A dyke in Delta (or Sidney to Vancouver)

Saturday 9:30 am and it's time to leave Sidney and hit the Lochside Trail again to get back to Swartz Bay for another ferry ride.

Bird in tidal river bed along Lochside Trail

Lochside Trail

Swartz Bay

Yet another bus on the horizon ;-)

When the ferry arrives, it is packed with cyclists !

Leaving Swartz Bay

Meeting the ferry going the other way in the tightest location along the way

One last look at Vancouver Island

Tsawwassen Terminal

From Tsawwassen Causeway

Now I am faced with a bit of a problem.  Taking a car from Tsawwassen to Vancouver is easy. Just take Highway 99 through the tunnel under the Fraser River. The fact that bicycles are not allowed in this tunnel does not make things easy!
I have the choice between River Road, which runs along the northern edge of Delta along the Fraser River, and a road that runs along the southern edge of Delta, along the water. So I turn off the main roads, and proceed along a road that has free-running guard dogs and signs mentioning video surveillance, private use only, etc etc. Destination is the Delta Dyke road.

Where local blueberries are coming from

My gut feeling was right again.  I reach the dyke road, offering views of the US in the south across mud flats and water alive with hazy reflections.

I must look like easy prey because it keeps circling over me

A last look along the mud before heading North

Both sides are utterly fascinated by each other ;-)

Then I make another discovery. Instead of having to cycle North along some dirty loud main road, I discover that there is something called a Regional Greenway (see insert in map), which would get me from here to New Westminster along even terrain (almost everywhere) through nice scenery !

Then I follow some ill-placed bike-path signs (actually: I trust Google Maps on my cell phone) to very suddenly emerge from the greenery and stare flabbergastedly at the Alex Fraser Bridge looming ahead and above.

As if I wasn't tired enough already, this jumper bouquet disperses any remnants of energy I might have had.
I make it across 3 bridges to 22nd Street (Avenue?) Skytrain Station in East Burnaby (West New Westminster?).  Skytrain takes me to Burrard station for $2.75 (It's a weekend ;-), and after cycling through Stanley Park and over Lions Gate Bridge I am home again !