So here is a bit of a story from today. I was planning on heading up towards Barsby lake this evening when I saw that the Yellow gate about a kilometer past the Fork at Nanaimo lakes road and south forks road was opened, a couple dirt bikes and a UTV came out. Does anyone know how long has it been open? I havent been up to the area in a few weeks but I thought that gate was pretty much permanently locked. Anyways I took a quick tour up to the coal mine site in my half tonne, the roads were flat and easy but it was a really cool area, nice views and definitly worth coming back to, of course we must be able to get back out. I know there is both a way in from the north at Biggs road (which I havent tried) and a short trail that bypasses the gate off Nanaimo lakes road, however my stock fullsize has tried and failed to get through. If you look at the map, Fatty's post "Canada Day Trail Exploring" shows kind of what I am talking about.
Side note, on my way home at about 9:30 I got stopped by a cop sitting by Mt Benson road who thought I might have been pit-lamping. Basically said he was checking any trucks coming down that road.
Story over, thank you for reading.
I've been wheeling in that area for years and have only seen that gate open a handful of times. Wolf Mountain Mine is a pretty cool spot on the mountain. If you sift through some of the old pics on this site, Island Nut and myself have posted some old pics of the inside. It's said that Mine was filled in with a lot of the old mining equipment still in there.