Blackjack Ridge Once Again... With No Snow!

I managed to convince myself that it was only the snow at higher elevations that prevented me from blasting over Blackjack Ridge towards Lucid Lake and Mt. Benson last fall.  I had my memory corrected today while facing the familiar steep and boulder strewn logging road ahead of me.  "I'm not going up THAT!"  I'll leave this one for Paul to sail up.

Here's today's after work ride:

1.  Entered at Doumont Trail
2.  "Intersection A" Left toward Boomerang Lake
3.   Continued straight past Boomerang on familiar "Behind Mt. Benson" road, but turned right shortly afterwards to begin the climb up Blackjack Ridge's upper road.
4.  Made the same stop as last time, turning right onto a short spur road that offers amazing views at 711m.  The Blackjack Ridge road begins a steep climb where this spur begins.  I rode up it for about twenty feet and decided I had better leave this one for another day.  (Maybe when/if I lower my bike????)
5.  Turned right, on the way back, up this fantastic narrow windy trail that leads to the Benson Trail.  Followed the Benson Trail back to Boomerang Lk.  (Had a quick peep to see if Paul was fishing up the lake...  Not).
6.  Lake intersection
7.  Dropped in at Kidney Lake and fished for an hour or so.  Nice trout.

150° Panoramic - Mid way up the trail that heads up Blackjack Ridge.  The trail directly behind my bike winds its way along the ridge and offers amazing views.  I didn't ride it this time, but it's a great addition to the ride if you're looking for photos.  That's Mt. Decosmos in the distance with Mt. Hooker on it's left.  (First lake lies between them).

  

209° Panoramic - This is the end of the road at location #4.  Mt Hooker (left) and Mt Decosmos in the Background.  First Lake is clearly visible in this photo in the foreground of Mt. Hooker.  (If you click on the photo).

In the distance lies Mt. Whymper.  (Looking left of Mt. Hooker).  Crappy name for the biggest mountain out that way! 

First Lake - Mt Hooker (right) - Mt. Whymper (distant left)

The power lines.  Good route to Rhododendron Lake

Tomorrow's lunch from Kidney Lake.  Actually there were two, but the second one is embarrassingly small and received mundo face damage from being very greedy with my hook.

 That's it.  Beautiful sunny ride.

Didn't Get the Jump on Jump Lake!

Had a terrific ride with Paul on Saturday.  We headed out to see if we could get to Jump Lake, one of Nanaimo's watershed lakes.  The route looked plain enough; through the traps, follow the logging road that runs the base of Blackjack Ridge, a short spell on Nanaimo Lakes Road and then follow a short route in behind (south of) Gemini and Green Mountains.  It was good in theory... then we ran into the locked "Nanaimo Water Shed District" gate shortly after we crossed the Nanaimo River.

The locked gate at Nanaimo's Watershed District.  Paul's trying out his new helmet, goggles and a fancy Swann digital movie camera.  Nice gear!

 

Looking east from the bridge crossing the Nanaimo River.  There were a couple of guys panning for gold off the other side. 

What now?  We were well on our way to the Nanaimo Lakes and we both had our fishing gear, so off we went to Fourth Lake to try our luck.  We were stopped at the entry gate by some little man masquerading as Hitler who demanded $2 entry to the lakes!  Didn't get that the last time we went through.  Just lucky the last time I guess since Hitler maintained that people always pay at the gate.

The ride to Fourth Lake was great.  Lots of dust out there already.  It was really interesting to have a quick look at the entry road to the gold mine on Mt. DeCosmos, an upcoming summer ride.  That's a big mountain as far as local mountains go and it looks quite intimidating from the Nanaimo Lakes Rd. side of the mountain.  The logging road that leads to the summit skirts around its edge and climbs up a much milder looking NW side.  

We hit snow at the final turn off that leads to Fourth Lake so we parked a short distance from the dam and walked up the rear slope.  Terrific day for fishing.  Beautifully clear up there; a bit breezy but comfortable sitting on the dam catching its radiant heat.

Panoramic (180 degree) down the length of the dam

 

The lake's water level was much higher than it was during our earlier visit in the fall.

 We didn't catch anything here and decided to continue with our ride with a stop off at Boomerang Lake to see if we might get something.

Boomerang Lake 

I fished at the usual spot directly forward of the trail that leads in and Paul fished off to the right.  I got skunked and Paul caught two small trout. 

I packed my Garmin's battery housing with memory foam for this ride.  It worked well and I didn't see anything of the bothersome cutting-out and rebooting that had driven me close to insanity on my previous two rides.  I was pretty pleased that the unit had stayed on for the entire trip while recording the entire ride.  That's going to work better in the bush!

Great ride!  It's really nice to get back out there with Paul after the winter hiatus.

Two Views from Blackjack Ridge

I took a ride by myself today and went exploring a couple of Blackjack Ridge spurs off the main Blackjack logging road.  Here's the route in from Weigles Road/tank traps:

The Big Picture

Zoomed In on the Route (Right to Left)

It was really boggy through the tank traps today.  Easy riding on the way in, but a bit nasty on the way out with rear wheel spins through the gumbo. 

I turned left onto this small trail off the main Blackjack route.  The early part of this trail gets quite steep, but soon settles down to a very comfortable climb on an excellent small rock chip and sand base.  I stopped to take pictures from both dead-end spurs.

Viewpoint One  (180 Degree Panorama)

Viewpoint Two  (180 Degree Panorama)

 The ride down is a perfect example of a ride where you DON'T WANT TO TOUCH THE FRONT BRAKE TOO HEAVILY:  Steep with deep sand in places.  There were plenty of ice chunks on the trails today, (real pink fingers weather), so on the way back I took a quick peep at Boomerang Lake to see if it was iced over.  It wasn't iced over, but it was well on its way.  I'll have to come and take a look at it around January.   

Half Frozen Boomerang Lake

 The new fishing dock that some kind soul put in place has almost floated away with the rise of water level in the lakes.

Cottle Lake had even more ice.  The rings are where people have tried breaking the ice with rocks.

Great ride...  Time for a wash!

Now for the 3D Anaglyph image for the dorky people with red/cyan glasses (view full size):