Cycling experience around Southern Vancouver Island

China Beach to Port Renfrew and Fairy Lake

Started out around 800 hrs in the morning from the China Beach Campsite. The prime goal for the day was to be in Port Renfrew by noon and beat the weekend traffic form Victoria but especially as it was a nice day wanted to take my time on the ride.
There are some significant climbs between China Beach and Port Renfrew. The crest of these climbs provides one a good view of the Juan de Fuca Strait and out to Cape Flattery. The west coast of Vancouver Island typically has some low cloud lingering.
This day was no exception with the ride taking me up to the cloud line although fortunately the clouds were not thick enough to reduce visibility or safety on the road. The reward of the view for the climb is nice but even nicer was the downhill descents into Port Renfrew. One can quickly and easily get to some high rates of speed on these descents. Fortunately the road was well paved and I was able to use a bit of the speed although still having to keep the speed down to where I could corner with a moderately loaded set of pannier bags on the back, one does not have much ability to recover if a trike starts to roll on a curve. I did reach speeds in excess of 70k, at that speed if one hits a bump on the road it can set the un sprung front wheels into the air and a total loss of control.
Shortly before noon I arrived in Port Renfrew and as I did not particularly want to stop and prepare food looked for a place that felt comfortable to eat. Fortunately I did not need to avoid any fast food chains with their edible plastic foods. I did find a place that felt good to stop for lunch – it was. After lunch my prime goal was to find a place to camp for the night. I knew I could find a place at Fairy Lake on the road to Lake Cowichan.
I camped at the lake. Just being at the Lake brought back memories of the other time we camped there in the mid 1950’s. One thing certainly had changed, am certain it did not cost $9 for the night and that was at the 1/2 price rate for seniors.

Saoirse