-
Visit DualSportBC Facebook group with over 10 000 active members: https://www.facebook.com/groups/dualsportbc
The island TCAT
- Thread starter diverdown
- Start date
Island Hopper
New member
I've pretty much ridden the northern half several times this spring and all is good... There is a log spanning the road South of Woss that we can make it around no problem with 2 wheels, but may be more of a challenge with a hack... You can bypass it by taking a short sprint on the hwy from Woss to the Mount Cain Junction, from there follow the signs towards Gold River and that will get you back on track...
Watch for logging trucks during the weekdays, your best to not even travel those roads during the week with all the hyper logging activity going on, plan for a weekend passage if you can...
Watch for logging trucks during the weekdays, your best to not even travel those roads during the week with all the hyper logging activity going on, plan for a weekend passage if you can...
Last edited:
thanks for the info island Hopper, have been reading about the route and the logging trucks, etc, just don,t know if I can or want to do the whole loop on the weekend, may have to pick my battles, change up some of the routes, etc. will see as I get closer to depart day, waiting for weather to improve, may be awhile, but hope to start the second week of july
Island Hopper
New member
What I would recommend is for you to get through the Port Hardy to Sayward section on a weekend if possible... Most of this route is on wider mainline roads but there are some sections of secondary roads that are quite narrow and have the widest trucks running on them... The road from Holberg to Winter Harbour is one where you will often meet these big rigs during the week... Another is the short length of Rupert 400 down to Rupert inlet, this one is narrow and a scary place to meet- If I run this during the week I use the pullouts and shut off and listen for trucks before advancing to the next... A lot of these hazards I mentioned in the section writeup so I am just repeating my self here.. I usually try to run from white gold pass to Sayward after 5 pm and then you have empty roads to travel ... When I first put these routes together logging was pretty static and these roads were seeing little use... Since then B.C. started shipping most of the second growth stems {burn the rest} to China and things have gone crazy in the woods... Most of the roads are being reactivated to log these pecker pole stands and they are snipping and shipping as fast as they can... The logs go to China, get milled up and are returned back to North America in the form of pallets and crates wrapped around the goods that their factories export... Midsummer is the best time to travel these roads as the forest companies often switch to early shift or when conditions are really dry out they shut down all together...
Another section that is questionable is the Comox Lake to Port Alberni... Last year they shut it down to all traffic till further notice... This year guys have ridden it and it has been open... I would say for you to try to show up at the Comox Lake end at about 6PM to go through...If the big gate is open, you can ride through taking your time and arrive at Stamp Falls campground on the Alberni side around 7:30...On the first bit around Comox lake you will see why they close the road during trucking HRS, there is little room for escape if you meet a truck head on along this lake hugging route... There will also be big truck traffic on the Bamfield road but the road is well used by the Bamfield residents so the drivers may be a little more cautious of this... The Flora Lake main that diagonal cuts from Bamfield road towards Cowichan often has the large trucks running on it so is another use caution road...
These are busy times on the back roads..
Another section that is questionable is the Comox Lake to Port Alberni... Last year they shut it down to all traffic till further notice... This year guys have ridden it and it has been open... I would say for you to try to show up at the Comox Lake end at about 6PM to go through...If the big gate is open, you can ride through taking your time and arrive at Stamp Falls campground on the Alberni side around 7:30...On the first bit around Comox lake you will see why they close the road during trucking HRS, there is little room for escape if you meet a truck head on along this lake hugging route... There will also be big truck traffic on the Bamfield road but the road is well used by the Bamfield residents so the drivers may be a little more cautious of this... The Flora Lake main that diagonal cuts from Bamfield road towards Cowichan often has the large trucks running on it so is another use caution road...
These are busy times on the back roads..
Ah Ha. thought you might be one of the people or the person that put this route together, was reading some of your other posts, man by the sounds of it you guys are gonna live on a bald island pretty soon, with all the logging going on, what happened to all the tree huggers, must have moved over to hugging pipelines. thanks again for all the info Island Hopper.As I live up here in Kamloops have had some experience with loggers and logging trucks and have great respect for them. we do not have the fat trucks, but have seen them on the island years ago when I was 4x4ing.diverdown