Test-biking Galiano

1. Brightly-coloured, reflective clothing (consider fairy wings!).
2. Lights — white for front handlebars and flashing red, multiple, for backpack and rear rack. Light charging cord or extra batteries.
3. My personal favourite: the rear-view mirror for left handlebar.
4. Obviously, a great helmet.
5. Some panniers for whatever you may pick up along the way & a small backpack for the impromtu hike.
6. Snacks (i.e., chocolate, granola bars, fruit) and water.
7. Raingear — Rainpants and jacket seasonally. Wellies are appropriate year-round — these count as formal wear here.
8. A small towel or thicker scarf for that spontaneous ocean or lake dip, and to wrap that amazing mug or glass art you might find.
9. A phone charger, your phone.
10. Map of Galiano and a sharpie for planning your route and stops along the way (here are the best three, all available at the info kiosk when you get off the ferry). There’s a great online trails map for Galiano here that might help.
11. Your ebike charging cord, and a power strip for your friends.
12. Oh, and money.
13. Also, consider downloading I-Naturalist and contributing to the Galiano Biodiversity Project along the way: https://biogaliano.org/

• Find more safety tips here: https://southerngulfislands.com/cycling-in-the-southern-gulf-islands/

This loop starts at the Sturdies Bay Visitor Info Shack. Take Burrill Road past the Saturday Market & Thrift Store to Arbutus Point, then up Bluff Road to The Bluffs and back along Georgeson Bay Road to the Intersection Market Centre, and back to the Ferry area on Sturdies Bay Rd.

Start out straightaway by riding up Sturdies Bay along Burrill Road. If it’s Thursday-Sunday, stop at Oxeye Bakery for amazing pastries on the way. Or hit the Sturdies Bay Bakery before you get to Burrill to pick up some treats to enjoy at a lookout.

If it’s a Saturday, stop at the Farmer’s Market (held from 10am to 2pm from May 17 to the first weekend in October) and then the fantastic Thrift Store at the Lions Park along Burrill. Pick up more treats, or bring a thermos, and pop out to Arbutus Point to watch the sea lions and waterbirds and bask on the flat rocks and sparkling sea.

Then, get ready to climb. Follow Bluff Road up the hill. There are several really beautiful hikes along the coastline at Matthews Point Provincial Park, but unfortunately, no cycling on trails is allowed. The best is to bike along Bluff Road to the Bluff Park main parking area, park your bicycle against a tree there, and walk to your right along the cliffs and find a mossy viewpoint from which you can relax, read, and enjoy those pastries!

The Bluffs Park is one of the most stunning, relaxing, magnificent old-growth oak and Douglas fir ecosystems in the Islands — here’s the park page: https://galianoclub.org/club-programs/parks/bluffs-park/. Have a picnic and enjoy the view. You’re above the planes and birds and ferries and surrounded by beauty and birdsong.

On your way back from The Bluffs, you may choose to stop at artisan studios like Ducks, or the Soap Company. There’s a great BBQ spot on the corner if your tummy is rumbling (the Woodstone Manor doesn’t seem to be re-opening for 2025). Do stop at the Museum if you’ve hit the timing right! If not, their portico is a great stop to recharge your ebike and find shelter if it’s pouring (spoken from experience).

Continue around the corner back towards the ferry. The thrift store is fabulous, especially for swimwear, and save time before your ferry ride to peruse art and inspiration at Yellow House. Go buy your ferry ticket home early so you can maximize your time wandering the aisles of the Galiano Bookshop or getting Indonesian take-out or just their great sauce at the foodcart at the ferry lineup and then hang out on the beach just below… savour every moment possible before riding the boat home.

For the ride up-island, you can recharge halfway at the Millard Learning Centre, a Galiano Conservancy’s office — where there’s an ebike outlet in the electric vehicle charging area. They also have bicycle tools at the bike rack along the driveway in. Plus, it’s a great chance to check out their Medicinal Garden and other short hikes and off-grid solar system and more.

Recommended stops also include the ceramics and glassworks studios, Pebble Beach hike, Retreat Cove (https://imerss.github.io/xetthecum-storymap/), Cable Bay Farm and The Pink Geranium Cafe & Market.

The swamp lanterns (a.k.a. skunk cabbage) were blooming and abundance dark-green nettles along the roadside. Beaver dams visible along the wetlands and streams tracking Porlier Pass Road. Stay to the edge of the roads at hillcrests and just after, since drivers like to racecar.

The Bodega Ridge Resort and Lola Restaurant lies at the end of the ride, waterfall hikes, along with a side-trip to Dionisio Provincial Park.

Come any weekday from Salt Spring on Aqualink or if you’re willing to catch the 6:20am and return at 8:35pm, arriving Long Harbour after 10pm! Otherwise, the best ferry connections are Sunday mornings for one of the south-island loops — leave Long Harbour at 7:15am-arrive 9:05am, then return on 12:15pm boat to arrive at Long Harbour at 2:10pm. The great thing about Sunday is that the Galiano Museum is open and you can catch it for the first half hour and learn something new. Starting in May until June 18, there’s a decent 11:40am-12:25pm on Saturday if you’d like to stay until 11:05pm and get home after midnight. That way you can hit the Farmers Market (10-2pm). However from May 2 – June 18, the Sunday connection is shorter with 6:15am-8:10am to come and 11am-12:53pm to return, so only about 3 hours on Gali. In June 19-Sept 1, you can come Saturday afternoon 3:55pm-5:05pm and come home to Salt Spring at 11:30pm arriving 12:15am!