By Keith and Heather Nicol
The One Spot
trail is a great resource for the people of the Comox Valley who like walk,
bike or even ride a horse. All are welcome on this trail and it starts on the
outskirts of Courtenay and has several access points depending on much of it
you want to do. We discovered various parts of it by geocaching this summer (there
are lots of caches on this trail) and have now walked or biked all it on
several occasions. The focus of this
blog post is to look at the Tsolum South portion which runs along a former
railway grade for roughly 8.5 km. In fact the name “One Spot” comes from name
of the locomotive that worked this route and it was built in 1909. The surface of
the trail varies from packed dirt to gravel and most of the surface is good for
biking. There are a few soft areas but fortunately these are short in length
but we would suggest a mountain bike with a front shock as the best choice for
this route. Although we have seen road
bikes and hybrid bikes on it as well. Remember that if you are biking that you must
give way to walkers and people on horse back.
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| The routes passes by forest and field |
We like all
sections of it but our favourite for leisurely biking on a trail that would
suit just about everyone is the section from Brazier Road to Todd Road ( see https://www.comoxvalleyrd.ca/parks-recreation/comox-valley-parks-trails/one-spot-trail
for details of route in map form). This section is about 3 km (1 way) and is
along a wide flat trail for much of the route that allows bikes to ride side by
side. Some of the route has hardwood
trees whose canopies stretch over the trail so it is nice and shady on warm
summer days and we are looking forward to seeing it in the fall when the leaves
change colour. This section passes by
fields and farms and some of the route is on seldom travelled gravel road. To access this section drive to the small Brazier
Road parking area which also has a trail map next to it. This is a gem of a trail and we can’t
understand how long it took us to come across it. If you have special mountain
bike routes that you think are worth exploring let us know but email at
k2nicol@gmail.com
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| Heather along the wide section enroute to Todd Road |
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