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WKNA newsletter

TRAILS MAINTENANCE By co-ordinator Peter Wood All our CFPT maintained trails were in good to passable shape by late April '06 according to all reports which I received from several sets of volunteers. Additionally, I'd traversed all of them except Skattebo Reach, Glade to McPhee Creek with axe or chainsaw, and Pixie, my friend and companion. I cleared the bigger, awkward, windfalls.

The open, brushy areas of Dove Hill and Elk Cutoff really do need some work with hedge-clippers to attack continuously encroaching brush. Anybody willing to coordinate {tackle?] this?

The heavy windstorms of early July sent me back to the "big tree" sections of our trails to clear new blow downs on Dove Hill, Wards Ferry, Waldie Island and Skattebo Reach between Big McPhee and the Brilliant Overlook junction. Pixie and I were busy for a while. Many thanks to all who reported and carried tools and gloves while traversing their adopted sections: Bert and Sue Port, Garry Simoens, Gordon Hollingshead, Ken Brownlie and Art Dusseault. Thanks to Bill Sloan, Brian Marsh, and cycling pals for their continued care of McPhee Creek to Glade. Pixie and I had a classic encounter with a mother black bear and two cubs close to Elk/Dove Hill junction in July. Pixie heard the cubs scratching their way up the bark of an old pine tree. They'd heard our approaching and took evasive action. Pixie, ever curious and energetic, dashed to investigate. The cubs scrambled higher. Pixie was chased by the mother bear, and raced back down slope to me with mother bear in close and hot pursuit. Luckily for me, Pixie veered to her left and away from me. Mama bear now heading straight for me! At about 15 feet away, Mama anchored and turned back to her cubs at the sight of me jumping up and down -- yelling at full bellow -- and flapping my arms above my head like a gymnast on adrenalin! I'm no gymnast but my adrenalin was pretty high for some time! C. F. P. & T. has agreed to take on care and insurance responsibility for Ward's Ferry Trail [between North Glade and Rover Creek Access Road]. Len Dunsford of Nelson Area Trails Society has posted "Use Solely at Your Own Risk" signs at a couple of tricky sections of the trail. Also Len and I have improved the steep, slabby, slippery rock side hill section, opposite North Shoreacres with better steps, footing and a rope handrail anchored by long steel pins hammered into cracks in the rock. Please be aware when using the rope! It has strength but lots of stretch. Pull the stretch out of it before letting it take your weight and it will steady your crossing of this 80 foot section. The Brilliant Canyon section of the Skattebo Reach trail from the Doukhobor Suspension Bridge and below the Brilliant Dam Project access road and the Ministry of Highway rock storage has been made passable again, thanks to the work of Skanska's Kimberly Wright and crew. The replacement section of trail boasts several concrete and steel pinned rock steps and sturdy steel posts, with a handrail cable down a convex section of bedrock. The quality of this work parallels that of Walter Volovsek on the Brilliant Overlook's cliffy sections. Thanks to Kim and crew from Parks & Trails have been extended via e-mail to her office and to Skanska. We look forward to a grand opening next spring! We also need, before then, to prepare a trail from the Brilliant Park and Ride, under the south end of the highway bridge to access the end of the Doukhobor Suspension Bridge and our old Skattebo Reach trailhead there. Ministry of Transportation and Highways does not want us parking on the access area to their rock quarry!

Thanks to Peter for a tremendous amount of work and organizing to maintain so many kilometers of trail, so greatly enjoyed by increasing numbers of hikers. Thanks to all our volunteers. Your work is immeasurably valuable to this community where we live, for locals and visitors. -- from the Friends.