walking

 

Bravehearts Cycle to Lake Cowichan 7/11/26
Saturday, 7/11/26 Bill (me) cycled the 65km (40mile) loop connecting Duncan, BC with Lake Cowichan

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There are two trails connecting these cities: Trans Canada Trail (TCT) on the southdide of the Cowichan River and the Cowichan Valley Trail (CVT) on the northside. The TCT is the former Canadian National Railway (CNR) and the CVT is the former Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR).

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Six Bravehearts riders and three Duncan riders left Glenora Trailhead a 11am heading westbound.

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Seven members took a long break at one of the bridges so Bruce and Bill carried on to Lake Cowichan.

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Bill gave Bruce a tour of the town — since he's been associated with it since 1952 — and Bruce bought the lunch.

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Bill left Bruce at Duncan and took Indian Rd. up to Tidewater Trail and the Trans CanadaTrail (TCT) back to Glenora.

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Bruce had his girl friend drop him off at Glenora and she drove back to Duncan to wait.

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With certain dalays we thought we were behind our times and this was confirmed when Frances phoned Bruce along the trail inbound to Duncan.

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Bill didn't want to waste any more time because he had the longest distance to go.

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Labels: bravehearts, cowichan, duncan, izip

 

“This is where I went and this is what I saw.” Friday August 8th I cycled 20km roundtrip from Sherman Rd. in Duncan to Paldi, BC.

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After checking out the new culvert under the trail near Sherman Rd. I stopped at the Chinese Cemetery,

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At the 10km mark Paldi Road was located.

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Paldi, BC. is former milltown and is still occupied by descendants and family members of its founder: Mayo Singh Manhas (1888-1955) and his wife, Bishan Kaur.

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Elk Ridge Estates is currently clearing Paldi lands where Mayo's son, Rajindi, built his own airstrip to fly his twin-engine Baron aircraft in-and-out to maintain the family's business interests.

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Labels: duncan, izip, mayo

Saturday morning I drove 60km to Duncan, BC to cycle 14km

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The local news reported a 40-metre section of the Cowichan Valley Trail between Agira Road and Sherman Road in Duncan was damaged during heavy rains in November 2021.

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Funding from the provincial program for repairs up to $848,575 was confirmed last July for both the trail and the culvert

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Being very familiar with this section of trail — which goes 28km to Lake Cowichan — I wanted to see for myself.

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After surveying the situation (pun intended) I cycled the 7km up to the Chinese Cemetery (another familiar spot)

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I was back home in Victoria BC before noon.

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Labels: cvrd, duncan, izip

 

Saturday morning at 6:19a.m. I left home in my wife's Honda for Duncan, BC, with my mighty steed secured firmly on its bikerack on the trunk.

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After fueling up the limo in Duncan I drove the old Cowichan Lake Road to Tansor Road trailhead along the Cowichan Valley Trail (CVT) arriving there at 7:29a.m.

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The rendezvous with Tom and Jennifer was not for another three hours so I had plenty of time to go places and have things to do.

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Firstly, it was Paldi, BC. This former milltown is still occupied by descendants and family members of its founder: Mayo Singh Manhas (1888-1955) and his wife, Bishan Kaur.

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Elk Ridge Estates is currently clearing Paldi lands where Mayo's son, Rajindi, built his own airstrip to fly his twin-engine Baron aircraft in-and-out to maintain the family's business interests.

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To this end, I thought it prudent to put the drone up and take a look.

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On my drive back to Tansor parking I took Payne Rd. into the Old Hillcrest Chinese Cemetery.

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It's located adjecent to the Cowichan Valley Trail so I could have waited until cycling past on my bike.

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I put the drone up just as some volunteers were arriving to do their maintenance work cutting and trimming the grave site grasses.

Drone View Old Hillcrest Chinese Cemetery Duncan, BC 3-minute VIDEO

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Labels: cowichan, cycled, duncan, ebike

 

Pole-sawed Branches at Tom's Place in Koksilah; I also cleared roots from Deerholme Wye.

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Langtry Road is still overgrown.

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Labels: duncan, glenora

 

From TWP's Cowichan Chronicles “Oops! A wreck on the CNR (Trans Canada Trail) about Mile 60. This was a fatal head-on collision; I have two coupling pins—one from each train as they’re different sizes.” A Story to Be Told is a book written by Robert I. Dougan and is the definitive record of the September 15, 1900, accident involving a headon collision between two trains on the E&N tracks near Ladysmith, BC.

 Nathan Paul Dougan, was the telegrapher/station agent at the new town of Ladysmith in September, 1900 at the time of the train wreck on the E&N two miles north of town which killed 4 people.  

Nathan Dougan (father of Robert I. Dougan) was blamed for the accident and charged with manslaughter for which he was sentenced to nine (9) months imprisonment. These photos are from a hike guided by T.W. Paterson and his associate, Doug McLeod, to find where and what remains from that accident.

 Ladysmith Wreck Trailhead GPS Coordinates: 49°0' 41.55"N 123°50' 50.78"W N.B. Other than using the GPS coordinates, finding this sawed-of windfall (left in frame) is the only indicator to find where the access to the wreck is located in the thick underbrush. From March 17 2021 photos From Flickr March 18 2021 YouTube VIDEO Link A Story to Be Told is a book written by Robert I. Dougan and is the definitive record of the September 15, 1900, accident involving a headon collision between two trains on the E&N tracks near Ladysmith, BC.  

Nathan Paul Dougan, was the telegrapher/station agent at the new town of Ladysmith, BC in September, 1900 at the time of the train wreck on the E&N two miles north of town which killed 4 people.  

Nathan Dougan (father of Robert I. Dougan) was blamed for the accident and charged with manslaughter for which he was sentenced to nine (9) months imprisonment. These photos are from a hike guided by T.W. Paterson and his associate, Doug McLeod, to find where and what remains from that accident. Ladysmith Wreck 

Trailhead GPS Coordinates: 49°0' 41.55"N 123°50' 50.78"W N.B. Other than using the GPS coordinates, finding this sawed-off windfall (left in frame) is the only indicator to find where the access to the wreck is located in the thick underbrush.

 Ladysmith Train Wreck Site GPS: N49°00.719', W123°50.841'

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Labels: duncan, e&n, trains

Drove Walmart and got hyper tough then (9:30a.m.) drove to koksilah and cleared trail with chainsaw gave Doug chainsaw and drove home by 12:30p.m.

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Labels: duncan, tidewater

 

Drove Benz to Central Spur and walked over trestle to Selkirk Green Park

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Drove Benz to Malahat Chalet but it was closed due to overnight winds causing power outage.

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Drove to Langtry Rd. to checkout Tidewater Trail xing and gates on property. Good views and pix now that the summer overgrowth has died.

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Drove the Miller Rd. approach to the White Bridge Xing at Allenby Rd. and Indian Rd junction.

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Carried on down Craig St. to Just Jake's for lunch. Always good food and service.

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Drove home to stop in at Shelbourne Fairway ($60) and home by 2:45p.m. Nice sunny day but too windy for Mini 2 in the trunk.

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Labels: cowichan, duncan

Thursday morning we drove the Benz 42km to UPAK Storage at MIll Bay Rd U-turn route.

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Their new PalGate App worked and opened the main gate using the password given to us by Janet. Cool.

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This gives us access to the paved roadway that was originally built as the BC Cement Haul Raod between Bamberton Cement Plant (c.1912) and the Kingzett Lake Quarry (13km distance). Today, only 5800m of it is usable but it's an interesting,and isolated location which includes Rat Lake.  

We stopped in at the BC Cement Heritage Museum (formerly a church) on the way through Mill Bay community along Hwy-1.

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This week's storm brought down this tree blocking not one but two trails: The Trans Canada (L) and the Tidewater Subdivision Trail (southern Wye at Deerholm).

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Our favourite eatery in Duncan, BC is Cherries. Good food — no, make that very good food — with friendly and caring service from the two women who own it.

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Labels: duncan, mill bay

Friday we drove the Benz to Duncan, BC and stopped in at UPAK, Bemberton on the way.

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The UPAK site is sporting a new gated fence which now uses a PalGate Electronic System App to gain access the 5800m section of the former BC Cement Haul Road. (aka Private Truck Road).

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One requires a cellphone with the PalGate App installed and initialized to gain access.

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Silly me exited there to Hwy-1 southbound instead of making a U-turn at the U-turn sign posted by the gate. Daah! This meant driving all the way back to South Shawnigan Lake Road which we took up to the village. There are still no eateries there that have restrooms open so we carried on back to Mill Bay at Hwy-1.

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I fueled up at the Shell station while she had a pee. We backtracked along the Shawnigan Lake/Mill Bay road to Deloume Rd where I took picures of the bridge-out and the haul road blocked. From there we carried on to Rowe Rd. in the Glenora Area south of Duncan and cut the large root from the wye trail access to the Great Trail there. This section of trail is also known as: The Cowichan Valley Trail. I've wanted to remove this obstruction from the trail since first encountering it in 2007. Well. it's finally gone.

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The Wye is a remnant of the CPR rail connection from Tidewater Subdivision to the mainline named — Victoria Sub. Only the southern wye remains open due to locals using it regularly over the intervening 35yrs since the railway was abandoned.

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We then drove Miller Rd , over the White Bridge (not to be confused with the Black Bridge or the Silver Bridge) crossing of the Cowichan River into Duncan, British Columbia.

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After chowing down on a hotdog at Cherries Ice Cream Parlor we headed back to Victoria and home by 2:15p.m.

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Labels: cowichan, drove, duncan, tct

Today we walked 300m from the northside of the Kinsol Trestle to the southside picnic tables. This is where we ate our Subway sandwich which we just purchased in Duncan, BC. We arrived at Cowichan Exhibition grounds just after it opened at 10:00a.m. to return books to T.W. Paterson. Tom is British Columbia's most prolific, historical writer alive today; perhaps, BC's most prolific, historical writer of all time. At last count he's published over 30 books and still writes a biweekly column for the Cowichan Valley Citizen.

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Tom had a table set up in Mellor Hall to market two of his latest publications: Rails to Trails and Historical Sites. Both publications inform the reader regarding the location and history of many Vancouver Island abandoned railways which have been converted into trails. Hence the moniker: Rails to Trails.

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Mellor Hall is one of the many new, permanent structures at the Cowichan Exhibition grounds just north of Duncan beside Hwy-1. The Exhibition was founded in 1867 and has been going ever since. This blog often reports what a vibrant community the Cowichan Valley is and the support and dedication its citizens have put into this world-class fairgrounds is a testament to this fact.

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This day, the main event on the grounds was the Island Spirit 2012 Geocaching Mega-Event. Admission was free and it was well attended. Parking was free. My main interest in this event (besides returning TWP's books) was to get a recommendation from experts regarding a GPS tracking App for our Android smartphones. After checking with three different vendors and talking with an equal number of geocaching enthusiasts, we came up nada, zilch, dickall. Anyway, Sports Tracker is a free droid-app worth a try. I'll keep you posted. Any geocacher or tracker worth their salt would post the coordinates of the geaocaching fair just attended. Here's mine from my Magellan 210 handheld: Cowichan Exhibition GPS Coordinates: N48°50.206', W123°43.307', 57 m. The last item is the altitude.

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After leaving the Kinsol Trestle's northside parking we arrived back on Koksilah Road where it crosses Koksilah River. Immediately adjacent to the east side of the bridge are another two significant sites worth stopping to take a look at. Firstly, we turned right onto the road leading a short distance to the Esquimalt & Nanaimo's (E&N), Cowichan Station. How it ever got this name is quite beyond me: It's right beside Koksilah River, off Koksilah Road and not actually located in the Cowichan Valley. We best leave this one alone for awhile. E&N Cowichan Station was built iN 1885. The Last Spike on the Esquimalt & nanaimo Railway was driven at Cliffside (MP25) August 13, 1886.

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If that isn't enough excitement for one day, after leaving the train station, we crossed the road (to get to the other side) where St. Andrew's Cowichan Church is located. St. Andrew's Church Committee was formed in 1905 and construction on the Church commenced soon after its formation. St. Andrew's, Cowichan Station, was consecrated on February 8, 1906 (also known as St. Andrew's, S. Cowichan). We took a few photos for your viewing enjoyment.

Labels: duncan, kinsol

Friday, August 12, 2011, I cycled 35km roundtrip on the Tidewater Subdivision CNR Right-of-Way (RoW) to the Kinsol Trestle from Koksilah Road. After dropping the wife off in Duncan, BC, my vehicle transported us -- me and my Norco bicycle -- to the intersection of Miller & Glenora roads. There's an ample parking area here from which it's 100m to the Tidewater Trailhead beside Koksilah Rd.

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It's 6km uphill from here to the Trans Canada Trail (TCT) at Deerholme. From Deeholme to the Kinsol Trestle along the TCT is 11km. It was just another day in paradise.

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video Narrative:
Today we're off to the Cowichan Valley Trans Canada Trail & Kinsol Trestle. We'll start at the Tidewater Subdivision railtrail from Koksilah Road at Miller Road, south of Duncan, British Columbia. Sometimes finding the trailhead is the most difficult part of the journey and accessing the Tidewater railtrail is no exception. Directly west of the 50km speed sign on Koksilah Road is where we'll access the trail for today's 6km cycle up to the Trans Canada Trail adjacent to Rowe Road. This short section of the Tidewater
trail passes the TLC's Keating Historical Home to one's right and another hertiage home, Reneen, to one's left. At Langtry Road the trail comes to an abrupt end. Access beyond here is blocked by a farmers gates. A logical option here is to pick up the railtrail again at the Glenora/Seshia Road intersection. From here, the unmaintained trail continues uninterrupted to the former Deeholme Wye at the TCT. A WYE in railroad vernacular means where one railway line connects with another in the form of the letter Y - this permits access by trains heading in either direction. Once headed southbound on the Trans Canada Trail, it's 11-km to the newly, rehabilitated Kinsol Trestle.

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90-second Tidewater Video

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Total Tidewater Video

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GPS Coordinates Langtry Rd: N48°45.589', W123°42.324'
Glenora/Seshia roads: N48°45.709', W123°43.011'
Intersection with TCT N48°45.023', W123°46.008'
Southside Kinsol Trestle: N48°40.085', W123°41.646'

Labels: cowichan, cycled, duncan, kinsol, tct

Tuesday, July 5, 2011, I cycled 32km from Lake Cowichan (The Foot) to Duncan, BC. Bernice and her friend, Betty, drove me and my ride to the Foot and then they returned to Duncan to shop-the-day-away. Summer has hit the valley (that be: Cowichan Valley) with a vengeance so the weather was severe clear with balmy temperatures around 25*C.

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After departing the Foot at 11:00 a.m., I arrived in downtown Duncan three hours later. It took 90-minutes to cover the first 17km to Paldi on the all-new, Cowichan Valley Trail. Again, the shade of the gazebo beside the Paldi Sikh Temple invited me to sit there and reflect upon the life of one Rajindi Mayo while enjoying my soon-to-be-world-famous, egg-salad sandwich.

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Upon crossing Sherman Rd at the end of the trail, the main objective became where to find the trailhead for the soon-to-be-completed, Duncan-commons Trail. This trail -- which is completed in sections -- primarily follows the E&N Railway tracks to join the City of Duncan with one of Vancouver Island's largest shopping complexes: Duncan Commons Mall.

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Cycling eastward on Lane Road brought me to Averil Park. This park is adjacent to The Commons and is roughly at the site of the former, Hayward Junction.

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Hayward Junction was the eastern terminus of the railline just cycled: the 18.4-mile, E&N Cowichan subdivision. Hayward Junction derived its name it part as it was the junction of the E&N Mainline (Esquimalt to Nanaimo) and the newly built line to Lake Cowichan in 1925.

The locals did not seem to know as much about the new Duncan Commons Trail as I did. Most of half-dozen persons queried had never heard of it. Go figure. After cycling the E&N mainline toward Duncan for a while (we are familiar with this section of rail as we've walked it in the past), I happened upon a survey crew who were (guess what?) surveying for the new trail! They knew exactly where and how I could pickup the new trail heading into Duncan.

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My wife and I both have cellular phones so she knew her shopping trip was over and the cycling journey had been completed successfully. What a great ride! What a great trail!

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90-second VIDEO // 30-sec. VIDEO Holmes Creek footbridge

Labels: cowichan, cycled, duncan, tct, video

Today I cycled 18.7km on the Cowichan Valley Trail (CVT) west of Duncan, BC. After heading westward from Lake Cowichan Road parking I arrived at Paldi, BC, 40-minutes later.

This 7.6km stretch has a 100m (328ft.) gain which slowed me down to approximately 10km/hr. But hey, it's my day off and out here enjoying myself. We made up for any lost time on the DH inbound leg hitting speed in excess of 20km/hr. Cool.

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The week prior to this adventure -- and contemplating where to ride -- I reflected upon one Rajindi Mayo and the significant contribution he and his family have made to the Cowichan Valley. I considered how nice it would be sit in the shade of the gazebo beside the Paldi Sikh Temple eating my soon-to-be-world-famous egg-salad sandwich and reflect upon Bubba's life and accomplishments.

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No sooner had I arrived at the temple and a woman drove and parked her vehicle in the driveway. After the obligatory niceties, she introduced herself as one Joan Mayo -- the widow of the before-mentioned, Bubba Mayo. Bernice and I have met Joan on previous occasions at events in the Duncan area.

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Now I'm not a mathematician, but one could reasonably calculate the odds of me deciding on Wednesday to cycle to the Paldi Sikh Temple to meditate upon the life of the late Rajindi Mayo the following Saturday and to meet his wife, Joan, there within three-minutes of my arrival, are, conservatively, in the area of a million-to-one. Ah, serendipity. Joan and I reminisced about the previous times we've met and phone discussions we've had regarding her wonderful published book: Paldi Remembered, Fifty Years in the Life of a Vancouver Island Logging Town. Joan was at the temple this day -- in the company of her son and daughter-in-law -- to make preparations for her granddaughter's upcoming wedding. Joan has her work cut out for her as the bride-to-be has invited four-hundred guests!

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N.B. To those paying attention a roundtrip of 7.6km does not add up to 18.7km. By adding an additional 3.5km (1.75km oneway) roundtrip to Holmes Creek Xing, the numbers do add up.

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After all-of-the-above we drove to Lake Cowichan for a cool one at our favourite pub then drove on to Mesachie Lake and Camp Imodene.

Labels: cowichan, cycled, duncan, railtrails

Today we walked parts of the Cowichan Valley Trail after driving to Lake Cowichan, BC, on Vancouver Island, Canada.

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We didn't walk much did take a lot of pictures on what was basically a reconnaissance mission to sleuth out the remnants of the old railways in the Township of Lake Cowichan. Jay & Suzanne joined us so we saw things anew through their eyes.

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We enjoyed lunch at the Irish Pub & Grill (as in Dermond & Dudley's) beside the river in Lake Cowichan. This is our habit as it is the best wateringhole and eatery in the valley.

Labels: cowichan, duncan, railtrails