A fall bike trip to Denman and Hornby lsland is an ideal way to spend a day

 By Keith and Heather Nicol

We recently did a bike tour of Denman and Hornby Island with the Evergreen Cycling group based in Courtenay.  These islands have much to recommend them and a bike is a good way to see these islands. And a big bonus is that if you are over 65 years old and travel Monday to Thursday your trip is free and you won’t a miss a ferry since bikes and other foot passengers load first. On Monday Sept 12, we caught the 9:00 am ferry from Buckley Bay (we parked in the adjacent parking lot) and then proceeded to cycle across Denman Island. The ferry timing is suited to drivers in cars since we had just 30 minutes to get the 11-12 km from one ferry terminal to the other. That was too short a time given the hills we had to negotiate so we cycled at a leisurely pace to catch the 1040 am sailing. We recommend taking the Lacon – Macfarlane route which gets less traffic than the main road. The roads on both Denman and Hornby have no shoulders and although this is usually not an issue it pays to use the less traveled routes where possible.

                                                                           Crossing the Hornby Island

We then boarded the 1040 am ferry to Hornby Island (another 10 minute crossing) and cycled 10 km across the island to Tribune Bay Prov Park where we had lunch overlooking the broad sandy beach. Fortunately Hornby is less hilly (following Shingle Spit and Central Road to Tribune Bay) and this took us about 40 minutes to cycle. Depending on your interest you could do more exploring by bike or walk the beach or have a coffee at the cross roads area near the Prov Park.  We returned via the same route so once you know your timing and the ferry schedule you can catch the return ferry to Denman and then across Denman  to catch the return ferry to Buckley Bay.  The total distance of cycling via this route is about 43 km but it is broken up by ferry rides so it made for very pleasant fall cycling outing. And our group included several e bikes which made the trip that much easier for those riders. For more info on the Evergreen Cycling group contact : ejkimball62@gmail.com.

                                              The roads have no shoulder but in the fall are not that busy

                                     The broad sandy beach at Tribune Bay is spectacular and a greaet lunch spot