Bike
Trip
Day 4
In order to catch the ferry at 8:00 in the morning, I got up early and saved breakfast for later onboard. There had already been many people waiting this early morning, when I got to the ferry port. I chatted with one of a bunch of junior high school students who were going to play soccer game in The Island (they called Vancouver Island simply the Island or the Main Island). Ferry ride was about 1 and half hour. Unfortunately the sky was a
little hazy, although I enjoyed the scenery of Vancouver Island and North Gulf Islands. At 9:30 arrived at Little River ferry port. I said good-bye to the kids and started today's bike ride.
The atmosphere and scenery were pretty much same as those of sunshine coast except that the ocean now stayed on my left.
Gradually many large-scale farms started showing up, which reminded me of Hokkaido Island in Japan. The area between Little River and Comox was fun to ride. Just as a dream of all cyclists: light traffic, great view and tail wind.
After entering Comox Rd. was not as much fun, because there was heavier traffic and narrower shoulder. Merged into Hwy 19A where a neat estuary of Courtenay River was. The shoulder became wide and comfortable to pedal. There were still a lot of sawmills around this area and more than 3 Cessnas were flying over the town. Across one of the mills was a large Dailyland firm. It was now full of yellow flowers (couldn't tell what they were).
Fortunately 19A Island Highway around this area was flat. I was able to maintain 35 km/h. I caught a ferry heading to Denman Island at Buckly Bay ferry port at 12:30. A tiny tiny open-deck ferry, which became my favorite, showed up and loaded cars and people. Smaller ferry is more fun to ride, because you can see the seawater more closely and sometimes you even get the splash of it.
Although I didn't notice when I was pedaling, apparently the wave showed the wind was blowing from south to north, which I didn't expect.
Denman Island was such a beautiful island. The brochure that a lady gave me at Buckly Bay calls Denman Island one of the two "Jewels of Gulf Islands". That's exactly what it is. You don't see anything but nice patchwork-looking forest from the ferry. But after nasty uphill near the ferry port you'll see the small collection of grocery stores called Denman Village. The first thing I noticed about this island was of course its beauty. Abundant deciduous and evergreen trees, flowers, tiny beautiful birds. Small, but clean town school and grocery stores which also serves as a gas station and post office. From a little restaurant you can see snow capped mountains of gentle shape in Vancouver Island. Everything was neat.
The second thing about Denman was artistic activities all over. There were a bunch of posters for the drawing exhibitions and concerts on every store's bulletin board. Along the road were several carvings. There must be many artists living in this island.
The next island to visit today was Hornby, which locates just near Denman. Takes only 10 minutes by another ferry from the south port of Denman Island. Hornby is somewhat mountainous, has more like an upset pot shape, whereas Denman is flat, and has an upset fry pan shape, so to speak. Both shores have a lot of strange looking sandstones eroded by the wave of the ocean.
The campsite "BradsDadsland Water front Campsite" was about 15 minutes away from the ferry port. I had decided to camp there when I read "Island Cycling" by David Payne saying this is his favorite campsite. 
The campsite itself was very neat and well maintained. I could tell that the owner looked after the entire site very carefully. This campsite includes 25 sites, washrooms, shower and Laundromat. Each site has enough private and excellent view of the Strait of Georgia. 
The owner seemed to have very unique character. Heavily bearded, bare feet (all the time!) and strong eyeshot. His first word was "How did you know about this campground?" After shopping at Co-op Store, I paid $20 for overnight to him. $20 was the highest fee I paid during this trip. It's expensive for a camping fee, but it's worth considering its good services and gorgeous view. Plus, this campsite has an eagle nest just near the owner's room. "Unfortunately", the owner said, "there is no egg this year." But he sleeps in a small tiny cabin on the tree next to the tree of the eagle nest at nights anyway.
Also, this site has unique signs in the property. I've seen "Dead End" or "Slow" signs before. But probably this was the first time I've ever seen the sign "Dead Slow". "Whispers Only after 11:00" is unique, as well. 
There is a trail which takes you to the beach. When I got there, there was no human except me. Absolutely quiet except sound of waves. Sun setting on my right, snow capped mountain in Vancouver Island on my left. And amazing color of the seawaterc I was toying with the idea of whether nature has something veiled in secrecy that would make human think beautiful or human has something inside his brain that would make him think nature is beautiful like a kind of chemical reaction. But it didn't matter. Everything was breathtaking.
I spent unexpectedly long hours there just watching its totally amazing nature. Cooked pasta and had a blue berry yogurt as a dessert. A cup of hot tea ended tonight's supper. Went into my tent at 8:30 and fell asleep while I was jotting down. I was still bewitched by the beauty of that sunset.