Slowest Is Sometimes Best

My life has been crazy for a while.  Finally got out for a ride.  Great afternoon in the foothills.

A Video Blog...Dirt Biking: It's A Mental Game

Down Baker Street to Moriarty's Lair

Our recent rides have been centered around using the excellent new roads created off 155 main by our friendly outdoors-sharing logging company.  Paul and I took a round-about trip out that way today to see if we could navigate our newly-discovered trail that leads to Moriarty Lake, aptly named Baker Street, without running into TimberPest's gargantuan road blockage.  We walked it during our previous ride in that area and decided that it was quite do-able if the weather remained dry.  So we picked a nice soggy Sunday with lots of running water to attempt riding it.  :)  It was a terrific ride and a great success!

Here's the shape o' the day:

1.  Entered the logging roads at Weigles Road/Doumont
2.  Turned back at the "alternative tank traps" due to wind fall tree across the trail.  We need a quader in here with a chainsaw!
3.  Through the old tank traps, which is nicely cleared, and left turn on branch 142 towards Boomerang Lake.
4.  Turned right and joined the power line trail.
5.  Intended route towards the "hellevator" trail has turned into a pretty rapidly running river.  We decided to head towards 155 main and blast up our recently more regular route.
6.  Rode up Okay Mountain Valley, past the Rhododendron turning and turned left onto 155 main.
7.  Uphill left turn onto signposted 155-160
8.  Left onto connector trail to "Baker Street" (wikilocs track)
9.  Through the connector and right down Baker Street to the logging roads surrounding Moriarty Lake.  Took a quick visit to the Moriarty cabin where Paul was kind enough to share his British Rail type sandwich.  Actually it was very good! (Yes it was - judging by the way you inhaled it! - P)  Thanks mate.
10. Retraced route towards home.  Dumped the bike up Baker Street.  Darn you Moriarty!  Followed 155 main up to a right turn onto branch 142
11.  Back through the old tank traps.
12.  Black Bear Pub for a pint o' IPA and ESB!  Cheers!

Wind Fall timber across the trail through the alternative tank traps (2 on map above)

Colour Coded Altitude Track

New burned out (stolen?) truck appears on route to the Tank Traps on the Doumont side (shortly before 2 on map)

Washed out!  River running down the route towards the HeLLeVaToR (5 on map)

Approaching Moriarty Lake Cabin on foot

Moriarty Lake Cabin at 9

Moriarty Lake Cabin at 9

Moriarty Lake Cabin at 9

Moriarty Lake Cabin at 9 Pack your garbage out...please

Above: Real Time Vid of the "Highlights" of the route to Moriarty Lake.

Time Lapse: Turning off 155-160 onto connector leading to Moriarty Lake ("Baker Street")

 Time Lapse: Back up Baker Street connector trail towards 155-160

Time Lapse: Return trip from 155

 

Track Flyover on Google Earth

GPS Track Playback at 100x Speed

Here's a direct track from doumont to Lake Moriarty.  Use it in conjunction with this track of the connector (Baker St) to get right down to the lake.  The track for the entire route, exactly as it appears on this blog page, can be found here.

  

155 Through to Moriarty: Baker Street

"Baker Street" is a way into Moriarty Lake from 155

Andy and I found a trail into Moriarty Lake from 155.  "Baker Street"  is perfectly doable for a bike in drier weather, and much more palatable, IMHO, than the old key trail.  The blocked access to 155-160 is for reference.  To get to Nanaimo Lakes Main, turn left (east) at "Moriarty's Key". ATVers that we met later told us the access route to it (green trail below) is easy.  More maps and a video below.

While it looks overgrown on GE, it is not.  The single track quad trail is clearly defined and obviously well used.

The unexplored green trail is accessed easily from 155-160.  

The video is not very exciting, but does let you take a gander at the trail surface and terrain.  It goes from "Sherlock's Trick" to "Moriarty's Key" From there, 4th Lake, "The Great Divide", Nitinat Main etc. are all accessible.  Vancouver Island's backroads are your oyster...Again, apologies for the music...but it fits...;)   [Apology NOT accepted ~Andy]

Google Earth flyover from 155 to the lake shore.   (This is the track of the connector trail that can be downloaded right below this movie.  Use it with the track "Doumont to Moriarty Lake" to find 155).

Here's a track of the connector trail which is a left turn off of 155N when heading SW, (the "unexplored green trail" shown in the photo above).  The track shows the route to the lake shore, bypassing the nasty road block encountered when approaching the lake using just the major logging route.

Couldn't resist a shot of the beast.  Handsome Devil, aint she!

Time Lapse Vid of Doumont to Bonnell Main New Route

Ok, it took me a nearly a week to produce this video as the much vaunted free software I raved about last week (GoPro Studio) has developed a bug.  I lost the entire 3 hour production two days ago as it crashed.  Since then, and while re doing the video, it crashed every ten minutes.  I have re-installed, rebooted without success. Like me old step dad said, "you get what you pay for"...Don't forget to turn the settings up to HD.  If you don't like the music, no complaints...just mute it :)

The video references points on the map below:

The ten minute epic...

Foothills to Bonnell Main - Alternative

(Click to Enlarge)

GPX File HERE

1 Second yellow gate on right on Weigles/Dumount Road.  Easy ride around.
2 Steepish gulch, winds through trees.  Could be muddy in wet weather.  Surface is sandy duff. Ends in potentially boggy area.  Little technical, but fun.
3 Right goes to Vipond, left to some interesting trails and new access to the Bonnell Main logging road.
4 Right goes to the more traveled Foothills trails and eventually to Phantom or, if you wish, to (6) the open red gate to the Sundew Main logging roads.
5 View point spur.  Steep decline onto a vista where you can see the red gate across the valley.  Scenic. Fun to ride.
6 The popular route into the Sundew Main Logging roads.
7 Steep incline on your right.
8 Overgown lake, now a reedy bog.  Scenic, especially if you climb up the outcrop where you will see the NW Bay logging area on the other side of a small fringe of trees.
9 Descends into a single track alder trail, which may continue into the promised land...or not.
10 Access to Bonnell Main via an easy burm and small sandy single track trail through a small fringe of trees left by the logging company.
11 Bonnell Main (Goose Corner if you look at the associated photograph on GE).  From here NW Bay is your oyster.
12 Viewpoint over Nanoose Bay, Maude Island etc.  Nice small BBQ too!
13 Steep but fun ride up the "loop".
14 Red dirt descent.  Again "fun".
15 Active quarry operation.  Keep out.  Let's not vandalize here and get our access blocked please...
16 Vipond Road Gate.  Locked.  No easy work around.  A small ramp would work as the gate is low.  But why?  Head back past 15 and continue north to Phantom or Harwood Roads.
17 Rewarding connector back to gulch.  Try this on your pegs, weight forward, clutching and at jogging speed in the dry.  In the wet, make sure you have a trials tire on the back.

All in all this was a great ride!  A few B level technical trails, but nothing to stop a dirt bike and average rider.  Mostly, just great fun and as fast as you like.  Watch for other riders, keep right and stop to look at the views.

Time Lapse Video is here...see more recent post...Explanation for late arrival in detail!  (Couldn't get rid of the art below...too funny).

Paul.

Getting to the Back of Ammonite Falls (West Upper Side)

This was intended to be an addendum to my last post where I tried out a few iPod apps that I'm using to create time lapse videos of rides.  I thought I'd begin a new post because the directions to Ammonite Falls' west side might be useful for some visitors.  In addition, I get to plaster a new blog right on top of Paul's obviously superior time lapse creation below, crushing it and rendering it completely ineffective and impotent!

Many people hike in to see Ammonite Falls from it's east side, coming from the Jameson Rd. entrance where you can park at the road's end and hoof it along the foot trails.  Another way in begins off Weigles road, through a yellow gate very close to the Wastelands MX track.  This entrance will take you to what most consider to be the back of the falls on the west side.  You arrive at the top of the falls, rather than the bottom, where the Jameson Rd. trails take you.  After a short ride from the Weigles yellow gate, you need to park and hike the last few hundred yards to the falls.  If it's wet, be warned, the top of the falls are very slippery and there's nothing but nasty pointed rocks to catch you at the bottom!

Here's the GPS track and a quick overview "flyover" movie of the route:

Now, for the time lapse video using the app "Timelapse Camera HD"

I'm not sure I'm going to find the speed and clarity I'm after at this rate.  I'm waiting for Apple to update the iOS for my iPod, (ver 7.0), in the hope that I can go back to using my original app, although it was no real winner to begin with.  Just want to get the speed down.

[Edit, Aug 20th]  I managed to get an older version of Time Lapse running on my iPod.  (That's the original app I was using that I had more success with).  This is the only one of these apps that doesn't mind running close to real-time speeds.  It will allow you to choose the playback speed as low as 1x (normal playback), 2x, 3x etc, up to the usual supersonic, flower blooming speeds that the rest of them do so well.  The results are far better when played back at 4x or 5x because you can actually follow along and see where you're going!  My "auto white balance" was playing games with me on this next video.... Some dark patches.

So, here's the vid:  Almost the same footage as before, just a bit more footage at the end.

Still a bit clunky, but not bad for an app running on iPod.

Go Pro Studio...Take One & Two

Usual loop, nothing new.  Phantom Road to Doumont Road via Kidney Lake...

Impressed as I am by Andy's time lapse video's via iPod App, I decided to produce a time-lapse video by stitching regular video (MP4) together and then speeding it up...  I am using a Coleman Conquest helmet cam which has the option of shooting in MP4 in HD 1080P @ 30fps and shooting continuously while saving files in 1 minute segments which fit together seamlessly when played back (it's called car mode). The advantage of this is that the files can be uploaded or edited quickly if you wish to cherry pick segments from them rather than sorting through one huge file (which you can do if you are glutton for punishment).  

So I downloaded Freemake Video and stitched 38 one minute MP4 files together, but stupidly checked the "transition" setting so they fade into each other.  I then further complicated things by downloading Go Pro Studio (Free & no malware) to take that single file and speed it up to 6 times speed.  So in all this file was converted from MP4, to as GSV file (a go pro tag), an AVI and then back to an MP4...  This may have impacted quality, so, for my second attempt, I did the same project again in Go Pro Studio only, to see if the quality is improved with as few conversions as possible.  

In Go Pro Studio you can select how many times you want to speed the video up from double speed to hundreds of times...I chose 6.  So I'm not sure how a 38 minute video was shrunk to 5m30...that's more like 7 or more times...  But it's free, and as me old (Step) dad used to say, "You get what you pay for..."

Attempt Two: Ok this was fun.  Go Pro Studio allows you to incorporate slow motion into the vid, controlling it via percentage (100% being normal speed), so I have incorporated a couple of sections of 50% and one of 25%.  Given this is a free program, I am very impressed with the flexibility and quality of the resulting product.  The downside is that it does take a long time to process the video - my 38 minute video compressed to a 7 minute video in about half an hour... 

To improve the quality, maximize the video, click settings and choose HD. Pretty darn good!  Oh, and there's a secret message at the end, but don't tell Andy.  Oh, and apologies for the music, but it is better than Andy's :)...Again - it was free...

The track for this ride can be found HERE.

[Edit, Aug 21st, Andy]
For a comparison, here's the same ride filmed in time lapse at 4x speed using an iPod and the app "TimeLapse."  The last minute is unedited.  Sorry--yes, too lazy to edit it properly. 
   

  

iPod Timelapse Nonsense: Doumont, Bonnell and Harwood

As you can see from the previous five excellent posts, The REAL Motorcycle Diaries and DR Siouxsie's Travels have joined forces.  Paul and I have decided to manage this page between us and to pool our resources since we often ride together anyway.  This way, you get to read my hard-hitting, straight-to-the-point riding facts while enjoying Paul's verbose clatter sometimes in the same post!  Speaking of verbose clatter, here's a mindless post that's sure to lull any reader into a deep sleep:


I've been playing around with timelapse videos on my ipod once again.  (The resolution is crap, especially after YouTube have taken their bite out of it, but it serves its purpose quite well).  I just set my bike up with a 12v/5v accessory plug in and I wanted to get out there and give it a whirl.  So, here's a video to further illustrate my last post "Two Doumont Gates that Lead to Bonnell Main (The Sundew Road)".  This video ride was identical to the previous post, except that I exited onto Harwood Dr., instead of returning to a Doumont gate, using a short and easily navigable workaround.  (The tracks for this ride, including the workaround, can be found here).

The Route:

1.  Entered through yellow gate off of Doumont Road
2.  Over the white bridge and next left up the hill
3.  Through the "Mud Pass" into the Lantzville Foothills
4.  U-turn at Bonnell Main
5.  Left towards alternate exit
6.  Exited onto Harwood Dr. using workaround.  (Harwood Dr. is very close to Phantom Rd., giving a couple of options in this area)

Here's the workaround at #6 above.  It has been posted on here before, but with all the recent blockages by Tim Berwest, I thought it would be good to show that it's still open.  (Go on Tim--do your worst.  You know you wanna). 

Now, the video you've ALL been waiting for.... *yawn*:

Two Doumont Area Gates That Lead to Bonnell Main (The Sundew Road)

Okay Tim Berwest -- here are a couple more gates for you to block!  To the more civilized visitors, here are a couple of gates, (1 and 10 on map), that will still get you into the logging roads, (to Bonnell Main):

1.  Begin at the first gate on Weigles Rd. to appear on your right after Doumont and Biggs meet.  It's the one that's slightly off the road... about 100yds or so.  Currently, you can scoot in the right side of this gate.
2.  Take a left at the first major Y in the road (Get the GPS track here.  There are a few twists and turns).
3.  Turn right on the brand new dirt logging road and follow it straight to a slightly overgrown trail.  Careful in the wet... There are many small downed trees/logs across the road on this trail.
4.  Trail slims to a barely visible walking type trail with exposed roots here and there.
5.  Enter the Foothills Trails.
6.  Through the usually open red gate.
7.  Bonnell Main Intersection.  You`re on the logging roads!
8.  Retraced track to a left turn Y, a small trail that leads back through the university trails to Doumont Rd.
9.  Over the white bridge.
10.  Doumont Gate  

A quick overview of the track on video

Panoramic photo of the Lanzville Foothills area

Lantzville Foothills

The GPS track for this ride can be found here.

"Tank Traps" Dug Up Again

Recent activity by TimberWest has sprung up at the Doumont Rd entrance to the logging roads once again, creating yet another challenge for local recreational riders wanting to enjoy the local lakes and surrounding areas.  The popular entry point of the tank traps was dug up and blocked some weeks ago and local riders managed to successfully blast their way through it.  TimberWest has responded with yet another attempt at blocking this regularly used entrance.  :

Earth mounds placed at the exit point where the last ditch was (Facing towards logging road)

Deep trench replaces last attempt of rock line (Facing logging road)

Deep trench replaces rock line (Facing away from logging road)

New mound at side entrance

Trench

 I'm afraid it's not going to work TimberWest!  Maybe something more like this is needed. 

Deadhorse Creek Gold Mine

Holy cow... No blog updates for a while now!  This one was such a great ride it must be recorded.  Paul and I have been waiting to do this ride for quite some time.  I found reference to a gold mine for sale in the Mt. DeCosmos area towards the end of the riding season last year.  Now that we have found a tried and true route into the Nanaimo Lakes region without having to use a gate, we decided the time was finally right to go and find this mine.  Actually we attempted to get there a week earlier following trails along the north side of Decosmos from the power lines, but the trail didn't look too friendly.  We walked it and managed to reach the DeCosmos road and we quite likely could have got the bikes through the rocky trail, but we just didn't welcome the struggle.  So, on Sept 29th we made our way through the standard Moriarty Lake route using what we have come to call "the key trail."

Here's our route to #19 (the mine) and back to the starting point at Doumont Rd:

 1.  Stopped and watched some amazing young riders flying over the track at the Nanaimo Motocross Assoc. (Wastelands).  Very skillful riders on that track.  We met up with Ryan there, who was able to join us on his 450 KTM.  VERY nice bike!
2.  Through the tank traps.
3.  Left turn on Branch 142 towards Boomerang Lake.
4.  Past Boomerang Lake, turned right and then right again towards the power lines route.
5.  Headed NW along the power lines.
6.  Right turn to follow Okay Mountain Valley, (on west side of mountain).
7.  Left onto 155 main.  Got to try Ryan's KTM here... WOW!
8.  Turned left off of 155 towards mountain ridge NE of Moriarty Mountain onto 155N.
9.  Left turn towards mountain ridge.
10.  Ridge Trail NE of Mt. Moriarty
11.  Turned right onto "key trail" linking the northern logging roads to the southern roads (thanks Google E).  There's a nasty downhill section full of young alders shortly after this location.  (Might not be easily accessible if quaders don't hurry up and help us in keeping the trail usable).
12.  Down through alders.
13.  Left turn towards Healy Lake.  This was a failed attempt to get through to the DeCosmos roads by cutting past Healy Lk. 
14.  We stopped briefly at the lake to take a look:  Catch and release with non-barbed hooks here.  Daily limit=0. 
15.  Past the lake it began to get pretty steep and rocky.  Too rich for my blood!  Ryan had little trouble blasting through this section on his KTM, but Paul and I would have had much greater difficulty.  Do-able I think, but not without pushing and pulling each other.  :(  Much easier to continue through Nanaimo River Road.
16.  Back onto the main trail and downhill to Nanaimo River Road.
17.  Left turn at the beginning of Second Lake to follow the road leading up Mt. DeCosmos.
18.  Right turn onto mine trail and a sharp left again up a well grown in trail that begins to climb a bit steeper.

19.  We reached the Deadhorse Creek Gold Mine.  The narrow trail comes to an abrupt end where it meets the creek.  You can see the mine opening from here if you look slightly upwards at about 2 o'clock.  You need to climb down into the creek bed, which is about 15ft below you.  Someone has very kindly attached a couple of ropes to a tree to help you climb down about ten feet.  Once down, the entrance is clearly visible to your right and easy to reach.  (It has a flat roof, which I found a bit surprising).  We entered the mine for about 50m and encountered a vertical ventilation shaft that lets a good deal of light in.  From here there are a couple of spurs leading off in different directions.

We discovered that Paul had acquired a large metal staple in his rear tire.  It was pretty clear that a gentle ride out would be the best fix.  Excellent bit of riding on his part, not only in protecting the rim from damage, but staying upright on a tire with broken beads down a pretty bumpy trail.

20.  Luckily, the yellow gate was opened by a truck ahead of us and we escaped through without needing to retrace our route heading north.  We turned left shortly after the main gate and continued towards Doumont on logging roads once more.
21.  Continued along the SW side of Blackjack Ridge.
22.  Right towards Boomerang Lake.
23.  Thru the Tank Traps and out to Doumont to put Paul's sick bike onto Ryan's truck.  ;)

Here's some photos:

Healy Lake

Parked at Healy Lake

 

The end of the trail leading up to Deadhorse Creek.  You gotta wonder how that staple managed to get up there.  Surely nobody would be stupid enough to keep riders away from looking at a mine by puncturing their tires? 

 

Climbing down into the creek bed

Climbing down using the ropes.  You can see the entrance to the mine in this shot:  Look at the tree on the right.  Now look between the two sets of main branches on the left side of this tree.  The darker spot in the gap between is the mine opening.

You can see the mine entrance a little clearer here.  Ryan is pointing his camera directly at it.  I'm standing at the bottom of the ropes where we climbed down.

The mine entrance, (lit by daylight).  Square!?  I thought rounded would have been stronger/safer.  What do I know?

    

In the mine.  Looking back towards the entrance.

Looking up.  This is a vertical shaft about 50m into the mine.  Pretty wet here...  Lots of water dripping into the mine from this spot.  There were a couple of rotting timbers that appeared to be carrying some load at this location.  Good time to watch your step a bit more carefully.  Tons of ventilation happening... No worries about gasses, although I guess that's more of a coal mine problem.

Oh, another shot of the entrance, like it's any different when you're on the way out.

Ryan at the entrance and Paul further back making ridiculous "scary faces" with his little Walmart flashlight.

Detail view of the road past Healy Lk. where we turned back.

Detail view of the DeCosmos road that begins left, right before Second Lake.  The top shows the right turn onto the mine road and the following left turn up towards the mine.

Outstanding ride!  Highly recommended!

(Updated route to this mine with a downloadable track can be found here).

Another Way into the Lantzville Foothills

Paul and I were going to head out towards Rhododendron Lake today and explore some of the roads we pass out that way.  Unfortunately he wrenched his back waving his English flag just as the winning Italian goal was scored.  ("Was that the ball going in off the post?"  "No it was Paul's back").  Next time Paul!  Really am sorry to hear about your back...  Honest! 

I decided instead to see if I could enter the Lantzville foothills from the entrance off of Aulds Rd/Old Logging Rd.  The entrance is well gated, but a small trail has been made 100m before the gate on the left.  I entered on this trail and so, I was unable to read the sign on the yellow gate.  It was probably some kind of "Welcome to the Lantzville Foothills," sort of thing.

 Here's today's route:

And... here's the day in brief:
 
1.  Entered through left trail off Old Logging Rd.  (Left turn off Aulds Rd.  See photo two above).
2.  Explored many of the Lantzville Foothills trails.  Great climbs!  Great wildlife from snakes to 1" baby  quails with FRANTIC parents.  Quite overgrown in some parts.
3.  Lantzville F.H. gate open again.
4.  Took a right off Bonnell Main that I've often passed.  It's the turn right before the road that goes to the NE side of Kidney Lake, (when heading SW).
5.  Quite overgrown towards the end.  Stopped at an extremely steep section and returned to 142.
6.  Out towards Boomerang Lake.  I had a plan to make GPS tracks of a couple of new roads out past the lake, but it started to rain.  I'm wanting at least five unrecorded roads to upload to my map provider, so I can get the next upgrade for free.  Next time, I guess!
7.  Stopped off at the open area just past the Doumont Trail's "tank traps" to see what's out there.  I never look in this area because usually I'm enroute to some other spot.  What a horror story:  It's a shotgun shell graveyard with targets of all types hanging off trees, logs and various other bits and pieces.  I left when two cowboys and a hot blonde arrived with a truck load of guns and a few full boxes of shells.  Good thing lead pellets are a thing of the past!  What bothers me about this spot most of all is the location of targets right next to a walking/cycling trail.   
8.  Zipped into the Nanaimo Motocross Assoc. to watch a few bikes fly over the track.  Really great!  Too bad the gate was locked shut when I tried to leave!  Five minute wait... no prob.

Up high in the foothills

Looking East towards Gabriola Island from high in the foothills

A small sample of the plethora of shotgun shell casings left near the Doumont Trail

The GPS track "walk through":

Google Earth "Flyover" of today's trails:

      

iPod Time lapse movie of some trails in the Lantzville Foothills:

So, we can ride the foothills without having to worry about a locked gate on the other side stopping us from getting out.  There's one short steeper section coming in from the "Aulds" entrance that might give a bit of grief going the other way.  Easy downhill in a loose packed clay coming in, but you'd need to belt up it pretty fast to get out without spinning the rear tire.  Probably do-able.

37.3km of logging roads today.