Lois Lake Main line closed from August 14 to 21

Attached please find a notice of road closure for the Lois Lake FSR at approximately 7.6 km.

The road will be closed to all vehicle traffic from August 14 to August 21.

Trail Signage Replacements

This week  Bill, who is visiting from the Eastern Seaboard, and Eagle went out to various locations on the Sunshine Coast Trail at trailheads or intersections with roads or trails, replacing missing signage.

Bill is putting the finishing touches to the signage at Branch 10, near Rieveley's Pond, now once again clearly marked and signed. Easy now partner, watch that thumb.

On Fairview Bay Trail at the Towers, the new reroute - which now traverses the OGMA (Old Growth Management Area) at a lower elevation - has received the old signage that had been in place just up the hill at the start of the old trail section.

Ahstrom Point claims to be half an hour away from the end of the Pole Line at the Towers, while Fairview Bay indicates one hour.

New signage is once again in place where the SCT crosses Plummer Creek Road.

At the confluence of Plummer Creek and Toquenatch Creek a long established campsite with outhouse and picnic tables received some brandnew signage. This campsite was built together with the Rotary Club of Powell River

Next day Bill was putting up signage at yet another intersection of trails. Here the Exit via Spire Trail allows hikers to find their way to Lund and to Sarah Point Road. Malaspina Road and Manzanita Hut are the other directions. Which way to Colorado please?

 

Going the distance... applying yet another sign to ensure people find their way across intersecting roads.

Tin Hat Reroute - August 2012

Western Forest Products is logging two cutblocks that are going up across the old Tin Hat Road access to Tin Hat summit and hut. That road is temporarily closed.

We have had an understanding that no logging should impact the SCT during the high tourism season in the summer, but somehow this was not possible here.

We requested that the new road being built to log the two cutblocks going up the old Tin Hat road be kept open for recreational access after logging is complete, and that a parking area / turn-around on one of their pull-outs be established near its topmost extent where the old road/trail carries on uphill through the forest toward the summit.

This location is less than an hour from the Tin Hat hut near the summit. Stuart Glen, operations planner with WFP, has agreed to this. The road access to the new  turnaround / parking area will be a considerable improvement over the Old Tin Hat Road as it has wider and thus more gently inclined switchbacks. In fairness this is a good compensation for the temporary inconvenience in that it will make Tin Hat more accessible to the public.



This picture is taken on the lower end of old Tin Hat Road advising you to not go up there because of active falling. Richard and his wife Cecile, two Dutch through-hikers doing the SCT, managed to find their way through after hours, but found it a little confusing. The mapping installed by WFP should be adjusted by now so this will help people get through.

Please study the alternate access to Tin Hat off Lewis Lake Main around the back of that lake's northeast end where the SCT crosses the main and climbs up Pipes Canyon past Cranberry pond up onto the East Ridge of Tin Hat Mountain. This is a much longer and difficult access and only suitable for experts - with a hiking time of about three to four hours. It is pretty though with old growth and views.



The easy access we have enjoyed driving up the old Tin Hat Road is unavailable at this time until the trees that are felled now have been pulled out, which we hope will be soon.

Later this summer the old Tin Hat Road will be reopened again, but the East Ridge approach will then be closed due to road building in the vicinity of the SCT, but not on it. Blasting for road building purposes requires a wide safety zone as rocks can sometimes fly several hundred metres. We are grateful that WFP found a way of not logging across the SCT on that part of the Tin Hat East Ridge trail section. A buffer has been provided in this instance.

Richard and Cecile carried on from Tin Hat south along the SCT through the Smith Range. They stayed at Elk Lake and Walt Hill huts, and took a picture of themselves at KM 135 fairly close to Stillwater Main and Eagle River where they finished their trek.

Maintenance, Reopenings, Reroutes to July 14, 2012

Recent maintenance activities, and reopenings, as well as reroutes on the SCT:

• Mowat Bay from Powell River Bridge to Mowat Bay - cleared out
• Community track from Mowat Bay to Tony's Trail Connector - unobstructed
• March Lake section bucked and cleaned, though still tricky navigation with road and trail sharing the same location - will soon provide logging map that shows the trail in the SCT website's new map section
• Will also post Fiddlehead area map info in the new map section
• Map of reroute on Tin Hat Mountain will also be posted there
• Eagle River Trail from Dixon Road north to Goat Main reopened - blow down has been salvaged
• Eagle River from ford to dam - cleared out
• Lois Lakeshore - the blowdown in first km from dam toward Branch 41 - bucked and cleared

Walt Hill Hut

We have added another missing link in the hut-to-hut chain - this one at Walt Hill, on Penstemon Bluff, so you can now stay in a different hut each day from Inland Lake to Lang Bay. Please visit the Hut blog to find details on the building of the hut, and the area.

REOPENED: Manzanita - Gwendoline Hills and Eagle River

The section of the SCT that runs from Malaspina Road to Manzanita Hut in part through the private managed forest lands has been reopened again. The loggers are finished and the remaining wood piled about will be apparently taken out by firewood contractors in the fall. That means the occasional pick up truck coming in and cleaning up. It is our understanding that the area will be replanted in the next planting season.

The section of the SCT heading north from the Dixon Road crossing is reopened again. The massive trees that blew over in the March storms this year are still not salvaged but a temporary reroute goes around the boots and boles and makes passage possible. In the coming weeks Western will salvage the blow down.

Passage through the old Fiddlehead Farm is also reopened again as the nearby logging is complete.