Vancouver Island pt. 2 - Day 7 - Epic Motorcycle Ride

Friday, July 20, 2012 @ 7:00 PM in 2012 Epic Motorcycle Ride

Ryan woke up around 5:45 and couldn't fall back to sleep so he took a shower and got everything packed up. I ended up waking up around 6:30 and quickly got all my stuff good to go. The plan was to head down to Victoria to our campground. The ride started off a little cool and stayed that way for an hour or so. By the time we hit Woss it had started to rain and continued that way until we reached Nanaimo.

We fueled up in Campbell River and continued on to Nanaimo for lunch. By the time we reached Nanaimo for lunch the rain had started to subside. We went into Subway for lunch and both ordered a 6" sub and the chicken noodle soup. We wouldn't recommend getting that again because the broth was watery and there was hardly any chicken in it. After that we headed over to Starbucks to use their Wifi and try to track the weather and figure a few things out. We had been talking and thought maybe just getting on a ferry and heading to the States would be the better choice instead of spending another night in Victoria. The ferry schedule said there was a departure at 3 and another at 7:30 so we were going to try and get there for the 3:00 ferry.

We hit quite a bit of traffic which slowed us down a lot. We pulled into Victoria right around 3 and went to the ferry terminal. When we pulled in we had obviously missed the ferry but figured we'd get situated and ready for the 7:30 launch. We parked our bikes and went up and got our tickets. They told us we needed to be there 90 minutes before departure for customs checking. This made us feel better because no matter how much we sped, there's no way we would have made it in time for the 3:00 ferry.

With a few hours to kill we decided to head into Victoria and check it out. The Black Ball ferry terminal is pretty much right in the center of it all. We just had to walk up some stairs and we were in all the action. We went into a few touristy souvenir shops looking for some stickers or something else cool to put on our bikes. We were really disappointed with what they had to offer. Eventually we made it down to Sasquatch Trading Ltd. and were blown away with their offerings. All of their items for sale are hand made instead of the mass produced stuff made in china we found elsewhere. We both bought some really cool stickers for our panniers. I was debating getting a totem of some kind but couldn't justify the several hundred dollars. I might check to see if they have a website and order something later.

After that we started looking for some dinner. We saw a few pubs along the main drag and went into Irish Times. The service was pretty crappy and the food was just so-so. We tried to find some wifi so we could look up campgrounds once we crossed back to Port Angeles. We found a Starbucks around the corner and used theirs. We found the Elwan Dam RV Park and decided that's where we would go. It looked close to the port and had some decent reviews.

We headed back to the ferry and started talking to another motorcyclist and his wife. They were from Gibbons, BC and on the way to Washington to visit their grandkids. They had a lot of information for us for future trips up there and we talked for a while about motorcycling and other random stuff. Eventually 6:00 rolled around and they locked all the gates and started the customs process. It was extremely simple and didn't take very long. Soon after the ferry pulled up and everyone started unloading from it. We were blown away with just how many vehicles they had crammed into this thing. RV's, double length semis, trucks towing boats, etc. We waited and waited and eventually were able to roll on board. The motorcycles were first on and we tied them up against a wall and used come blocks to keep them from swaying around.

We headed up to the deck to get some photos and try to find some more information about camping. We hung out up there for a bit then when we crossed into US waters we turned on our phones and got updated on everything we missed for the last couple of days.

The ferry finally arrived in Port Angeles around 9:15pm. Fortunately we were the first ones off and were able to start looking for the campground. We made it there only to find the office closed down and what seemed like 20-30 drunk people playing basketball right near the tent camping area. We debated for a bit and then decided we would try to find a hotel. We had seen a few on our way in and went to check them out. The first one was a really small sketchy looking motel that wanted $130 per night. We quickly declined that and ended up calling a few other motels which were all sold out for the night. About this time the cashier from the gas station we were at told us about some free camping that was about a half hour away. By now it was around 10 and we thought what the heck and headed off for it. We finally made it only to find out we needed some kind of Discover Pass for all Washington parks and could face a huge fine if we didn't have it.

Discouraged we pulled out our phones and found out there was an RV/tent camping area about 10 minutes away and headed out to it. We were finally able to test our Dually headlights at this time since these roads were completely dead. They work wonders and made riding these wet back country roads much more pleasant. We made it to the Crescent Beach RV park and had to fill out a late registration slip and pay $40. By now it was around 11:30 and we were exhausted. This has been our longest day so far and we just wanted to sleep. There was no map telling us where tent camping was and the campground wasn't very well marked. We ended up finding an open spot in what we think was supposed to be a parking lot and just set up camp there and set off for bed.

Teaser photos: