Posted by: tashi
For a quick excursion from Qualicum the Hammerfest trails are nice, stay to the riders left for the flow, drop down towards the river for a bit more janky.
The south Benson trails in Nanaimo are all-time and have easy fire road climbs. Start with the Simpsons route (Uterbraten, Max Power, Hutz etc) and then go up to Chainsaw ridge, Meat Draw etc if you’re down for more climbing and more gnar. Do both for a big day and add in Panoraimo to really fuck your legs up and get more DH.
Cumberland is awesome but I don’t know specifically what trails to route you through - I like a big pedal along with my big gnar down. Queso and upper Queso and whatever the way out route that feeds into Queso are awesome but require a good pedal. The lower stuff (Blockhead etc are also awesome and make for good shorter, less climby routes.
Tzuhalem in Duncan is excellent also, lots of sustained descents. Fire road or singletrack climbs. Check Trailforks for popular routes, they’re good. Maple is nice but Tzu is better. Provost is shuttle territory basically (if I’m up to date there.)
One of the best aspects of VI trails are the excellent climb routes so I recommend you do like the locals do and seek out singletrack climbs, we’ve got the goods! Basically the further south you go, the more pedaling you’ll have to do so stay outta Vic if you don’t like tech singletrack climbs.
Ill definitely look those up. Ya I dont think I want to go much more south than Nanaimo. I dont mind hitting some pedalling bits, just dont want like the epic grunt pedals the whole way up.