Like I was saying there is a gas station in the village of Nitinat that the FN runs, as for store hours....???? Being that it is tourist season and there are a lot of campers and windsurfers on the lake I would suspect they would be open both Saturday and Sunday....a quick phone call to general store would answer that. I dont know if there is fuel in Bamfield, been there many times and cannot picture gas pumps but with a full tank from Nitinat and a 25L jerry as piece of mind you could get there and to Port Alberni no problem.
Post some pics of the trip on here if you go.
I would take the route that goes off the very west end of Cowichan Lake to Nitinat Lake (gas at the reserve there)....I have added a route past Nitinat Lake on Rosander Main to the area above Cheewat Lake....look for ribbons on side of road and small sign....this is the trail down to the Cheewat Cedar.....biggest cedar in Canada, its is massive. Can camp by a couple lakes out there or by Nitinat River???
Then head back towards Port Alberni, road will have paved patches, then past Francis and Darlington Lakes is the turnoff to Bamfield at the site of the old Camp B....there used to be a large logging camp there.....drive around in the back and you can see where the old houses used to be and the old hedges in yards. You can keep driving on to Port Alberni or head out to Bamfield and Pacheena Beach....there is a campground right on the ocean run by the local Huu-ay-haht FN....not a bad place.
Just some options if you skip Bamfield I added a side trip to Mount Arrowsmith....road runs up to old ski area....good views.
These routes should not be gated as they are all main lines.
As for your original route 1.... yes spring and fall are definately better....things are just too dry right now and since the land is privately owned they gate off any public access.
Hope this helps.
Dammit the changes I made didnt stick....here is a screenshot of what I mean.
The first option would be the easiest except that the gates in the Nanaimo Lakes area would be locked now for fire concerns.
The second option is probably not what you want to attempt....havent been there for a long time but remember it not being that nice.
If just looking for logging roads and a good round trip....try through from cowichan to port alberni and maybe make a side trip to Nitinat Lake or out to Bamfield and go to Pacheena Beach at the start of west coast trail....there is good lakes out there and spots to get down to river....have to explore a bit.
Got the old dirty tcases on the bench and had a friend give me a hand....he also let me use his varsol pit which was a huge help in cleaning these things.
We tore them down and used the factory 23 spline in the rangebox case and then tore down one of the 21 spline cases and replaced the 21 input with a beefier 23 spline input.....then put it all back together with the dual adapter and a twin stick in the rear case......still need to find a shifter for the front hi/low case.
Got home and started on tearing down the A340H chain drive tcase......as you can see there is a lot of crap in there. This tcase is hydraulic (aka another auto transmission) with all the same planetary gears and its own valve body and pump.......no wonder the 3.0L V6 is somewhat gutless.....it has two auto transmissions sucking away power. I am very interested to see how much power it has back from losing all this hydraulic crap. The dual gear driven transfer cases going in are far more simplistic and wont suck power. Check out all those parts in the last picture....I dont think the doubler weighs as much as whats in that pile!!
Next up is finishing the mods required in the tranny (the park pawl was in tcase and is now going to be in trans. and change a shift rod), and bolting up the Inchworm Gear adapter.
Like I was saying there is a gas station in the village of Nitinat that the FN runs, as for store hours....???? Being that it is tourist season and there are a lot of campers and windsurfers on the lake I would suspect they would be open both Saturday and Sunday....a quick phone call to general store would answer that. I dont know if there is fuel in Bamfield, been there many times and cannot picture gas pumps but with a full tank from Nitinat and a 25L jerry as piece of mind you could get there and to Port Alberni no problem.
Post some pics of the trip on here if you go.
See if this works
https://maps.google.ca/maps?saddr=Watts+Rd&daddr=48.8643,-124.605922+to:...
I would take the route that goes off the very west end of Cowichan Lake to Nitinat Lake (gas at the reserve there)....I have added a route past Nitinat Lake on Rosander Main to the area above Cheewat Lake....look for ribbons on side of road and small sign....this is the trail down to the Cheewat Cedar.....biggest cedar in Canada, its is massive. Can camp by a couple lakes out there or by Nitinat River???
Then head back towards Port Alberni, road will have paved patches, then past Francis and Darlington Lakes is the turnoff to Bamfield at the site of the old Camp B....there used to be a large logging camp there.....drive around in the back and you can see where the old houses used to be and the old hedges in yards. You can keep driving on to Port Alberni or head out to Bamfield and Pacheena Beach....there is a campground right on the ocean run by the local Huu-ay-haht FN....not a bad place.
Just some options if you skip Bamfield I added a side trip to Mount Arrowsmith....road runs up to old ski area....good views.
These routes should not be gated as they are all main lines.
As for your original route 1.... yes spring and fall are definately better....things are just too dry right now and since the land is privately owned they gate off any public access.
Hope this helps.
Dammit the changes I made didnt stick....here is a screenshot of what I mean.
The first option would be the easiest except that the gates in the Nanaimo Lakes area would be locked now for fire concerns.
The second option is probably not what you want to attempt....havent been there for a long time but remember it not being that nice.
If just looking for logging roads and a good round trip....try through from cowichan to port alberni and maybe make a side trip to Nitinat Lake or out to Bamfield and go to Pacheena Beach at the start of west coast trail....there is good lakes out there and spots to get down to river....have to explore a bit.
Does grinding dust count??.....cause its getting thick on it
Got the old dirty tcases on the bench and had a friend give me a hand....he also let me use his varsol pit which was a huge help in cleaning these things.
We tore them down and used the factory 23 spline in the rangebox case and then tore down one of the 21 spline cases and replaced the 21 input with a beefier 23 spline input.....then put it all back together with the dual adapter and a twin stick in the rear case......still need to find a shifter for the front hi/low case.
Got home and started on tearing down the A340H chain drive tcase......as you can see there is a lot of crap in there. This tcase is hydraulic (aka another auto transmission) with all the same planetary gears and its own valve body and pump.......no wonder the 3.0L V6 is somewhat gutless.....it has two auto transmissions sucking away power. I am very interested to see how much power it has back from losing all this hydraulic crap. The dual gear driven transfer cases going in are far more simplistic and wont suck power. Check out all those parts in the last picture....I dont think the doubler weighs as much as whats in that pile!!
Next up is finishing the mods required in the tranny (the park pawl was in tcase and is now going to be in trans. and change a shift rod), and bolting up the Inchworm Gear adapter.