By Keith and Heather Nicol
On our most
recent trip to Hornby Island in late June 2016 we also wanted to explore the
extensive mountain bike trails that are found in Mount Geoffrey Park. We saw
lots of vehicles on the ferry to Hornby with different kinds of bikes strapped
to the back or roof and even four people who planned to explore Hornby Island
exclusively by bicycle. Our own vehicle was weighted down with 2 kayaks,
camping gear, hiking boots and mountain bikes . We had previously visited Hornby Island in
early September 2015 and had biked many of the main roads and side roads but
this time the focus was going to be the trails that have been built on Mount
Geoffrey. Be sure to get a Hornby Island Trailmap which has
over 40 trails identified and where the main access points are for these
trails.
Starting out on the Ford Cove- Shingle Spit trail-a great intro trail for a variety of ages |
Norm riding up Northwind amidst the tall trees |
On other days we also got a chance to ride a
range of other trails and we would recommend the Ford Cove to Shingle Spit
trail for a fast fun 3 km ride that will take about 20 minutes to do (1
way) . This trail is suited to a wide
range of riders and it provides nice water views of Lambert Channel through the
trees. We also recommend the very scenic Middle Bench Trail (3 km – 1 way) which
can be accessed off of Euston Road. This trail gives amazing vistas of Denman
Island and the Beaufort Mountains of Vancouver Island and although it is rated
as easy it is harder than the Ford Cove –Shingle Spit trail. The final trails
we had a chance to test out were the Outer Ridge – Summit trails rated as intermediate
and easy respectively. Outer Ridge is another spectacular trail with stunning
views and we suggest inexperienced riders (like us) ride it up and take Summit
down since there are several places along the ridge where a fall or miss-step
could be very serious and this is more likely on a descent rather than riding
uphill. It took us about 1 hour to do this loop back to our car at Euston Road.
For some reason in this part of the Park very few trails are sign posted and
you need to rely almost entirely on the Trailmap to figure out where you
are. Also we were struck by the fact that we saw no other cars at the trailheads
and no other riders on the trails. Not sure why this was since these trails are
well worth checking out. See http://www.hibike.ca/
for more information.
Both Middle Bench and Outer Ridge offer awesome views of Lambert Channel and beyond |
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