November 16, 2021
An Unexpected Sea Cruise (or not!)
It's Tuesday night, but this story begins on Sunday. We spent Sunday morning very happily and calmly selecting and arranging our clothes and other gear for the trip. There were a few complications to be sure. We may cover these more in later pages, but our basic plan is to cycle out of our driveway and make our way in one day to Vancouver airport. We'll stay at a hotel there, pack our bikes into bags and protection foam, shuttle to the airport, fly, and stash some stuff in Cancun. It means we will need very warm and waterproof gear to get to Vancouver, bags to stash it in and leave at the Vancouver hotel, warm weather gear to fly in, and a way to stash bike bags in Cancun. It may sound a bit convoluted, but we had it.
Then at 2 p.m. we got a phone call from Max, at Fairfield Cycle in Victoria. He had our renewed/revised Bike Fridays ready! Our plan had been to go to Victoria on Tuesday (today!) to collect the bikes and also our third Covid shots. After much grief (thanks a lot, BC Health Ministry!) we had only been able to book the shots on that day and 140 return kms from home. But Max said he was off Tuesday, so this was our chance to see what he had done and make sure it would all work. And the shop was to close in two hours!
What did we do? We jumped in the van and headed off over the Malahat, of course. The Malahat is the rather precarious road which is the only link between Victoria and the rest of Vancouver Island. It clings to a hillside above the Finlayson Arm of the Salish Sea, and features a long slow uphill and an equivalent downhill. At the base of the downhill is the Goldstream River, a very popular spot to see spawning salmon.
Cocooned as we were, playing with our gear in the morning, we were not aware that a "weather bomb", an atmospheric river of moisture was heading our way. Sure it was raining when we set off, but in BC in November you expect rain. We arrived in Victoria and had an absolutely joyous time with Max. We went over the bikes, and also tried to buy out the store in general. We were aided in this by a suspicious lack of other customers. This was due to the fact that the store had been closed for an hour by the time we left.
So that made it 5 p.m. when we started our journey out of Victoria and back over the Malahat. By then, the rain was pelting down, it was what you would really call a deluge. Our 30 year old van is ok, basically, but it is not strong on window defrosting (front or rear), and in this downpour it also began to miss and buck a little bit. But we gamely carried on. In time, our conversation in the van stopped, and I leaned ever further forward, trying to make out the road. I expressed a wish that our Province would go out and buy some new paint, so that the road lines would be more visible. And maybe they could sacrifice some additional cats, to put more cat eyes in the road!
I used to pride myself as a player of Pong, because of an ability to focus on moving objects. Now I felt this was coming into play, as the road basically disappeared as water flooded from the sky, and I was guessing about where we were on the road.
But somehow the van lurched back to the safety of the farm, as we threaded our way past the large tree that came down during a giant wind storm a few days earlier. We had bucked it crudely and moved it aside. We then used self control to not play any further with the bikes, and hunkered under our roof, listening to the rain beating down.
The rain continued all night and for half of Monday, but by Monday p.m. it cleared. I headed off on my Bike Friday to see how it would perform. It was great! but that is for another page. Still, the sun was out and all was well with the world. And by the next day we would also have our third vaccine shot.
Or not so fast.
The water took a little time to do its destructive work, but by Monday night it was announced that the Malahat drive had washed out, and the road was closed. In fact, landslides and washouts were happening all over the Province. The entire town of Merritt was evacuated, and one person died in a slide near Vancouver. Our own Cowichan district declared a state of emergency, and Cowichan Bay road was basically under water.
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But what about those precious vaccine shots waiting in Victoria? The news declared that the Malahat was closed until morning, at which time crews would try to find the road, currently under water, and see how it was doing.
In the morning, we phoned the wonderful Ministry of Health - could we reschedule the vaccine for another day before our trip? The agent must have covered the phone and chortled to her colleagues. What optimistic rubes! We phoned the Health clinic in Victoria to see if they were still operating. Of course they were. Over the years of living in Cowichan and working in Victoria we found many times that weather emergencies may exist up here, but down there they are playing golf.
So what did we do?
Victoria has one slender life line beside the Malahat drive. It is so slender as to be almost invisible. It's the Mill Bay-Brentwood ferry, a boat that can carry 19 cars across the Finlayson Arm. But also 150 foot passengers and a gaggle of bikes. We often use this to go see Joni. It's about an 80km return cycle if we use the ferry, something we can fairly easily do, if we don't dawdle down in Victoria for too long. That's in Summer, though. In this case, with a 3 p.m. vaccination appointment, we would be cycling home in the dark.
What we did was to frantically dump out our carefully arranged Mexico kit, and fit up our regular bikes for this fairly tough ride. We hastily grabbed rear lights, front lights, down jackets, and spare batteries. We filled the thermoses with life giving hot chocolate, and headed out. The only thing, to cut out the 15 km cycle from home to the ferry, which would happen in the dark on the return journey, we threw the bikes in the van. Our hope was to find a place, any place, to leave the van close to the ferry terminal.
Now all news reports we had seen assured us that the Malahat was closed. And highway web cams seemed to show the road deserted. But as we neared the turn off the highway and towards the ferry, Dodie had one of her patented think outside the box moments. Not so far ahead we knew there was an illuminated highway information sign. We could go and see what it said. It said "Essential travel only". What did that mean? Surely it meant the road was open, especially to people seeking an essential vaccine shot. So we barged on forward, leaving the ferry option behind.
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We then had another realization. If the road turned out to be impassable, maybe it would only be impassable to cars. Then as we have done before on bikes, we would sneak by the obstruction. We would have to ditch the van somewhere, though. Ok, fine.
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The truth turned out to be that the road had been opened to alternate traffic flow only. The reason was simply that half the road had fallen down the hill! It took about two hours to crawl by this usually 20-30 minute stretch, but we made it to gay Victoria with lots of time to spare.
In fact we had time to pick up Joni and check out a real rarity - a store selling Canadian made N-95 masks.
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With more time to kill, we parked near MEC, but realized that we have already bought nearly everything they sell. So we sought out a typically lame Victoria Mexican restaurant, and also some French pastries at Murchies. It was a way to pretend we were already on the road, though it's not clear if that road was in Mexico or France!
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At last we made it to the vaccine site and got the shot. I hope the nurse was amused that this 73 year old wanted a photo of the procedure (denied) and then also wanted a sticker!
Next step, just go home. But not so fast, and we mean not so fast! While the Malahat still had one lane open, the traffic was backed up for many kilometers. We joined the lineup at 3:30 p.m. The radio then sprung the news that the Highways people intended to close the road at 7 p.m. and begin trying to fix it. They planned to do this every night in the coming week. So that gave us 3 1/2 hours to travel 20 km. and get past the obstruction. We barely made it! Inching along, or stopped dead, we kept a lookout for the intersection where we knew the cars would be turned back when the time came. What a relief when we slipped through. Had the road closed on us, we still had one last option - a four hour drive around the south end of the Island. And we would have tried it too! Instead here we are at just 11 p.m., able to tell the tale of the sea voyage that never was.
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The weather in Vancouver was the lead on the BBC this morning. Nothing was said about Vancouver Island, but I’d be willing to bet most brits don’t know the difference between the city and the island. Anyway, I hope you can get out for your flight without too much hassle. I’m looking forward to your tour. The Yucatán is someplace that’s always fascinated me, so do include lots of photos. I’ll be waiting in the cold and fog of a burgundy winter.
Cheers,
Keith
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A lot of talking yesterday night on french TV about super heavy rains in BC, and also Mobilisation contre l'abattage de forêts anciennes à Fairy Creek.
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