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.

Kidney Failure Lake

Nanaimo is lucky enough to have two Kidney Lakes.  Don't ask me how that happened!  Perhaps it was some cartographer's bad joke at attempting an anatomically correct map, or perhaps it was the more likely result of general confusion on the part of loggers and other visitors.  Anyway, we have two--and one has remained  a mystery to me for all this time since the local logging company closed off the main entrance to this region some time ago.  (Why they ever did this raises a few questions too.  Kidney Lk. II is such a buggered-up mess of dead logs, I have to wonder if they're saving the embarrassment of people actually finding it.  Maybe not, they have gone to the effort of leaving a scabby, thin boundary around it to maintain its pristine healthy look.  FfffPbwaaahahaha).   

I've attempted to find Kidney Lk. II a few times using trails from the east side that run through the university's excrement infested trails, but I've had little luck until very recently.  One riding friend, Sebastian, located the hidden trails a few weeks ago and his success was followed up recently by Paul who discovered Sebastian's route in from the Doumont Trail shortly before the "tank traps."  I came crawling along in third place to claim my own victory, although I did need Paul's poxy GPS track to actually get in there.

Here's the route:

The Route  (Click Image to Enlarge).

1.  Beginning of Dumont Trail at the shot up "No Dumping" sign 
2.  Turned right shortly before the tank traps  (This is at the first big pool in the road during the wet season.  It's the road pool that most bikes avoid by taking the shortcut to the left to eliminate the pond and the entire wet corner).  Actually, there's another right you can take 100m before you get to this one.
3.  You have some choices here.  It is possible to avoid the steep hill and the awkward trenches.  I like to go right at the wreck (to avoid the hill), next left to the bottom of the hill and then just follow the serpentine along to your right until you reach the logging roads.  
4.  Rode through the logging roads using the old maze solution: always turn left until you're out.  This brought me close to Kidney Failure Lake really quickly, so I rummaged through the undergrowth to get a photo, (see below).
5.  This road passes above Round Lake.  I'm not sure it's worth the hike down, since you can get there easily from the Sundew Main road on the other side.  There's fish in there, but it's not one of the better local lakes.
6.  I took a good look at the road block that I often pass from the other side.  It's a complete mystery why they went to the bother of blocking this route through.  I'm sure it was well planned and extremely necessary to ensure good environmental logging practice though.  ;)
7.  Stopped off to view the "lake" from this side too, (see photo below).
8.  Did this loop for absolutely no reason at all.
9.  Turned left at an entrance into the uni lands near the concrete pad (truck loading point) to follow a known trail that exits near the Biggs/Dumont intersection. 

10.  If you turn right here, on what looks like the main trail, it comes to a dead end.  Go left when travelling east.  (It's weird riding this trail in this direction.  I always come up it the other way). 
11.  Found myself at the backside of a well-secured yellow gate. 
12.  The white bridge and exit gate to Dumont.

Some Photos:

Paul's earlier track in red and my earlier (failed) attempt to get here a week ago in pink.  (There's a nasty hill where the red and pink join that made it impossible for me to get through from that direction.  I walked it).

The wreck mentioned at #3.  Left for the hill and right to avoid it.

(Animated gif) A 4x4 truck on his fourth attempt to make the steep hill.  He did well considering his tires weren't that chunky.

Panoramic view of Kidney Lk II

Beginning of the asinine road block between Sundew Main and the Kidney Lk II area.

Peeking at the north-east end of the lake at location #7.  Sorry... crap shot!

 

Returning at point #3.  I went left.

Returning at #3.  I went left again...  Right is okay until you wipe out into the trench.  :)

Nice to finally get in there and check the place out!