Living the best adventure life, since 1958
–Submitted by John Young
Another lovely jaunt up beautiful Mt. Tzouhalem. Picturesque clouds in the morning, and then cleared off, and warmed up in the afternoon. Spent a little extra time wandering around the bike trails, making it a 6 hour outing, including many breaks. Many other people up at the cross enjoying the great view. Some flowers out, and fresh growth on the Garry Oak was beautiful.
— Submitted by Clark Gourlay,
— Author Wanda Hill
ACC combined with Island Mountain Ramblers trip Apr 25, 2015. Traverse Mt Cokely to the Base of Mt Arrowsmith Gully and hike out climbers trail to the road. Organized and let by our fearless leader Clarke. Particpants included Clarke, Roger, Peggy, Monica, Wendy, Sandra and Wanda. We arrived to find loads of fresh snow. The trip took us 8 1/2 hours using various combinations of snow shoes and crampons. Thanks to Roger for breaking trail most of the way and Clarke for the excellent route finding. This route was moderately strenuous with beautiful scenery and some short steep and airy sections.
Oh the west coast weather… It will never bore you.
Saturday March 21st promised to be exciting, there were so many variables up in the air! What would the weather give us? Would we find snow and need snowshoes? Would the participants enjoy the hike through the groves of trees along the top of the San Juan Ridge? Oh my. The plan was to lead our group of 13 along the San Juan Ridge, hiking a portion of the Kludahk Trail; a section that I hiked for the first time in February 2015.
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| GPS Route and Photographs |
Total Distance: 11 km
Starting Elevation: 900 metres
Maximum Elevation: 1120 metres
Total Elevation Gain 650 metres
Total Time: 5 hours 15 minutes
After two quick rendezvous, one in Nanaimo and one in Ladysmith, 12 hikers were on their way to the final rendezvous, the Cold Shoulder Cafe in Jordan River. At the cafe we were joined by the 13th hiker, we also changed into our hiking gear, boots and rain gear, etc. As we were about to leave a minor crisis presented itself! An door lock was bumped, locking keys inside the vehicle. After some quick decisions making, we decided to rearrange the vehicles to accommodate all the hikers in four vehicles.
Arrowsmith is, arguably, the most hiked mountain on Vancouver Island. I’m sure there are other hills that are more commonly hiked, Mt. Bension, Mt. Finlayson and even Mt. Tzouhalem come to mind. However, they are each below 1000 m. Arrowsmith, at 1819 m (5967 ft), is just short of the magic 6k figure that would put it on the illustrious list of 6000 footers on Vancouver Island. Regardless, I consider Mt. Arrowsmith a great day hike. It offers multiple routes for those that are interested in varying degrees of challenge.
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| Chute leading toward the summit |
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| GPS Route with 30 Photographs |
Total Distance: 7 km
Starting Elevation: 745 m
Maximum Elevation: 1819 m
Total Elevation Gain: 1100 m
Time: 6.5 hours
January 3rd, I joined the Island Mountain Ramblers, on the first hike of the year! In total 13 hikers, gathered to make the winter ascent of the commonly hiked Judges Route. Trail Peak has a good description of the route and detailed information about the hike.
–Submitted by John Young
9 of us had a wonderful 5-hour ramble to Camus Ridge, Thistle Mine, and Christie Falls, thanks to the amiable guidance of John Wells.There was a lot of logging road travel, some on the Trans Canada Trail, but the above-named attractions more than made up for it. The mine shaft isn’t long, but is interesting, with traces of ore veins in the rocks and rails still in the tunnels. The falls were quite spectacular, even when they weren’t going full bore. I’d like to go back when they’re full! We did see, too, a wonderful canyon in Bush Creek festooned in ferns, an old cabin, and some experimental forests. The only downer was the abundance of garbage at the trailhead!
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| A Beautiful Cove |
Oh the west coast of Vancouver Island. Why are so unpredictable! They say, if you don’t like the weather just wait five minutes….. How true they are! November on the west coast is not known for is ample sun, warm days, and gorgeous sunny views. Rather it is common to find oneself mired in light drizzle and a bone chilling coolness. On November 24th, I led a group to the south western edge of the island to hike along The coastal route in the East Sooke Park.
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| Gnarly! |
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| GPS Route with 48 Photographic Annotation |
Total Horizontal Distance: 12.7 km
Beginning Elevation: 14 m
Max Elevation: 96 m
Total Elevation Gain: 800 m
Time: 6h 30 min
In total 12 hikers made it out for the day, including three guests. I’m normally not one to obsess about the weather, heck I grew up in Nanaimo! I, like many from the area am acclimated to the region. I don’t walk with and umbrella, I don’t spend much time looking at the forecast, however, as a trip leader things are different! The days leading up to the trip, I checked the weather at least once a day The night before the trip I awoke to the sound of driving rain beating against my window and roof. The wind was howling as it buffeted my windows. I was worried that I would awake to discover a dozen emails, sending regrets
— Submitted by Matthew Lettington, Read the full report on his blog…
If you are hoping to do a hike with great views of are not interested in driving logging roads and would rather instead a drive through idyllic bucolic landscapes, consider hiking Mt Tzouhalem. The hike is an easy one, with a max elevation somewhere around 475 metres it gives amazing views of Cowichan Bay and Genoa Bay. On a clear day a hiker can see several small towns and some of the gulf islands.
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| View of Cowichan Bay, Duncan |
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| GPS Route with Photographic Annotation |
Total Distance: 10.5 km
Starting Elevation: 6m
Max Elevation: 490 m
Total Elevation Gain: 898 m
Time: 5 h 35 m
We met at 8 am at the Southgate Tim Horton’s and traveled south, taking a left at Herd Road, and eventually working our way down Genoa Bay Road. In my opinion Genoa Bay is the only way to hike this route. Though many do the hike from the Old Stone Church, those folks, in my opinion, are destination seekers. Conversely, starting the day from Genoa Bay gives spectacular views and is better for folks who believe in the mantra, the journey is the destination.
— Submitted by Matthew Lettington
November 15th, I joined up with Rod Szasz and a few other hikers, many from the Island Mountain Ramblers for a trip up a rarely summited peak in the Nanaimo Lakes Region/Cowichan Lake Region. Mt Hooper tops out around 1490 metres. For me, an most interesting aspect of the hike is that the weekend before I climbed the peak immediately across the valley. Folks who follow my blog will note that summit is Sadie Peak.
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| GPS Route with Photographs |
Total Horizontal Distance: 9.8 km
Starting Elevation: 795 m
Max Elevation: 1490 m
Total Elevation Gain: 865 m
We met at Rod’s place at 6 am, the thermometer on the car read -5 Celsius, the sun was not yet breaking on the horizon. 5 hikers piled into the truck and we picked up a 6th on at nearby elementary school . The six of us drove south turning off to meet the final group of hikers at the Youbou Firehall at 8:25.
From HWY 1 we drove about 80km reaching 800 m of elevation, before we started walking. After leaving Youbou we continued west to north shore road, which eventually turns into Nitinat River Main FSR. We continued well past Cowichan Lake, following the Nitinat River and ultimately turned up an old logging spur. The road along the entire spur was excellent, very few deep dips. The bigger issue is the encroaching alder. The farther up the road we moved the narrower the road becomes. Before long, the trees were scratching and clawing at Rod’s vehicle. Eventually we parked the vehicle and carried on, on foot.
— Submitted by Matthew Lettington, read the full report on his blog
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| View from the summit of Sadie Peak, looking North |
Many of those who read my blog will know that I live in Nanaimo BC and that most of my hiking trips take me to the mid and north island. If you know your geography at all, you will also know that Nanaimo is wedged between the ocean and the mountains, a magical sort of place. However, that place is being held ransom by timber companies. The relationship between hikers and the land-holders is complicated. Though we would love to see the mountain left untouched, the reality is that most of the access to the peaks we want to climb is provided by the roads that are built and maintained by the forestry companies.
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| View GPS Route with photographs |
Total Horizontal Distance: 11.4 km
Time: 8 hours
Starting Elevation; 885 m
Max Elevation: 1460 m
Total Elevation Gain: 1087 m
In the past I have written of the challenges of getting into the areas around the Nanaimo Lakes Region. I believe that many folks who live on the Vancouver Island have little concept of how the land owned by Island Timberlands has shaped their concept of where communities are located on the central Island.
–submitted by Dean Williams
