Nice little spot by Nanaimo River. Follows old logging railways off the McKay Lake road. It's a touch rough in places but anyone with standard pickup truck clearance would make it no problem.
There's a series of river-side campgrounds along the way. They're maintained by a local placer miner. He asks that you be considerate - no shooting, no cutting trees, and pack out your garbage.
GPS file (Google Earth):
Hey thanks for the post - I'm going to dl this right now and throw it in my gps, I'll check it out next time I'm up there! I notice you uploaded kml as opposed to a gps file - do you do any of your 'scouting' from Google Earth or just use it to manage files from your gps? I usually scour Google Earth for cool spots before I go out and put all the markers on my gps, then try to find them. It's made for some cool discoveries.
I use Garmin Mapsource (which sucks) to manage the GPS, and work primarily in GE for reviewing and scouting. Sometimes I just head out and see where I get to - that's how I found this spot.
Unfortunately you can't see gates on GE!
Hmm haven't heard of Mapsource. I just use Garmin BaseCamp to move all the data between my handheld and Google Earth. I've also got a backroads map book and it does actually show most gates, though there's no way of knowing if they're open or not!
Good post. I've driven down that way before but stopped at the parking area to hike in to Mckay lake and the trails nearby. I have a newer stock Chevy S10 Blazer SUV. That would most likely clear the trouble spots hey? Also to ad input on the GPS maps. I use a free Ibycus topo map on my Garmin that includes some pretty decent detail on logging roads alongside my paperback backroads maps. Basecamp is great for organizing my routes, I would post but they are mostly hiking routes. Lastly do any of you know if its possible to drive further south to Crystal and Timberland lakes?
Stock blazer shouldn't have any issues.
I have no idea about Crystal/Timberland, other than the placer miner said the camps there were full of garbage which makes me suspect that you can get there with a vehicle. Let us know what you find!
Yeah I have explored the area on foot quiet extensively and its very digusting to see little man made camps full of garbage along Mckay to Timberland. I suspect there are people living out there during the warmer months and treat the land like its their own personal dump. Anyways, thanks for your input, I will most definitly be posting what I find on my explorations.
There is a good little twisty trail through the trees you can do a full circuit ending with a pretty good hill climb for stock trucks not a challenge in a locked rig though. To find it drive through the little creek past the claim you will see the steep ass hill coming in as well.
I love that spot, it's one of the few places TimberWaste doesn't own. It used to be a boy scout camp if you look across the creek on one of the campsites you can still see the wooden sign, "Camp Mykayla" or something.
Oh and no problems getting in there in my civic last weekend but sometimes the road floods.