Green Mountain, Except It Was White

Nearly 4000ft: Green Mountain aint so Green...

Ultimately, the best ride on Remembrance Day would have been up to pay our respects at one of the many WW2 era crash sites around here, perhaps visiting the Lockheed Ventura on Mt. Bolduc would have been more appropo.  But with the shorter days and our later start, we decided Green Mountain from Doumont Road would be a better plan ~130km round trip.  

Click to Enlarge.

1. Doumont Road Tank Traps

2. Left on to 142 and pass Boomerang L.

3. Right at Cottle L.

4. Right and follow Hydro Lines

5. Left after bridge.  Left at Hickup Trail

6. Right onto NEW Escalator Trail (Easy).  Turn Right as you pop out of the Escalator onto Decosmos/Deadhorse Creek Main (a major logging road).

7. Right at 2nd Lake onto Nanaimo Lakes Road

8. Left onto Branch K (Major Junction)

9. Left onto Green Mountain access road

10. Left

11. Beginning of Green Mountain Meadows and the Marmot Reserve.

Click to enlarge

Elevation Track (m)

                                         

                               Google Earth "Flyover" of the Route (Full Screen to View Text)

It was a great ride, offering a little of everything: some logging roads, technical single track, hill climbs and burms at Green Mountain, not to mention snow.  The total distance was approximately 127km from Superstore Gas bar to Green Mountain and back to the Black Bear Pub.   I've got to say the rear Mountain Motoz at 10psi was awesome everywhere, particularly up some serious grades in the snow.  I didn't air it down to the 4 psi I usually roll on as we were hitting some potentially rim denting speeds on crush, and didn't fancy a pinch flat.  Can't wait for a set of Tubliss...

White Trails Near Green Mt. Ski Hill

Maybe the last picture of Andy with the trusty KLX250S.  It's been an excellent ride for Andy, but the lack of torque and soft suspension are leaving him looking at Beta 300X Italian Princess.  His money is down, and the beast should be here before too long.  Can't wait to see it.  Anyway, needless to say, we ended up at the Black Bear for a coupla delicious barley sandwiches.  What a great way to finish a ride!  

Checkout the short vid below for some trail condition samples...(Don't forget to change the settings to 1080P for the best resolution.  - First shots with the Go Pro 4 Black.  The quality looks much better...Pity about the music!)

Click here for a track from Wikiloc.

(Big "thank you" to Ross Collicutt, who provided the track we used to find our way up Green Mountain). 

The BC - Washington Loop - Phase One: Horseshoe Bay to Vernon

Click for a larger view...photographs are referenced by numbers on the map

1 The Brittania Mine - well worth the stop if you've never been into a mine before.  We were barely off the ferry, and we stopped to check out the mine.  I found it somewhat disappointing as compared to Andy and my previous visit to the Myra Falls Mine, but it was a worthwhile stop if only to adjust our gear!

 
The train ride is short, but the gold panning lucrative if you persist.  Of course, time is of the essence, so 3 flakes had to do.

 2 Shannon Falls: Another stop, another gear change.  Beautiful falls, and the road to Whistler is great to ride, but the weather seemed to change every few minutes.

3 Whistler: We actually stayed at the Fairmont for the night.  What an over-hyped, overpriced joint. They wanted to charge me $35 for parking.  Forget it.  Your bike won't trigger the automatic sensor, so ride around the gate (you should be used to riding around gates if you're a regular reader of this blog!), find a stall and enjoy a free stay. You won't be asked about parking in the reception/foyer, as you settle up with a machine on the way out, unless you ride around the exit barrier...Use the saved money for some liquid refreshment at the end of the day, or to tip the snooty Valet parkers...  So instead of free advertising for Whistler, I'll show you how you get a week's worth of clothes, iPads, iPhones, Kindles, passports, documents, spare keys, sunglasses, glasses, some minor medical paraphernalia and shoes into a Suzuki (Rebranded Trax) 38L Aluminium top box and Suzuki (Rebranded Bags-Connection) Tank Bag...Use a straw, an iron, and some ziplocks!

4 Mount Curry, Lillooet Lake to Duffy Lake:  Ok the serious stuff.  The roads.  The surface strangely degrades substantially after Whistler.  Christy is all about image.  The weather got wet too, but the much maligned Bridgestone trail wings were amazing, especially considering this was the first rain in a couple of weeks.  The road winds after Lillooet lake, up some tasty switchbacks with great elevation changes and views...a feature of much of this route. 

That's all the luggage...the tank bag and the top box...

Typical wet coast weather greeted as the elevation climbed, but what a difference in Lillooet.

5 Lillooet: Cross the coastal range and the climate and vegetation changes abruptly.  But the road continues to dish up exciting curves and elevation changes at will.  There is no end to them. The traffic is very light and the only speed tax collector we saw after Whistler was on a Harley ripping up the blacktop with abandon.  Great guy, who pulled over when he saw me adjusting my camera and had a chat.  

The Thompson starts to meander its way through this cowboy country...as do the roads :)

It was hot, and another gear change was required.  If you're a dirt rider, and you have a ballistic mesh vest, then this is the country for you.  Unfortunately we only had one...and you can guess who got that.

6 Cache Creek: Here you have a choice - head south along the 97C through Merritt and along 5 and 97C again to Kelowna and north to Vernon. OR, shorter,  head east on 1 through Kamloops, and turn southeast on the very scenic 97 through Falkland to Vernon. This is the route we took.  The 97 through Falkland is another great motorcycle road with good surface, great curves and scenery.

 Triple digit speed limits, something we don't see much of on Vancouver Island

7 The Falkland Road: Again, light traffic, scenic and flowing curves made for a nice end to the day before Vernon.  Vernon was not a place I would choose to stay again...It was a long a ride, and stopping in one of the smaller communities after Kamloops and before Vernon may have been a wiser choice.  Nothing against Vernon, but after the scenery we had seen that day, it was...grubby.

Phase Two - Vernon to Nelson

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).