Here’s a longer ride report (for those with patience!).
Ride Overview:
Here’s the Strava profile:
https://www.strava.com/activities/562609901
This was about 165km with 2300m of climbing (according to Strava’s corrected elevation calculations, Blair's computer shows 1800m). Blair and I did this to prepare for the Leavenworth Gran Fondo. Kenji did it because he’s nuts. We were on CX-type bikes with CX tires.
We started at 6:15am, rode up the Malahat, got off at Shawnigan Lake Road, then took Sooke Lake Road to the south end of the Cowichan Valley Trail. We rode up that to the Kinsol Trestle (to have a peek), then cut back a couple km on the CVT to Renfrew Road and headed west. Renfrew Road quickly becomes gravel and merges into Kapoor Main. We rode west up Kapoor Main (skirting north of the closed watershed area) to the intersection with West Jordan Main, then turned South and followed it (skirting west of the watershed) until it turned into Butler Main, and took Butler Main south (and east) to Sooke. From there we followed the Goose home. Our rolling time was just over 7 hours. We arrived in town just before 3.
Ride Details:
The Malahat was straightforward, with less than usual debris in the bike lane. It was cold descending Shawnigan Lake Road. The CVT is a nice path, though not as groomed as the Goose. There are sandy patches and occasional patches of thick gravel that are worth looking out for. In the future I’d like to follow it all the way up to Cowichan Lake. The Kinsol Trestle is scenic and impressive and worth a visit. You can ride right over it. Someone should create a Strava segment.
Renfrew Road is very pretty. It’s surrounded by forest and the Koksilah River is the platonic ideal of a sun-dappled forest stream. The only downside—especially once Renfrew turned to gravel—was the parade of pickup trucks carrying motorbikes out to various riding spots on forest company land. We basically started the gravel part of the ride in a continuous dust cloud. I was glad I hadn’t worn contacts. We have no idea where they went. Once we got a couple kms into Kapoor Main, we only saw 2 other vehicles over the next 60km.
Kapoor Main climbs significantly coming out of Shawnigan. It’s a pretty smooth road though (see my recommendation on route direction below) cutting through large swathes of clearcut. I’d forgotten our cue sheet so we weren’t exactly sure how far it was to our intersection. But it was about 15km up from the end of Renfrew Road. It was exciting to get there because we’d already ridden the Butler Main-West Jordan Main combination up to that intersection from Sooke a couple weeks back. The unknown part of the ride was over and suddenly it felt like we’d actually finish.
Even though we’d done the logging roads ahead of us before, I think we all forgot exactly how gruelling they were. West Jordan Main—at the top end near the Kapoor intersection—is mostly packed dirt with some wet spots and is basically pleasant to ride on. But as you work further south it turns to cobbly hardpan and gravel and is bone jarring to descend on. Back, neck, arms, shoulders, and hands take a beating absorbing the shocks. It’s easy to get tense gripping the handlebars that the bumps threaten to rip out of your hands. It’s hard to eat and drink because you feel the need to keep your hands firmly on the bars, so we stopped occasionally to refuel.
Eventually we reached the Jordan River, which currently has some active logging around it. Big slashpiles sit by the road along with piles of logs and logging equipment and a not-very-confidence-inspiring old white van labeled “Ambulance”. Beyond the active logging zone (which seems to be quiet on Sundays) Butler Main smoothes out a fair bit compared to the cobbles of West Jordan Main. We stopped to check out the top of East Main FSR, which connects down to Jordan River (the town). We’ve hoped to ride this at some point, but the top is blocked by a gate, large boulders, a creek, and a pile of dirt. We interpreted this as a recommendation not to ride down it (it looks quite overgrown and possibly impassable even beyond the barricades—probably most safely explored by riding up from Jordan River).
Butler Main heading toward Sooke cuts east after the Jordan River crossing, across the top of Bear Creek Reservoir. Again, lots of clearcut, but also some nice views over the reservoir. The road goes up and down several times before more or less plunging into Sooke over the last 10km. The road gets rough again (cobbly, gravelly) at the south end. The ascents are tough but the descents are tougher. It’s nerve-wracking when something is steep enough that your disc brakes are engaged to the point of your tires nearly breaking traction and yet you’re still going uncomfortably fast so that the handlebars feel like they’re going to be ripped from your hands. Kenji and Blair were much more comfortable with letting go and bombing down the descents than I was—and even they seemed a bit stressed by it all. A front tire blowout on one of those descents would be scary. Oh—and I forgot to mention the giant potholes, which can be hard to spot on the sun-dappled road. It pays to have a good bunny hop in your repertoire.
We finally hit the gate at the end of Butler Main and were back on buttery smooth pavement. We rode Otter Point Road into Sooke, stocked up on food and liquids at the grocery store, and headed home. Ironically (miraculously?) Blair experienced our first and only flat of the trip in Langford on the Goose. Our last time up on those logging roads we got four flats between the three of us over half the distance that we rode yesterday. Higher tire pressure this time was probably part of the reason we did better at avoiding flats.
Ride Recommendations:
Descending Butler Main into Sooke is nerve-wracking. Kapoor Main headed into Shawnigan, by contrast, is comparably smooth. Kenji and Blair both noted that it would be more pleasant to do this route in reverse. The downside is descending the Malahat into Victoria in the afternoon, though the Mill Bay Ferry is always an option (bring cash). Kenji seemed to cope with rim brakes, though I was very pleased to be using disc brakes. We all had 32 or 33mm knobby CX tires. I’d probably go with more of a summer tire next time, and a good Kevlar tire would probably be wise, given all the sharp rocks. Going tubeless would be nice to allow lower pressures, but I’d be worried about how to deal with a sidewall tear or rolled tire while out in the sticks. Speaking of sticks, there’s no cell phone service between Shawnigan and Sooke, so plan to be self sufficient. It's hard for cars to get past gates in places, so don't expect someone to easily drive up and pluck you out. I wouldn’t recommend doing it with fewer than 3 people. This strikes me as a route that would be difficult in the wet. West Jordan Main can get very muddy and it looks like a horrible slick rutted concrete in places. We carried a spare tire, about 3 spare tubes each, some warm clothes, some rudimentary first aid, and lots of food and liquids. A camelback is a good idea for keeping hydrated hands free on the rough roads. If you were to do this on a weekday, you might find yourself blocked by an active logging zone. Don’t know whether you could negotiate your way past the industrial activity. Play nice with the logging folks if you go—we want their trucks to brake for us. Get off the road fast if you see a truck headed your way.
I would describe this ride as more challenging than enjoyable. If you want an adventure, have at. If you want fun, you can probably do better than this route!
Martin
