Expect the Unexpected - Most Remote Pub in BC

Well , good morning , everybody .

It's a beautiful morning here in northern Vancouver Island , up in British Columbia , Canada .

That's where I'm at right now .

And this is such a pleasant place to wake up this morning and I wasn't planning on camping last night .

I thought I would treat myself to a hotel or a motel , but they were all full .

There are a lot of people up here traveling around .

It's the middle of summer , it's vacation time .

And so we have tourists up here and people taking fishing boats out and things like that .

It's a little bit busy for a small town up here on the northern part of the island , but that's where I woke up .

I'm at the campground here .

It's been a beautiful morning .

I just made a cup of coffee and just hanging out here and the Peacefulness of this place .

And I'm looking at the map and making a plan on where I might want to go today .

And so today's plan is to ride from Port mcneill where I'm at now over to a tiny little old logging town called Holberg .

My agenda is to ride around and explore northern Vancouver island and camp out for the next couple of nights along the way .

Hoping to show you some of the great roads , find some cool , interesting places and things to check out .

I have a couple of days to explore the northern part of the island before I have to take a ferry .

I don't want to miss this one .

I missed the one that I was supposed to take last week , but I was able to get another spot reserved on this upcoming ferry .

So that's a good thing .

I'm Port mcneill and my ferry leave in a few days from Port Hardy and some of the places that I want to go to include this town down here , which is Port Alice .

And then up here Holberg , another small logging town and maybe some wild camping at a place called Side Bay .

I'm farther north than I've ever been up here and it's just wonderful , beautiful day .

The weather is good .

I've got all my stuff packed up on the bike .

I'm really looking forward to today's ride .

We're going to have some fun today on North Vancouver Island .

So we'll see you down the road .

Well , they are out of breakfast .

They said they sold out of breakfast within one hour of opening this morning .

And that's just an indication of how busy it is up here right now .

So let's check out this place and see if I can actually get a for real , sit down breakfast .

We're going to have the two eggs .

Any style over easy .

So , where are you coming from ?

I'm from Arizona all the way from Arizona on that .

Yes .

Yeah .

How's it going ?

Pretty good ?

You know , we've got beautiful weather .

I'm in a beautiful place .

I have a little freedom and I've mostly got everything I need .

I'm doing ok .

Have you had time to stop a night or two ?

And then , you know , some days I just take the whole day .

But also it's a lot of movement and travel .

But fortunately I can sort of get off the beaten track so I can go a little further , a little more remote where there's less crowds and people and searching for that solitude .

But that's not always easy to find either these days .

Everyone wants to be out there in those places .

Yeah .

Well , you found the place now though , I found the place now , come with me on my boat .

It's like , oh , I bet .

Yeah , out on the water , but you can find it here .

We are not many people .

Well , that's my plan .

I'm going to go from here up , up to um Holberg and Port Alice and then out to side bay and Goods Cove .

And did you go round of Alice ?

I came from Beyond Boss yesterday by Gold River and Tai .

That's why I do recommend it far from here .

Only 40 clicks .

Yeah .

You know , everybody has an opinion when you're out traveling on a motorcycle on a long ride and you come through their town , they really want to be helpful and give you their suggestions about what to see and where to go .

But you have to take it with a grain of salt .

If you tried to follow everybody's directions of where to go and what to see , it just probably wouldn't always work out because they don't necessarily understand your reality as a motorcyclist .

I do always try to listen and be respectful to their opinions because they're telling me something about their love and knowledge of the place where they live .

Here .

I go , I see a dirt road up ahead .

That's a good sign .

And I'm carrying on on this portion of that route called the North Island 1000 .

It's going to be fun filming today's episode with a late start trying to do an episode a day that has been a real commitment and because I don't really edit these episodes as I go a challenge about it is that I don't really get to process my experience and my footage of the journey .

It all has to wait until I get home .

Then I unpack everything all at once and try to tell the stories .

And so I don't get to see the mistakes that I'm making along the way or the evolution of the story other than you know , what I can recall for now and film it and shoot it put it in the can and wait till I get home to open it up .

You can see how dusty it is on these roads by the color of the vegetation on the side of the road .

This is the kind of dust that just collects on all the branches here on the side of the road and it gives everything .

This kind of silvery gray patina doesn't really look good .

It's not good for photos or video .

You know , if you do ride on these types of roads up here on the island , you really have to be prepared .

Vehicles that pass in the other direction are like this one ahead of me that's kicking up a bunch of dust , making it difficult to see if there's any potholes or things like that .

Oh , this is quite ominous .

Be prepared for the unexpected look at that car with a tree on top of it .

What does that mean that we should look out for trees that might fall on us on the road ?

The car windows , the roof stupid should hurt .

Watch out for soft shoulders , blind corners , steep grades , graters loaded log trucks and heavy equipment .

Good luck , industry and commerce .

Vancouver Island .

It just keeps chugging along .

Look at that dust .

That's what I was riding behind earlier .

They have all these signs on this road , it tells you what year these forests were cut down and so you can see how much or how little they've grown this one , for example , 1957 .

And this is what we have compared to the big remaining old growth forests on the island .

It's only taken me an hour to get out here .

And yet the woman at the cafe made it sound like Holberg was alone , ways away .

And that I shouldn't really come out here because it was so far to me that really emphasizes how little stock you can put into directions that you get from local people .

They often don't really understand what it is that we do or we're capable of doing on our motorcycles .

And like I said , it's only taken me about an hour and I'm almost ready to Holberg exactly where I want to be .

I love getting out to these really far away places .

I say that with full knowledge that there are people that live out here , this is their home , maybe for generations .

I always bear that in mind when I roll into a place like this , that this is actually somebody's home wherever I travel on the back roads .

I always remember that these places have stories that go way beyond my current experience .

I'm just a visitor to me .

It just seems like you kind of have to bear that in mind , out of respect for the people who live in the areas that you travel through .

But here we are in Holberg , a couple of big logging trucks parked right at the town entrance a little fuel depot , active work area .

This looks like a forestry operation .

Is there a downtown thinking that perhaps this is really kind of all there is to Holberg , the view of the inlet and the end of the , the water up here at the head of this inlet .

So I'm up here on this inlet .

Weigh the heck up in the northwest part of Vancouver Island .

I've been riding this North Island 1000 which whoever put that route together .

Thanks a lot for doing that .

And the cool thing about this as a destination , whether you're riding the North Island 1000 or whether you're just an adventure motorcyclist that likes getting off the beaten track and put this on your bucket list .

Because the most remote pub on Vancouver Island is out here .

It's called the Scarlet Ibis .

This is the entrance to the pub here and it's a giant wood pile .

This is the furthest point of this Vancouver North Island 1000 way up on the top of the corner of Vancouver Island .

I'm here in the middle of the afternoon , but I couldn't resist going in there and getting a cold pint of lager .

And I say lager , not lager because that's what it is .

Their special brew .

That's brewed only for this brewery and it's a lager , not a lager if you can check in of the following .

This is the best beer for you today .

I put in a good day's work .

I had a great hike from the North Island .

I stopped to smell the pines .

I woke up this morning .

I've done at least a couple of those .

So this is the perfect beer for me .

This pub was for sale a couple of years ago when a group of 12 motorcyclists came up here , they bought it .

And so now they really do truly cater to off road adventure motorcyclists .

If you're up here riding around northern Vancouver Island , you definitely want come to the Scarlet Ibis pub .

Put it on your bucket list .

It's a great destination .

The Scarlet Ibis pub .

Way up here in Holberg , Vancouver Island .

Just get your supplies .

Well , before you get to here because there's really not much out here .

This is definitely a more remote part of the island up here and I love it .

I love that fact , but you do have to be aware of things like , you know , how are you going to survive your lodging , your accommodations , your food , things like that because services are definitely limited , right ?

Leaving the Scarlet Ibis pub .

What a cool place .

Oh , look at the size of this tree .

Here's an example of a really giant old tree .

Big , beautiful still in the ground .

It's wow , you see these signs everywhere that say you are entering an active work area because logging is still a big part of the economy up here .

It's not probably what it once was .

It's still happening .

It's still going on and this is , you know , an operation over here .

Well , this is the town of Port Alice .

I don't see a store or gas or anything .

I don't know what they have out here in the way of services .

Well , there's an R V park over there that looks like it could be a possibility .

Do you have camping available here ?

That's what I have a tent .

Yeah .

Yeah .

Ok .

Showers are free if we like that .

The pizza place close tonight and tomorrow because of the heat .

Oh , want to cook right .

The store is open until seven .

Ok .

Why don't I run down there and then I'll come back this way .

Ok .

I'll see you in a little bit .

Ok .

That was interesting .

She said that the pizza place in town , which is really the only restaurant was closed because of the heat .

I find that rather amusing .

It's not hot here at all compared to where I come from down in the desert .

I was able to pick up some spicy crab roll , sushi and some smoked cheese , an apple and some sea salt chips .

So that's what's going to be for dinner tonight right now .

I just need to get some food in me and get my camp set up and probably call it an early night .