Greetings! Just moved here a month ago from Ontario and itching to get out there and explore some trails. We just replaced our 2003 expedition Montero with a 2015 Xterra Pro4X and im excited to get out there and get it a little dirty. I was a member of OF4WD back east and make it my first priority to thread lightly and keep the trails open for future use. So tell me, hows the off road culture here on the Island? Any challenging trails? Or maybe a place to camp out next to a lake after a day of exploring in the back woods? Anyone going wheeling maybe this weekend?
hey welcome to the island :) its a wonderful place, full of hardcore trails that smash up vehicles haha! Nah for real the island might be a very different environment than what you might be used to, especially in terms of wheelin. Lots of forest service roads which are definitely wide and easy-ish to do, and you can access alot just by going on those! when trails get more technical though, it gets pretty intense. Most guys here have older rigs, 4runners and jeeps and old toyota pickups, that seems to be the "main" culture of vehicles to go 4x4 ing on the island. Ive personally got a 2010 tacoma double cab long bed, and honestly ive been in some stuff that if you care about your paint, you shouldnt go. But! that being said there are alot of awesome trails to explore, secret camping spots to discover and just exploring the great outdoors :)
You could start off by picking up a copy of the Backroads mapbook, its an excellent guide thats sold in most book stores, and it has most of the main trails and alot of smaller ones too! Its a great guide overall. You will definitely find trails that are suited to what you like to do and what are comfortable with. I would say one of the best things to do is just get out and explore, pick a spot and go check it out. There are organized trail runs here once in awhile, just keep in eye out for them :) Seeing as you have a newer vehicle and probably care about it ( as I do with mine) youll want to check with the guys organizing whatever trail run is going on, see if you can follow them, they will let you know! All depends on where they are going!
Anyways, all this to say, welcome :)
Oh and side note, a very frustrating thing here is gates, there are alot of them depending where you go! the southern part of the island is mainly gated off, and its very difficult to find anywhere to access the back roads. Sooke is pretty much a no go from what I know, im sure theres ways in but i dont know them. Port Renfrew opens up a bit more, cowichan lake is a good place to go from there and explore more. There is a trail that goes to oliphant lake, its before duncan, but those are technically quad trails, so some are pretty wide, some are pretty tight.
Welcome to the forum.
Sam pretty much covered it all.
Every so often there's organized runs. Come out meet some people and get to know the island.
Just make sure you find out what kind of a run it is.
It's been more than once where we had people come out in brand new jeeps and back out as soon as we hit the trail.
I just moved over a few months ago with the family for work. Im currently in the Nanaimo area and am looking for suggestions for where to go for some light to moderate wheeling. Any suggestions or comments about the mid island area are welcome. I have an 08 JKU 4 inch life on 35s so can go some places.
nice welcome to the island :) theres def a few folks more local to the nanaimo area, best bet is to go out on rides!
planning to take an easyish run to timberland lake area saturday.text 2502402349 if interested
Hey Brad, I could take you out and show you a few places. I'm out pretty much every Sunday in the Nanaimo Area.
Some days I'm doing shit you probably are not interested in, but I could certainly show you some places and you could explore from there.
Shoot me a PM if/when you want to go.
man sounds like a fun ride, wish I could come out!