walking

 

“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

Today I cycled 22km roundtrip from the Trans Canada Trail's Western Trailhead in Lake Cowichan, BC, to Skutz Falls and return. The 9.6km outbound leg was via the Trans Canada Trail sectioned which was formerly the Canadian National Railway (CNR) line tracking the southern side of the Cowichan River. The 8.5km Cowichan Valley Trail (CVT)inbound leg was on the former Canadian Pacific Railway (CNR) right-of-way (RoW) which is located on the north side of said river. This day, the 2.6km Mayo Road connector was chosen to get from one railtrail to the other.

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Oddly enough, both these railtrails are downhill (DH) when cycled in these directions. How so? Excellent question. The part left out here is the 177m (580ft.) gain from Skutz Falls, CNR railtrail Xing at Mayo Road up to the CVT. Yes, this cyclist walked part of it. The last time I cycled this loop it was done in the clockwise direction so the Mayo Road section was DH. "What goes up must come down". And so it is with cycling. In this direction, the TCT ride back to Lake Cowichan is 30m gain uphill. "Your call, captain", as we say in the airlines.

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Bernice and I were ostensibly in the Foot (as in foot-of-the-lake, the Township of Lake Cowichan) to attend the official opening of the all-new, rehabilitated former Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway (E&N) RoW which has been used as a trail for many years but never official designated as such. The Cowichan Valley Regional District (CVRD) was reluctant -- unable would be the correct word -- to open the trail as such for legal reasons. It was pretty rough in spots! It was posted with signs warning users they do so at their own risk and cable barricades were erected at every road xing along its route.

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Fortunately for us, those days are gone. We have this marvelous 26km route from Lake Cowichan, BC to Duncan open for our year-round enjoyment and convenience. Once a suitable connection is made between the CVT's eastern terminus at Sherman Road to the Duncan Commons Trail (currently under construction) one could presume locals and visitors alike will use the route to commute to the downtown core or, alternately, Duncan Commons Shopping Mall. Either way, this new trial is a winner.

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We had arranged to meet with T.W. Paterson to get copies of his newest Firgrove Publishing book: Rails to Trails Historical Map & Guide. Tom does nice work! Perhaps best known for his ghost town books which have been in print since the 1970s, TW Paterson is a familiar byline to thousands of readers who enjoy his newspaper and magazine articles, and his 26 books on popular British Columbia's history. For 14 years, TWP has written a twice-weekly historical column, Cowichan Chronicles, in Duncan's Cowichan Valley Citizen.

Cowichan Valley Trail Officially Opens // 6-minute Roundtrip Cycling VIDEO

Labels: cowichan, cvrd, cycled, mayo, tct