Gabriola Island Loop

Gabriola Island, BC

Directions:

We park in the Port Place Mall parking lot (49.16556, -123.93229) and ride across the street to catch the Gabriola Island ferry.  Schedules for the ferry can be found here.

Conditions:

The roads are paved and wide enough to avoid the traffic, which on weekends is fairly light. The 30km route is very hilly and a some effort even with eBikes.  We saw several people who cycled it on road bikes but they looked very fit!

The Trip:

The island is quite rural and you'll pass shacks that must have been built by beatniks in the 60's, but you'll also see grand houses where the rich have built (probably summer) homes.

The road is not always next to the sea, so you get forest and ocean views intermixed.

You can stop for a sandwich lunch near the end of the trip at Mad Rona's Coffee Bar.  It's funky and great food.

Map:

Here is a map of the route on Google Maps with a link to the .gpx file: Gabriola Island Loop

Elevation Profile

The hills start right off the ferry and there are a couple of other big ones.