A ride to Beveridge Beach

FSXStumpy

Retro Guru
No joke, that's the name of the place... :)

A couple weekends ago, my daughter (:cool: and I began to explore the ATV trails between "Poacher's Pass" and the coast. We've long known they eventually lead to some beaches/old farmsteads/camping opportunities, but we'd never really had the ability to explore it. She's getting a lot stronger this summer.

We packed a picknic lunch, PB&J, brownies and some snacks, a good bunch of water and her camera. The last time we went this direction, we totaled up 14km of riding, but stopped short of reaching the coast (time pressures!). Leaving at 11am gave us "all day".

I rode my '95 Stumpjumper M2 FS and my daughter, her rather newer Norco Katmandu.

The day started with very thick fog, but by 11 it had mostly retreated to the coast. Still sweaty riding, though. We humped over the Mitchell hill and turned up Poacher's Pass. Climbed to the top, and descended past Millican Lake, down the "triple hill" and on out the road for another km or so. Finally, West Beach Road appeared on our right. It's a well worn ATV trail, complete with a couple km's of head-sized rocks in a water washed section, some sections of roots that evoke railroad ties and a half-dozen or so hub-deep mud and water holes along the way. Good fun riding!

Shortly after entering the road, we stopped to enjoy the hundreds of water striders stroking about on a small stream crossing our path... Then ground our way up the baby-heads until finally the road began to tend gently downward. The downhill section switched out the rocks for roots. Good exercise for the old Specialized FSX carbon/ti air/oil fork!



After about 5km of riding, we reached an intersection and took the right branch. This leads down a steep (maybe 10% grade) trail, again railroaded with roots, beside a small stream in a mid-sized short gorge, with a little waterfall. This spot seems to have been too challenging for the logging practices of yore, and my daughter enjoyed spruce trees too big to encircle with her arms (she managed a little over 1/2 way). The tallest must have been well over 120'.















Back on the bikes, we rolled down to the bottom of the descent and eventually came upon a 4 way trail intersection, and chose the most travelled path. Soon we were in "new" territory, as the path wound back somewhat on our travel, heading generally west along the coast, a half km inland. Crossed a stream or 2, then the soil began to change to a sandy character, and we came upon grassy areas interspersed with alders. The coast was clearly near.

Continued....
 
One last turn, and we came out on a coastal plateau, at "Moore's Cove". Very jagged coastline, cliffs maybe 30-40' tall, with rocks looming from the sea below. A lone spruce tree near the edge, twisted by the wind. The trail goes on a bit further, and this spot is cold and windy, so we explore on to see if we can find a nice place to picknic.











The next clearing in the alders is a small grassy field hedged in by large coastal rocks and the alders. Warm here. We park our bikes and explore on foot. To our east is a footpath thru the weeds. We follow it to a rocky point that defines the eastern edge of a small cove, maybe 200' in diameter, with a pebbly beach. We tromped down through the heavily greenery to the beach. Very warm here, a very sheltered cove with a natural breakwater making the cove itself almost a millpond.











Continued:
 
Soon enough the sandwiches were eaten and I took a few photos of the area. Daughter doffed her shoes and socks and waded in the cove... Cold water, she reports, but it's clear and has a colour reminiscent of the Gulf's turquoise. After a good while, we pack up and head back to the bikes.



Back at the clearing, we discover we've been joined by 3 local men on ATVs, also enjoying the view. We chat a bit about the local, the old farmstead on the other side of the cove, the weather, routes out.... Finally, we take our leave and begin the grind back home. Not too bad a ride, after the climb by the waterfall is over (that's a challenge!). 3:30 sees us stripping our smelly, muddy gear on the back porch. The bike computer says we did about 17km at 8.9km/h, rolling for some hour and 55 minutes. Can't wait till my 5 year old son's a bit stronger. I smell bike camping in our future!



J
 
awesome! my daisys 4 and weve done a few small rides and the monsal trail in the peak district (17 miles along old railway tracks) and cant wait to take her properly exploring off road
 
We introduced my daughter to mountain biking a couple years back now, I guess this is her 3rd summer at it. This is the first she's really gotten into it. We've been doing weekly organized "youth" rides at our local park (Rockwood), which has some of the most challenging XC singletrack I've ever ridden. It's been a great experience for her, but one must guard against frustrating them in the hard stuff. Sadly, the last few weeks, she's been the only "youth" in the ride... The others mostly dropped out after 1 or 2 rides - frustrated, I think, by the seemingly insurmountable challenges presented.

It came to me a month or 2 ago that in my own youth, I discovered mountain biking not thru repeated trail riding, but thru exploring the backwoods trails near my home. Being in Atlantic Canada (close to 45N, 66W), there's no shortage of ATV tracks going just about anywhere. Exploring is an easy sell to a kid, especially with the promise of a beach or stream or just about any water to play in at the turn-around.

We'll keep forging further and further into the local woods, I know there are several more beaches and some abandonned farmsteads to explore out there...

So far, my son's up to about a 10-12km ATV trail ride on his little 20" Eliminator.... Be a couple years, I think, before we can get him all teh way out there...

J
 
Sophie and I took another ride towards Beveridge Cove Sunday, but this time we aimed for the former farm property on the other side of the cove. Beautiful day, 18C, sunny, with the fog receding to the bay. We left at 10:30.

We followed the same ATV trails down to nearly the cove, but took a different path at the last intersection, heading further east. Quickly, we found ourselves on a treed grassy area with few rocks visible... Many trails netted the area, so we stuck to the ones heading generally in the direction of the coast, avoiding any that went down towards the water too steeply - we were aiming to stay on top of the head land. Soon we found ourselves in a small clearing, overlooking Beveridge Cove, where we took our lunch.

We had a nice view of the rock formation that looked like a pirate ship from down in the cove... 2 men were fishing from it...





We tucked into our sandwiches and soon had them polished off. As I bent to retrieve my gloves, I spotted movement in the grass and debris on the ground.... I've never seen a garter snake this small before:





On our way inland again, we spotted a wasp nest. They say the position of a wasp nest tells of the coming winter... Seems we'll be having no snow.





Back on our way, exploring the old farm property, not much left to see today. At one point, we passed a stump covered in pretty bracket mushrooms, so stopped for a photo. In the woods nearby, another surprise:



An oil drum, "Donald Davidson", with "Eng. Seal Conditioner"... Dated 24-5-38....



And on we went...

Soon, we found ourselves pushing our bikes up a long cobbly road... All but impossible to bike, but easy enough to walk... The climb went on and on and on.... Looking at a topo map today, we climbed about 400', from 100' at the coast to the top of a 500' peak. Frogs abound!





Finally, we crested the peak, passed another intersection, and began descending again. Quickly it became clear we were headed the wrong way, northwest, when we needed to be heading southwest. We backtracked a small distance (maybe 500m), took that intersection, and soon found ourselves back in familiar territory. Just a long grind home on our backwoods main line... A few moderate climbs, a chat with some local ATV'ers, and 3pm saw us at home again. 19.5km travelled. One tuckered pair of bikers.

J
 
Re:

Great stuff ! I'm sure memory's of these rides will remain with your daughter for ever !!
 
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