Walt Hill Trail (SCT)

View north from Walt Hill in the Smith Range at the Walt Hilton Emergency Shelter. Dodd Lake in the Horseshoe Valley in the mid-distance with the Rainbow Range and Eldred Valley beyond. Road approach extremely eroded conditions with bolders in the middle of the road in some places. Oilpan assassins. The trail up to Walt Hill is in good condition. Last weekend there was snow up above the 1000m level - up to a foot near the top. Trail to Pentstemmon Bluff is clear. No ill effects of the recent hurricane strength winds in this area. Trail is well marked as it was cleared by the crew last month. Hike recommended.

Granite Lake Trail

Today we parked at the Y at Burma/Larson /Alaska Pine Roads. We parallel parked. We hiked up Burma road just a little ways and went in on the trail. We came to Spaghetti Junction and took the right hand fork which takes you on the Black Water Trail. We hiked along this trail until we got to the Hinogo Trail where we turned there and hiked along until we came to Plantation Road which we followed along until we came to the Granite Lake sign. We turned up here and hiked along to Granite Lake. There is a little bit of road walking as the trail comes out onto Granite Lake Road and then it is just a short hike to the Lake. The trail was clear, there were no blow downs. We returned via Edges Way and the bridge(see above) was not safe to go on as the high waters had washed out half the support for the bridge and it was resting on one side on some gravel and the other side had no support at all. Taking this way out brings you back to the Spaghetti Junction on the Sweetwater Trail. The day was beautiful, blue sky and sun. 23 people participated in this hike.

As an aside, there is a bike trail on Edges Way on Blackwater side on the lower trail that takes out to Spaghetti Junction.

Message from Eagle

We have roughed in the Tees Kwat Trail from the Wildwood Switchback to provide public access to the beach. We thank Catalyst for the permission to do that. You will find orchids along the way next spring. Please don't remove or touch. They are rare.

East Tinhat Mountain trail is looking very good and we will have a grand opening next summer. We need about another month of work after the snow melts next spring to widen and improve the trail near the summit. Also marking and signage needs to be completed.

Logging is about to start on the March Lake section of the SCT. We could not convince Western Forest Products not to log on the trail, but we did arrive at a compromise that left half of the historic railroad grade untouched, the other half will be re-established as trail post-harvest. Alternate access has been provided through another access trail for the time being. We will make a map of it available upon receipt from Western some time next week. The road building crews have begun their work in the area already, and the beginning and middle of the March Lake Trail are not accessible at this time.