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). 

Off to Heart Lake ❤

Last winter Paul blogged about a route to Heart Lake that he was keen on trying.  Heart Lake is situated at an approx altitude of 860m on the eastern side of Green Mountain, about 30km SW of downtown Nanaimo.  Yesterday Paul, Sebastian and I headed out to find Heart Lake on what is becoming a standard route for us:

1.  Began at Doumont Road and went through the tank traps before turning left.
2.  Travelled over the new bridge...  No new yellow gate :)
3.  Turned right at Boomerang Lake's southern intersection.
4.  Followed power lines trail. (Many improvements have been made to the roads here... The loggers may be busy soon).
5.  Turned right off of power lines route onto Okay Mt. valley road.
6.  Turned left onto 155 Main.
7.  Turned left onto 155N.
8.  Travelled up the ridge road. (It was cloudy and rainy today... No views of Mt. Moriarty).

Blueberries on the ridge road

9.  Went through the "key trail" and turned left onto a possible alternative to having to descend through the alders as we usually do on this road.
10.  Fought our way through heavy young alder growth. (It was heavier than the standard route).

mossy road surface on the "alders alternative" road before we encountered heavier alders

Paul reaches a clearing along the "alders alternative"

Sebastian emerges through the alders

11.  We stopped the bikes and walked to check the route.  We didn't walk all the way, although we went far into the overgrown road.  Not a good route without a chainsaw.  If you're a quad rider, please head up here with all your quader friends and stomp all over the alders.
12.  After deciding that the trees were too thick we retraced our steps and followed the usual road through the alders towards Nanaimo River Road.

those alders will grab onto anything from front brake levers to cameras

13.  Over the bridge and left towards Heart Lake.  (A small trail to the left of the gate appears to have been provided by the logging company for small vehicles to pass through).

(top left to bottom right)  A small trail left of gate provides access.   It's difficult to see the road you need to follow when looking on Google Earth.  Follow an immediate fork to the right after the gate.  Both forks head to the lake although the right fork is more direct.

 
14.  Uphill road to Heart Lake.  It's a steep but fairly easy ride.  There are many drainage ditches on this road that keep your speed in check.

climbing up towards the lake

15.  Heart Lake at near 900m.  Beautiful lake with a depressing "grapple-yarded" mess of logs and stumps on the far shore.  What a terrible mess these people have made of one of our beautiful lake areas!  :(  Surely there are other spots you could have logged.

approaching the lake

290° stitched panoramic from the western shore of Heart Lake

good fishing cliffs on western shore

There are a number of good fishing spots on the road side of the lake.  Some spots are off of low cliffs while others can be found nearer to the water level.  We fished for a little over an hour today, (I think), and we saw very little action.  Eventually we walked out with three fish between us.  We saw a bear on the far side, which helped to make things more interesting.  (Unfortunately, the bear was looking for trees and had less luck than us).

One of us took a spill on the way out.  No large injuries luckily...  Just an improved healthy respect for downhill logging roads with ditches.  ;)  Lesson learned!

It was a terrific ride and it appears that we all really enjoyed it except for the spill. 

Here's our route spelled out on my GPS map at 100x real time.  (If you increase the resolution at the bottom right of the window, you can read the writing without squinting). :)