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!

A Quick Ride... Doumont Tr., Okay Mt. & Sundew Gate

It was pretty good weather yesterday and I figured some of the ice and snow might have cleared up through the tank traps on the Doumont Trail entrance to the logging roads.  I headed out, made it through the traps traps and managed to get half way along the trail that skirts the east side of Okay Mountain.  I was eventually stopped by ice and snow as the altitude buggered things up for me and eventually I returned to the lower roads.  So... I headed off towards Round Lake and rode the routine route to Sundew Gate.  The gate is easily passable now that the quads have obliterated all the hard work the logging people went to in blocking the gate. :)   Here's an iPod time-lapse video from the Doumont Trail entrance, through the tank traps and up a new (active, dead end) logging road that has appeared near turn for Okay Mountain trail (eastern edge).  BTW, when old farts go riding in mud puddles, they always poke them with a stick to check the base!  Watch the video and you'll get what I mean:

After Work Fishing at Boomerang Lake. ♫

I made it out to Boomerang Lake today after work.  It was pretty touch and go; a choice between running the cat to the vet to help mend her failing kidneys or hit the trails.  We got home and she greeted us at the door having picked up during the day.  Out I went!

It turns out that Paul couldn't make it today.  Something to do with transporting his offspring to various group functions in the cab.  It was a chance for me to slow down at the local logging road intersections and become a little more familiar with them, (rather than mindlessly BLASTING through them as usual).  I went through the usual route at Weigles Rd., through the tank traps, left at what I'm calling "Intersection A," and left again on logging road 142, ("Intersection B"), to Boomerang Lake.  I'm feeling much better about knowing where I am out there now. :)

The Route  (Click Image to See Full Size)

The "Tank Traps."  There are six or seven of these nasties in close proximity to each other.  They have a way of sharpening your concentration just a little as you position yourself over each hump.  First time was a bit of a horror show, but they're becoming easier each time I go over them.  I kind of look forward to crossing them now.  We get through them in about a minute or so.

"Intersection A"  Great road surface all around here.  Right to Round Lake and beyond.  Left&Left to Boomerang and beyond.

"Intersection B"  Left, (or straight ahead in this pic), to Boomerang Lake.  You can really move on these open flat logging roads.

I fished at the "boat ramp" location," ("Fishing Spot 1" on image below) for about 40 minutes, finally wading in above my knees to get the casts out to a few swirls that were appearing in the lake.  No bites at all.  After watching some pretty active swirls and jumps to my left, I spent twenty minutes trying to get into the bank NW up the lake.  It was really tough going trying to find a spot in there.  I'm keen to see where Paul has been casting from.  (Here maybe:   49° 13.411'N  124° 2.135'W)

I jumped back on my bike and rode NW back up Rd. 142 and tried a few more spots where I thought I might get to the active fish.  No dice.  Finally I moved up to the other trail entrance to the lake which lies a few hundred yards up the road, ("Fishing Spot 2" on the image above).  It was weedy here, but I think it's a pretty good spot and worth trying again at some point.

The Boat Ramp (Fishing Spot 1)

"Fishing Spot 2" Looking back down the lake towards "Spot 1" on the far right.  Beautiful Lake!!

"Fishing Spot 2" looking left.  It's great to see local lakes that are so full of lily pads.  People haven't managed to ruin this one yet.

After catching nothing and eating all of my secret recipe spelt grain cookies, I took off back to "Intersection B" and turned right to go find Round Lake, (without the help of my trusty guide who was by now knee deep in spotty screaming children).  I found Round Lake and continued for a few turns before noticing the sun was getting a bit low and turned for home.  (Hit reserve tank at 179Km). 

Oh... The compulsory 3D anaglyph image:

Boomerang Lake from "The Boat Ramp"    (3D anaglyph image:  Needs red/cyan glasses to view)

 

Behind Mount Benson

I finally did it.  Paul led the ride today and showed me the route from Doumont Rd to the main logging road that runs around the back of Mt. Benson for its entire length, ending on Nanaimo Lakes Road.  What a fantastic ride!  We stopped first at Boomerang Lake and then made our way down the main logging road heading south.  We met up with Ryan and Adrian coming from the opposite direction.  They had just taken their bikes up to the aerial towers on one of Benson's summits.  There's no way in hell I'd get up there!  They're very skillful riders, both of them.  I've a long way to go to get to that level of riding.  :)

Onward we plodded.  Paul was in the front for the whole day today and being as dry as it was, I sucked in several pounds of trail dust into my lungs.  I gave up watching my tach after thirty minutes; the dust had completely covered me and the entire bike and none of my controls were visible.  A dust mask of some kind is a must next time!  A bandana would work well.  Next we turned right off the main trail in search of  Lucid Lake.

Google Earth View of Benson and Lucid Lake

  We took a wrong left turn not far up this trail which ended abruptly after a reasonably steep climb over some nasty logs and uneven terrain.  We did get a great view of Ryan and Adrian's aerial towers though, right before we turned around and headed back to the Y.

Dead end on first attempt to Lucid Lake.  That's Mt. Benson's aerials in the distance which you might be able to see if you click on the photo and zoom in on that high rock in the background.

 Down we went, rejoined the trail at the Y and took the other Lucid Lake choice.  This led us to a large clearcut area where we dismounted and walked off in search of the lake.  After trudging through deep dry tinder for 100 yds or so, we saw a logging road off in the distance and a smaller trail leading off to our left.  We followed it and within five minutes we were at the beautiful Lucid Lake.

Looking for Lucid Lake.

The Clearcut.  I have no understanding of logging and replanting practices, but this sure looked like the area had been stripped and not replanted at all.  Maybe there's a timely plan underway.  Sure looked like a tinderbox wasteland.

We found it!

Absolutely beautiful... elusive Lucid Lake

Lucid Lake...  Fly fisherman on the far side.

We had planned to go fishing today.  We weren't ready to stop yet... we decided to press on to the gate at the far south end of the main logging road where I had been skunked on my solo ride a week ago.

A quick stop further along the main logging road to catch the views of Ladysmith Harbour

The same view zoomed in (Ladysmith Harbour)

And... just a little further down the road, the elusive back view of the nasty yellow gate that stopped me the first time.  It was so much nicer to be on this side of it.  Paul took me up the road a short distance and showed me the "work around" that he had learned about a week before.

THE INSIDE OF THE GATE

Mission accomplished... now for some fish.  We decided to try Round Lake since it had been stocked with trout this year.  Round Lake looked fantastic except there was nowhere to cast a line in the water without standing on moving logs.  Is wasn't working, so we moved on to "Dragonfly Lake," or "Bladder Lake" as it has been more recently dubbed because of it's proximity to "Kidney Lake."  (It actually has no name according to local maps).  *NOTE:  On Oct 11th, 2011 this lake was named by the Triumph Thruxton Committee and shall be officially known as "Triumph Lake" from this moment on.  No fish there today.

Dragonfly/Bladder/Noname Lake

Setting up the rods at the only easily accessible spot on the lake

A view straight across the lake.  Note the very thin line of trees the logging company has left to obscure the nearby forest massacre.  I wonder if it's replanted???  Silly question.  

This was taken from the same "easy" location.  The far left of the picture shows another location that Paul tried, but it was difficult to get to.  These were the only two hard bank fishing spots we could see. 

Mt. Benson from the Black Bear Pub!

There, what a spot to finish our ride.  It was a perfect way to wash all the dust out of my throat!  What a terrific ride that was.  This is another one I want to do by myself more slowly so I can get my bearings.  I think I'll re-travel some of the routes we took and map them out with my GPS.

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Just for fun, here are two 3D red/cyan anaglyph images that you can view if you have any red/cyan glasses kicking around.  (click pics to enlarge).

The "clearcut" near Lucid Lake

Rock formations near "Dragonfly/Bladder/NoName Lake"

Round Lake and Kidney Lake

Alright, this ride really came before the last post (below), but who's checking?  This one was an earlier ride with Paul down Doumont Road.  I had taken an earlier ride out this way by myself, hoping to find Round Lake and Kidney Lake.  Both looked to be quite easy to get to.  I got skunked on my first attempt and chickened out when the road appeared to be turning into a dry and very steep old river bed.  Rather than get myself into too deep a hole I turned around and went home.


I mentioned my problem to Paul who has visited this lake a few times and has walked out with some pretty tasty looking trout on occasion.  He offered to show me the way in.

I had been on the right track, but I had stopped short by a fair bit.  He took me over some very nasty looking "tank trap" mounds that appear at first to be impossible to get over.  Standing up on the footpegs makes all the difference in this:  the bike is under far better control when the centre of gravity is lifted higher.  I was pretty surprised how easily I went over some while standing.  (And equally unsurprised how my backside returned to the seat like a magnet if I allowed it).  We eventually made it to Round Lake in one piece.

Our bikes at Round Lake

Kidney Lake looks to be an easy to reach neighbour to Round Lake when viewed on Google Earth.  Having not followed the route carefully on a GPS or map, I'm not sure what side of Round Lake we arrived at.  I had expected Kidney Lake to be a quick and straight ride very little distance from here.  This wasn't the case.

The ride to Kidney was quite difficult in spots and was reached by traveling up a fairly steep grade on fairly large chunks of sharp crushed rock.  Of course, rather than thinking of my own safety, I was more concerned about the state of my tires after being cut into by such sharp rocks.  We got there... and back... and it was worth it.

Paul looks longingly at the Kawasaki KLX250, wishing he hadn't frittered his money away on a substandard motorcycle