cowichan valley 8

• Destination: Victoria, Vancouver Island, British Colombia, Canada
• General Route: https://bikepacking.com/routes/cowichan-valley-8/
• Total distance: 118 miles

originally we were planning to do this on labor day weekend. we recently found out however that if you are camping in BC parks, many campgrounds have additional restrictions for long weekends. the one that got in particular, is that you have to reserve each campsite for a minimum number of nights, which didn’t work for our plans. we called the park folks and they gave us some helpful information, but also sort of lead us astray unfortunately - make sure you read the fine print on the campsite websites as well.

weather

The weather on Vancouver Island seems pretty temprate around this time of year. Historically, the lows are in the 50’s and the highs are in the 70’s. Generally these months have 7-10 days worth of rain, so there is a reasonable chance it might rain on us, but if that is case, we’ll just make the best of it.

day 1 - thursday - victoria - travel day

from portland

• drive to port angeles from portland
• coho ferry times: 8:20am, 12:45pm, 5:15pm, 9:20pm
• could stay in port angeles if we get there really late
  • in which case, we’d take the earlier ferry the next day

from vancouver

• you can take the ferry from tsawassen to swartz bay
• swartz bay is right by the airport
• roughly 20 miles to victoria

flying

• you can fly to victoria airport, just north of the town
• roughly 20 miles to victoria

day 2 - friday

• ~20 miles
• Goldstream Campground
• Can reserve as soon as May 1st, 7:00am PDT

day 3 - saturday

• ~35 miles
• Cowichan River Campground
• Can reserve as soon as May 2nd, 7:00am PDT

day 4 - sunday

• ~45 miles
• Baberton Campground
• Can reserve as soon as May 3rd, 7:00am PDT

day 5 - monday

• ~20 miles to victoria
• plan to take the ferry across the bay
• mill bay to brentwood bay ferry: schedule
• once we’re all the way back in victoria, we can then head to port angeles
• coho ferry times: 6:10am, 10:30am, 3:00pm, 7:30pm
• pick up cars in port angeles

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