One of the rock quarries
where material is gathered for roads.
This series of caches are
placed along the route that eventually meets up with the proposed
Valley Link Highway North. For many years a committee of volunteers
from Port Alberni and Courtney/Cumberland worked tirelessly in
promoting this logging route to upgrade it to highway status in
order to provide an alternate route through the middle of Vancouver
Island connecting the West Coast communities with the East coast of
the Island. They actually did have some success and got the road
from Port Renfrew to Lake Cowichan paved and the route from Lake
Cowichan to Port Alberni (see VLH 1 to 100 cache series –
GC273CX Valley Link Highway South) to a better standard. Each year
the committee put on a cavalcade of cars to do the route from Port
Alberni to Courtney/Cumberland. Another reason for placing this
series is to show some of the magnificent country northwest of Port
Alberni along the Beaufort Range of mountains and through a valley
of lakes and rivers.
We have tried to place
additional information about spots along the way that have their
own significance. Those mentions will show up at the beginning of
the description. There are a few other caches along the route
which we will list on the pertinent cache pages.
Please read at least one
full cache page to be familiar with the series. This route starts
on Central
Lake Rd. and continues in
a loop coming out near the end of Beaver Creek Road. Unless
otherwise stated, the pulloff to access the cache will be on the
right hand side of the road. Our mileage was calculated from BuyLow
Foods on Johnson Road in Port Alberni return and was a total of 70
km. All cache containers are the same and are placed where it is
safe to pull off. PLEASE bring a pen or pencil as
there are none in containers. Log books are regular paper in
baggies so please reseal carefully. Please keep signatures small to
conserve the log books and rehide container as found.
Cachemobile
The road is a mixture of
public and open to the public industrial roads with some big
equipment using it. Make sure you have GOOD tires and a spare and a full tank of fuel. Two wheel drive is OK. The
roads were in excellent condition when the caches were placed. We
recommend doing this series on a weekend to avoid logging traffic.
Make sure you have lots of fuel in your tank.
Driving
Etiquette
The road in most places is
wide enough to pass oncoming traffic but if it is tight with some
of the larger trucks, pull off and stop so the driver knows exactly
what you are doing. The road will get quite narrow at VLH N-49 and
continue to the end. Be very careful parking and always be aware of
traffic. If you are traveling slow and a vehicle comes up behind
you, please pull over and let him by.