Vancouver Island Day Trips

Surprised the bush was open with it that dry, I was up in wells grey and the Chilcotin at that time last year, and it sure was amazing global warming weather up there too.


That looks like a great weekend destination for a fishing trip from Victoria

Hello - fairly new to this Forum. I short introduction, First Bike was a Yamaha TT500. Im not even sure what year but it was but it had a decompresion leaver that I found after it bucked me off while kick starting and nearly broke my ankle. That was back in 1978 and the Yamaha was a rundown beat up bike then. But I was HOOKED.

Since then I have owned most brands and both Sport, Cruiser, Dirt, Dual Sport and Adventure .

Anyway Im alot older now and have 3 kids. The eldest is alomost 19 and is on his second Bike. My Daughter road dirt bikes with me when she was 13 and was fearless but now likes Boys better than Bikes ( Where did I go Wrong)

Anyway I've said that to say this, My son and I are planing our second Road trip from Calgary AB to Vancouver Island and back. A mix if Camping and Hotels . Should be a 5 day trip with 2-3 days on the Island.


So Any advice regarding routs and camp sites would be greatly appriciated.


Thanks

Looks like I'm 5 months behind on the RR as usual these days.... Well, Here's winter!



Oliphant



I threw tennis ball sized rocks through on my end!:eek1











And I finally got some decent lights!!!



And machined a jerry can mount at work.





At some point in February, I made it out to Wild Deer lake, barely!



On the way..



On the way Back!

I know where that is, was there last week on my Vstrom

Early Spring, and the last of winter melts away...



Near Lake Cowichan. Everything is super soggy right now. 2 weeks ago there was a foot of snow out this way.. I'll check this one out again after it dries out a bit...It goes on for a good ways along the river.





Great fishing on the Cowichan, it feels like cheating sometimes!!

Went down Highway 14 for something to do, found a big pipe feeding a hydro plant. Neat, but kind of boring...

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Passed over the new bridge on the way to Port Renfrew without realizing it! I miss the old one so I thought i'd check it out.

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And, its gone........Evidently, someone has staked a gold claim here as well!

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Come on Spring, I know you're out there!

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great pic.

Thanks, I like that one too! Super fun trail!

Long overdue maintenance...37000km valve check, yep, they're tight! One exhaust valve was .006" beyond tight,the others weren't quite as bad, but not great either.

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Looks like the cam chain is stretched too! This is the Automatic cam chain tensioner, fully extended when I pulled it out. That would explain the godawful metallic racket my bike was making all winter!

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I'm learning about all this as I go, and decided that between the valves and the cam chain, it could be a heck of a weekend, especially having to go get shims via bicycle across town while my bike sits in pieces, outside, in an urban setting.
I also had the stock DRZ clutch that I wanted re-installed, to replace the Revloc semi auto that came on my bike, so I made an appointment with Kenco in Sooke, and got them to do it all in one shot. They suggested I could save some money tearing the bike down however far I was comfortable with, and then hand it over, which I did outside their shop. 4 1/2 hrs later, and they were done! I was real happy with them, They knew it was my only vehicle, and even though I said by the end of the weekend would be fine, they made sure I got it back the same day.
And it runs like a top now! Barely even need the choke! No more 10 minute warm ups!

I haven't used a real clutch in 2 years, so it took a bit of getting used to, a few embarrasing moments occurred, but 3 weeks later, I was riding the same old singletracks no problem!

Went to a Victoria Motorcycle Club trials meet! One member was even nice enough to let me try his trials bike! I did this on a bicycle for years, and have always wanted to get into this. It was a great experience getting to try a bike out, and answered a question I have asked myself for a very long time.... Do I want one of these? Well, it felt almost like a mountain bike compared to the DRZ, and I was amazed that I could trackstand it almost as easily as my trials bicycle. so it's a definite yes, I want one!! Good times are to be had for sure!

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/50049382@N07/8649521888/" title="IMG_1070 by anonymousse-ity, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8099/8649521888_2fc1dd73cb_z.jpg" width="640" height="480" alt="IMG_1070"></a>

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Naa....I'd fall over and hurt myself with a trials bike....

Yeah, it's a different animal, that's for sure! I'd like to think I have decent foundation skills with my bicycle trials experience, but with the rear brake being a foot brake, among other obvious differences, it would present some unique challenges to overcome. And what the heck do they call a pedal kick in moto trials anyway?

A lot of these trips look awesome. Love the mix of bushcraft fishing and riding. It's what I have been trying to do. I have taken my BMW f800gs through some tough trails and into spoke hills, but I don't think I can get into a lot of your spots. Is the upper cowichan good to fish in the summer? Or better in the fall?

For fishing,Fall is good, Spring is good, I think Summer is a bit slower...Lots of regulations on the Cowichan, so do your research! And watch out for tubers!

There are lots of places in this report an F800 could get, but for a few of them, it might depend on how comfortable are you with going under gates, if you can't get around them.

So my riding buddy Chris's good friend John, just bought an old ocean front house near Shirley, and have been gutting it all winter. Goodbye shag carpet and wood paneling! It had not been occupied in over 7 years, and was previously owned by some oddball mental prison psychiatrist who worked in Victoria, so the story goes.
Apparently he was an avid gardener, but 7 years left alone, the jungle was really starting to take over. With a lot of hard work, they've really started to transform the place!
I'm out there a fair bit these days, since they have trails right across the road from the house! Perfect for Chris to get a dirt ride in on the way home. We eventually managed to scout out the back way all the way from Shirley to Sooke! Now that's a fun commute!

This is almost right above the place.



This was a nice ride! Late April, and it finally hit a nice 17C out! Such a relief after 7 months of rains and snow!!!



I don't want to talk about this one! The ground is still pretty saturated, and I just kept going deeper. Luckily, John just got a quad, and was on this ride with us! It was a good way to break in the new winch!! I guess that's what I get for following the quad! Fun times!

Beauty! :eek1

Even the stuckage

May 1st, the weather turned to what we normally get in August! For about a week, we got to the mid 20s in Victoria, 30C was the hottest in Port Alberni.

2 weeks later, the weather was back to normal, and I decided with about a days notice to go along with my riding buddy Chris, to Cortes Island where he was invited to play a music set at a community hall party. He is into electronica, and uses software to arrange his sets, so he brought along his laptop for this.

So we left Victoria, planning on catching the last connector ferry from Campbell River, to Quadra Island, to Cortes, and instead spent an hour and a half, crawling up the steepest part of the Malahat at 6 kph from Goldstream, onwards. Oh well, at least the delays are for safety improvement construction.

So we roll into Mill Bay. Chris literally rolled into Mill Bay! Bike died on him for some reason. He rolled down, and into the CO-OP gas station to a stop. Next thing you know, I see a pickup truck that for some reason decides to back right over my buddy!!!:eek1 He had absolutely no time to react, and with a dead bike, couldn't do a thing. Luckily, it more or less just knocked him over, but his bike was right under the back end of the truck. Had the driver not stopped, it could have been a lot worse...We checked for Damage to the bike, and didn't really find any, it is a DRZ!! The driver obviously felt bad, but no one was really hurt, and no damage was done except to nerves. He gave chris $30 for the trouble, and we parted ways.

With that shitty first 2 hrs of the trip over, we continued on our way, The weather looking iffier all the time. We didn't waste any time heading north, and dodged almost every black thundershower on the way to Campbell River, only getting 2 quick soakings. It's miraculous really, because it was real ugly out the whole way. I guess we were in the eye of the storm! We didn't make the connecting ferry, so headed to Quadra Island late anyway, to find a spot to camp.





Just enough time for a bit of exploring, while trying to find a spot.

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It drizzled on us a bit all night in our less than scenic camp out, at the end of a new logging road. Luckily, we got a good fire going, which helped a bit. I'm really glad I brought a wool sweater on this trip! My usual hoodie would have sucked with all the rain.

It was pretty grey in the morning still, but the rain did stop, and within the 40 minute ferry from Quadra Island to Cortes, it had started to clear and warm up a bit. We found some pretty good views too!










It was a bit overgrown in places!



Manson's Landing

great pics. nice one