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).

Riding Over Okay Mountain from the S.E..... Almost!

We had an interesting ride yesterday.  Sebastian had been plotting a route from Errington to Doumont that went over the top of Okay Mountain.  Having tried part of the route before and having been stopped by snow and a steep climb up Okay, it seemed to make more sense to attack this route from the Doumont side:  The steeper rocky section would be easier to ride down coming from the S.E.  Now we just had to find out if the trails marked on Sebastian's route were rideable.

Here's the original route plan (right to left):

We ran into difficulty right off the bat:  What looked like an old logging road heading SW up Okay Mountain turned out to be a creek bed that joins with a more obvious old logging road further up the mountain.  Our plan changed to one of pure exploration:  Is there a road or trail that will take you up or around the mountain from that side?  We began riding any spur trail we could find.  In the end, we nearly did it.  We almost got through to clear trails on the other side of the mountain, except for 150m of non-rideable walking trails!

Here's the actual route we ended up taking:

  
 Some of these roads were increadibly grown-in and we spent quite a bit of time stopping to remove fallen trees and clearing debris.  Great fun, but HOT as hell!

  

Location "A."  We followed yellow ribbons to get here.  There was an old trail, but it eventually became impossible to go further with the bikes.  We walked on for about 100m to a clearing which had great views of the valley running up to Rhododendron Lake.

Location "A."  Turning around.

Location "B" was a short dead-end spur.  At this point we were exploring anything that made its way towards the mountain.

Location "C" was another dead-end spur, but this time it was a new active road that looks like it may go further into the bush in the near future.

Location "D."  The end of an older trail with plenty of new alder growth throughout.  It petered out shortly beyond this point.

We decided to give the usual road that leads to the top another try.  I got stopped by snow going up here last winter and Paul had stopped some distance beyond by a large rocky area.  Sebastian and I made it past the snow location, but the steeper rocky section beyond had us turning around pretty soon after, (at location "E").   We had hoped to come down this section today, but clearly there's no way up there from the other side.

Location "F."  Stopped again.  This was a real bummer!  We moved quite a few obstacles to get this far along, but the road was impossible to ride after this point.  Oddly enough, a walking trail is clearly marked off to the right side of this photo.  We walked part of it... tough ride.  150m from here to open logging roads on the other side.  Too bad--we almost made it!

Straight ahead is the the walking trail opening at location "F."  (Sign on far right of photo). 

 So, that was it!  It wasn't what we had intended, but it turned out to be a pile of fun all the same.  We saw an interesting sight on our way back to Doumont Rd:  There are two backhoes now parked between the tank traps intersection and Boomerang Lake.  You have to wonder if they're gearing up to do some serious road blocking by digging more channels as they did right at the Weigles Rd. entrance a few weeks ago.  Hope not!  There has been a lot of dumping in the area lately!  :(

Let's hope it's just a good parking spot!

 Great ride... thanks Sebastian.

Finding the Far Shore of Rhododendron Lake

Sebastian and I took a ride out to Rhododendron Lake yesterday to see if we could find the far shore.  Every time we get out to Rhodo Lake, we look across to the other side which appears to offer much better fishing sites since the shoreline looks much wider.  Sebastian had never ridden out that way, so it served a second purpose of familiarizing him with some of the excellent riding trails that we've discovered while exploring the area.

Here's the route:

(Blue Numbers)
1.  Entered on the Doumont Trail
2.  Left towards Boomerang Lake
3.  Right on Boomerang's southern intersection, and right at the next one too
4.  Right... joined the power lines trail
5.  Right onto Okay Mountain valley road
6.  Left towards Rhododendron Lake
7.  Usual Rhodo location.  Short hike to lake
8.  Far side of the lake (See detail above and descriptions below)
9.  Turn right off Englishman River Main onto Branch 142
10.  Doubled back... New plan!  Left Br. 142 and took Okay Lake Trail
11.  The excellent descent towards Boomerang on one of my favourite local trails
12.  A quick visit to the Boomerang fishing site
13.  Back at the Doumont entrance.

(Detail: Green Numbers)
1.  Searching for road into Rhodo Lake
2.  Right turn...  Very clear and obvious trail
3.  Rocky trail with some mud pools at this time of year.  The very final section was a bit more difficult to get up.  We both spun out on a large boulder and both of us needed a push from behind to get out.  Nothing too bad; we were out fairly quickly, but I might park the bike on the upper side of this rock next time.  It's almost right at the fishing site.

Some perspective

There are more fishing spots on this side of the lake, although it's quite shallow off the shore in many of the fishing locations.  There's one good casting spot that is visibly deeper than the others.  I caught two small trout in this location.  Sebastian was fishing off to the right where a long cast is needed to get out to a decent depth.  There were many fish jumping directly ahead of him, so I'm thinking that would be a good bait fishing spot if you used a heavy enough weight to get far enough out.  Definitely a good spot to try again, but a pretty useless spot if anyone beats you out there, (just like the other side).

A not-so-good stitched image made from my GPS photos.  Gives a rough idea of how the lake looks on that side.

Looking left (SE)

Parked near the lake shore

    

Our Route:

Terrific ride...  71km altogether.  Thanks Sebastian!

Another Try Towards Mt. DeCosmos

I decided to have another try at getting to Nanaimo Lakes Road using the "roads" (pfffhgh) leading towards Mt. Decosmos, (from the north).  I tried attacking Nanaimo Lakes Road from trails to the east of today's route a few weeks ago, and I noticed there was another possible way in just up the power lines route that needed to be tried.  Here's the route:

1.  Entered via Doumont Trail
2.  Turned right south of Boomerang Lake
3.  Right at next intersection towards the power lines route
4.  Onto the power lines route heading west
5.  Trail leading towards Decosmos Mountain
6.  The climb...  Very old and overgrown trail...  Turned back at ~790m
7.  Okay Mt Valley towards Rhododendron Lake
8.  Rhododendron Lake to take pics of rhodos!
9.  Rain!  alt route back towards 142 main
10.  142 main back to Doumont and civilization

The plan was to follow this pink route:

Left...  Beginning the "Decosmos" trail.

 
It was a tall order and I really didn't expect to make it all the way, but I wanted to see what it looked like out there.  The trail wasn't that bad for the most part: There was the odd rocky patch, but it was generally pretty easy to pick through it.  It became difficult towards the end, not because of the climb, but the incredible overgrowth of alders on this pretty old disused logging road.  I got pretty fed up of stopping to pull branches out of my way and as it began to thicken with small trees I eventually gave up the ghost.  I'm still wondering how far you can get on this road though; there were occasional quad tracks leading through all that mess.  I'll head back this summer and give it another go.

Mirkwood!

 So, what now?  I promised my mother-in-law that I would take some photos of the blooms on Rhodo Lake.  Off I went!  I came back down the hill and headed up the Okay Mountain valley towards Rhodo Lake.

It was beautiful at the lake today.  Not a soul around for miles.  I reached the lake, hiked in and took my photos:

180 degree panoramic of the lake

 

Some blooms are done already, but there are plenty about still

That was it...  I took the alternate route back to Doumont along Englishman River Main to Branch 142.  72Km of logging roads altogether.

Roads Near Okay Mountain and Okay Lake

I've been thinking back to when I went out to explore the roads around Okay Lake and the NE side of the Okay Mountain Valley and returned home with a loose GPS battery and a massive grey cloud over my head.  Well I headed back out there again this evening after work and had a terrific short ride.

I entered through the Doumont Trail, turned left towards Boomerang Lake and started my track at the next intersection, (what I call "Intersection B").  Here's the track on Google Earth:

Below:  A YouTube video retracing the route.  I hope it's visible here...  You might need to bring it up full screen and crank the res. up to 720p. 

 

I made a stop in at Okay Lake to snap off a photo.  You can see from the yellow track above that the road in towards the lake now extends further around the south side of the lake.  Lots of active logging in this area.

  

 All those stretches of roads running N to S are in great shape and it's possible to maintain speeds well over 50km/h for most of it.  I must have seen no less than twenty elk in three separate herds today.  The crazy things take off so quickly that it's near impossible to have a camera ready in time to snap off a photo.  At one point, I came around a corner to find them blocking the road and damned nearly joined the herd as they clattered into the bush.  Fantastic head rush!  Here are a few of the ladies off the road.

I encountered this "bridge out" while heading south.  You can see the location on the YouTube movie above:  The arrow, (which acts like a house fly walking on your lunch), stops and turns around on the southern facing stretch after encountering the missing bridge.  I return to the same spot heading north after taking a detour south on the usual road that skirts Okay Mt.

.

Ahhhh, the view from the other side after attacking it from the south.

Really nice creek view where the bridge used to span across.

There, a nice big truck to offset the beautiful creek.

   

Wow... Logged Out.  These people need to smarten up and change their messed-up logging methods.  :( 

Terrific local road to do again... really liked it.

GPX track file 
KMZ track file