Nitinat Road Reports 2018

[nanmoo]

Kicking this off again. Drove to the end of the lake today on the North Shore Main and as others have reported it's in 9/10 shape. Lots of work was done in the early spring rebuilding the road bed and installing multiple new culverts. There was the most logging truck traffic I have ever seen on the road today, probably a truck every 2-3 minutes around 2 pm. If you don't have a radio be careful.

Road after the end of the lake is reportedly good as well but I didn't go that far.

[heffe222]

Drove the road this past weekend, and can report that it is in good shape north shore of Lake Cowichan, with a nice extension of pavement about 1.5km west of Youbou. Shortcut south of Heather Campsite was open, but rough in spots. Typical conditions seen west of Lake Cowichan, with variable well graded sections, but plenty of pot holes in sections and some wet spots / muddy. Will be drying out throughout this week and very dusty by the long weekend. No logging trucks seen on this past weekend. Road in to the campsite very rough and wet in spots and needs grading. Happy travels!

[nanmoo]

I drove both ways this weekend and much preferred the Cowichan route. The paved parts from Alberni are getting just awful. 45 minutes on gravel via Cowichan and 85-ish from PA.

North shore:
Youbou to end of lake 9/10
End of lake to junction 7/10 but some amazing parts
Junction to Nitinat 6/10

Alberni:
To Franklin Camp 7.5/10
Paved section 2.5/10
To junction 7/10

[rookieRyan]

I agree on the Alberni report ...Pretty nice at the moment 130km in the Toyota Matrix 😎

[rookieRyan]

The rd is awesome Sandy ..Best ive seen it in my last 5yrs of driving it...

[more force 4]

North Shore Road from youbou is by far the best I've ever seen it in driving it almost 35 years now. Rest of the road almost as good.

[Blackie]

Is there a list of radio channel names/frequencies for both routes?

[downwind dave]

channels
https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/smt-gst.n ... 11127.html
map
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/farmi ... _v10_8.pdf

note there are 3 different channels between Nitinat and Youbou 22-5-9. from PA to the lake its 20-5-9. You can never assume all the oncoming trucks are on the correct channel or even calling out.

[nanmoo]

I was guessing maybe half of the trucks were calling the other day, and only occasionally. Pretty poor show really. It's seems to be a lot better in the interior.

[nanmoo]

Thanks to the rains there are some nasty and muddy sections.

First part 8/10
End of lake to junction 6/10
Last bit to village 5/10

But I imagine it will be getting some grader action this week.

[thankgodiatepastafobreaky]

port Alberni to Nininaht was the best I have ever seen. 9/10. The roughest part was into the the village and campground as they just don't do any grading.

I found the road from Nitinaht to Lake Cowichan excellent however with a camper I only average 40 km/hr.

[Chrisp]

Any recent reports on the Port Alberni to Nitinat route? I've never traveled it but am coming from Comox ferry and apparently a little shorter than Lake Cowichan.
Thanks

[KUS]

Road was hard but decent going in Sunday...coming out Tuesday night things had been graded but were already getting hardened again, still better upon departure! 6-7/10 in, 8/10 out North Road. I heard some oil spread on PA route but otherwise bad or not great reports. Personally I would drive over an hour on pavement to save 1/2 hr on gravel. Will always go lk cow route from Pville, saves two passes too for the tranny wild card is the ditching and culverts work ongoing at the cabins past Youbou...apparently the road was closed both ways for 1/2 hr on Tuesday afternoon

[mortontoemike]

We drove to Nitinat via the Port Alberni route on Tuesday. The first 15 km of the gavel part is brutal. A lot of exposed rock made for a rough drive. Most of the hills are washboard. We came back on the North Cow road and it was very good. From now on it’s via Youbou for me.