De Cosmos, De Crash, and De Lesson

After scouting a route up to Mount Decosmos a few weeks ago, I managed to winkle the hermit out of his lair and entice him to give it a go with me.  I actual fact, Andy's bike looked much dirtier than mine as he has only had the time to ride small jaunts lately; whereas, mine, which hadn't been out for two or three weeks, was embarrassingly shiny.  But it's summer now, and with a few weeks holidays, it's time to explore.  We took the usual route via Boomerang and Cottle to the hydro-lines trail (which is still locked and gated about halfway between Blackjack and Rhodo).  Then we turned down towards the headwaters of Nanaimo River and came to the creek crossing.  We didn't bother clearing the creek out, although that would have been a better option, and just chugged across it.  I say chugged, really we splashed, thrashed and bashed our way across.  It wasn't too difficult and within a few seconds we were on the other side and staring down the "four lane highway".  And that's just what it is - smooth, well groomed and easy riding - amazing.  Whilst traversing the road which was desolate except for a few heaps of bear scat, I started wondering how this road could be in such good nick for an isolated road?  Pretty soon, and after passing a few interesting looking left turns towards Blackjack ridge, we passed a derelict hauling truck parked in what must have been the quarry for the road surface. 



(Above and Below) I'm not sure what vintage this KW is, but it's not as derelict as we thought.  It looks like it's dropped its differential oil while reversing and just been left.  It's obviously had a hard life, but all of its tyres are still inflated except for one.  Thankfully no one has vandalized it and it makes a great look see.



No more than 100m past the truck is a bridge with a sharp right turn.  Take it and climb to the next four lane highway.  Turn right (turning left brings you to a locked gate and first lake).  Pretty soon you come to some "Cutting Permit" signs.  Take the left fork and climb.  The switchbacks you will encounter are not bad at all, except for one steep rock strewn one.  We picked our way through this fairly quickly though - it's bark is worse than it's bite.  Soon you get to some great vistas:

Looking north-west OK mountain and the hydrolines running towards rhodo lake.  At this point you can see lots of the routes we regularly ride.

(Above)Looking north east back to Cottle, Boomerang and Blackjack Ridge you can see many of the trails we use.

Unfortunately after battling half a km of this stuff, it really is the beginning of the end for penetration up the mountain.  It's amazing how quickly these saplings grow: even quads will find this tough going...perhaps time for a work party?

Deciding that the smell of burning alder leaves on our engines, saplings playing with clutch and brake leavers, and the constant whack of branches in the kisser were too much, we turned around to explore a few other more open looking trails.  And they were peachy, so peachy, that yours-truly (not leading for the first time this ride) was too busy looking at the vistas and ran smack into the back of a stationary Andy...  What a clot! It was completely my fault. Man that's embarrassing to admit, but I'd better get it out there as a sage lesson to myself and any other idiot out there that doesn't look where they are going religiously!  Luckily we weren't doing maniac speeds and got off with a few bent indicators, levers and a nasty knee in my case.  Thank god for armour (wear it, folks - it's the first time I've needed it and boy did it work, all except one knee guard which took the first impact but not the next, and I now find myself writing this with an icepack on a large swollen knee, but, fingers crossed, no break - I hope...).  Poor old Andy's KLX took a knock - as did he - and some spare parts should get the bike legal again very soon...It could have been much worse: but for the sensible clothing we were wearing we could still be up there being nibbled by bears and bearing blow fly larvae...Nice thought.  Still, we got back down no trouble and skedaddled via first lake home. 

Still, it was a great ride, and am determined to ride it again and walk to the peak next time - making sure we start earlier and I watch where I'm going!

Here are the maps:

Above - a northerly overview of the route; Below a southerly perspective.

Above and below: a couple of peak shots showing the extent of our penetration into the alder and...embarrassingly the location of my blunder up Andy's chuff...