Toquart Bay

Although the weather in May has been really wet lately an opportunity for a motorcycle ride up Vancouver Island turned out great, with the discovery of Toquart Bay.

To get here you have to go west of Port Alberni on Hwy 4 towards Ucluelet. Just before Ucluelet about the halfway point along Kennedy Lake is the turnoff for Maggie Lake Forest Service Road, turn here. From this junction there is another 16 km of gravel road to the Toquart Bay Forest Service Recreation Site.

The recreation site is now managed by the local Toquart Bay First Nations and included in the facilities is a concrete boat launch, marina and a campground next to a sandy beach.

If you enjoy kayaking this makes an excellent base camp for exploring Barkley Sound and the Broken Group Island Chain. There is overnight vehicle parking and long term storage if required.

See Toquart Bay for more information, photos and visiting here.

Gun Lake

We just got back from a May long-weekend trip up to Lillooet, through the Bridge River Valley to Gold Bridge and Bralorne with the highlight being an overnight stay on Gun Lake at a Forest Service Recreation Site (FSRS).

Coming in from Lillooet was about 2.5 hours long travelling on Hwy 40 at first through the lands of the Bridge River First Nation, , through the canyons west of the Yalakom River, past the Mission Dam and the turnoff to Seton Portage, then along the lakeshore of Carpenter Lake to Gold Bridge. Once at Gold Bridge Gun Lake is only 10 km away.

The road in to Gun Lake from Gold Bridge travels up and has views of Lajoie Dam, the intake tubes of the dam, Downton Lake and the surrounding snow-capped mountains above Bralorne. Once at the lake there is a perimeter road that goes around Gun Lake. Take the left or west route to the FSRS.

The small user maintained FSRS campground has about 8 tables and two very crude not so clean pit toilets. There is no water available except for scooping it out of the very clean lake. The campsites are in a row set amongst mostly pine trees, with views of Gun Lake. The lake is located steeply below the campground with a few rocks to sit on and no beach. At the lake there is a beautiful view back towards Gold Bridge.

There were some power boats operating on Gun Lake. If you need a launch there is FSRS public boat launch one back on Gun Lake towards Gold Bridge. You pretty well need a 4x4 as the road in to the boat launch is carved out of the bush and looks like it could be muddy.

If the FSRS is full there is other camping back at the Tyax Resort on Tyaughton Lake, the BC Hydro site at Gun Creek on Carpenter Lake or the rough site south found on the Hurley River FSRS at Gwyneth Lake.

• Gun Lake - You Tube
  

For more information and links see Gold Bridge or for a map.