Manzanita Hut Access and Visitors

During April and May a couple of PAWS work parties accessed the Gwendoline Hills section of the Sunshine Coast Trail by way of the Okeover cutblock. Final logging activities were finished in May. The owners, Island Timberland, are planning on restocking the cutblock in the next planting season. 

Where the SCT traverses a corner of private forestland the owner had agreed to leave a buffer trees along the trail.

Some trees had blown down in the buffer during recent wind storms and had blocked the trail a mile south of the Manzanita Hut. Above is a view looking southward from Manzanita Bluff toward 3 K Bluff and the cutblock.

Fortunately the Rhododendron Grove remained intact throughout the logging and the howling storms. The rhodos are nearing the end of their bloom, a delightful visual feast along the trail.

Bruce and Terry, part of the maintenance crew, are happy with the May Day results.

One more final check in the coming week will ensure that the trail is completely re-established and tidy.

Today, visitors from Terrace hiked up to Manzanita Hut from Malaspina Road and found the obstacles removed. Another group from the Lower Mainland and Davies Bay came up via Sarah Point Road and the Spire Access Trail.

The hikers were astonished by the sudden apparition of the hut in the woods. There were some light-hearted musings of living up on idyllic Manzanita Bluff.


Later that day this group of merry media moguls and tourism representatives met at Herondell B&B mixing with locals and enjoying a BBQ. They also got to sample the first locally produced beer from nascent Townsite Craft Brewery.

 

They seemed to have enjoyed their stay.