Nestled in the Koksilah River Valley is one of the highest wooden trestle bridges in the world. At 44m (144 ft) high and 188m (617 ft) long, Kinsol Trestle was started in 1911 and finally completed in 1920 as part of the Galloping Goose line. Named for the nearby Kinsol Station which served the King Solomon Mines for a short period of time in the 1920's. This rail line carried both passengers and goods (mainly timber) until 1979 when the line closed. It is 44 m (144 ft)high and 188 m (617 ft) long, it was built with local Douglas Fir and is one of the highest trestles in the world.
I first visited the Trestle in 2007...it was down a little known dirt road and it wasn't possible to cross to the other side of the river as there was a hole at the south end of the bridge. It had been caused by a bunch of teenagers pushing a car out onto the bridge and lighting it on fire on a grad night back in the 80's, at least that is what I heard from locals around the Valley.
I got a photocopied map from the Cowichan Valley Visitor's Centre in Duncan and made my way out the the Trestle. This is before I had data on my phone or even gps in my car...which turned out to be a moot point anyway because there's no cell phone signal there.
You can access the trestle from both the north and south side, but I've tended to visit from the north, especially since the trestle became crossable again in the early 2010's. To access it from the north end, you take Kokilah Road, west from the Trans-Canada Highway just south of Duncan. You will follow along Koksilah Road through Cowichan Station where you will go under a low bridge and then over a single lane bridge over the Koksilah River, before turning left onto Riverside Road.
Riverside is a twisty, windy road that is paved for the first 5km and dirt for the next 5km. There are times that the dirt road is quite muddy, or at the very least, riddled with potholes, but I much prefer going this way and used to make the drive daily for several years.
As I mentioned earlier, when I first started coming here, I was confined to the north side of the trestle and only able to travel beside and under, not on, the trestle. On my first visit, I walked down to the river and took some pictures looking up at the top of the trestle with trees in the foreground. I felt so insignificant and small next to this massive structure. Looking up to the rails from in between the beams, caused an almost vertigo-like feeling.
Over the next couple of years, the Regional District decided to restore the Trestle as it was part of the Trans-Canada Trail - the current detour was over 5km via Burnt Bridge. I came to love coming out and just parking in the parking lot. I had no service and could do things here without distractions. I was also close to civilization so hubby was comfortable with me being off grid ;).
I was able to get some great photos of the trestle when they cut down the trees to make room for the construction equipment and tweaked the photos to be in sepia and it almost looks like they were cutting down trees to build the trestle. I saw that there was a bunch of wood that was cut and stacked nicely beside the trail and I asked a CVRD employee that was in the area what was happening to the wood. He told me that it was free but I would have to carry it to the parking lot (approximately 300m or 982 ft) from where the wood was. Over the next few days, I made trip after trip from the pile to the car...first by the armload and then I brought some heavy-duty shopping bags to make it a bit easier. I ended up having enough wood for the whole winter.
Once the trees were cleared, they started taking off the rotten wood from the trestle...