Vancouver Island Bikepacking....

[vikb]

I've been working on a bikepacking route here  on Vancouver Island, BC Canada since last year. We've got a million miles of logging roads, hardy any people and year round cycling weather. And as far as I can tell no end to end route mapped out for bike camping.



This thread on my blog talks about what's been reconed and ridden and where the route is going next.

http://thelazyrando.wordpress.com/2013/04/02/gravel-pimp-got-her-done/

The post above has links to all my previous Van Isle bikepacks and related recon rides.



I hope to have a route from mid-island to the bottom done 100% by the end of the summer.



Photos from last tour - http://www.flickr.com/photos/vikapproved/sets/72157633144023804/



I'll post updates in this thread as I get segments done. I've only lived here 3yrs so I am no island expert nor a bikepacking expert, but if you have any questions/trip plans I can helpout with drop me a line. I'm happy to share some of our awesome riding with new folks....



Photos from last year's rides - http://www.flickr.com/photos/vikapproved/sets/72157629321511881



Thanks to everyone that posts inspirational bike touring content. The stoke is infectious!...



BTW - the riding here is 90% logging roads in various states of dis-repair. Not much techy riding on the bikepacking route itself. Just loads of empty dirt roads you can lose yourself in. However, we have amazing world class technical MTBing trail networks in specific spots that the route will intersect so you can take a break, drop your bags and shred some techy BC singeltrack for a few days at a time if you have the urge...

[bmike-vt]

Nice work Vik!

[JRA]

I backpacked the West Coast Trail a few summers back.  I would love to bikepack on the island in the future.
Great photos.  Thanks for posting.

[Area54]

Nice work - I was trying to weave in a visit to the Island on my last trip stateside, but couldn't fit it in, it is penned in for the next trip!

[vikb]

I live in Victoria BC [south tip of island] my work goes from 200% to 20% randomly so I may well be able to offer some shuttle services, possibly do some guiding and definitely offer some bikepacking hospitality in my yard. Besides bikepacking & mountain biking we have a bunch of really nice local breweries to sample...

[AnatolyG]

I spent 5 weeks working in Victoria, stayed at the Swan Hotel. Best seafood I've ever had! I'm moving to Portland this summer, hoping to hit up Victoria again in not too distant future.

[Adam Alphabet]

Vik,
Surely you're familiar with this....
http://vispine.ca/

[vikb]

Vik,
Surely you're familiar with this....
http://vispine.ca/

Hi Addy,

No I've never heard of that...neither has any LBS, cyclist, hiker or long time islander I've chatted to. I did Google searches and never came across this site. In fact not one outdoorsy person I've chatted with over the last year has heard of the project.

Sounds like a great idea and I'll contact them to lend a hand in whatever way I can. Thanks for the link.

But I'll keep going on a the route I've started. So far the VI Spine project has identified existing routes like TCT, Galloping Goose and started on a small connector. It's a bold plan and the schedule to finish by 2016 seems optimistic given the magnitude of the task. I figure I can be done in 2014.

I'd rather have 2 dirt options than just one...

However long it takes the VI Spine Trail is a worthwhile project. Vancouver Island deserves a world class hiking/biking trail to show off it's scenery....

Update - emailed the guy running the VI Spine Trail Project and offered my help. I will post back what goes down in this thread to keep all the VI content in one spot. 

[Mark_BC]

I think we need to do more of this through-trail development in BC. Too many places just have logging roads going up the valley and that's it. The interior has more trails connecting places. I scoped out a route up the east side of the coast mountains I want to ride, on trails. Finding time is the hard part... The other week I tried to snowbike Ring Pass from the Callaghan Valley near Whistler over into the Squamish Valley. Couldn't get through though, too much powder. I'm going to try again in a few weeks when hopefully it's crusty. Putting together a little movie about it.

[vikb]

I think we need to do more of this through-trail development in BC.

+1 - That's why I am trying to map out a bikepacking route on logging roads. There are so many roads, but getting them to connect in a useful way is the challenge. Doing an out and back ride is fine, but I'm much more interested in a route that goes somewhere. Plus I'd like to lure riders from other parts of the world to enjoy the island and that requires something worthwhile like an end to end dirt bikepacking route.

As you note it takes a lot of time to do the exploring and figure out what is a good route.

On the plus side with the ability to communicate with likeminded people online once someone spends the energy to map out a good route other riders can enjoy the fruits of that effort easily...  

[thumbprinter]

hey vik, great to see you on here...  we met last june at MT 19-year - hopefully see you again this june?

i'll be getting out for some bikepacking between now and then, pics and trip report when it happens...

cheers!  - ben m.

[Colorado Cool Breeze]

Nice TR thanks for the picts. I'm dieing to get out and ride.

[Thesilversurfer]

I road biked the Sannich Penisula last year and loved the island.  I live in Calgary so I will be coming back this year to check out the bike packing side of things. Thanks for the post. Rich

[Von Petrol]

Awesome!

[vikb]

Vik,
Surely you're familiar with this....
http://vispine.ca/

Update on the VI Spine Project...I tried emailing them directly and asked them via FB if they are holding an AGM in early May like their website suggested. So far dead air. I'll keep trying to make contact and see what happens. If anyone finds out anything useful about these guys drop me a PM or post in this thread.

Thanks!

Vik

[vikb]

Trip report for my recon tour in March:

http://thelazyrando.wordpress.com/2013/05/10/gravel-pimp-the-missing-link/



I completed a 3 day ride this week mid-island. I've now got ~400kms of bikepacking route from Cumberland to Victoria mapped out with 2-5kms of paved roads in the mix. I'll post a report soon.

[Adam Alphabet]

Curious to see what you did to get around the water shed, out to Leechtown?

[vikb]

Curious to see what you did to get around the water shed, out to Leechtown?

If you look at the map in the post above you can see what I did. If there was no watershed I would have taken a straight shot north from Leechtown to the Kinesol Trestle along the east side of Sooke Lake. Since I couldn't I rode that big detour to the west on logging roads. A PITA, but the only other option was riding the E&N railway tracks which is a straight shot to Victoria, but not much fun.

You can see what our E&N Railway ride was like here:

http://thelazyrando.wordpress.com/2012/07/23/gravel-pimp-railway-recon-1/

The word is they are going to run trains on these tracks again, but nobody wants to spend the $20M to do the needed repairs. So hard to say if that will ever happen. If it doesn't I can see the Gov't ripping out the tracks and adding this to the TCT, but probably that's 10yrs+ out.

[Mark_BC]

Rad, man. You rode right by my mom's house in Fanny Bay. I'm just about to post a trip report for my snow biking trip up near Whistler, a month and a half overdue... gotta try to put up a blog piece at least once a week.

[goldenboy]

Happy to see this post.  I will be in Sooke this July for a week and was wondering what was around to ride.  I'll need to rent a bike and since my time window for a ride will be small I'd probably prefer the techy stuff to the laise fair bikepacking. 

Thanks for the stoke