim and I for a long time - very entertaining!
We finally left the cafe and tackled some pretty brutal hills. The road here is very narrow and winding and in a few places there wasn't anywhere to go if two cars were coming from opposite directions. We managed to white knuckle our way up with a few more breaks to catch our breath. Again, such beautiful views, all along! Its hard to complain.
The last 4 km into Sooke was the worst of the entire trip for us both. The long hill would have been doable, but there was no shoulder, just a big drop to gravel on the side of the road and the traffic was steady and fast. All of this made us decide we were better off walking this section, so we hopped off and pushed our bikes up until it was more rideable. Its really too bad, because this is such a beautiful ride and it wouldn't take much to make the approach to Sooke from the north end of town as nice as the southern approach. Once we got up into town, we found that Sooke has grown into quite the tourist destination, if this hotel is an example.
Our accommodations for the night were a little more low key. We found our way to the Sooke River Campground with a little assistance from some of the locals. This campground is owned by the community and profits go to help different community activities. Its very peaceful here. We quickly found our campsite and had our first shower in several days - bliss!
Once settled, we went for a little stroll along the river and what did we see, just across the river from our campsite?
His mother was upriver a bit from us but there didn't seem to be any worry on our side of the river, so we grabbed a cab into town for a much needed burger and beer!
Day 4 stats: Distance 37 km; riding time 2 1/2 hours; total time 5 hours; avg speed 14.5 km/hr; top speed 56.7 km/hr
Today's ride: 37 km (23 miles)
Total: 221 km (137 miles)
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