Hi there, I’m looking for some interesting places to go in the general Victoria area that aren’t to tough to get to and would be passable this time of year. I have a 2007 Subaru Outback with toyo open country at 3 tires on it, so while not useless off road it’s definitely not a lifted jeep on 35’s. I have been to avatar grove and Lonely Doug. Bear creek reservoir is one I’m looking at, I’m just not sure how rough it would be to get there from Jordan river or if it’s open this time of year. I’d love to know if there are other places worth checking out I don’t mind if it’s a view, beach, lake, river, or just a cool patch of wilderness I’m just looking to find some places that aren’t off the main road and crowded!
Thank you!
Secret lake? Can be a busy place though. Not much of a secret.
You can cruise roads behind Lake Cowichan too without going crazy.
That sounds neat! Is there a trail to secret lake?
I’ll take a look at what’s around lake Cowichan.
I've never been, but it's supposed to be a really nice spot. I'm sure if you do enough sleuthing you'll find it because of its popularity.
Ok cool I’ll see what I can find, thank you
I went to lake Cowichan drove all the way around it,was a great location I will say though next time going through the town lake Cowichan and going to south side and when the pavement ends there are so many really great trails going into the bush of almost every level of difficulty. Anyways fact is lake Cowichan south side is my new playground for a while.
While secret lake isn't "hard" to get to, I'm a little concerned that a Subaru Outback may or may not take some minor damage on the last trail to the spot. I remember doing it my first time in my 2015 4runner (stock height at the time) and I took some damage near my running boards. Likely due to new off-road driver error, but still worth noting.
It's not a hard journey, the trail is quite mild, there's just a some larger stones here and there about 500 meters before the spot. Luckily there's plenty of places to turn around along the way, hell, I've seen vehicles with less ground clearance do it, but those were shit boxes that the owners clearly didn't care about.
Also, expect there to be a bunch of dirt bike/ quad / SXS red necks monopolizing the cabin and firepit. I consider myself lucky if there's room to park. That being said, I never go there anymore unless it's to show a friend, because of how busy it is ALL THE TIME.
Really cool spot though, everyone should go at least once!
That’s some really good advice, I suppose I could find a pull out before the roughest section to stop and walk the last little bit. Also do you have a route for getting there? I haven’t been able to find anything online.
I'm not great on giving directions but if you have Gaia Maps, here's the route
https://www.gaiagps.com/map/?loc=14.8/-123.9532/48.4759&pubLink=7z1n6OSe...
Basically Muir main and then a right onto Alligator main at the bridge. I'll post a screen shot of the map tracks.
I highly doubt an Outback will get over the very first obstacle. Remember that hump and ditch we had to go through to get from the road to the trail? No way. And there are several deep ditches and flowing water in them along the trail. I wouldn’t take an outback in there.
Are there any other moderately difficult trails around this lake? I've been considering a run to this lake because I haven't been there before, but I've heard the route is fairly short.
When I watch these youtube videos from the "4low bc" , all their routes look pretty narly. Is there not some similar routes on souther Vancouver Island? I see hundreds of lifted Jeeps around Victoria and I always wonder where have they found to go wheeling with moderate difficulty?
For an explanation of moderate, I would consider the Hill 60 route to that river-side camp area to be about a 3 out of 10 on a difficulty scale for a Jeep with 33's. I'm looking for more of a 5 or 6.
feipoa if you mean Lake Cowichan I would say the majority of trails around the lake are in the 1-3/10 difficulty range for you. There may be a few harder ones but from what I've seen it is mostly logging road cruising out there with a few exceptions like gate workaround trails etc. Secret Lake I'm not so sure of as I've never been either.
Sooke will be your biggest playground close to Victoria. Tons and tons of trails of all difficulty. I'm not personally familiar with the area really but go to Pathmaker Productions on YouTube. They're buggy guys mainly and pretty secretive with their special spots but they do wheel Sooke almost exclusively and you'll see lots of trails in their vids. I'm sure someone here from Vic area may chime in and be able to show you some Sooke trails.