Back to Find Mt. DeCosmos' Summit

Poor quality pano from the top...1st and 2nd Lakes 4000 odd ft below...(Click to enlarge all images)

We were up on the Mt DeCosmos roads around mid-July for the second time when we rode up the second lower summit as far as roads would take us.  Not enough--we've wanted to get right up to the summit and look over the other side at the Nanaimo Lakes for quite some time now.  So, this was today's plan:  Follow much of our July route and hike to the summit.

The route:

1.  Entered the Lantzville Foothills roads through the Harwood Drive Workaround and followed the beaten path to Bonnell Main (Sundew Main)
2.  Left turn to join the main logging roads (Bonnell)
3.  Round Lake and Kidney Lake area
4.  Left onto Branch 142 towards Boomerang Lake
5.  Right turn after Boomerang
6.  Turned right on the "Power Line Trail"
7.  Exit left towards Mt. DeCosmos (see photo directly below for additional details).
8.  Through "ThE HeLLeVaToR" trail... (bwaaaaahahahaha), then turn left on DeCosmos roads.  (Actually, the trail leading towards the "Hellevator" suits the name better.  We've tamed this hell spawn wannabe--little softy satanic trail that it is....pffff).
9.  End of second summit road.  Parked and turned left to hike up the slope to the top.
10.  Not a bad hike.  We had to stop a few times to catch our breath, but it was fairly easy going for the most part.  Bring water! 
11.  Stopped for a while at the transmitter that sits at the summit.
12.  Lots of trees to hike around to find the good viewpoints of the Nanaimo Lakes.  We found a couple of rock outcrops that get past most of the trees.  Photos below ;)
13.  Retraced our steps to the Alternate Tank Traps.  (This route has recently become usable again after two recent dig up sessions by the logging company)  Works for now, but get in quick folks, because when they find out...
14.  From Doumont to the Black Bear Pub to celebrate our victory!

Some additional details for left turn at location #7

Colour Coded Altitude Track:  Range = 103.5 m to 1331.6 m (339.6 ft to 4368.77 ft)  

Google Earth Screen Capture Showing Elevation Profile (Click for Better Detail)

Here's a GoogleEarth flyover video of the route.

Here's a "fly on the map" 100x animation of this track.  I left the GPS sitting a couple of times, so you'll have to be patient with the occasional 100x wait.  ;)

Looking Back Towards Okay Mountain from DeCosmos 2nd Summit

Transmitter

Some guy who was working on the transmitter

Looking SE towards First Lake

Clearer View:  SE Towards First Lake

Looking NE Towards the Winchelsea Island Group 

"Crash Corner" is directly above the "NE" in the above caption...Our first attempt at summiting DeCosmos left me with months of physiotherapy, and Andy with a damaged bike...You can read about that and see the route here...De Cosmos, De Crash and De Lesson...  You cannot get to this peak from the Crash Corner route (without a fair hike), but it's just possible you might be able to hike up to the "other" DeCosmos peak from the end of that road.

The Park 'N' Climb Spot...  Ready to Head Back

Shots of the riding conditions and what you can expect to encounter (surface quality and terrain) referring to numbers from the map:

Above - Between 6 and 7: The hydro-line trail was as usual dry and easy

Between 7 and 8 - Above and below - the trail connecting the hydro lines to the Hellevator can be fast and smooth, but is littered with boulders from winter runoff.  It seems longer every time we ride it!

Between 8 and 9: this gate was open in July.  The workaround is simple - the strange little gatekeeper sliding down the bank from his cave on high - directed us to the workaround (he's standing on it).  As we rode around, he slapped his leg and laughed, explaining that the joke was on us, as the gate wasn't locked!  "What's the point?!" we retorted.  He simply placed his index finger to his temple and replied cryptically that, "Tim Berwest works in mysterious ways."

Close to 9: almost there.  Look at that surface!  Dirt bike Nirvana!

8...Descending the Hellevator...You may be able to click and improve resolution, by clicking the settings button...

Track available HERE.
Fantastic ride!  If you decide to follow our track, make sure you wear a bright orange shirt so you can attract as many wasps as possible while on the summit.  This is particularly important if you want wasps to cluster around your sandwich and water bottle.  ;)

His nibs, replete in luminous orange insect attracting shirt (snicker), directing wasps, horse flies and various other biting insects to "Sit".  It must be the altitude.

EDIT:     Ah, here we are.  The proof:  "I command you to SIT!"

Hellivator Trail to Dead Horse Creek Gold Mine: Finally Got Through

Long time no post!  It's been so long since I updated this blog that I've forgotten how to use this editor.  Under increasingly heavy demands from my readership of at least three people, I've decided it's time to post a few entries again.  I intend on keeping them fairly brief, but will continue to break down routes briefly on numbered maps.

Took a fantastic ride yesterday up to the Mt. Decosmos summit with Paul.  We took the yet untried technical connector trail that joins the powerlines trail to the network of trails in the Nanaimo Lakes area.  Here's the ride in brief:

 
1.  Entered on Phantom Rd.  New blockages attempted by Timberwest only lasted a few days here.  A small gap on the right of the fence will allow bikes in.  Quads are screwed at this gate for a while.
2.  Wrong turn left.  Paul's fault!
3.  Followed beaten trail through the Lanzville Foothills.
4.  Joined main logging roads at the Bonnell Main and proceeded towards Kidney and Round Lakes.
5.  Passed blocked entrance (left) to "tank traps."  Nice MASSIVE fire hazard TimberWest!  What a stupid thing to do!  Ridiculous overkill by cutting down all of the "early succession" trees to block the already blocked trail.  What idiots you are!
6.  Left turn to Boomerang Lk.
7.  Right turn right after Boomerang.
8.  Right turn to follow power line trail.
9.  Left off of the power lines trail to meet with connector trail leading to Nanaimo Lakes area.
10.  "The Hellivator" technical trail joining power lines area to Nanaimo Lakes roads.  This is an essential local trail to know if you want to get out to the Nanaimo Lakes area easily.  (What's the real name folks?  This trail has a fairly well-known name, although "Hellivator" is perfect if your front tire is as worn as mine.  ;)
11.  Mt. Decosmos trails.  It's fantastic up there and I highly recommend taking some time to get up there for the excellent views of Mt. Arrowsmith and Mt. Moriarty etc.
12.  The second summit trail at 1256m.  I want to return and see if the narrow trails appearing on Google's 2005 maps continue towards the summit as they appear to do.  Looks like a good hike.  The views of First and Second Lakes from the top of Decosmos must be fantastic.  Must try this!
Comparing mountain heights to those in Old Blighty, Decosmos is 171m (561ft) higher than Wales' Snowdon and 88m (289ft) smaller than Scotland's Ben Nevis.  
13.  Revisited Deadhorse Creek Gold Mine.  Fantastic spot to look around.  If you go there, bring a decent flashlight.  Right at the end of this trail, you'll need to climb down a small cliff using the ropes attached to trees.  The mine entrance is located off to your right once you climb down. 

49° 7' 53.35" N  124° 16' 5.69" W

14.  Attempted to leave through the Second Lake yellow gate.  Locked of course... Wouldn't want people to enjoy the local lakes.  Turned around.
15.  Retraced a direct route to the tank traps work around.  This route connects you half way along the older tank traps route that was recently blocked by TimberWest.  It's slightly more technical than the old traps, but pretty easy to get through.
16.  Black Bear Pub for copious amounts of cold beer.  Highly recommended!

The route shown with colour coded elevation.

The summit, (pink on previous shot), showing trail on 2005 Google Earth map that continues from where we stopped.  Must go back and find this. 

Google Earth flyover of the route

100x animated view of this ride.  Best viewed if you click on the YouTube icon below the video once it's running and then up the settings to 720p and full screen.  Includes a few stops and walkabouts, so if you're not interested in looking at the track in further detail this is a total yawn fest. :) 

Panoramic view towards Mt Arrowsmith and Mt Moriarty

Walking the "Hellivator" before taking the bikes up

Beginning section up the creek bed

A few roots to navigate

The top - Mt. DeCosmos trail network

Looking out towards Mt. Moriarty

Fantastic views - Worth the ride just for that

Slope and short cliff climb down to the mine

Mine entrance

Creek along side the mine entrance

Wikilocs track of this ride is available here.

Further reference to the Deadhorse Creek Gold Mine on this Oct, 2012 post

Great photos and a video of "The Hellivator" trail from Paul who accompanied me on this ride can be seen on his blog.  Click HERE!  (Be warned:  This blog sometimes contains dainty photos of blossoms and even butterflies... phffff).

"Power Line Trail" to Nanaimo River Road: Still Lookin'

We're still hacking away at finding a shorter route to Nanaimo River Rd. that bypasses yellow logging gates.  We have our current standard route, but it's close to being unusable as the winter and snow approaches.  In addition, the standard route is quickly becoming unusable as young alders are growing so rapidly that the trail will soon be overgrown.  (C'mon quads--we need you out there).

Paul and I decided to explore another possible route through from the "power lines trail" heading out towards the logging roads on Mt. DeCosmos.  Google Earth shows a faint line that could have been a connector:

  
 What a disappointment!  The blue trail turned out to be a good road, old and well covered with deep moss with many alder saplings.  Too bad that we didn't find the elusive trail...  It was looking pretty good for a while, but the line visible on Google Earth must have been an old creek bed or a road so old that it's long gone.

Old moss covered roads (the sky blue line above)

Same sky blue road at the beginning of the grown-in alders.  These became quite thick as we continued on this road.

We headed back to the main trail (orange) and revisited the route we had walked a few weeks ago that does lead to the DeCosmos roads, (shown here in red), but the rain has taken over and it's now a pretty steadily flowing creek over roots and well-sized boulders.  This isn't a good alternative route, at least, not in the winter.       

The flowing creek.  It's do-able, but not a good regular route through.

 
So here's the next try.  I don't know why we haven't tried this yet!  I had it earmarked as a possibility some time ago, (I think Paul might have too), but as yet we haven't given this one a try.  I'd like to give it a go next weekend if the rain cooperates:

We zipped out to Rhododendron Lake after we got skunked on our exploration.  Paul pulled in this really nice cutthroat trout.  Last cast, wouldn't you know it.

The catch piqued Paul's basic hunter instincts and the fish was devoured on the spot.

Parked just outside the "technical" trail to DeCosmos.  It's a fun ride to here.  Quads must be taking this route often to get through to DeCosmos:  We saw a few logs jammed into holes here and there.  Could you remove them once you're through so we don't break our necks on the bikes?  ;)