Winchelsea Islands View and the Lantzville Foothills

It was a mixed bag of rides today.  I've been looking at a photo on Google Earth that Paul took entitled "Old Logging Terminus" and I've been wanting to get up there and check what looks like an outstanding view of the Winchelsea Islands.  The same array of logging road spurs takes you up to a couple of smaller lakes in the area that I've been curious about, so for part one of today's ride I planned to search out the spurs and take in the lakes and the ocean view.

Part two was intended only to check out the location of the Lantzville foothills gate.  I assumed it would be locked since entrance to this area is always gated from the Doumont entrances.  To my great surprise and even greater pleasure, it was open!  I went through, explored a spur and rode a beautiful trail to the Vipond Road gate.  Details posted below in the photos.

Here's the route:

1.  Entered at Doumont Trail, through the Tank Traps and on past Round Lake.
2.  Turned left and began exploring network of spur roads, (blue shaded oval).
3.  I was disappointed with the lakes... both are strewn with fallen timber and have little access for fishing.  Forgot to snap a picture. :(  They're not stocked with trout of course.  I'm dubbing them "The Crap Lakes."  Fun trails all around... lots of ups and downs.  Tons of logging; over logging really--quite sad.
4.  This is a fantastic location!  The view of the Winchelsea Islands is superb.  Like an idiot, I brought my digital camera, but it had difficulty writing the data to my memory card that was sitting on my computer at home.  Must go back and take more...  I had to settle for Garmin's navigational snaps this time around.  Could be worse; these photo are set at Garmin's highest resolution of 5MP.
5.  Back onto the main logging road, The Sundew Main Connector, and then a sharp right onto the Lantzville Foothills entrance road.
6.  Rode this fun little uphill spur road.
7.  Reached the ominous gate into the foothills.  I took a few minutes to walk around and check for any possible work-arounds:  No chance--they have that area locked down like a full-security prison, but as I said in my opening paragraphs, it was open today!
8.  Took a left at the upcoming Y and proceeded up a really nice trail.  The ground changes to a red clay base out in the foothills direction and the riding surface is either smooth clay or chunks of rock thrown down by the logging road graders.  Very steep here and there...  I turned around on one of the hills and decided to go looking for a route through the foothills towards any available Doumont gate.  Could it be open too?
9.  This was a fantastic older logging road.  Twisty and hilly with a firm base of mainly packed mud/clay with many grassy spots.  The large chunks of rocks are always about on the hills though, thanks to the logging co.          
10.  Arrived at Vipond Rd. gate.  It was locked of course, but easy to get around.

A wee bit of perspective

The fantastic Winchelsea Islands view spot,  (Paul's "Old Logging Terminus.")  The white line on the coast over the water is the town of Sechelt on Vancouver's sunshine coast.   

A panoramic image of the same area

Along one of the spurs out towards "Crap Lake"

More spurs in the same area.  No trees around there.  :(

Open Sesame!  The Lantzville Foothills Gate

 

The red trails of the Lantzville foothills

Red again...  It's like Mars out there.

Exiting at the Vipond Rd. Gate.  I was a little worried that if I wasn't able to get through this one, I would have to retrace my steps and possibly meet a closed gate on the other side where I had entered.  It was close to 6pm and they have a habit of locking things up around 5pm in some areas.  It was a pretty easy work around at this end though.  Gotta love that sign!  :)

Some kind individual must have buggered up their "keep-out" chain with a truck.  Easy as pie.

 40.2 Km...  I was completely knackered with the beautifully hot sun we've had all day!  I need to sort out a summer riding jacket to content with the heat out there.

Great ride.  I want back in there to explore some more trails.

Here are my GPS files:
GPX for Garmin format
KMZ for Google Earth format

"Speed" on left, "Elevation" on right and "Distance" on the horizontal.  "Elevation" line in green and "Speed" line in blue.  I know, I'm slow....  What can I say?