Myra Canyon is amazing, awe-inspiring
We have to cycle through the Myra Canyon at least once every summer, apparently. At least that is the directive from Constant Companion Carmen.
So we emailed several of our regular cycling friends and met them at the Myra forest service road parking lot, packed since it was a weekend during the tourist months.
People were renting bikes, pumping up their tires and getting pumped for what the Sheriff thinks is unquestionably the No. 1 combination of an incredible natural wonder and a man-made wonder.
For those unfamiliar with this section of the Trans-Canada Trail, “the turn of the 20th Century saw a mining boom in the East and West Kootenays. Gold and silver were the prime lures but seekers also found lead, zinc and copper.
A flurry of prospecting activity brought numerous adventurers to BC’s Southern Interior,” says the website of the Myra Canyon Trestle Restoration Society (myratrestles.com).
With the Great Northern Railroad in the U.S. extending its reach toward Canada and the push to expand the U.S. north to the Arctic Ocean through annexation, Canadian Pacific Railway directors, and in particular President Thomas Shaughnessy, agreed to a plan from the small Kettle River Valley Railway to extend its southern route from Midway to the CPR mainline at Hope so the Kootenay resources could move to the ports of New Westminster and Vancouver.
The partnership with the smaller railway (renamed the Kettle Valley Railway) resulted in the KVR starting construction west from Midway in 1910, soon followed by construction from Penticton in both directions.
“Two daunting challenges confronted the railway and its chief engineer Andrew McCulloch. One was building through the Coquihalla Canyon, especially from Hope up to the Coquihalla Pass, where the line could be no more than the maximum 2.2 per cent grade. The other was getting over the Okanagan Highlands which separated the West Kootenays from the Okanagan Valley, again with a maximum grade of 2.2 per cent,” says the website.
“McCulloch solved the first challenge with the Quintette tunnels, a unique and astounding engineering achievement, and the second with a series of long switchbacks east of Penticton, up to Chute Lake Pass and Myra Canyon.”
Myra Canyon itself presented another set of obstacles since it is a deep, steep and wide chasm, carved out by KLO and Pooley creeks, it says.
To tackle these constraints, McCulloch hung his railway (and 19 wooden trestles) on the sides of the canyon, using nearly 11 kilometres of track to reach around a distance straight across of less than one kilometre.
One trestle was later filled in, one was bypassed and a new one built to span a problem gulley. The line is at an elevation of 1,430 metres or 915 metres above Kelowna and includes the highest section on the KVR.
The Myra Canyon section was completed in October 1914 with McCulloch commenting that he had never seen a railway built in such difficult conditions.
No wonder his engineers called it McCulloch’s Wonder.
For the next several decades, the KVR was the major element in the economic development of the Southern Interior. For a detailed history of the construction of the Myra Canyon section, get Myra’s Men; Building the Kettle Valley Railway, Myra Canyon to Penticton, by Maurice Williams.
The Carmi section of the KVR, Midway to Penticton, carried its last train in 1972 and despite local efforts to preserve the rail line intact, CPR removed the rails in 1980 and turned over the right-of-way to the provincial government. The trail and the trestles fell into disrepair and after the deaths of several people who fell from the trestles, the province contemplated closing the site to the public.
In 1992, the Myra Canyon Trestle Restoration Society (MCTRS) was established with the goal of making the trestles safer for the public. During the next three years, volunteers decked the trestles and erected rails. A major cycling magazine in the U.S. rated it as one of the 50 best bike rides in the world.
To recognize the history of the Kettle Valley Railway and in particular, Myra Canyon, the society applied to the National Historic Sites and Monuments Board for designation of the canyon as a place of national historic significance.
That designation occurred in January 2003, just months before the Okanagan Park forest fire destroyed 12 of the 16 wood trestles and damaged the two steel spans.
Thanks to $17 million in federal and provincial funding, the first trestle was rebuilt in the fall of 2004, just one year after the fire. Five more were completed in 2005, four in 2006, three in 2007 and the final one in early 2008.
The Sheriff played the part of CPR president Thomas Shaughnessy during the official re-opening ceremonies on June 22, 2008.
In August of this year, the Myra Canyon Trestle Restoration Society was recognized for its work in maintaining and enhancing the Myra Canyon trestles. The group was among several to receive the 2016 BC Parks Volunteer Awards.
*** In other outdoors news, Big White Ski Resort is celebrating the road to the 2018 Winter Olympics by financially supporting homegrown national team athlete, Ian Deans.
The 26-year-old, a ski cross athlete on the national team, grew up in Lake Country and started skiing at Big White at the age of two. He joins Kelsey Serwa and Tess Critchlow, other Big White-sponsored athletes who grew up skiing and snowboarding on the mountain, on their search for success in Pyeongchang.
Deans originally started ski racing in fifth grade while living at Big White and attending the Big White Community School. He raced with the Big White Ski Racers until he graduated from high school.
“While in college, a friend suggested I try a ski cross race at Big White,” he said. “I’d retired from alpine racing but thought I’d try out the race.
“I came in third — figured it was fun — then raced the NorAm circuit the following year and won the overall title for that.”
From there, Deans earned a spot in the World Cup and was chosen for the Canada Alpine Ski Team. He’s earned multiple NorAm and Europe Cup podium results over the last two seasons and claimed eight Top 30 World Cup finishes over the 2015-16 season. His next goal is, of course, to qualify for the Olympics.
“It’s really fun to be involved in the same sport as other local athletes such as Kelsey and Ned Ireland,” Deans added. “We all grew up here in such a tight community and loved it. I know Big White so well that I could ski it with my eyes closed. The terrain is fun — you can play on the entire mountain.
“It’s my favourite place to ski in the world and I’ve skied a lot of places.”
Deans, who has a degree in kinesiology and plans to pursue a professional career in physical therapy, is excited to continue his journey towards competing in ski cross at next year’s Olympic games.
“I love the adrenaline rush with ski cross -—the fact that you put all this hard work into accomplishing a goal. When you execute it, it’s the best feeling in the world. The satisfaction is second to none.”
*** An update to the Okanagan Lake Foreshore Inventory and Mapping (FIM) report has taken on additional significance in light of this year’s historic lake levels.
The report data was collected last year and a final version was completed last spring to provide a summary on the condition of the Okanagan Lake shoreline in 2016.
It marks the second time that the entire Okanagan Lake shoreline has been catalogued and mapped, and provides excellent information about what the shoreline looked like last year.
That makes it especially useful as governments and property owners recover from the flood and plan for the future. It also provides an ongoing measure of the environmental impacts of development over time.
Last fall, all 290 kilometres of shoreline along Okanagan Lake was surveyed. The 2016 FIM data shows that 59 per cent of the shoreline has already been developed while 41 per cent of the lakefront remains in its natural state.
Rural and residential land use development has been an important factor in the loss of natural shoreline on Okanagan Lake.
Since the initial report in 2011, 4.1 kilometres or 1.42 per cent of the natural Okanagan Lake shoreline was lost or permanently altered. Key changes to the shoreline included the removal of native vegetation; construction of 165 retaining walls that altered 1.45 kilometres of shoreline; 164 new docks; nine new marinas; more road access; and general landscaping.
Lakebed materials were also disturbed along 4.1 kilometres of the shoreline.
In the Central Okanagan, changes to the shoreline have been noted in almost every local government jurisdiction compared to the previous report from 2011.
• City of Kelowna: approximately 30 per cent remains in its natural state compared to 32.6 per cent in the 2011 report. Almost 70 per cent of the shoreline has been disturbed, an increase of 1.5 per cent over this time period.
• City of West Kelowna: roughly 72.75 per cent of the shoreline has been altered, compared to 71.7 per cent in 2011. This leaves 27.25 per cent in its natural state.
• District of Lake Country: almost 54.5 per cent has been disturbed compared to the 2011 report when it was noted to be 52.1 per cent. According to the 2011 report, 47.9 per cent of the shoreline was in its natural state while last year, that dropped to around 45.5 per cent.
• District of Peachland: the 2016 report shows just over 16 per cent of the shoreline in its natural form compared to 16.3 per cent from the previous report. Almost 84 per cent of the Peachland shoreline was noted as having been disturbed compared with 83.7 per cent in the 2011 report.
• Regional district electoral areas: 56.9 per cent remains its natural state compared to 58.2 per cent in the 2011 report. Last year, 43.1 per cent of the shoreline was recorded as being altered while the 2011 report found 41.8 per cent had been disturbed.
Careful management to maintain natural habitat along the waterfront will be critical to prevent loss of key habitat for species like kokanee salmon, say officials.
Important ecosystem services, like water filtration and flood protection, may also be permanently lost over time unless these areas are better protected. Threatened and endangered species are also very sensitive to disturbance and often have a limited capacity to respond to changes.
“Each small change to the natural areas around the lake has a negative cumulative effect on the natural ecosystem to function and provide services such as clean drinking water, water infiltration, flood control, and critical habitat for fish and wildlife,” said Jason Schleppe, senior biologist with the FIM project.
“At the current rate of land development, the natural areas around the lake that are not located in parks or protected areas could be completely lost to development in 40 to 160 years.”
This large range reflects the fact that development rates go up and down from year to year. However, without any changes, all of the remaining unprotected natural shoreline along Okanagan Lake could be lost within the next generation or two.
In addition, the 2016 FIM project provides key information to resource managers to promote and implement better shoreline management. Understanding the rate of change can assist in developing plans that preserve important habitat.
The main recommendations of the report outline the need for collaborative action by everyone involved including development of an Okanagan Lake shoreline management plan.
The report also calls for more active support and engagement through education and outreach initiatives around shoreline management.
The Regional District of Central Okanagan (RDCO), OCCP and several partners have recently begun collaborating on an education initiative about best practices for shoreline management.
OCCP has recently secured funding from Environment and Climate Change Canada and the Okanagan Basin Water Board to support this initiative, leveraging the $20,000 contribution from RDCO into $124,000.
RDCO also plans to use the 2016 FIM data as it continues to develop a Floodplain Management Plan for the region. Depending on funding, the 2016 data could be used to compare the conditions of the shoreline of Okanagan Lake after this season’s floodwaters recede.
J.P. Squire is an outdoors enthusiast. You can contact him with your outdoor news at his new email address: