Hey everyone! Checking in this time from Denver, Colorado where Becca and I have spent the last few days. Loving the city and surrounding area so far, and Rocky Mountain National Park this past week was incredible!

But, let’s dial it back to the very end of July and into early August – specifically the week of July 31st – August 5th! A lot of fun was had this week as we started to expand our horizons on what we could accomplish on Vancouver Island.

If you missed last week’s blog, it can be found here: Visiting Ammonite Falls, Victoria, Tofino and More – Week 12.

Robertson Falls, Vancouver Island

This has got to be one of Vancouver Island’s prettiest places. Per the locals, it is also one of the lesser known, off-the-beaten-path spots! That is, until people like me found it through Instagram and All-Trails, shedding all anonymity on most of the beautiful places in this world. Oh well, I guess the locals have to share now!

Robertson Falls was Hannah, Becca and I’s quick stop before heading to Lake Cowichan. The town of Lake Cowichan is known for its beautiful setting, clean water, and tubing down the flowing river right through the middle of town. It’s a fantastic destination to spend a day. And if you know about the well-kept secret of Robertson Falls, only a 15 minute drive from the lake and the town, it’s even better!

To get to the Upper Robertson Falls, we parked our car off to the side of a dirt road and departed into the bushes along what seemed like just a regular ole ATV trail. The walk along that trail was about 5km with a few smaller river crossings before we veered off down a small side path, leading us to the Upper Robertson Falls.

The spot was incredible. The crystal clear water was so refreshing after the 5km we just completed and the little swim hole was perfect for a 15 minute cool-down.

Now I keep calling this spot a waterfall. Yet, these pictures above make it look more like a river. Well, behind Hannah and I was the top of a a 10 metre waterfall. This waterfall empties into another (sadly, inaccessible) pool before flowing into another ~15 metre waterfall.

And to combine the two, this is the view that we got after travelling to the bottom of the falls! You can see the upper level waterfall, the inaccessible pool, and then more water spilling down to our level.

It only took us a few ropes to go from top to bottom, but the swimming was spectacular. Likely one of the nicest swimming holes I’ve ever been too, and YES – I did find a place to cliff jump here, thanks to a helpful local.

The local also described this place as “One of the top 3 spots in the Cowichan Valley,” so I conclude our random waterfall hunting was a massive success!

A funny side note, during our time spent exploring this waterfall, we lost track of time! We actually were running late to a prior obligation with one of Hannah’s relatives near Lake Cowichan, so I ended up drawing the short straw and running back the 5km trail to the car to pick them up at a closer outlet to the waterfall. I just wish I could’ve jumped back in the cold water after I had run all that way back to the Subie!

Hiking Mount Arrowsmith

The following day, Hannah, Becca and I decided to start the month of August off with a bang. We had already marched up Mount Benson in the previous week, and we wanted to add another mountain hike to Hannah’s stay with us. So why not go for the highest peak on the southern half of Vancouver Island?

With the peak of Mount Arrowsmith sitting at just over 1,800m of elevation, the hike itself gains 1,000m of climbing in just 3 kilometres (the entire hike is 6km long, with the other 3km being downhill)! I don’t think I’ve ever completed as steep of a hike like Arrowsmith before in my life!

Getting to the trailhead was an adventure itself, with a long and bumpy logging road twisting and turning its way up the foothills towards the base of the mountain. Finally arriving at the “trailhead parking lot”, aka a slightly wider section of this same logging road, we found multiple cars already parked. That’s what we get for going to a popular trail on the Civic Holiday, or officially “British Columbia Day” in BC!

As I stated previously, the hike was STEEP. After about 1.5km of steady incline on (another) dirt road, it turned into basically switchbacks and scrambling up a vertical rock face for the remaining kilometres. But the people we ran into on the trail were friendly, and the heavy breathing required to reach the summit was shared by all.

The views on the way up, and at the top, were outstanding. Being the highest point of the southern region of Vancouver Island, you have the ability to look down on all the surrounding mountains for as far as the eye can see!

This is drastically different than areas like Banff or Whistler. Usually when you summit a mountain in these other areas, all you see are the surrounding mountain peaks that are in close vicinity due to them being either as tall, or if not taller than the summit you are on! But on Arrowsmith, you can see past everything, from the Strait of Georgia in the East to the Pacific Ocean on the West! Yes, the view spans the entire width of Vancouver Island!

We also put our name into the Mt. Arrowsmith history books. Definitely one of the most underrated things about hiking is the box of notes and names at most summits. Usually contained in some type of weather-proof container, containing a pen or a marker, people write their journeys, their names, the dates they completed the hike, all inside this time capsule on top of a mountain. I always take a few minutes to read what others have wrote, and add my name!

Something You’ve Probably Already Read

Englishman River! Crazy! We went back for another round! The day after Arrowsmith was a relaxed day of showing Hannah around Englishman River Falls. We took a few wades and a couple cliff jumps into the cold water.

A really cool note about this visit, I met a guy from Scotland who lent me his goggles for a swim. Experiencing the place underwater was awesome, until I got closer to the falls and could no longer see the bottom. Just murky green in the field of vision – no light filtering through to the bottom, no rocks visible. Definitely a creepy feeling, and who knows what was swimming beside me?

And just a reminder, this water was cold. But, we Canadians are made of pretty strong stuff. And as it turns out, those Scottish may be made of even tougher stuff!

Another Nanaimo Tour

I left Hannah and Becca to their own devices on August 3rd and blasted out for a bike ride towards Mt. Benson. I wanted to see how high I could get up the mountain on a paved road before descending back home. Turns out, not too high.

After getting turned around a few times, I finally got to the end of the “Benson View Road” which topped out at 275m above sea level. The hike that we’ve took both Hannah and Eric on goes up another 725m from this point, so it seems the only way to approach the summit is either hiking, or using the old radio tower road. Good to know for any future attempts, but the radio tower road is VERY chunky. Likely more of a mountain bike ride than a gravel bike ride, which knocked that off my ‘to-do list’ pretty quickly.

I still had thoughts about riding around the mountain, and began to mentally prepare the route for August 5th. We were returning Hannah to the Victoria Airport on the 4th, so this was the day circled for the bigger ride.

After my ride (and their work days), we decided to hit the town for Hannah’s last night in Nanaimo. We started with the famous Cactus Club for a happy hour drink, off to Milano’s for some cheesy pizza, and topped it all off with another drink at the famous “Nanaimo Bar”, a quite clever name for a late night drink spot. Someone had to make the pun!

Hannah’s Last Day in Nanaimo

Becca and I were sad to see her go as the morning of the 4th rolled around and we began driving Hannah down to Victoria. We had a plan to detour to the Sooke River Potholes, but sadly ran out of time before the flight. We did make it to the Vancouver Island’s famous ‘Niagara Falls’. Now, I had my doubts that it would be as wonderful as the Ontario version of Niagara Falls, but we figured it was worth a stop anyway.

And as you can see from the picture above, these blow Ontario Niagara Falls out of the water! Look at the amount of water pouring over! Ontario could never! I’m joking, Ontario’s Niagara Falls is a bit more of a force of nature than this, but it was still a nice and easy stop along the highway to stretch the legs.

The route to Victoria consisted of driving the Trans Canada Highway south down the island. Likely the most impressive section of the famous Canadian highway, the scenery of the Georgia Strait and islands off to the east make it a very enjoyable drive. When not directly on the coast, the road takes you through different rainforests and smaller fishing towns.

On the way, I ran into a couple of my Carleton University friends, Yannick and Justine! I was pleasantly surprised to see them after exiting a Tim Horton’s north of Victoria. We made plans to catch up later in the week over brunch. Becca and Hannah’s eye rolls were potent, as I have a reputation for always seeing someone I know in random locations!

Looping Benson!

I attempted this route in my previous blog post and failed. I scouted this route out even more earlier in this blog. Well, August 5th was the real deal. Time to bike all the way around Mount Benson.

The heat wave had kicked the bucket, and I had my route planned out on my Wahoo (a bike computer). Trusty thing, those Wahoos, I don’t think I’d go for a bike ride in a new area without one anymore.

I started the ride off by biking down to the ferry with Becca. She was heading off to Vancouver to see her friends for the weekend, leaving me to my own devices on the island. Her trip to Vancouver is a blog post in itself, completing Grouse Mountain, the Stawamus Chief, Capilano Suspension Bridge and more! But maybe I’ll get her to write her own blog post one of these days for that weekend… ha, we’ll see.

After parting ways with Becca, I proceeded to head south towards the far side of Mt. Benson. These roads were mostly paved, until it begins venturing to the backside, up the logging roads. I swear it felt like I was not just looping the mountain, but physically climbing it.

There were a few times on this trip that my Wahoo did fail me, leading me down paths that looked untouched for years. You can see on the map above a turn-around point close to Doumont, where I went severely off trail. The roads turned to single track very quickly, consisting of spiky vines that slashed up both of my inner elbows as they got caught in my path and dragged along.

But even though I was forced to U-turn a few times, I stayed mostly on the main logging path and made it out of the backwoods by Nanoose Bay. The scenery behind Benson is something seemingly apocalyptic, as most of the trees have been logged and the remaining bundles of waste are still piled up high, looking like they’re ready for burning.

The Rusted Rake Visit

When I got to Nanoose Bay, I took some paved roads back towards Nanaimo before stopping at the Rusted Rake! The parking lot was absolutely packed, and with my thoughts of “Oh, this should just be a brewery, I should be fine to walk in smelling and looking like dirt,” boy was I wrong. Picture the entire 60+ year old population of Nanoose Bay on a Friday afternoon dressed up and eating not brewery food, but delicious smelling lunches.

I don’t even know if I saw a beer on another table for the first 5 minutes of being inside. I sat down at the bar and ordered a flight of their bartender’s choice brews. But phew, did I ever stink. 80km into a sweaty bike ride, I really should have turned around and walked out that door.

But luckily I didn’t, and the beer was worth the ‘something smells’ looks I got. I highly recommend this spot for everyone. One of the best witbiers I’ve ever had was here, called “Willem Wets his Whistle”. Also funnily enough, I met Willem, one of the founders of the place, and he took me through the entire backstory of the brewery, how it used to be a bakery, etc. Just a really enjoyable place, great company, and great beer. Plus, they didn’t kick me out for smelling like a used sock!

I stumbled out of the brewery after a few too many free samples mixed with good conversation and made it back to Nanaimo. Overall, a full day of riding. Ride’s stats for those curious: 93km of riding and 1600m(!) of climbing. Ya, maybe I was climbing mountains after all. Overall though, I had a really great day out in the back woods of Nanaimo. I’m not saying this because I knew I had a weekend to myself, with Becca in Vancouver. It was definitely the cut up elbows and the bike ride.

To Be Continued…

A lot happens this next weekend of August in Nanaimo. The stories include, but are not limited to, climbing Triple Peak Mountain, taking my bike across water, making new friends and even catching up with old ones. All with my safety conscience (read: Becca) away in Vancouver. All to be explored on my next blog, so stay tuned!

Cheers,
-Go Hike a Bike