Sep 26-30 Sep 19 - 23
Things are winding up with the trail crew, and we’re thinking ahead. We’ve been doing work on Spring Cleaning, Sudden Exposure (so steep it’s a challenge to walk let alone ride – see attached pic), Kootenay Columbia, KC Ridge, and COG trails so that they’ll be ready for the Spring. We’ve made some changes to the Birch Main – Branch 3000 connector so that it’s more in keeping with the challenge of Crown Point, and tweaked Raven’s Rock trail so that it’ll better handle the volume of traffic anticipated from the early season riders on the new Bluffs trail, which is days away from completion (though wait till we get some significant rain before trying to ride it).  Sep 12 - 16
The new Bluffs trail (see attached map, click to see full size) located above the Miral Heights trail in Trail
is nearing completion. It’s a new 2.8 km well defined loop trail, suitable for
most hikers and experienced intermediate level mountain bikers (best ridden
counter clock-wise), leading to a spectacular viewpoint on the bluffs above
Sunningdale. It’s going to be pretty soft and dusty until we get some significant
Fall rains, but it should be the in great shape for the early Spring. Otherwise we’ve re-routed a particularly steep and rough section of the Seven Summits trail on White Wolf Ridge (se attached pic), re-located the entrance to the Dewdney backside trail that was washing out every Spring, re-routed a steep section of the Lui Joe urban trail, removed a hazardous tree on Monticola, and as our work season draws towards the end, we’re planning for next year’s projects. Sep 4 - 9
The Seven Summits poker ride this past weekend was a great success, with a solid turnout of locals and visitors on a perfect sunny day. It still feels like mid summer out on the trails, and many of the well-used or recently worked-on sections of trail are especially soft and dusty at the moment. Slow down and space out accordingly. During this past shortened week we were tweaking parts of the Seven Summits trail, made some improvements to the Rubberhead, replaced rotten logs with stylish new skinnies (see attached pic) on the Flume, and cleared a few fallen trees. Construction on the new Bluffs trail is proceeding well.  Aug 22 - Sep 02
It’s getting increasingly dry and dusty on the trails, and some significant rain would be very welcome. I was away last week (so no report), but the trail maintenance crew remained busy, and this week are rejoined by our second crew (after a summer break). We’ve been fixing trouble spots on Seven Summits, Miners, Red-top, Old Glory and Crown Point, fine tuning the tread on Whiskey and Monticola, and are (courtesy of new funding) back to continuing construction on the new Bluffs trail. Were also planning for future projects, including a new trail along the Columbia River in Waneta, a major re-route of the lower section of the Whiskey trail, and extending Redhead all the way to the top of Red Mountain (creating a downhill specific alternative to and minimizing user conflicts on Redtop). In other trail news, it’s great to see that the Lui Joe urban trail has been extended down to connect with the Rubberhead. (Include the attached pic of the jump we replaced on Crown Point showing the new alignment).  Aug 15-19
It’s that time of year when we’ve finally finished inspection and maintenance of all 51 trails and 150km of trail. We’ve been making a long list of areas that require extra attention, and we’ll be spending the remaining 6 weeks of our summer work season trying to get to as many of them possible. This week we finished off the new section under the power-lines on Dewdney. It’ll be a bit dusty until we get significant rain, but will then set up into smooth flowyness. Otherwise, watch for improvements to Whiskey, Cherry Poppins, Seven Summits (between Lepsoe and Elgood), Techno-grind, Cemetery, Larry’s and Moe’s. Aug 8-12
There’s going to be a significant increase in local logging activity in the area over the coming months, so Doukhobor Draw will be closed below Tamarack, and trail users should limit their use of the Gas-line Rd (use the Railgrade instead when riding back from Crown Point). Funding has come together (details to be released) to complete the Bluffs trail construction project above Trail. We’re down to one crew for the moment, but our second crew will recommence work on the Bluffs trail through September. You’ll notice our crew’s handiwork this week on Redtop, Redhead, Milky Way and Monticola. The tread upgrades you see us making throughout the network not only make the trails increasingly fun and flowy for a range of different users, but also facilitate drainage and maximize long term sustainability. Aug 2 - 4
It was a hot short week on the trails. We finished up annual maintenance on the Seven Summits trail, and repaired some eroding sections of tread on the descent from Grey Mountain. Monticola trail keeps getting better and better as the upgrading project works its’ way up the trail, and our efforts on the Dewdney will be ready to reveal once we get some rain to settle down the dust. Our crews also did some fine finishing work on the Lui Joe urban trail, and we’re getting some great data on trail use from the electronic counters we have positioned around the network. For example Redtop is averaging 47 riders per day. The second of our two trail crews now has a few weeks off, but we’re busy fundraising to get them back for a few weeks finishing of the new Bluffs trail, once things cool off. July 25 - 29 At long last the Seven Summits trail is officially open. The trail has received maintenance from end to end, which required significant drainage work and the clearing of an unusually large number of fallen trees. There are still sections of snow to portage (approximately 200m in total), but with all the recent upgrades, and tacky tread conditions, the trail is riding better than ever. Otherwise our crews have completed a new urban trail connecting Charlston Ave to Columbia Kootenay road, continue upgrading the tread on upper Monticola trail, and have completed minor maintenance work on Whiskey, Spring Cleaning, and Cemetery. July 18 - 22 Another busy week on the trails. Work on the Seven Summits trail continues, and we’ve even dug out snow to make getting aroud 50’s ski movie peak possible.  Give it another week, and though it’ll still not be snow free, I expect to be declaring the trail open. The Plewman and Old Glory trails have been cleared and maintained, and are ready for use. A whole lot of windfall from a recent wind event has been cleared, but if you know of anything else out there that needs our attention, give me a call at 250-368-1440. Drainage work has been completed on Drakes, Doukhobor Draw, and Redhead. We’ve a crew working on urban trails for the City of Rossland, funded by the local Interact Society, who are almost finished a new trail connecting Charlston Ave to Columbia Kootenay Road. Upgrades to a particularly rough section of the Dewdney trail (under the power-lines) are nearing completion. July 11 - 15
A whole lot more of Monticola has been brought up to the high standard we’re intending for this entire trail, a particularly rough and eroded section of Dewdney (under the power-lines) is on it’s way to receiving a long-term fix, Whiskey has received some much needed improvements (and will see more over the coming weeks), and we’ve done some finishing work on the new Louie Joe trail. July 4 - 8 Opening up the Seven Summits trail continues at a pace determined by the melting snow. Although some adventurous types are post-holing up into the Alpine, it’s still not realistic to get past the shoulder of Lepsoe (from the North), or “The Pass” from the South. The Dewdney Backside received its’ annual top to bottom treatment, and the attentive will notice repairs and upgrades to Drakes, Milky way, and Crown Point trails. The new Bluffs trail (located above the hospital in Trail) is well on the way towards completion, but now that Summer’s scorching temperatures are here, we’ll retreat to higher and cooler projects for a while. Generally the trails are in peak condition. Most of the wet spots have dried up, but there’s very little dust, just tacky goodness everywhere. June 27 - July 1 We’ve finally started the huge task of inspection and maintenance of the Seven Summits trail, starting from the South end. There’s still quite a bit of snow up high, but I checked out the area around Plewman on Canada day, and though still at least a couple of weeks from being ride-able, the snow seems to be melting fast. This pic is from the summit of Glory looking east at the 7 Summits ridge running north to south left to right. Click on the image to see the full size.  This week also saw the installation of bridges and the addressing of drainage issues on Monticola and COG trails, and good progress on the second leg of the new Sunningdale Bluffs trail. We now have mountain bike counters positioned (buried) around the trail network, and will start to accumulate statistics on use. Based on the past couple of weeks Redtop trail sees between 38 and 60 riders per day. June 20 - June 24 This week saw maintenance on Dewdney, Snake, Stunted Growth (ready to ride), Redhead, Redtop, Larch Ridge (snow free and in great shape), and Monticola (still wet on the upper section). We’ve had a crew working on a couple of new urban trails within Rossland (funded by the RSS Interact students), and have started on the continuation of the Bluffs trail (above Sunningdale). Behind the scenes we’ve been working with Teck to better manage environmental issues related to trails, and have been learning and sharing information with trails groups from throughout the region at the Kootenay Boundary Trails Workshop. June 13 - June 17 The first leg of the new Bluffs trail is now ready to use. It’s a 1.7km out and back from the highest point of the Miral Heights trail, above the hospital in Trail. Mountain bikers can park at Crowe SS, and ride circuit that’ll take just over an hour. Signs and a map will follow. Otherwise we’ve completed seasonal maintenance of Redtop (now entirely snow free), are making our way down the Dewdney, and have fixed one of the persistently boggy sections on Miners. For those that don’t know, our trails exist subject to agreements with landowners and land-managers, and are managed in accordance insurance requirements and a management plan, which is a long way of saying that it’s not a free for all out there. Unauthorized changes or additions will likely be removed. There are opportunities for contributing, but if you’re interested you need to talk with us first. June 6 - June 10 It feels like we’re finally catching up with the melting snow, and that most of the trails that can be opened are. This week we cleared Flume, Techno-grind, Full Monte, Coffee Run, Back of KC, and the connectors between Crown Point and the Railgrade. We also dealt with some persistent bogs on Larry’s and Milky Way, and have been repairing signs throughout the network. Down in the valley, progress continues on the new Bluffs trail. May 30 - June 3 More trails opened up this week, including: Crown Point (watch for slippery bridges), Dewdney (still very wet), Dewdney Backside, Miners (also very wet in places), Redhead, and Redtop (still snowy at the top). The second KCTS trail crew continued making good progress on the new Bluffs trail. A keen contingent of volunteers turned out for sunny trails day, and completed a re-route on the Record Ridge section of the Seven Summits trail (still mostly snow covered). May 23 - 27 Lots of new trails opened this rainy week. Tamarack trail is now clear of an astounding amount of windfall, and Moe’s, Larry’s, upper Milky Way, Drakes and Cherry Poppins are all now open. A second KCTS trail crew started up this week, and are making good progress on the new Bluffs trail, which branches off the existing Miral Heights trail. With all this rain, trails are wet, mud is sloppy, and creeks are high, so be careful out there. May 16 - 20 This
week the trail maintenance crew started in the Columbia Valley, completing work
on the Columbia, Antenna, and Flagpole View trails. With the great melt now underway,
we’ve finally been able to begin work on some of the higher elevation trails.
Whiskey, Doukhobor Draw, and Rubberhead trails are now good to go, but the next
couple of weeks should see lots of trails becoming snow free, and seasonal
maintenance will soon follow. Watch these weekly updates or check the trail
status board in Revolution Cycles for details. May 9 - 13 There have been few changes since last week in the trails that are open. The bottom section of Milky Way is open, and accessible from Columbia Kootenay Rd. Inspection and maintenance continues on the open trails, watch for significantly improved drainage on lower Green Door and the Miral Heights trail, and keep your fingers crossed for hot weather to melt the snow. We’ve had confirmation of substantial funding for a new trail up on the Bluffs above Sunningdale in Trail. Adding to the two existing trails in this area, it’ll provide exciting new early and late season options. Construction should start soon. May 2 - 6 Although
it’s a slow start to the trail season this year, Green Door, Cemetery, Rogers,
Spring Cleaning and Sudden Exposure trails are all open and in great shape. At
lower elevations it’s a great time to check out the Miral Heights and Ravens’s
Rock trails in Trail, the Antenna and Flagpole View trails in Montrose, the
Camp Tweedsmuir trails in Fruitvale, and the Columbia trail (click to view) between Sunningdale and Ootischenia. The trail maintenance crew has started
work for the season, and are completing annual inspections and maintenance on
the trails as the snow clears. |
