FRIDAY 1 JULY 2016
PARKSVILLE (RATHTREVOR PROVINCIAL PARK) - COURTENAY
1035 - 1645
86.41 km (53.69 miles)
Av. Speed: 18.4 km/h (11.4 mph)
Max. Speed: 59.6 km/h (37 mph)
Time On Bike: 4h 41m 31s
The only other occasion that I had anything to do with Canada Day was when I was travelling back in 2004.
I was camped out on an absolutely stunning beach on the Red Sea in Egypt with a Canadian guy called Craig and he decided to make his own patriotic tribute from afar, which included his diary, some dodgy red-looking stickers and a photograph with one of the locals.
Here it is from deep within my archives.
Being familiar enough with National Day carryings-on back home in Australia, I should have reasoned that it should be no different somewhere else.
I'm not a very patriotic person on a good day, so I'm not about to start getting excited about someone else's nationalism other than how it affects my passage between A and B.
And it didn't start well.
I timed a 6-minute delay straight out of the campground as I waited for somewhere in excess of 30 people to amble their way across the narrow main pedestrian bridge in Parksville and all in my direction.
Once across the bridge, the Island Highway was totally blocked up ahead and being diverted to allow the Canada Day parade to file its way through town.
Another 6 minutes.
This was all extremely annoying, especially when all I wanted to do was get to the food market for a bite to eat to get me started for the day.
When I eventually did bash my way through the crowds, the queues and the traffic jams, I was done in less than 15 minutes and on the way north for the day.
I had Googled the 80 kilometers between Parksville and Courtenay and mapped out what looked to be quite a pleasant route which involved back roads and trails for most of the first half of the day.
Beyond this, the 19A Island Highway was the main road into Courtenay and I guessed it would present either its best or worst.
What I had worked out from the early stages of today was that I had tailwind.
The second thing I've worked out in recent days is that trails and back roads are totally awesome - if only you're able to follow them.
Despite my exacting amounts of note-taking each day, the trails and back roads on Vancouver Island have proved extremely convoluted and difficult to negotiate.
They fade in and out constantly, changing direction here and there and are often accompanied by inaccurate or missing signage.
So whilst your life is not necessarily being jeopardised by them, your state of mind is as it seems to involve a constant process of getting yourself out of a tangle.
Not to mention all the extra time it takes.
For two days in a row now, I have given up on the back routes after being sent up a one-way street by Google Maps or finding myself looping around the car park of a shopping center somewhere or back on the main road anyway, after all of that.
Maybe I'm just stupid....or maybe......
I was actually able to follow the back route today as far as Qualicum Beach, with only one major "lose" in between.
It probably cost me 15 minutes of faffing around looking for a street that didn't seem to exist and after reviewing the maps today, still doesn't seem to.
From Qualicum Beach, I re-joined 19A with a half-decent shoulder and surprisingly low traffic volume.
Most importantly, the effects of having tail breeze were really starting to kick in and now I could get some speed up as I started to smash through the mileage.
From a starting E.T.A in Courtenay of about 5.30, it looked like being about 4.15 at one stage but I ended up settling for a still very respectable 4.45.
The Maplepool campsite in Courtenay was my chosen venue for Friday evening.
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