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.

Blackjack Ridge: River Bed Loop

We needed a short local ride today to seat Paul's brand spanking new D606 rear tire.  What better than a quick ride up and over Blackjack Ridge to get the job done.

Here's what we did:

1.  Entered at Doumont Road
2.  Through the Tank Traps and a left turn towards Boomerang Lake
3.  Left again towards southern end of Boomerang
4.  Past S. end of Boomerang and then straight along the N.E. side of Blackjack Ridge towards Lucid Lk.
5.  Right turn after Lucid Lake
6.  Climb up creekbed towards top of Blackjack
7.  Explored dead end spur
8.  Through open gate at the top and explored dead end logging road to our right
9.  Right turn onto untried route (went straight on previous trip up here)
10.  Downhill creek bed for a fair way here.  (approx 3km)
11.  Rotten log make-shift bridge (Hurry before it's all gone)
12.  Left turn at the main logging road
13.  Return on same route to Doumont Rd.

Photos:

The descending creek bed at #10.  We walked this for a short distance before deciding to go on.

The makeshift bridge of half-rotten logs at #11. 

Other "Real Motorcycle Diaries" blog entries containing search criteria "blackjack."  (There are some better Blackjack shots in these entries).

Here's today's GPS track on video.  Realtime x100.  (Best viewed at 700p/full screen). 

Fun ride, but only once so you can say you did.  It's not horrendously difficult, it's just slow going for much of it when going through old creek beds.  My clutch wasn't very happy.  :)  Likely quite slippery in the winter!

Doumont Road to Cowichan Lake with NO GATES!

We set out today to look for a second possible route to Moriarty Lake, an alternative to our new "key trail" which allows us to get through to the Nanaimo Lakes without passing through a Timberwest gate.  We got skunked unfortunately and we were unable to find a possible joining trail that Paul had picked out on Google Earth.  We decided instead to use the standard "key trail," make our way to the Nanaimo Lakes and then push on past Fourth Lake to Cowichan Lake.  If nothing else we could check the state of the gate just past Fourth Lake.

Here's our route:

 
1.  Entered at Doumont Rd.
2.  Turned onto the 155 Main logging road
3.  Turned left off of 155 towards mountain ridge NE of Moriarty Mountain onto 155N
4.  Looking for alternative route to Moriarty Lake
5.  Shelton Lake
6.  Passed Fourth Lake turnoff to our left
7.  Mountain pass... NO GATE
8.  Paved black-top section - Logger's highway to Cowichan!
9.  Through Youbou...  Supper in Cowichan Lake & #1 highway home

So, we got past Fourth Lake and stopped at the approximate cross-over location between two local logging company's boundaries where the gate should be.  There was no gate!  We've been wondering about this gate for quite a while now, and it appears that it's nothing but a figment of my imagination.*  I had imagined there must be a gate between the two borders since they went to the bother of removing a bridge at a similar location not far from here.  I had managed to convince us all about the problem of getting around this gate that never existed.  :) 

*  Oct 27/12:  Just saw the gate position shown in an old "V. I. mapbook," so I'm not delusional after all.

We saw some really great looking logging roads in this area that we must get back and try another day.  One in particular climbs steeply towards the SE and it looks like it would have some fantastic views of the pass we were riding through.  The road through here, an "S" that makes it's descent through the mountains north of Sadie Peak, are not nearly as difficult to ride as I had imagined.  Google Earth's exaggerated 3D view makes it look like you're about to ride the Himalayas, but the road is in pretty good shape and the steeper grades are hardly noticeable.

Mountain Trail  Heading SE through the Mountain Pass

 
We eventually reached a really good black-top section of road that takes you a fair distance towards Cowichan Lake.  You can reach speeds of 80km/h if you watch carefully for the odd crater and the occasional not-so-smooth transition between gravel road and tarmac.  This great little road follows the Nitinat river and offers some terrific spots to stop and check out the view.

Smooth Black-Top Between Fourth Lk. and Cowichan Lk.

 
We passed our previous route into Marcus Lake, (although I forgot to notice the turn as we rode through).  This will definitely be the route we take next time we take off for a camping trip into that area;  it's a far better alternative than being forced to take the highway down through Youbou as we did last time.

We continued on towards the east and drove the northern shore of Cowichan Lk. through Youbou and onto the town of Cowichan Lake for supper.  "Jake's at the Lake" is a great place to eat if you're going through town.

We blasted up the highway from here.  It's a much more boring way to travel, but we were feeling pretty satisfied from our tremendous ride from Doumont to Cowichan without hitting one logging gate!

Kudos to Paul for oiling up his plugs and riding back at 100km/h so my 250 wouldn't melt.  ;)  

Blackjack Ridge - Over the Top

I've ridden the trails up around Blackjack Ridge a few times now.  The views up there are amazing and it's always worth heading that way if I just have the time for a local ride.  But, every time I head up I stop at the same steep rocky section that heads over the top, leading eventually to the trails near Lucid Lake and the lower road that runs the SW side of Mount Benson.  I decided this time around to come at it from the Lucid Lake side, with a plan to turn back if the rocky, steep section looked too nasty from the top end.

Here's the route:

  
1.  Entered at Doumont
2.  Left towards Boomerang
3.  Left again
4.  Pass Boomerang and keep left
5.  Continued along length of Mt. Benson and turned up road that leads to Lucid Lake
6.  Followed creek bed leading up Blackjack Ridge.
7.  Through new gate.  (Logging roads look very new up here)
8.  Best view on Blackjack Ridge, overlooking Nanaimo Lakes
9.  Another nice spur road with an outstanding view
10.  The steep rocky section... heading down this time
11.  Descent towards Boomerang Lake
12.  Out

The uphill creek bed at #5

 

The creek bed continues like this for about a kilometer
 

New logging gate at #7.  A few newer logging roads connect up here.

 

180° Panoramic view looking SW from the best view location on the ridge (#8).

 

Nice section of spur trail (#9).

 

A shot along the power lines at #9

 
Just past this location the road begins a steep descent towards the spot where I decided against continuing on previous rides (#10).  It's a great deal easier going down, although there are a few spots where I slowed to a miserable crawl.  No pic unfortunately...  It's funny how the thought of photos disappears when your watching your front tire so carefully.  :) 

First and Second Lake from location #8

 Great ride.  I want to return to look at the lake just 0.7 km east of location #8.  Google Earth shows an unnamed, frozen-over lake about half the size of Round Lake.  Next time!

gpx track

kmz track

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.

Winchelsea Islands View and the Lantzville Foothills

It was a mixed bag of rides today.  I've been looking at a photo on Google Earth that Paul took entitled "Old Logging Terminus" and I've been wanting to get up there and check what looks like an outstanding view of the Winchelsea Islands.  The same array of logging road spurs takes you up to a couple of smaller lakes in the area that I've been curious about, so for part one of today's ride I planned to search out the spurs and take in the lakes and the ocean view.

Part two was intended only to check out the location of the Lantzville foothills gate.  I assumed it would be locked since entrance to this area is always gated from the Doumont entrances.  To my great surprise and even greater pleasure, it was open!  I went through, explored a spur and rode a beautiful trail to the Vipond Road gate.  Details posted below in the photos.

Here's the route:

1.  Entered at Doumont Trail, through the Tank Traps and on past Round Lake.
2.  Turned left and began exploring network of spur roads, (blue shaded oval).
3.  I was disappointed with the lakes... both are strewn with fallen timber and have little access for fishing.  Forgot to snap a picture. :(  They're not stocked with trout of course.  I'm dubbing them "The Crap Lakes."  Fun trails all around... lots of ups and downs.  Tons of logging; over logging really--quite sad.
4.  This is a fantastic location!  The view of the Winchelsea Islands is superb.  Like an idiot, I brought my digital camera, but it had difficulty writing the data to my memory card that was sitting on my computer at home.  Must go back and take more...  I had to settle for Garmin's navigational snaps this time around.  Could be worse; these photo are set at Garmin's highest resolution of 5MP.
5.  Back onto the main logging road, The Sundew Main Connector, and then a sharp right onto the Lantzville Foothills entrance road.
6.  Rode this fun little uphill spur road.
7.  Reached the ominous gate into the foothills.  I took a few minutes to walk around and check for any possible work-arounds:  No chance--they have that area locked down like a full-security prison, but as I said in my opening paragraphs, it was open today!
8.  Took a left at the upcoming Y and proceeded up a really nice trail.  The ground changes to a red clay base out in the foothills direction and the riding surface is either smooth clay or chunks of rock thrown down by the logging road graders.  Very steep here and there...  I turned around on one of the hills and decided to go looking for a route through the foothills towards any available Doumont gate.  Could it be open too?
9.  This was a fantastic older logging road.  Twisty and hilly with a firm base of mainly packed mud/clay with many grassy spots.  The large chunks of rocks are always about on the hills though, thanks to the logging co.          
10.  Arrived at Vipond Rd. gate.  It was locked of course, but easy to get around.

A wee bit of perspective

The fantastic Winchelsea Islands view spot,  (Paul's "Old Logging Terminus.")  The white line on the coast over the water is the town of Sechelt on Vancouver's sunshine coast.   

A panoramic image of the same area

Along one of the spurs out towards "Crap Lake"

More spurs in the same area.  No trees around there.  :(

Open Sesame!  The Lantzville Foothills Gate

 

The red trails of the Lantzville foothills

Red again...  It's like Mars out there.

Exiting at the Vipond Rd. Gate.  I was a little worried that if I wasn't able to get through this one, I would have to retrace my steps and possibly meet a closed gate on the other side where I had entered.  It was close to 6pm and they have a habit of locking things up around 5pm in some areas.  It was a pretty easy work around at this end though.  Gotta love that sign!  :)

Some kind individual must have buggered up their "keep-out" chain with a truck.  Easy as pie.

 40.2 Km...  I was completely knackered with the beautifully hot sun we've had all day!  I need to sort out a summer riding jacket to content with the heat out there.

Great ride.  I want back in there to explore some more trails.

Here are my GPS files:
GPX for Garmin format
KMZ for Google Earth format

"Speed" on left, "Elevation" on right and "Distance" on the horizontal.  "Elevation" line in green and "Speed" line in blue.  I know, I'm slow....  What can I say?

Fourth Lake Dam

Wooohoo, there's a window appearing in the local weather.  It looks like a rain free day... perfect for a quick ride out to the Nanaimo Lakes area.  Nanaimo has a series of lakes that run west from the south end of the city.  The area is owned by a large logging company who open their gates on weekends for campers to travel the logging roads into campsites on the lakes.  I was heading for Fourth Lake today, the last of the Nanaimo Lakes, to try some fishing off the dam if possible.

The route (Click to enlarge)

I picked the route heading south behind Mount Benson to keep it interesting rather than heading through the city.  I entered the logging roads through Weigles Road and headed through the worsening gummy tank traps.  (I got my bike stuck in a pool of sludge going through there today).  I followed the route I had taken on an earlier ride with Paul, past Boomerang Lake and down to the locked gate that exits onto Nanaimo Lakes Road.  The work-around is to the right of the gate and leads through a series of hills and pools that have been pretty overrun by quads that like to churn up the mud.

The "work-around" to the right of Nanaimo Lakes Road gate

The gate "work-around"

After ten minutes of navigating on foot to check if parts were passable I emerged onto Nanaimo Lakes Road and made my way on real roads to South Forks Rd.  This road takes you directly to Nanaimo River Road, the stretch of road that leads to all of the lakes.

Some miles along you reach an opened gate.  There was a gate keeper there today, as there is on most weekends, and he took my name, address, phone number and licence number.  I was instructed to check back out before five-o-clock.

First Lake is just beyond the gate.  I could see trout swirling around near shore and I wish now that I'd taken the time to stop there to fish for a while.  I wanted to move on and try fishing at Fourth Lake and still get out by five so I went on.

Second Lake

The logging roads are in great shape all the way through the lakes area.  I wouldn't take a regular car through there, but it's quite manageable for a 4x4 truck or trail bike.  After a few turns, approximately 30 minutes after passing the gate guy, I reached a Y in the road and a sign pointing left to "Fourth Lake."  The lake is only a few minutes ahead after climbing a small hill.

Left for Fourth Lake.

I turned right at the lake and drove along the length of the dam itself.  You can't fish easily off the dam, but there are many spots visible along the shore nearby.  I rode off towards the end of the Fourth Lake campsite and found a good spot on the lake shore for fishing.

The far end of the dam

Looking along the dam towards the road.  That's my fishing spot on the shore near the yellow tree furthest to the right.

Taken from the dam looking SW

Cheesy self-timer shot off the dam wall.

Further round the lake... This is the campsite area.  I fished from this spot.  That's the dam on the left.

The dam

Looking SW down the lake

I fished for about forty minutes and got many hits but I only managed to pull one in, a tiny trout that I was determined to keep.

The monster of the lake

I followed part of the same route home, but this time I opted for a trip through the city because it started to rain.  Altogether it was a really good ride and one that I'll repeat again.  Next time I think I'll stop at First Lake to do some fishing though.

That was five hours of wicked entertainment, traveling 140Km through some fantastic terrain, and the whole thing cost me $5.80 in fuel.  Not bad value since I brought a fish home too.  ;)

Okay Lake/Sundew Tour

(Click Image to Enlarge)  Today's Route:  Points 1 thru 10

 
We had a really good ride today.  Paul and I met at Starbucks shortly after 8:00am and set out for Boomerang Lake via Weigles Road.  We fished for an hour or so, perhaps longer, and then decided to pack it in and go on a search for the nearby Okay Lake to continue our fishing.

Paul looking unusually happy

Willing the cast to go further by cleverly extending the left fingers in what Paul likes to call the "Gandalf Cast."  (He was actually wearing his Gryffindor hat today).

An osprey watches our fishing at Boomerang Lake

Okay Lake from the end of the trail

Loads of parking space... even a turn-around loop for trucks!

We found the lake quickly, only to discover that it's practically impossible to fish Okay Lake from the shore.  A fisherman who had also left Boomerang informed us that the rear of Okay lake is also covered in marsh land and is equally poor for shore fishing.  So we just went for a ride instead!


We retraced our steps until we reached an intersection we had passed on our way to Okay Lake and turned right onto what looked like a trail that would go around the lake.  I really enjoyed this section of our ride; the narrow trail wound up towards Okay Mountain, turned north and took us 13.5 Km. until it met up with Branch 142, a major branch of the 155 main that meets the Island Highway.

Heading up towards Okay Mountain:  A slightly upward section with a great road surface.

 

Continuing along the side of Okay Mountain

An elevation profile of the salmon coloured line starting from the large red arrow.  (The matching elevation chart below the map flows from left to right).

We decided to turn right and follow the road that leads to Sundew Gate, (at Sundew Place).  We followed Branch 142 back to "Intersection B" then through "Intersection A," and on past Round Lake to Triumph Lake.  As we continued we passed a few "controlled" slash burns on the way, and stopped to warm up at one because I'm too cheap to buy a warming vest.  (It was worth the stop even if just to hear Paul's riveting story of how a Boomerang Lake slug nearly took off with his bag of nuts.  It's stories like these that amount to folklore in his family).

Slash Burning

Further along... A bigger burn

Plenty of heat coming off these... and...

...plenty of O₂ Emissions!!!

 
We continued along the Sundew Road and turned left to revisit the bivouac I had seen earlier in the week, only taking the time to continue on this spur road until it reached a dead-end.  (My riding glasses STILL mark the spot).

Bivouac Re-lived

The start of a pretty steep climb up to the dead-end

 

It's an outstanding view from up here.  That's Nanoose.

 

The ride back down

 

An approximate look at the trail past the bivouac.  (Strange glitch in my elevation chart:  We didn't actually fall 25m instantly like that).  :)   The 47.6% max. slope shown on this chart is approximately 25°.

We returned down the hill and turned left to continue once again to Sundew Gate.  Interestingly, Paul informed me that the gate had been replaced by a new gate in a slightly different location.  This answered my question about a more difficult to traverse "get-around" than Paul had photographed earlier.  The way through this new gate is indeed harder, although we made it through with little difficulty... soft sand and all.

The new gate work-around.  You follow that trench of soft sand on the left side of the photo.

The other side of the trench.  That sand is pretty soft and deep.

We ended the tour with a highway ride back to Starbucks north where we continued to stress our kidneys with yet another vat of coffee.  Terrific ride!