Ride to Elephant Lakes

Today, Wayne and I came to town for a quad ride. The weather was warm, just perfect for riding. Thanks to a new quad trails book written by Dave, the president of the Powell River ATV Club, we feel more comfortable striking out on our own.

For today's ride we chose the Elephant Lakes Loop. Heading south on Highway 101 we exited on Stillwater Main (the first dirt road on the left after the bridge over the Lois River/Eagle Creek). At .9 km we turned right on Lois Main Forest Service Road (FSR) Branch 1 and found a wide turnout to park our truck and trailer.

This is a popular road to the Powell River Forest Canoe Route launch site and campground. We popped in to take a look and there were lots of people enjoying the lake and camping. Back on Branch 1 we continued to the junction with Lois Main FSR Branch 3 (at 3.9 km). Just after the junction you will see a road sign to confirm that you are on course. Ride on Branch 3 for another 5.1 km to an intersection. Continue straight ahead and you are on the Elephant Lakes Loop.

The trail follows old logging roads. There are lots of trees and it's cool underneath the green canopy. We did pretty well using the guide, but also had our Garmin Oregon 300 GPS with the topo maps installed. Several times we stopped to make sure we were on the right road. We made one wrong turn, but we got back on course after a quick lunch break next to the Sunshine Coast (hiking) Trail.

As you climb into alpine country, the road narrows and gets rocky. We turned off at the Sunshine Coast Trail marker pointing to Saltery Bay. The short spur ends at the hiking trail the follows the lake shore. We parked our bikes and hiked in for a ways. The foliage still had dew drops on the leaves late in the afternoon. And all along the path there were blueberry bushes with plump berries. I tasted a few, and they are almost ready to pick. Rather than continue on the loop, we back tracked to our truck.

This map is an example from the ATV Trail Guide for Powell River BC. Each trail has a written description, level of difficulty and GPS coordinates. If you would like one, stop by the Powell River Books booth at the Blackberry Street Fair on Friday, August 21, from 6:00-9:00 pm. Dave will be there to answer any questions you have about the ATV Club or Trail Guide. And a good complement to the Trail Guide would be Wayne's book Up the Main. See you there! - Margy