Gabriola Island offers fine coastal walking and inland bike trails

 by Keith and Heather Nicol

Although Gabriola Island is a little over 100 km away we hadn't visited in many years so thought that with the good summer weather continuing we would check it out. We caught the 11:15 ferry from downtown Nanaimo and were setting up our tent in Descanso Regional Park by noon. We had time to spend abit over 24 hours on the island so decided to check out several coastal hikes. We really liked the short trails at Drumbeg Park with their open Garry Oak- grassland setting which gave nice views of near by islands.  

                                                   Heather walking at scenic Drumbeg Park 

Also the signature setting of the Malaspina Gallery was very impressive--we visited 3 times and liked the area at sunset best since the eroded sandstone notch really lit up with the setting sun. Note though that the trail here is about 100 meters long but is very picturesque as the photos below illustrate. We also hiked the Whalebone Trail and the Trail to Sandwell Park but both of these are more cliff walks through the trees and although you can see the ocean these trails are not as visually appealing as the first two locations just mentioned. 

 We also had a chance to mountain bike and hike in the 707 Community Forest and we really advise getting the Trail map of the Island from the Visitor's Centre.  This will help you navigate the maze of trails in this area. If you like to mountain bike and like easier green type trails then this area will appeal to you. I also used Trailforks to help navigate since all of the main bike trails are listed on it. We encountered many dog walkers and trail runners on our trip there although there are no ocean views , the varied forest ecosystems in this area make it a fun way to see the inland part of the island. Next time we go to Gabriola Island we plan to bring our kayaks since the Flat Top Island in Silva Bay look very appealing. And Gabriola Island has several other trails we hope to check out as well ... see you on the trail. 

                                                      Keith riding some of large network of trails in the 707 Community Park

Sea Kayaking to Tree Island makes for an ideal 1/2 day trip

  by Keith and Heather Nicol

Tree Island is located off the northern tip of Denman Island and makes a perfect half day paddle (or longer if you plan to explore the island or want to linger). We do the trip on an annual basis and usually launch at the Union Bay Boat launch.  This makes it easy to launch your kayak and there is a large car park for your vehicle. But this year we decided to launch from Argyle Road which is closer to Courtenay and offers a shorter, more direct paddle to Tree Island. The downside of Argyle Road launch point is that you need a high tide and wheels to help get your kayak to the water to avoid a long carry. The access is quite rough so not as easy as the Union Bay launch point. Remember that since it is an open water crossing you want to factor in the weather and wave conditions and be competent at doing a self rescue if you run into trouble. Also bring a compass so that you can navigate back to your car at the end of the trip..the shoreline looks all the same from Tree Island and so you can spend quite abit of time searching for the put in path if you don't navigate back to the right vicinity.

On Monday, Sept 15 the wind forecast was for light NE winds which made for a very pleasant trip to Tree Island since the breeze was in our face keeping us cool. Although temperatures were  around 19 C 

the following wind made it quite warm on the return trip. Be sure to bring water! We saw no seals on our paddle but did see many Western Grebes. The tide was about 4.4 meters (which was the high tide for the day) and our trip took about 1 hour going over and 45 min coming back with the light wind giving us a boost on the return paddle.  We recommend this trip because of the sandy, shell beach at Tree Island and scenery but do keep an eye to the weather.See you on the trail. 

 

A Classic Trifecta on Hornby Island - Hiking, Mountain Biking and Sea Kayaking

 By Keith and Heather Nicol

Hornby Island is one of favourite places to visit and we are fortunate to be able to get there so quickly from Courtenay - Comox. One of the things we like most about it is that it has very scenic hiking, sea kayaking and hiking and we recently had a chance to do all 3 in one day. We started with a hike around Helliwell Park and we were joined by an long time friend who now lives in Kamloops and her sister from Maple Ridge. This 4.2 km hike is spectacular since it overlooks the ocean and features a grassland - oak forest which is not common in this area. It took us just over an hour to do this hike which included many stops for photos. 

                                                                         Hiking the Helliwell Loop 

Next it was time to hop on the mountain bike and test out some of the great single track mountain biking that Hornby has to offer. It has the most extensive mountain bike trail system of any of the Gulf or Discovery Islands and they have trails for many abilities. We used Northwind and Cold Deck as a climbing trail and then reached the cliff edge via Hot Rims. Our route to descend included Mt Toadès Wild Ride , Tadpole, Chris and Brad's ending with No Horses which put us right back at our car. Perfect. This ride was just over 5 km and our moving time was about 35 minutes. All of these trails and marked as blue and flowed nicely from one to the other.  But these are just some of the trails on Hornby and the trail system has numerous possible starting points. Download Trailforks before you leave to check out all the options.

                                                                The view from Hot Rims and Cliff Trail

The last part of the trifecta was sea kayaking and so in mid afternoon we headed to Whaling Station Bay to do one of our favourite paddles. One downside of Whaling Station Bay is that it has a big sandy beach so depending on the tide you will either have to carry your kayak some distance before launching. We always bring our "wheels" so that we can wheel our boats to the water's edge. From there we turned right and headed along the shore to Flora Islets. These islands are common haulouts for seals and sea lions and we were not disappointed. We saw over a dozen seals on shore as we paddled past and as we rounded the second islet we surprised a group of sea lions who let us know they were there with a few loud roars. We quickly paddled past and returned as the late afternoon sun glistened off the water. The sea was perfectly calm and it was a great way to finish our Hornby Island Trifecta- hiking, biking and sea kayaking all in one day. Our sea kayak route covered 6.2 km in one hour and 20 minutes.  What a great way to end the day and we had just scratched the surface on the hiking, biking and sea kayaking options on Hornby. See you on the trail!

 

Lost Lake Trails at Whistler offer lots of hiking and biking variety

 By Keith and Heather Nicol

On a recent trip to Whistler we first of all checked out many trails in the Cheakamus Creek area and these are covered in this blog post-   https://keithnicol.blogspot.com/2025/09/whistlers-cheakamus-creek-trails-are.html . On our last day at Whistler we decided to hike and bike some of the trails at Lost Lake which is another extensive area of trails that double as cross country ski routes in the winter. On our outing we saw many walkers and cyclists and it looked like this might be one of Whistler's more popular destinations since it is close to the village. We parked in lot 5 and from there is was just abit over 1 km to Lost Lake along the popular Lost Lake Trail South. While some of our group walked this trail others checked out the blue and green mountain bike trails in this area. First it was a climb up Upper Panorama which was not that easy given some steep sections and loose rock. But then the fun begins and we started with Pinocchio's Furniture which has lots of wooden features like bridges and banked corners (see pic below). If you like this type of trail then this one is certainly well made. From there it was on to Dwarf Nebula and then to Zoot Allures. My fav of these 3 was the last one since it was abit flowy and fast. Since these trails were all blue trails, we wanted to try some green trails and so it was back up hill on Centennial which also features loose rock and steep sections to Donkey Puncher and then to Molly Hogan which are both fast enjoyable green runs. This brought us back down to Lost Lake and then it was back on Lost Lake South to Vimy Ridge and a nice section of Tin Pants, another green trail. Whether you are hiking or biking the app Trailforks will guide you around these trails. Check it out at: https://www.trailforks.com/   The Lost Lake trail system has lots to offer and we only touched the surface of trails in this area. And for beginner bikes looking for easy single track this area seems to have the most offerings in the Whistler area. Check it out on your next visit. 

Some of the low bridges on Pinocchio's Furniture- a blue trail at Lost Lake

Whistler's Cheakamus Creek trails are great for biking or hiking

 by Keith and Heather Nicol

We recently had a chance to check out the hiking and mountain biking trails along Cheakamus Creek near Whistler. Whistler is known as a hiking and biking mecca and part of the reason is that it has alot of variety of hiking and biking options. In the past we have hiked in the alpine using the lifts at Whistler and this blog :  https://keithnicol.blogspot.com/2024/08/try-decker-loop-on-blackcomb-for.html.  looks at one of the trips we did last summer. Whistler is also known for its world class lift served mountain biking but on this current trip we decided to check out some other nearby areas. And if you want to hike or bike past a blue green rushing river then the Cheakamus Creek trails should be given a closer look. On this trip we parked at the large parking lot at the Whistler Interpretative Forest Parking lot (which is free) in nearby Function Junction. We hiked on Farside Trail and biked on a variety of the other trails along both sides of the river. These are rated as blue mountain biking trails which means that they are suited to riders with some skill at riding over roots and rocks and the occasional wooden bridge. Over all my favourite trail was Farside for biking due to its proximity to the river but Flashback 2 through 5 were also fun trails but did not have river views. We tended to ride the access rode since it was a fairly fast way to gain elevation but it does have cars on it and it can be dusty. In our case there was little car traffic and next to no dust. Another time we might plan on biking the route to Cheakamus Lake - but since we had hiked it earlier in the summer we decided to focus on the lower trails. It is worthwhile downloading the app Trailforks since it has all of these trails on it and we saw more hikers on these trails than we did bikers. Check this area out on your next trip to Whistler.