Leg #: 18 (Day 94-106)

Location: Bellingham, WA, Campbell River, British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Seattle, WA and Boise, ID

Mileage Driven leg/total:

1202 / 9647

Road Conditions: No issues.

Weather: Overall, fantastic Fall weather. There were a few rainy days, but mostly cool and sunny weather on this leg. When Tony can wear shorts, Birkenstocks and a thin puffy coat, all is well in his world.

Tofu Status:

• All systems working well. We are so happy that the van is doing so well on this trip. We are still in awe that we built this van conversion with our own 2 hands and it is functioning so well. The van needs a good cleaning, inside and out, but it is firing on all cylinders. We are averaging 18 mpg, too.

Highlights:

• Wildlife Sightings: GRIZZLY Bears, Stellar sea lions, sea otters, grey whales, harbor seals, harbor porpoises, black squirrels, Eastern cottontail rabbits, salmon, bald eagles, humpback whales and orcas. Also we saw Roosevelt Elk which are only on Vancouver Island. They are enormous and males are as big as 1000 pounds with palmated antlers. Humongous.

• Bellingham was our reset stop after getting off the Alaskan ferry. In addition to provision resupplies, we biked downtown and along the Interurban trail, explored the quaint Fairhaven area and hiked to Whatcom Falls and through the amazing 400 acres of old growth forest in the Stimpson Family Nature Preserve. We also loved the Frangrance Garden in Ferndale, WA. What a gem!

• After Bellingham, we crossed back into Canada and took another ferry to Vancouver Island…one of our favorite places. This time we headed to the Campbell River area where we had never been before. We biked along the Seawalk, explored the downtown, hiked to the Elk Falls Suspension Bridge and spent a day in Strathcona Provincial Park which is in the center on the island. We did a series of short hikes to various waterfalls with our favorite being Lower Myra Falls which felt like a mini Havasu Falls but we were the only people there. Campbell River is right on the ocean, views of the mountains and with 30,000 people has all the amenities we could have wanted. We this area and we will definitely be back!

• Our favorite activity in Campbell River was going to the Bute Inlet with Homalco Tours. We had a First Nations guide who showed us her ancestral lands and shared cultural information during our 2 hour boat ride to our drop-off point. Once on land, we went to 5 known spots for Grizzly Bears and saw 7 of them. These Grizzly Bears were huge in comparison to the ones we saw in Alaska. They were all on the river banks catching and eating salmon. Amazing to get so close to an apex predator.

• We somehow scored club level tickets with a private bar, fooD vendor and restrooms to the Coldplay concert in Vancouver. Our 2nd time seeing Coldplay in concert and they did not disappoint. They played most of their hits and the flashing light show from everyone’s provided wrist bands was super cool. There was also the unexpected guest, Bryan Adams, who sang ‘I Do It For You’ with Coldplay and HER. Great show all around!

• We made a very quick stop in our beloved Seattle. Just long enough for Tony to bike around our old stomping grounds in Kirkland, a lovely dinner at the all vegan Harvest Beat in Wallingford with our friend Ky (I am still dreaming on the foraged wild mushroom entree) and take-out lunch from the all vegan Katia Thai with our good friend Karen and her GDB dog, Saskia, who is the absolute sweetest girl.

• We spent 3 nights in Boise. Having never spent much time there, we weren’t sure what to expect but ended up really liking this city. It has great Greenway multi-use path, vibrant downtown, lovely views, river running through the city and a little bit of a funky vibe. We took our Brompton bikes all over downtown to Freak Alley, private docent led tour of the Anne Frank Memorial for Human Rights, Basque Block and ate at the all vegan High Note Cafe (it was delicious!) and also splurged on french fries from Boise Fry Co. (some of best fries I have ever had). The popular hike to Table Rock was not our favorite due to severe erosion and poor condition of the trail but Tony loved his bike ride up to Bogus Basin.

Lowlights:

• We had a 2+ hour wait at the border crossing from Canada to USA at the Blaine – Pacific Highway crossing. The closer to the crossing the more impatient and aggressive other vehicles got jockeying for a “faster” lane. Newsflash: all the lanes were slow.

• We (stupidly) decided to walk the 3 miles from the stadium to our Boondockers Welcome spot in Vancouver after our Coldplay concert. We went through parts of town and railroad yards we should not have been in for safety reasons. We are fine, but it was stupid to put ourselves in that position.

• WA State Campgrounds suck. We booked ourselves into a campground for a few days after getting off the Alaskan ferry. We only stayed 1 night of our reservation. The campsites were teeny tiny and RVs were packed in like sardines. Our neighbors firepit, which they used, was literally 36″ from our only van side window. When we forfeit $42 per night that we prepaid for this site to sleep at a Wal-Mart parking lot, you know it was bad.

• We had a reservation and paid for an Oversized vehicle on the BC Ferry but when we arrived they had overbooked the commercial/oversized area. They forced us to drive up onto one of the upper ramps with clearance of 9’3″ when our vehicle is 9’1″ tall. It was a bit scary driving up the ramp with the metal ceiling only inches above us. It worked out but they should have never put us in that situation.

• Our original plan was to park in Northgate Park and Ride in Seattle and take the new light rail into Seattle for our dinner reservation. When we arrived, the parking lot wad 99% full and the few spots which opened up were full of window glass from previous break-ins. We didn’t feel good about parking our home in this location so we drove to another safer residential location and took a Lyft. We have since researched and learned this area has high crime. Quite sad as it is so convenient.

Tiger (Provan) Sightings: Tony = 2, Tracey = 0

Next: Great Basin National Park in Nevada