153 cycling stops along this route · Vancouver Island
A week-long, roughly 500 km loop from Nanaimo around the south island's wild interior: gravel and rough doubletrack through the Cowichan Valley to Port Renfrew, past the Walbran Valley and Fairy Creek rainforests at the heart of BC's old-growth story, then to Bamfield, where the MV Frances Barkley, a 65-year-old heritage ship, carries you four hours up the Alberni Inlet. Swim spots and quirky communities all the way; long stretches without resupply, so plan carefully. Designed to be ridden car-free from the Departure Bay ferry.
The full map, turn-by-turns, and GPX for this ride are on bikepacking.com. Our map shows roughly where the ride goes, not how to follow it.
The dashed line is our rough sketch, drawn only to show where the ride is. For the real, rideable route, get the route from bikepacking.com.
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