August 2, 2025
Day 11 — Quadra Island to Cortes Island
Today was basically two different rides, broken up with — you guessed it — a ferry trip.
We awoke early, packed up and stashed our gear outside the park office so we could have a morning ride unburdened of all our stuff, before taking off for Cortes.
The goal of the ride was the village of Yaculta (formerly Cape Mudge) on the south end of the island. There are a number of totems from Cape Mudge at Vancouver’s Museum of Anthropology, and it always seemed to me it would be an interesting place to go. We had visited it on a bike trip 4 years ago, and remembered it as an interesting and pleasant place, with an intriguing looking community centre / museum that was closed last time we were there.
As always, the morning ride was very pleasant, and without all the gear it was a quick trip down island, then switchbacking through the reserve until we coasted out on to the wide desolate streets of the village.
The village itself is on a wide bit of flat land facing east looking back to Vancouver Island. As we arrived at 9 am on a Saturday morning, there was not a lot going on. We coasted slowly along the wide straight streets of town. We took in a beautifully decorated traditional longboat near the dock. Closer in to the main part of town was an old totem pole lying on the dry grass, and we spent some time trying to discern the figures on the pole.
From there we pedalled past the church, then on towards a newly built shelter and meeting place overlooking the water with beautifully carved totems and designs. We were there even too early for the touchscreen display to be operative, so we headed back in a block or two to the community centre. Alas, it was not open, nor scheduled to be for some time. All the more reason to come back. Just a lovely place.
We headed back and picked up our stuff at the campground, then headed out to Heriot Bay to catch the ferry to Cortes. We were there good and early, so had an hour to relax and discuss zombie movies with a couple of teens in the lineup.
We arrived at Whaletown, dreading what we knew was coming — hillapalooza. On the ferry was a couple with a young son who were also bike touring, and we had a chance to chat about plans while the ferry traffic unloaded.
Then it was off across the island, up one 14% climb, and down another. I’d be so slow on some of the climbs the Garmin would pause recording, thinking I had stopped. It seemed a tad judgemental.
The ride to Manson’s Landing was short but tough, and we paused at the grocery store in town to get freezies and drinks, and buying beer for later, before heading off to the campground at Smelt Bay.
We did our usual after setting up, taking our meal and beer to the beach.
Today's ride: 55 km (34 miles)
Total: 470 km (292 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 4 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |