April Ride on Texada Island, BC

Distance: 97km Nights: 2 Total Ascent: 2,000m Highpoint: 500m

Two of us return to visit the bays of NE Texada and pushed to the top of Mt Pocahontas.

Texada once again provides excellent riding and camping.

Highlights: Camping by the sea, mild weather, plenty of vertical,, a good start to the year's riding season.

We had ridden the red track on a previous visit. This time we focused on the NE bays of the island (green track)

Texada is by no means flat!

Day 1

We took a couple of ferries all masked up, following the BC ferries Covid protocol. Steve and I landed at Blubber Bay and the first thing we did is head for the far NE corner of Texada at Grise Point. We passed by a closed gate and checked out the coastal riding and the old quarries.

Our next stop was the Heischolt Lakes, old flooded quarries. As it was only April, the water was not warm enough for a swim.

Steve appeared to be unimpressed with this man-made wonder.

However he did try to load up some firewood on the back of my bike.

We continued on bitumen through Van Anda but did not stop. Wall Street became the gravel Central Road and we turned off at the Shehtekwahn/Pocahontas Bay turnoff and then up a challenging section towards Mt Pocahontas that topped out at about 500m.

Central Road provides smooth riding

There was a fair amount of hike-a-bike to reach Mt Pocahontas

Mt Pocahontas features a dizzying array of telecommunications towers..

It was a fast ride down to Shehtekwahn/Pocahontas Bay. There were a couple of guys skeet shooting beer bottles when we first arrived, but they cleared out soon after.

Shehtekwahn/Pocahontas Bay offered creek water and shelter from a NW wind.

Day 2

A plan evolved to visit a couple more bays and to finish off at Raven Bay so we could catch a mid-morning ferry back to Powell River and the mid-day ferry back to Little River (Comox) the following day.

We had a cool start to the day, but as we climbed up, we shed layers.

We crossed over this creek on the way to NE Bay.

Typical Texada riding; mature second growth forest with a mossy track.

Judging by the track into it, NE Bay doesn't see many visitors.

NE Bay has a fine shoreline, creek and places to camp.

It was a long steep climb out of NE Bay

Up at the headwaters of Russ Creek, we came across some industrial activity (tree felling and some road building)

The stone beach and creek at the East Hydro sub-station made a fine place for a break.

We skirted the sub-station where the electricity lines re-emerge after crossing under the Malaspina Strait.

We figured that it would take us an hour and a half to climb back out from the beach but we killed it in less than hour. Then we got onto Bell Road which led us to Central Road.