Late Nights In the Woods! | Bikepacking Victoria, BC Cowichan Valley 8

we are bike packing from Victoria BC Canada on the Cowen Valley Figure 8 Loop we bike on beautiful trails and even try local food but run into some challenges along the way it's really dark holy crap he's massive as we adjust to our first bike packing trip of the year [Music] [Music] [Music] hello everyone we are about to head out on the coin Valley 8 bike packing loop it's a figure8 which is kind of interesting we've never done a bike packing Loop that's like a figure eight we took the ferry this morning from Port Angeles and got definitely a little rocky on that Ferry abely crazy but it was a short 90-minute Ferry and yeah now we're in another country we're starting right outside the Parliament building here in downtown Victoria and it's a beautiful building I think we're going to just get some snacks and then head out cuz we got a big day today [Music] all right so we just stopped at this amazing little shop called merchie we got a couple of scones they were amazing I don't think the audio turned out too well inside there but maybe we'll throw in a clip clotted cream Bas here we go soan good I was not prepared for how good that is got some cash now we're going to head out [Music] definitely a windy day today but it's nice to be back on the bike we picked a really cold weekend to do this [Music] trip these dedicated cycling paths are definitely giving me some Europe Vibes it's really nice wow look at that wow it's like your me [Music] yeah everyone these folks are amazing and they're going on a long journey them lots of water and snacks and high five forgot how nice Canadians are so friendly all right we are now off the bike path that was really nice almost 10 miles out of the city and now we're on [Music] gravel so what we're on now is actually like my favorite type of Trail and that it's like a compact dirt mostly they have water fills here which is nice don't even have to [Music] filter all right guys so this route is different interesting CU we gained most of the elevation for the whole trip on the first day and there's a 20% grade I think right there you can never tell angles on cameras so just we're probably going to be hiking a bike here I'm not even going to try to bike up that thing with this weight we're going to start with walking one of these days we might lie in our [Music] load hopefully this doesn't affect us too much [Music] we've now entered a Wilderness Area and I think this is where the elevation really starts a little nervous my bike's feeling heavy and I think we still have 2700 ft to gain or so the hills have started officially it was a false start last time [Music] okay guys this is a gorgeous part of the trail I honestly like anticipated it being like really hilly and just unpleasant but it's Rolling Hills so far and it's on nice compact dirt and there's just giant trees around it's gorgeous like really this is really nice riding so far like I see why bike packing.com said it's a good beginner Trail cuz it's great so [Music] far it's like a mountain biking route on like a on Lane sized [Music] Road oh that's why they closed it there's a couple of Puddles and a big puddle [Music] he wants me to [Music] Dismount R to all right guys we've stopped for lunch partway up the hill which we might regret after we eat Alex found some bread reminiscent of German seed bread not quite the same not quite as good but it's still pretty good so he was very excited about that feel like I'm way more tired than I should be but I guess we did finish our London to stample trip like 7 months ago so is it really yeah at this point you guys wouldn't know cuz the editing takes longer than the actual doing Tri yeah took like half a year to edit that [Music] series woohoo I watch out for the thick [Music] gravel woohoo oh my goodness wow they weren't kidding right into 20° [Applause] slope loose gravel we think this might be the final [Music] push is that now officially the final Hill I I'm concerned it's not all right well I'm feeling pretty good good for you we're on someone's private property right now which is really cool they open up their property to people to use it for recreational purposes so that's fun we've seen a couple other cyclists but that's it so really not crowded out here at all it's lovely steep switch packs W okay woo oh my goodness that is so steep spoiler alert it wasn't over another 20° Hill apparently this Trail is challenging and not suitable for all ages and abilities it looks like it's just a really steep downhill of loose [Music] gravel it's supposed to rain pretty bad tomorrow at least in the morning so I think the plan is to go as far as we can tonight which hopefully means not too much biking in the dark and then that means less biking tomorrow in the [Music] rain all right guys it is definitely after 600 now we didn't start until around noonish in Victoria we are definitely running behind we're either going to have to bike in the dark or I think we're going to have to Wild Camp which I think technically you're not supposed to do there's nothing in between here and like a campsite that's what like 30 m away or something at least 30 m away [Music] you didn't just see the Big Bear right there of bear black off to the left side here yeah he's still there holy crap he's massive hi bear friend yeah he's so cute he's right here what is that him all right guys we just saw a bear it a big black bear actually it was like an adventure whenever you see a bear that definitely freaked me out a [Music] bit all right guys we just came across this really big cool bridge that has wooden structures and Criss crossy it's really interesting I feel like this is like what you think of when you think of this bike packing route I think it's actually the cover of the bikepacking.com website so I'm excited to see [Applause] this wow it's getting dark already 9:15 it's really dark oh w wow it's a little bog it's almost 10:00 at night but we're only a mile away I don't know how this keeps happening to us for every single time we seem to do bike packing drip we are biking in the dark to Camp all right it's 10:00 guys but we're here at our campsite we are going to just set up quickly I think and then call it a night it's supposed to rain all night so we got to get it up before the rain starts [Music] [Music] [Music] it is the next day and it rained all last night on top of that we washed and dried our sleeping bags before this trip and when we took them out of the dryer they felt very dry but then when we pulled them out last night they felt really wet and so it wasn't great we're going to have to run go run into town to dry them but we're also going to get food [Music] there your hair honey I'm very excited cuz we didn't have dinner last night look at the size of this thing we'll be ready to I'm very excited for [Music] this okay guys our stuff is finally dry it is well afternoon now this town Duncan that we're in is kind of interesting I did not expect it kind of because it feels like we're kind of out there we're just talking to somebody and there's a big um drug problem here in this town and I can kind of see that I'm not going to show that on camera but I don't know I didn't expect it on this little island here in Vancouver but it seems to have hit a lot of the like West Coast cities in general um but I have some total bows behind me which is [Music] cool we kept missing a turn going over this bridge and that's because the trail is down below but like I don't know how to get down to it down this tiny steep Trail through the trees we're going to attempt so right after that clip where I was talking to you guys about the person who mentioned all the drug use and Duncan I went to go use the bathroom cuz I was right outside a public restroom and someone was literally preparing an illicit substance in a pipe and you could tell she was really embarrassed about it and so I just want want to kind of talk briefly about some of the issues we have on the west coast cities here in the United States and apparently it goes up to Canada too which I didn't know we just have tons of homelessness and we have tons of substance use issues and we don't have enough services to service people properly and it's really unfortunate cuz I think there's a stereotype in our society that just to blame people who have these challenges rather than seeing it like some other countries do where it's seen as like okay we need to help these people this is like a disease this is an illness that we need to treat one nice thing I'm seeing here in Canada that I really think we should develop more in West Coast cities is they have needle Sharps Containers here which is awesome so anyways it's a huge multifaceted challenge I didn't anticipate talking about that on a bike packing trip here but there we have it okay guys so now we are starting the top part Loop of the figure eight so we're going to cin Lake and it's a beautiful Trail we're on right now Sun's finally starting to peek through the clouds really gorgeous out right now I think we're supposed to be on this like the whole [Music] way all right we've had multiple people on this Trail say that there's an owl up ahead on the clearing let's go see if we can see it got my eye out should be around here they right there right there right there hey there friend Hi friend it's a huge owl it's like a Harry Potter [Music] owl he h me in his hand every time I take out my camera Birds just run the other way I've never seen an owl that size in the wild before that was crazy that was like a Harry Potter owl it's just such a chill Trail here it's really flat at this point and we're just on this nice Gravel Road we have this we might be able to not get in at 10 so I'm feeling exhausted from yesterday I really thought I was in better shape than this but apparently not lunch stop so I don't know if you guys noticed I have a couple new gear purchases since our last packing video even but anyways I want to take you through some of the new stuff I bought that I'm kind of testing out I don't know how I feel about it yet but so far I'm feeling pretty positive I got a new helmet and then I got the 5.8 L gravel front fork pack from ortleb and it kind of matches my bike see with the orange and the orange that's kind of exciting so so far I'm liking it nice having just some extra stuff handy and a little bit Distributing the weight my body is way too sore got our favorite energy snack that we used in Europe AKA gummy bears haven't had them since we've been back literally not a single time they haven't even tempted me until we started doing this trip [Applause] today all right guys we just left cin Lake which is a town and we got some ice cream at this really yummy place called cowabanga and they mix real fruit in with their ice cream and it was like some of the best ice cream ever we got dairy free version so definitely like top dairy free ice cream so good highly recommend if you guys do this Loop we got about 30 m left so we really got a haul booty cuz we've only done like 202 so [Music] far yeah this is awesome follow me to my fav tree will I'm Maring steady all right guys this is a gorgeous part of the trail just ferns everywhere it's a nice gentle downhill which help the trees are absolutely covered in Boss I'll oh wow we're high up my love one day the time will our troubl behind and you take care of me along my way my all right guys I am in front of the Trestle Bridge we were here yesterday so we're back again cuz we finished the top part of the 8 loop it's 8:00 p.m. it's actually been a really easy relatively day like compared to yesterday it's amazing how having good terrain can improve your attitude so much on a trail like this but yeah it is getting late so we're going to get going Andross this bridge I've got some information about this Trestle that we just crossed over there's a little board behind me it's it's the Kinsel Trestle and it looks like it used to be used for a train all right guys I think we've decided to push on which might be crazy it's definitely Sun's going down we're kind of feeling good right now we don't really want to [Music] stop all right guys we just spotted some vultures a bunch of turkeys wait they're turkeys they're turkeys yeah Goble Goble Goble come on make the noise they they just made that's how I saw them to begin with is they made the gobble noise oh that's funny all right well apparently they're turkeys in a tree I feel like I've only ever seing turkeys on the ground yeah this is weird oh there's the gobble this is what I'm talking about easy downhill on concrete [Music] now we've entered a dark Forest I don't know why the last 3 miles of the day have to be so difficult what on Earth are we even biking into this is like a mountain biking trail filled with roots and crap gosh is there another way I should show you guys the GPS we're supposed to go straight but clearly that's not an option I don't know what's going on here we might need to go around this thing we've been going on this road for a while it feels like and we're only like a mile3 away dang all right re navigation time at 9:30 something like that 9:50 oh almost 10 yay Alex is going to investigate to see if there's a way around this big fence it's barbed wire all right Alex thinks he found a trail around so we see how this goes don't know if you can tell on the camera but this is a super narrow Edge Al is now walking across I'm worried we're on private land there's been construction vehicles everywhere we're on not even a trail I don't I just don't understand how this happened this is on the GPS tracks on bikepacking.com must not be updated I think we're out of it was exhausting definely feeling low blood sugar yeah we got to get there and go eat oh please tell me this isn't locked it says this is private property but Community Walkers are welcome you must call our office to obtain date code office hours are 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. what our premises is motion alarm and video recording so maybe don't curse them right now I mean it looks like we can theoretically get around it all righty well I guess we're doing [Applause] this this might be stupid to wide to F [Applause] through we're at the campground guys yay [Music] we're having Tasty Bite Madras for dinner tonight stuff is [Music] amazing especially when you're hungry like we are it's just like oh just perfect [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] honey uh- what take this please what is it it's energy juice thank you [Music] Ranger decided to give us a count if we leave the place clean Alex is taking his job very seriously good morning guys it is the last day of our cycling trip this has been a fun 3-day weekend yesterday was actually a very nice day for us so much better than the first day honestly after the first day we were like what have we gotten ourselves into this is supposed to be a beginner friendly route and the the terrain makes such a difference it was thicker gravel with steep uphills and steep downhills yeah yesterday was just lovely so we're excited to finish off we're going to go exp do a little bit of exploring in Victoria on the way out and yeah the trail system here guys has just been amazing yesterday we were on part of the trans Canadian Trail which I looked it up this morning and it's like the longest Offroad trail system in the world yeah this has been a gorgeous ride and we got to get moving quickly cuz we got to catch the ferry at 9:50 and it is after 9:00 now [Music] la [Music] beautiful Trails here heading into Victoria it's a really short ride today I think we only have about 8 Miles more or so hello good how are you [Music] [Music] [Music] nah [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] all right guys we made it to Victoria and we are now on the ferry leaving departing back to Port Angeles and unfortunately we didn't really have time to explain much to you guys we had to just rush to the ferry after eating real quick but this was a great trip honestly I'm not as fatigued so I feel like I should be which makes me wonder if we can even like up the level next time it's surprising cuz me and Alex both after the first day cuz it was so much harder we're like what are we doing we can have to cancel all our future bike backing plans that we have coming up because we are not in shape enough but then the second day and today we're great so I don't know what was with that maybe our body just had to adjust a bit but why she take now we are heading back and we'll see you guys on our next video [Music]

Channel: Pursuing Mountains

Views: 6,363

Keywords: Cowichan Valley 8, Bikepacking Vancouver Island, Bikepacking Victoria, Bikepacking BC Canada, Bikepacking Cowichan Valley figure 8, Cowichan Valley eight, Bike touring Vancouver Island, vancouver island, vancouver island bc, vancouver island canada, bikepacking, bike packing, bike touring, gravel bike, pursuing mountains, pursuing mountains bikepacking, victoria, cowichan valley trail

Id: j2vFNZHfgY8

Length: 28min 16sec (1696 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 09 2024