It’s been a week since we left Portland, but it feels like the tour is really just starting today. After a week of train and ferry hopping and hearty partying, this is our first real travel day. We’re starting off lightly, with a nearly flat ride west to Sooke. Almost the entire ride will be on well marked bike trails: the E&N for the first several miles as we leave Victoria, and then the Galloping Goose for nearly the entire rest of the way to Sooke.
There’s not much drama to the ride and not much energy expended, but it is a very pleasant day and a peaceful, carefree ride. As we ride west, the suburbs gradually taper off and the terrain gets steadily wilder. For much of the day we’re biking through dense woods that gradually gain the character of a rain forest.
We’ve eaten well in Victoria, and are well rested and rarin’ to go. As you’ll see from today’s video, we feel supercharged this morning and really fly down the trail, scattering startled children and young deer as we fly past.
Video music credit: 11:11 (Live in Paris, France), by Rodrigo y Gabriella.
Showing off those tan lines. We’re thinking of submitting this to Pendleton for use in their fall catalog.
Scott AndersonTo Jen RahnI will pass that on, for sure, and let him know where it came from. I have to be careful with him though - he can easily get a swelled headset. Reply to this comment 5 years ago
Anne MathersIt is a reconstruction of the original bastion of Fort Victoria, which was built in 1843. Reply to this comment 5 years ago
Scott AndersonTo Anne MathersThanks, Anne. I was surprised there was no plaque describing it, but maybe I just didn’t poke around carefully enough. Reply to this comment 5 years ago
The Galloping Goose is a flat, very easy ride, except for two hiccups - a pair of short but very steep dips and rises, steep enough that many will be happier walking them.
We arrive in Sooke right at three, just late enough so that we can check in. We’ve been spending quite a bit of time together lately, so we opt to go our own way for a few hours. Rachael surprisingly enough decides to check out the exercise room, where she spends a half hour on the elliptical trainer and lifts weights. Definitely tempting, but I don’t want to cramp her style by going to the gym too. Instead, I head downstairs to the grill and spend the next hour lifting a pint from Sooke Brewery and getting caught up with the journal. If you lift a pint often enough, you can get quite an upper body workout so I feel fine about skipping the gym just this once.
Later, over dinner, we review the route for tomorrow’s ride to Port Renfrew after Anne Mahers cautioned us that there might be a hill or two in our near future. On hearing that we’ll have 4,000+ feet of climbing to help break up the predicted headwinds, Rachael begins berating herself for her rashness in going to the gym rather than resting up. Youth never listens.
It has been noted that our journal is quite thin on food photos so far - in fact, it might be completely devoid of them as I think back now. So, to get back on track again, here are two from this evening.
Sooke isn’t quite up there in Victoria’s class, but it does have its share of tourist attractions.
Our salad for the night was nearly excellent: yellow and red beets, radishes, walnuts, goat cheese, and (shudder) avocado - close to my least favorite food. Rachael and I swapped avocados and beets, and we both were much happier.
After dinner I walked down to the docks, hoping I might find some late day bird activity. There’s not a lot going on, but there is a charming family of mergansers scrounging an evening meal in the fading light. One of the youngsters snares a good sized fish and then spends the next several minutes paddling swiftly away from its pursuing siblings.
Are those the Olympics out there, and is Mount Olympus really almost free of snow? Frightening.
Ride stats today: 37 miles, 1,100’; for the tour: 212 miles, 9,300’
Today's ride: 37 miles (60 km) Total: 213 miles (343 km)
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Suzanne GibsonGreat video, Rachael! What editing software do you use? And are you using the wide or medium format? Reply to this comment 5 years ago
Rachael AndersonTo Suzanne GibsonI use perfect video on my iPad and I do use the wide angle. Not sure if it’s the best video editor on other devices. Reply to this comment 5 years ago
