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). 

Motoz Mountain Hybrid Rear Tire Review

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155 Through to Moriarty: Baker Street

"Baker Street" is a way into Moriarty Lake from 155

Andy and I found a trail into Moriarty Lake from 155.  "Baker Street"  is perfectly doable for a bike in drier weather, and much more palatable, IMHO, than the old key trail.  The blocked access to 155-160 is for reference.  To get to Nanaimo Lakes Main, turn left (east) at "Moriarty's Key". ATVers that we met later told us the access route to it (green trail below) is easy.  More maps and a video below.

While it looks overgrown on GE, it is not.  The single track quad trail is clearly defined and obviously well used.

The unexplored green trail is accessed easily from 155-160.  

The video is not very exciting, but does let you take a gander at the trail surface and terrain.  It goes from "Sherlock's Trick" to "Moriarty's Key" From there, 4th Lake, "The Great Divide", Nitinat Main etc. are all accessible.  Vancouver Island's backroads are your oyster...Again, apologies for the music...but it fits...;)   [Apology NOT accepted ~Andy]

Google Earth flyover from 155 to the lake shore.   (This is the track of the connector trail that can be downloaded right below this movie.  Use it with the track "Doumont to Moriarty Lake" to find 155).

Here's a track of the connector trail which is a left turn off of 155N when heading SW, (the "unexplored green trail" shown in the photo above).  The track shows the route to the lake shore, bypassing the nasty road block encountered when approaching the lake using just the major logging route.

Couldn't resist a shot of the beast.  Handsome Devil, aint she!

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!"

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

Doumont Rd. to Moriarty Lake and Nanaimo River Rd.

FINALLY, we did it!  We managed to punch through to Moriarty Lake and Nanaimo River Road from the north.  We tried this a few weeks ago when there was still snow up in the nose bleed region, (1015m).  This time, the ridge we were climbing to the east of Mount Moriarty was clear all the way, (sweltering hot actually), and we were able to ride right over the top at 1090m (3576ft).

Here's the route in brief:

 

1.  Started at Doumont Rd. entrance to logging roads
2.  Turned right at the intersection NW of Boomerang Lk. onto Branch 142
3.  Left onto 155 main
4.  Turned left off of 155 towards mountain ridge NE of Moriarty Mountain onto 155N
5.  Passed "snow" waypoint
6.  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. 
7.  Right turn to Moriarty Lake
8.  Lunch at the lake shore
9.  Descent towards Nanaimo River Rd. on Branch G
10.  Nearly went to 4th Lake... oops.  (I've been staring at this route for too long).
11.  NO GUARD at the gate on Nanaimo River Rd.  Their schedule is extremely odd!
12.  Turned left to follow the lower Blackjack Ridge route back to Doumont
13.  Doumont Rd.

Plenty of dust out there today.  The logging trucks were working and we had a few of them blast past us doing 9 869 862 km/h, leaving us confused and dazed in a cloud of thick dust.  The bikes were kicking up plenty too, measurable by the layers of dirt up my sinuses.

The ride up the ridge, (a left off of 155 Main), was noticeably different from the last time we came this way:  The dryer weather and some wear from quads and bikes have loosened dirt and rocks making the road surface quite a bit looser than we both remembered it.  It was pretty easy going, only the wheel had a tendency to spin out more times than last.  It's a great climb up there...  I love how Moriarty Mountain opens up on your right as you get higher.  The weather was so good today; it would have been a good day to bring my decent camera.  Hindsight is 20/20...  I was stuck with only my GPS pics again.

We reached the end of the road as planned and explored the "brownish key trail" we have both been spying on Google Earth, (item 6 above).  Part of me thought this was going to be a complete waste of time and I thought we were in for a line of dead branches and stumps that only appeared to be a trail from satellite.  I was delightfully surprised!

A big log marks the entrance on the right, which starts about 120 yds before the end of the road.  This short joiner trail is about 100 yds long.

It was a good quad/bike trail and had obviously been carved into place by riders who were doing exactly what we were doing;  looking for a route to the lakes and Nanaimo River Road.  i.e. Getting access to the Nanaimo Lakes area even when the logging gates are closed.  (Of course, this is completely legitimate, otherwise there would be signs posted to prevent it).

We made it through with little trouble.  Occasional ditches have been strategically placed to make access more difficult than a straight trail, but these ditches are more of a mild nuisance than a trail stopper.  We continued downward through a series of these ditches, perhaps four or five.

After descending a fair way we reached a "T."  From here you can turn right to Moriarty or left to Nanaimo River Road and Fourth Lake.  Time was an issue today and we decided on saving the " check Fourth Lake gate" ride for another time.  (Note, Aug 31/12:  We've discovered there is no gate.  Hahaha). We began to climb once more and than started to descend towards Moriarty Lake.  There are terrific views of Moriarty Lake and a couple of other no-name lakes as you crest the round road leading to the lake.  We stopped at a large "tank trap" at the end of the road and decided to walk the remaining 170yd four iron shot to the lake.  Ahhhh, lunchtime at the lake.

Moriarty's Lake Shore

We rode the circle road once again and arrived back at the "T" intersection.  Continuing straight we rode a steady and quite lengthy descent down to Nanaimo River Road.  From here we continued along the less-than-exciting N. R. Rd. back towards more familiar logging roads and zipped straight through the unguarded open gate.  This annoys me!  They stopped us a week ago when we attempted to ride through here and turned us back with fully loaded bikes, forcing us to ride the #1 highway down to Cowichan Lake.  Today, they decide that it's okay to leave the open gate unattended.  Who's writing their rule book?

A quick left turn took us back onto more familiar roads.  We rode the lower Blackjack Ridge road back past Boomerang Lake and followed the tank traps back to Doumont.

What an outstanding ride today!  Finally, we conquered Moriarty Lake and we found a way through to Nanaimo River Road and beyond.  :)  It might be a bit of a struggle going the other way, although it looks quite do-able.  We'll see. 

Quad riders:  We need you guys to ride between location 6 and 7 to help stop those alders coming through the road!  :)

Didn't Get the Jump on Jump Lake!

Had a terrific ride with Paul on Saturday.  We headed out to see if we could get to Jump Lake, one of Nanaimo's watershed lakes.  The route looked plain enough; through the traps, follow the logging road that runs the base of Blackjack Ridge, a short spell on Nanaimo Lakes Road and then follow a short route in behind (south of) Gemini and Green Mountains.  It was good in theory... then we ran into the locked "Nanaimo Water Shed District" gate shortly after we crossed the Nanaimo River.

The locked gate at Nanaimo's Watershed District.  Paul's trying out his new helmet, goggles and a fancy Swann digital movie camera.  Nice gear!

 

Looking east from the bridge crossing the Nanaimo River.  There were a couple of guys panning for gold off the other side. 

What now?  We were well on our way to the Nanaimo Lakes and we both had our fishing gear, so off we went to Fourth Lake to try our luck.  We were stopped at the entry gate by some little man masquerading as Hitler who demanded $2 entry to the lakes!  Didn't get that the last time we went through.  Just lucky the last time I guess since Hitler maintained that people always pay at the gate.

The ride to Fourth Lake was great.  Lots of dust out there already.  It was really interesting to have a quick look at the entry road to the gold mine on Mt. DeCosmos, an upcoming summer ride.  That's a big mountain as far as local mountains go and it looks quite intimidating from the Nanaimo Lakes Rd. side of the mountain.  The logging road that leads to the summit skirts around its edge and climbs up a much milder looking NW side.  

We hit snow at the final turn off that leads to Fourth Lake so we parked a short distance from the dam and walked up the rear slope.  Terrific day for fishing.  Beautifully clear up there; a bit breezy but comfortable sitting on the dam catching its radiant heat.

Panoramic (180 degree) down the length of the dam

 

The lake's water level was much higher than it was during our earlier visit in the fall.

 We didn't catch anything here and decided to continue with our ride with a stop off at Boomerang Lake to see if we might get something.

Boomerang Lake 

I fished at the usual spot directly forward of the trail that leads in and Paul fished off to the right.  I got skunked and Paul caught two small trout. 

I packed my Garmin's battery housing with memory foam for this ride.  It worked well and I didn't see anything of the bothersome cutting-out and rebooting that had driven me close to insanity on my previous two rides.  I was pretty pleased that the unit had stayed on for the entire trip while recording the entire ride.  That's going to work better in the bush!

Great ride!  It's really nice to get back out there with Paul after the winter hiatus.

"There's Gold in Them There Hills:" Proposed Route #5

Got out again yesterday and rode the Sundew Gate to Weigles Rd standard route.  It was quite wet but it was fantastic to get out on the bike again if only for a short spell.  I'm amazed at the continued change in conditions on some of the local logging roads:  There are many spots where streams have chewed up the hard packed gravel road surface.  This is nothing new to a seasoned trail bike rider from this area, I'm sure, but it's sure catching my attention lately.  The tank traps really make me laugh lately.  There's a six inch wide route that I like to take through the quagmire... If I mess with my six inch strip, I'm stuck in the goo.  Anyway, I thought I'd post another proposed route today.  Here's another climb up Mt DeCosmos planned for after the snow melts in the spring.  Proposed route #5:

I was surfing the internet, looking at mid Vancouver Island mines, (closed historical sites).  I found an interesting page offering a parcel of land for sale in the Nanaimo region with a proven gold mining site.  The article described the mine site itself to be behind a small waterfall on Deadhorse Creek in the Mt DeCosmos area.  So, I now have an approximate position of the land for sale, the creek and a possible location for the mine/waterfall.  The trail to the mine continues up Mt DeCosmos for some distance to a second summit location which looks like it will offer spectacular views of the Nanaimo Lakes Area.  (Here's the webpage with the land for sale).

Here's some Google screen snags:

The route in orange begins at the end of Second Lake on Nanaimo Lakes Road.  The first "possible location" shown is another reference I found to the mine.  I think this might be an inacurate "within 500m" type of reference that refers to exactly the same mine.  The white squared boundary is approximate location of the mining land that's for sale.  The blue line represents the location of Deadhorse Creek.  The bright green line shows the final spur leading to the summit ridge.  It might be a bit too hairy for a ride, but a hike up this final trail would be well worth it to get to the view.  (Great geocache location too).  Red arrow shows the highest point on the road.  The elevation profile shown at the bottom looks at the orange route from lake to summit, with the vertical line showing the high point (red arrow) position.

Same roads viewed at an angle to show the contours better.

A detail of the creek in blue.  Approximate mine location is shown with the red arrow.

A detail of the final spur road in green.  The red arrow shows the high point in this trail and also the beginning of a section that may prove too difficult to ride.  We'll have to see.

Google Earth view looking East

Google Earth SW View

Two panoramic views from the top of DeCosmos:  The first is a 360 degree panoramic photo and the second is a winter 128 degree panoramic.  Both were created from YouTube videos using Microsoft's Image Composite Editor (free software).  

 
I'm really looking forward to this ride.  Looks like a full day if that mine is to be included in the ride.  Better bring a gold pan on this one!

UPDATE:  We did this ride in the summer of 2012, and we found the mine.  See here for details.