Trip Report: Gabriola Island Fatbike s24o
 

Before fall really kicks in I decided to get another Gulf Island trip under my belt; this time to Gabriola. As stated in previous reports, the s24o (sub 24 hour outing) is a term created by Grant Peterson to describe a short overnight trip to just get away and/or test gear for longer trips.

Leaving my trusty mini van in long term parking at Horseshoe Bay, I boarded the Nanaimo Ferry and then rode quick along the shoreline to catch the Gabriola Ferry:

Along the Nanaimo boardwalk
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Aboard the Gabriola ferry. Gone already are the summer throngs.
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On Island I decided to do the approx. 23km loop going up island on South Road and back along North Road (very creative names), making stops along the way. Camping was back near the ferry at Descanso Bay Regional Park.

A map I snagged from a brochure on board the ferry describes the route. I have superimposed numbers to correspond to stops I made along the way. 1. being the ferry dock
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The gulf Islands are hilly
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and part of the main road was gravel due to construction
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The first stop was Brickyard Beach (2.) This is about half way up island and a nice stop to watch boats struggling against the current of Gabriola Passage. The water squeezes between Gabriola and Mudge Islands (seen opposite) resulting in a strong tidal flow. The beach is littered with brick fragments from a depression era manufacturer.
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After that I motored on to a spot where there are old indigenous pictographs carved into sandstone in the forest (3.). To get there I did a little single track riding
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A pictograph on the ground just beyond the bike
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A nice old Garry Oak
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A fun little area that locals have adopted as a small species refuge
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Continued next post...

After the pictographs it was on to Drumbeg park (4.) which is a beautiful spot on the north end of the island near Silva Bay with great sandstone rock formations.

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And along the way found some more singletrack trails to explore
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Silva Bay in the background
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After Drumbeg (4.) and Silva Bay (5.), South Road curves around and becomes North Road heading back towards the starting point. I followed this back to "The Village" (6.) where there was a store and cafe and other shops.

A wild turkey and chicks
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This was a funny thing. The cafe plays music on a phonograph. Customers can browse and select the album they want
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Then it was on to Descanso Bay (7.).

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After setting up camp and cooking a meal I returned to catch some sunset action

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Continued next post...

Apparently we had a big lightening and rain storm in the region but all there was on Gabriola was a few sprinkles. I slept through it all.
The next morning I ate and packed up to set off. First stop was Gabriola Sands (8.) a spit that has beaches on both sides.

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Then further on to Orlebar Point (9.) which overlooks a light house on a small island off shore.

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On my return to the ferry I found one more singletrack diversion which was the best of the bunch. A narrow downhill flow trail back to Descanso Bay.

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All in all, it cost:
Ferry $19
Ferry $11
Campsite $20
Ferry $19
Parking $25

Total: $94 A pre loaded discovery card for BC ferries would knock about $10 off that and one could try to park without paying further off in Horseshoe Bay if one wanted to.

All in all, time well wasted.

Very nice!
Awesome pics.

Cool pics & thread. 👍 I nearly posted before, but noticed you were not finished in the first post. 😉

yeah. cool photography. fun trip.

always fun to see stuff from that neck of the woods, would be fun one day to do some riding out there.

I'd be a bit concerned about meeting Smokey the Bear along those singletracks, but I don't imagine you were going mtb speeds.

We did a nice little two day weekend thing a few weekends ago when the weather was nice and clear. North of Montreal along a pretty fire road made into an aerobic corridor for about 40kms, then 25kms on a nice shouldered paved road to a town , reasonably priced old style motel, then the next day about 75 klicks back to the car along another rail trail and a bit of road. No pics.

A very nice photo essay, thanks for sharing.

Your post has inspired me to do 2 things: Do at least one s24o this fall, and ride a fat bike. My wife and I have talked about going over to Oregon's coast and renting a fat bike. I'm a little nervous about this because I'm afraid we'd really enjoy it and think we need new bikes:)

One nice thing about Gulf Island touring is no bears! Lot's of deer though.

Watch out Doug.. they can be addicting. It has been said other places, and I would second the notion, that fat biking is not about speed or long distances. But they do open up your avenues to take mixed surfaces and experiment like a kid. The boundaries of where you will and won't ride get blurred. One example from the weekend was when a car was passing on the narrower roads. Usually one tries to hug the shoulder a bit but not go into the gravel for fear of sloughing. On the fat bike I just rode right into the gravel for the fun of it.

As far as touring goes I find myself looking for places that don't have a lot of distance but do have a variety of terrain.

Ps. Fixed the bird reference :)

Nice photos. I have a fat bike, but haven’t done any touring on it. Your setup looks perfect, with a rack, frame bag and handlebar roll. I’ll have to think of a comparable place to ride nearby. Heading to the Oregon Coast next week, and hoping for good weather.

I'm pretty happy with how it has turned out. Trips like this help refine little issues like the fact that, while the rack clamps work, my panniers slide forward on the rails - allowing the bottom clip to come loose and letting them bounce on bumps. Easy fix to build up some tape on the rails in the right spot so they can't do that. I'm also going to add a dropper post. Higher seat position really helps for pedaling on the road but you pay a price when it comes to off road. The dropper would solve that problem rather than adjusting the clamp with a hex driver.

I have to say 4.6 is a bit overkill for most applications other than soft sand, where they excel. I'm looking at maybe trying some 3.8 Surly Knards for next year and keeping the 4.6's for the snow.

Hey happy, nice not to worry about bears.

Re wider tires and getting off the shoulder and not worrying about it-- totally get that. This is exactly one other reason I was so glad I went with 2 inch tires on my Latin American trips, as going off to the side if needed with sketchy traffic situations was so much less of a worry.

Heck even on the two day mostly trail weekender we did, all the loose gravel stuff etc is handled so much easier with those 2in Supremes.
I really do get what you say about using a fat bike, and one day I really want to set up my troll with 3in front, well probably 2.5 simply because I have a set of them, and my rims won't be able to take more than that likely.
With a lighter load also, I look forward to riding on different surfaces, I always enjoy winter riding for the traction challenge, so this is something I do get off on.

Like I always say, all bike stuff is just plain cool and fun.

Thanks :)

If I were just doing touring I might think a 3" tire would fill the bill as well as a true fat bike but one of the main reasons I got the fatty was to explore the Great Sand Hills in Saskatchewan. I did a trip out there a year ago and found progress no good with traditional 26" width. For a while I was coveting the Surly ECR but a good deal came up on this and I took it.

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that Sask place looks like fun, and as you say, I figure 3in is that good compromise for lots of stuff.
I've probably mentioned this before, but the 2017 Troll got a rear frame change that allowed for up to 3in in the rear (had always been good for that up front, but before I believe a 2.8 was the max max and maybe then even a bit close)
I figure they made this change as bikepacking became more and more popular, and people figured out that 3in is a really good compromise for rolling speed etc etc for lots of riding terrain that fat was an overkill for.

As you said though, fat certainly is about being able to ride in places you just cant with narrower tires, but its certainly not about speed.

Happ, can't recall if Ive mentioned this fellow before, Iohan Gueorguiev, look up his trip videos of his travels, they are well made and fun to watch. He's been on a fatbike now for a year and a half or more, and is a real hard ass. His vids of being in super remote places and schlepping his bike a lot, are pretty impressive, but again, pretty damn tough guy.