Cycling the Big Qualicum River Trail a great fall cycle route

By Keith  and Heather Nicol    

On Monday Sept 19 we cycled the Big Qualicum Fish Hatchery route to Horne Lake. We fully recommend this trail for anyone interested in a great fall bike ride since it follows a shady river and there is virtually no other traffic! Our group was part of the Evergreen Club in Courtenay and we were a mix of mountain bikes and e bikes. The Evergreen Club offers many activities and the cycling group heads out twice a week – Monday for longer rides and Wednesday morning for shorter rides. For anyone wanting more info on this cycling group contact: ejkimball62@gmail.com

 

 The trail starts at the Big Qualicum Fish Hatchery (coordinates 49 23.621 N and 124 36.964 W) which is well signed from the Horne Lake Road turnoff (head Northeast on Horne Lake Road) once you leave the Inland Highway. For those people that have the Back Road Map Book for Vancouver Island this bike route is even marked on the map on page 27. We love this book since it has shows lots of places to explore on Vancouver Island which are off the beaten track. (https://www.backroadmapbooks.com/). From the fish hatchery we basically traveled on a service road for the hatchery which is perfect for cycling since it is wide and follows along the Big Qualicum River. And the fall colours added to the trip.

 

 

 The first 8.5 km are easy cycling on a gravel road adjacent to the river. But at this point our leader Hugh Ney suggested we take a short detour to see a small waterfall – take a left off the road to the Incubation Site and take the walking path for 20-30 meters to the river. Follow the small bridge to a viewing platform where you can see a falls,mossy trees and water swirling past the platform. We then returned to the main service road which now climbs much more steeply for just over 2 km to a junction with the Horne Lake Cave Road (coordinates 49 20.492 N 124 40.757 W) . Just before the Horne Lake Cave Road (HLCR) we needed to lift our bikes around a gate. From the junction we turned left and followed HLCR for a couple of hundred meters to a water works pull out which led to a short road and beach access on Horne Lake where we had lunch.

 

 After lunch everyone else headed back the same way we had come in on while we decided to check out some single track mountain bike trails at the Hammerfest trail system just down the road near Parksville. We highly recommend this Big Qualicum River bike route since it follows a lovely,shady river and ends at a scenic lake....what more could you ask for ?? The route is about 20 km in total although you could turn around at any point and return back to the car park if you wanted a shorter route.  See you on the trail.