Searching for the Trent River Potholes using Trailforks app and a Paper Map

 By Keith and Heather Nicol

We often like to use our mountain bikes to explore new places as well as the challenge of riding down twisting turning trails of Cumberland and other single track destinations on Vancouver Island.  Our cross country ski buddy Steve had a paper map of the Cumberland trails and he noted that one trail led to the Trent River potholes. Interestingly it was not on the Trailforks app-- my “go to” app for single track riding. For those readers that don’t about it then it is a god send for scouting trails that exist not only in your backyard but other places across Vancouver Island and beyond.  But for some reason this was not marked on the Trailforks app but all the trails leading to it were so on Sunday Oct. 23 we headed out to see if we could find these potholes. 

                                                  Steve gaining lots of elevation on Sobo no Michi                 

We started by taking Cumberland’s great climbing trail - Sobo no Michi. Abit less than an hour later we were at the top and we then headed to Trent River Main to Trent River Climb which leads to the Lighthouse Way Trail. We were now in the upper part of the vast trail system in Cumberland on trails that neither of us had been on and we used Trailforks to keep us found. Portions of this route are quie steep and we ended up pushing our bikes up the hill in some places. Part way along Lighthouse Way according to Steve’s paper map a trail called Trent Potholes would come in on the left.  Curiously this trail is not on Trailforks but it did come in where it was marked on the paper map. We followed it and when the trail got steep we left our bikes to walk down to the Trent River. 

                                               Steve walking between the 2 Potholes

Of course with the exceptionally summer and fall , there was very little water in the river and we could basically walk along the river bed to 2 large “potholes”.  There was even a little bridge between the 2 potholes. On the left we could see the plunge pool of a tributary water fall that at this time was completely dry.  For those handy with a GPS the coordinates of the potholes are 49.580126 N and 125.0906648 W. It would be good to come back when more water is running in the Trent River but it was also good to see it at very low water. 

                                               Steve riding out on Trent Potholes trail

Since we were now 2 hours in we decided to head fairly quickly back to our car and so took Trent River main to Allan Lake main which connected us to Davis Lake main and out. This route back is basically on wide gravel logging roads so could be done with a front suspension bike and we even saw one person on a road bike in there so it is not restricted to full suspensions bikes by any means. Over all we traveled about 24.5 km and we gained around 650 meters so it is a good workout and it was fun to check out a new area.  For more info on Trailforks see: https://www.trailforks.com/   See you on the trails!