Cycling in Canada: Exploring a British Columbia paradise through the southern tip of Vancouver Island

Vancouver Island might be one of the most beautiful places on Earth, cradled by B.C.’s west coast with the Pacific on one side and the Coast Mountains on the other. As a playground for cyclists—one whose eastern shores have been selected as the site of a proposed bike route, as Canadian Cycling Magazine reported—the location is incomparable.

Showing that in video form, though, might be a better way than simply saying so.

Set to music, this video, uploaded to YouTube in August 2013, presents a view that not every Canadian rider has had the privilege of experiencing—and one whose beauty is not lost on any Vancouver Islander, no matter how long they’ve lived there. A group of cyclists takes the scenic route through the trees, over trestles and in the shadow of coastal mountains, tracing a route from Nanaimo through Ladysmith, Duncan, Shawnigan Lake and Victoria, exploring a veritable cycling Xanadu.

Even riding under highways seems incomparably beautiful in such a location, doesn’t it?