Snow once a week would be perfect
Outdoor enthusiasts who love playing in the snow know the ideal winter has regular snowfalls — regular as in at least every week.
It keeps cross-country trails fresh, snowshoe trails soft and there’s nothing like floating down deep powder on top of a packed base at downhill resorts.
So our Wednesday outing to the Kelowna Nordic Ski and Snowshoe Club trails, north of McCulloch Lake (off Highway 33), was one of those days following a heavy snowfall.
The parking lot was half-full but we hardly saw anyone on the XC trails.
With ski/hiking buddies Marshall and Karen, the Ski Sheriff and Constant Companion Carmen took the popular green Log Cabin to green-blue Upper Meadow to the Meadow Cabin for lunch.
Between the two sets of tracks, there was more than 10 centimetres (four inches) of untracked powder. But earlier skiers had left us a packed smooth track and a smouldering fire keeping the cabin comfortable.
However, after refueling, we discovered those accommodating skiers had departed down the same trail they arrived on (Upper Meadow) and we were the first skiers on Lower Meadow.
Marshall, a strong skier (whose sons are international racers), broke trail. Even with three skiers ahead of him, the Sheriff couldn’t get any sustained glide on those long, glorious and exhilarating downhills.
You could see the slight dip of the track under all that snow but it was like a wilderness ski on a backcountry logging road. That fresh dump brought one tree down across the trail.
When we reached the intersection with Upper Meadow where we skied earlier, the Sheriff commented on how much easier it is to slid along a track-set trail. It was a 12-kilometre outing that felt like so much more, as enjoyable as it was.
With more snow in the forecast, club president and groomer Ryland Garton said on the website As a result of high water last year, contractors building the Okanagan Rail Trail discovered a number of places where erosion repairs will be required. They include this section along Wood Lake in Lake Country where construction will resume as soon as the weather permits. he would hold off on Thursday's usual groom to prepare for the weekend.
***** The Sheriff recently interviewed Andrew Gibbs, the City of Kelowna’s senior project manager, for an update on the Okanagan Rail Trail.
“Probably half of the trail is under contract construction so we’re midway here. Close to half of it should be open by spring,” he responded.
“We were thinking it would be end of March, early April, but then it snowed November-December. So we’re not sure yet because we haven’t been able to find the ground again,” he said with a laugh. “Once we find it again, then we’ll recast our schedule projections. It’s going to start melting here soon and we’ll get back at it.”
A staff member with the North Okanagan regional district told Gibbs the section along Kalamalka Lake is almost complete.
Work involved rock scaling, the removal of rocks and debris from the rock cliffs; clearing and grubbing to trim trees and vegetation; digging up, mixing and widening the subgrade (base) of the trail with diggers, bulldozers, graders, compactors and water trucks; drainage and ditches to ensure the trail is not damaged by rain and snow; and compacting a surface layer of crushed aggregate creating a trail suitable for hikers, bikes, wheelchairs and strollers.
“Site prep is done; most of the grading work is done. Most of the rock work is done, maybe 90 per cent of it. So that’s really good. Most of the gravel is down. It’s been graded, it’s been widened, but it is not groomed well enough yet. We don’t want to promote it as being gravelled so people will think it’s done. It’s not ready to go.”
One-third of the Lake Country section is at the same stage with 20 per cent of the rock work to be completed, he said.
“We've got about two-thirds of construction left to go so that’s going really well. As a note though for people: when I say we’re almost done there (we know people are using the trail), it’s not officially open to the public. We just don’t want them on it;. It’s for their safety. The contractor is working.”
In Kelowna, the city awarded a trail construction contract for the section from Dilworth Drive to UBC Okanagan.
When the Sheriff drove past the Dilworth Drive rail crossing on Wednesday, a front-end loader was parked off the roadway and there were patches of bare ground on the rail line looking north. Other sections will go out for tender after that, said Gibbs.
“Fundraising-wise, we’re approximately two-thirds of where we need to be: $7.8 million is our target and we've still got to raise $2.6 million. We've got a bunch of work we have to do still. That’s what the balance of the money — the $2.6 million Trail Initiative donations.
“Big kudos have to go to the Okanagan Rail Trail Initiative because they are not only the ones who also saw the vision but they also took on the task of ‘Let’s make the vision happen sooner rather than wait.’ If we had waited for all the local government owners to do it, it would take them a long time to save up the money to build their sections,” said Gibbs.
“The great thing that the Okanagan Rail Trail Initiative has done is a real grassroots effort to work with the public everywhere to raise the money for the trail. And that's been huge.”
And then, there’s the local factor: Kelowna businesses stepping up, he said.
“We’ve been really fortunate. The consultant team has been awesome and the contractors that we're getting are really doing excellent work.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if they were putting in a little more effort than they might otherwise be putting in. So the contractors really pulled through for us as well,” said Gibbs.
Brad Clements of Vernon, who spearheaded the Okanagan Rail Trail Initiative, says: “We are very pleased and inspired regarding the progress of the campaign to date.
“The initial goal was to create a campaign driven by the community where individuals, not-for-profits, businesses, and community groups and clubs take on the role of fundraisers, helping to raise money and spread the excitement of the project.
“Even though this was the intent, there was some concern if the community will truly embrace the campaign.
“We are truly pleased and incredibly grateful for the tremendous response from the community. Very early in the campaign, over 40 volunteers stepped forward to be trail ambassadors to support the campaign in their community.
“And the ideas and actions from the communities to raise awareness and inspire donations has been remarkable. From eight-year-old Taylor Denomme selling lemonade, to 95-year-old Rosalie Worbets making a donation and challenging us all to donate to ‘build the wellness trail’ as walking it is on her bucket list, to numerous community events all run by volunteers; it has been inspiring.
“As a result of these ideas and actions, over $5 million has been raised in less than two years allowing for over half of the trail to be constructed by spring.
A new fund-raising campaign will begin in spring when the trail sections constructed this winter are opened, he added.