Lantzville Loop II

Old man winter is getting closer, the sun is getting lower, and, worst of all, my insurance runs out in early December, so today Mother Nature provided us with a respite between systems and me with a bonus ride, albeit a short one.  Andy was locked inside in a self-induced purgatorial work-binge and Ryan had no oil in the KTM's sightglass,  Ouch.  So it was a lone ride today.  I like solo rides, and thought I'd stay local (Lantzville Foothills to Nanoose) and look for some new trails.  Found some good'uns!

Sundew Main: having a slash when I see three dirt bikes heading north-east, way below.  They take a curious trail that I've never seen before.  The elevation lets my eye follow them, and I listen to the throttle blips.  It sounds good. I follow.

Their tracks and lead to this gate, after passing several looking juicy looking trail junctions on the way.  Curious as to where I am, I get the trusty iPhone out.  Sywash Ridge Road it tells me.  Never heard of it.  But handy if you need another route into the foothills/Sundew main...Below, the gap is adequate...

Backtracking from the gate for 80 metres or so, and taking a partially hidden single track path to the right you hit some hydro-lines.  I turned left (north-east) and came out to Lorenzen Lane in Lantzville (I know, never heard of it either, but it's off Superior Road).  Could've gone right, but it had a more "civilized , dog walking look" , so I decided to leave that for another day.

Turning back, and taking some alternative routes into the woods on the west side of the hydrolines, you get into some great trails with some very tasty side routes...This is FAR steeper than it looks from the wide-angle elevation-flattening iPhone cam....

And another.

Above...Ingrid peeks over the ravine trail...You can see the memorial off to the right. Below, Ingrid-eye view from the top down.  There's a slight right hand descending trail across a creek and up the other side.  It's a great ride (vid at end of this drivel).  

There's a little footbridge across the creek.

Footbridge with trail down from the memorial

Above: Overview of the route; Below: Close up of the Lorenzen Lane and Sywash Ridge Road access routes

GPX File Here...

Side note.  I have to mention the memorial for a young man that I came across.  It's a moving tribute to newly married man (August, 2011) called Garrett Paquette who passed away 6 months after his marriage, on November 11th, 2011.  He left a grieving wife and an obviously loving family.  If you take this route, you will see the moving memorial to Garrett.  The memorial was erected for two reasons: one to remember Mr. Paquette, and to "safeguard others not to fall into the ravine below". The ravine is the one I rode down, pictured above.

The fenced entrance, maple tree, and bench serve not only as a tribute to Garret Paquette, but it was also designed to shepherd others across the ravine safely.  You can see that without it, it might be tempting ride straight on towards the gently rising and curving trail on the other side of the ravine.  This is what Garett did.  It cost him his life.  

Be safe out there.  Ride on the right, and slow down.  See you next season.

They're Not Roman Candles...

Man, that was an interesting ride!  I just went out for a quick ride to see if I could access the local logging roads using the Vipond Rd. entrance.  I was hoping to find an alternative route to the standard "tank traps" entrance which has become boggy and more difficult to get through these days.  I didn't find one up Vipond Rd. way.  The road terminates in a Y; the left gated entrance looks very private and well-groomed (not an option), and the right is an extremely well-blocked logging road gate.  I decided to ride up the boggy trail to the tank traps with a mind to turn around if the rain should start up.  Rain be damned... it hailed, and the wind picked up to the point that it was clearly time to return home.  This is where the ride got really interesting.

I returned along Biggs Rd through an instant and quite nasty wind storm that had just started up.  I could see smoke directly ahead of me and a mixture of redish and green colours rising off the road.  "Bloody kids," I thought, "they're lighting roman candles on the road ahead."  (We're still finding the remnants of Halloween fireworks around our house even though Halloween is supposedly done).  As I rode closer I discovered it was in fact a very large tree that had just come down seconds before.  It had crossed and completely blocked the road, bringing several substantial power lines down with it.  A large fire started up around the coloured flashes and a distinct electrical fire smell filled the air.  My first thought was "Ooooh, that will look good on my blog," but I considered the insulative properties of my tires and I wondered if my shoes shared the same poor conductive properties on the wet road.  I turned the bike around and viewed the fire from a safer distance, putting my feet on the ground this time.  I didn't take a photo.  :(  It was a much safer idea to just get the hell out of there and report it).

I passed a fire truck closer to home.  They had blocked Mostar Road to clean off branch debris that had landed in the area.  I stopped and reported the fire and downed lines to them.  Finally got home to a power outage.  Vicki told me the instant wind storm had hit at home too.  Power just came back on a few minutes ago.  Bike's still out... Better go put it away now that I can open the garage door.