Hanging Lake Trail Building: Difference between revisions

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copy trail maintenance page from FMCBC website which is no longer a wiki so I cannot update it.
 
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update task list
 
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==Reference Points==
This section assigns names to various sections of the trail for documentation purposes.  These are listen in order starting at the WOP Biathlon Range
;0km Biathlon Building Parking: Trail follow Olympic Biathlon XC trail to the low point past the bridge
;km Olympic Explorer: Backcountry access trail follows Olympic Explorer snowshoe trail along an old narrow roadbed.
;km Map Trailhead:  This is the proper trailhead on the logging road above the highest WOP XC ski trail.
;km Trailhead climb:  The initial climb straight up through the forest above the map trailhead
;km sidehill bridge: A small bridge on a sidehill section
;km Uprooted Tree Bridge: A small bridge across a little stream just past the uprooted tree.
;km bench bridge: Another small bridge a bit further uphill
;km Big Cedar bridge: Another small bridge where the trail climbs heads right to avoid uprooted trees in a small alder patch.  This bridge has 5 log stringers with room for one more.
;km Big Cedar Hill: trail climbs past a huge Yellow Cedar and then angles right towards Hanging Lake Creek.
;km Forest Ridge: trail climbs along a small forested ridge parallel to Hanging Lake creek.
;km old trail junction
;km Big Rock Meadow: An open area with a large rock in the middle of it.  Trail goes climber's left of the rock
;km gully traverse: trail traverses left across the bottom of a spring avalanche gully.  The gully is not visible from the trail.
;km gully meadow:
;km mountain swamp:
;km boulder climb: Lower boulder climb is below the huge boulder.  Upper boulder climb is above the boulder.
;km boulder traverse: trail traverses right (steep at first) towards the new creek crossing
;km Hanging Lake Creek Bridge:
;km yoyo meadows:
;km talus bench:
;km headwall climb:
;km Hanging Lake Bench:
;km Hanging Lake


==Tasks & Schedule==
==Tasks & Schedule==


===Winter Tasks===
===Winter Tasks===
*Remark Lower Beverley Creek trail above ponds where the trail was realigned to cross large fallen log.
 
*Remark Upper Beverley Creek trail where it does an S turn to enter first bog above RM junction.
*Replace missing markers as needed (some trees were cut down, a few of the big hole markers fell off).  Completed from trailhead to bottom of yoyo meadows March 2022.   
*Pull markers from mountain bike trail that drops down from Olympic Biathlon XC trail now that we have our own trail here.
*Trailhead climb needs marker adjustments due to September 2024 reroute around major blowdown
*Straighten Beverley Creek trail above the last swamp.
*Uprooted Tree Bridge to Bench Bridge needs markers augmented due to September 2024 widening which removed 2 trees with markers
*Identify best site for bridge over stream just before old crossing of Hanging Creek
*Align markers for switchback through yoyo meadows
*Replace missing markers as needed (some trees were cut down, a few of the big hole markers fell off).  Beverley creek trail has perhaps a dozen missing makers below key lake, and some above where the trail was realigned.  Hanging Lake trail is not nearly as bad.
*Align markers to switchbacks on headwall climb
*Raise markers on Beverley Creek trail and lower part of Hanging Lake trail for a deep snowpack.
*Improve marker visibility from talus bench to headwall climb
*Fix misleading markers below main creek crossing on Hanging Lake trail.
*Pull markers from old alignment of Hanging Lake trail


===Fall Tasks===
===Fall Tasks===
*Brush out Beverley creek trail to the end (complete to section where trail runs right along the creek bank)
 
*Fix problem areas identified in winter: diagonal log across trail at north end of steep bank section next to Beverley Creek
*Nail down log stringers on Bench Bridge (rebuilt September 2024)
*Bridge over stream just before old crossing of Hanging Creek.
*Clear brush at top of headwall climb and entry to Hanging Lake Bench
*Replace collapsed bridge near start of narrow road just above Biathlon Range
*Secure bolts on Hanging Lake Bridge middle stringer with loctite (all other bolts completed September 2022).
*Clear large logs and brush on boulder climb where trail wraps around tree for highest switchback
*Clear tree that obscures markers on boulder climb where trail wraps around tree for highest switchback
*Remove trees as marked for minor widening from Big Cedar Bridge to old trail junction


==History==
==History==


===October 5, 2014 – Beverley Creek Trail Clearing===
===September 22, 2024===
 
(Tyson Schulz, Geoff Dosman, Lena Rowat, Nick Matwyuck, Charles, Christian Veenstra, Fenya Veenstra, Scott Nelson, Erik Nelson & Halle Nelson)
 
Rerouted trail around a new blowdowns just above the trailhead.  Widened trail from uprooted tree bridge to bench bridge.  Rebuilt bench bridge.  Widened trail from old trail junction to big rock meadow.
 
=== March 31, 2024 ===
 
(Scott Nelson, Erik Nelson)
 
We skied up the trail one way doing the Hanging Lake - Beverley Creek loop.  I added new signage to separate uphill and downhill traffic above the Hanging Lake Bridge.  Two large trees have blow over right above the trailhead (one broken one uprooted).
 
=== October 7, 2023 ===
 
(Line Veenstra, Christian Veenstra, Fenya Veenstra, Nova Veenstra, Willow Veenstra, Scott Webster, Anne Webster, Joel Webster, Alina Webster, Ildiko Kovacs, Matthieu Van Vyve, Marion Courtois, Scott Nelson, Erik Nelson, Halle Nelson)
 
Today we had a big group with more kids that adults.  We managed to build a new bridge at the end of the narrow road, dig a ton of new ditches to drain the narrow road, and clear out all the alder and blowdowns along the narrow road section.
 
=== October 6, 2023 ===
 
(Scott Nelson solo scouting mission)
 
Scouted work for a big group on Saturday October 7th.  Cleared a few trees and branches at top of uphill/downhill traffic separation, and widened gully traverse.
 
I also explored a potential shortcut between the narrow road and the forest trail, bypassing the trailhead sign so that descending skiers don't have to go uphill to return to the biathlon range.
I set yellow flags on a feasible route, but it will require heavy work to clear it for skiing.
There are many fallen trees perpendicular to the direction of travel and one bridge to build.
The route has many small trees growing on it, so skiing it in it's present condition will be quite difficult.
 
=== September 25, 2022 ===
 
(Line Veenstra, Christian Veenstra, Fenya Veenstra, Nova Veenstra, Willow Veenstra, Scott Nelson, Erik Nelson, Halle Nelson)
 
Cleared relaigned trail below big cedar bridge so the marked alignment is suitable for low snow conditions.  Did the same at the top of the Big Cedar Hill where the new trail transitions into the old one.  Applied DAP medium strength thread locker to all nuts on the bridge, except for the middle stringer which had one nut frozen.  We left this one as is to use a wicking type thread locking compound in the future.
 
=== March 16, 2022 ===
 
(Scott Nelson)
 
Skied up the trail as far as the main bridge, pruning high branches and augmenting markers as I went.  I raised markers on the October 2021 realignment and pulled the markers off the old route here.  The realigned trail skied really nicely as the snow formed a nice bench on the traverse, and the turn wasn't too steep.  I changed the trail alignment below the big cedar bridge, so the trail flows more naturally onto the bridge without having to lose any elevation.  There's a log or two under the snow here that ought to be cut through when the snow is gone.  Higher up I improved markers in the Mountain Swamp section based on feedback from October 2019.
 
=== October 17, 2021 ===
 
(Geoff Dosman, Tasha Salman, Scott Webster, Joel Webster, Scott Nelson, Sandra Nelson, Erik Nelson, Halle Nelson)
 
Moved alder bridge downstream using Geoff's come along (now called Big Cedar Bridge after the huge yellow cedar on the SE side of the bridge).
We cleared a new section of trail to avoid the blowdowns in the alder patch.
The new section is cleared and marked, but the markers need to be raised when there is snow.  We could not reach the markers on the old trail to remove them.
 
=== October 9, 2021 ===
 
(Scott Nelson)
 
I hiked to the Hanging Lake Creek Bridge to inspect the bridge and tighten up any loose nuts or bolts.  On the way up I discovered that 5 trees had uprooted next to the trail at alder swamp, blocking passage except for a steep, narrow, wet corridor between the old uprooted tree and the new root wad.  It was easy enough to pass on foot, but it will present a formidable obstacle once the snow start piling up, especially if it is warm enough that the snow melts in the hollow between the root wads.  Other than that the trail was in quite good condition to the Hanging Lake Creek Bridge.  Just before the bridge, the big leaning tree that was partially blocking the trail in February 2020 had fallen down naturally and slid 30 feet downhill and out of the way.
 
At the bridge I tightened the nuts, cut deeper grooves for the north turnbuckle, and reset the cable clip to tighten it up nicely.  The south side turnbuckles were nice and tight. 
On the far side of the bridge I trimmed some branches and cleared a few small trees to give more freedom to maneuver on this steep climb.  There should now be room to direct downhill traffic to shortcut directly down to the bridge, keeping the skin track intact.
 
On the way down I stopped to survey a new route to bypass the newly uprooted trees.  This route starts just below the alder creek bridge and crosses alder creek lower down, then into the forest on the far side, avoiding the alder patch altogether.  I found a good route along a natural bench that traverses right all the way to the edge of the creek, then makes a climbing turn back left to join the present trail.  The route is heavily overgrown with small trees and would be completely impassible on skis with less than 2m of snow.  An alternate route higher up the slope had a number of rocks that would make for awkward steep sections of skinning.
 
=== February 16 2020 ===
(Scott Nelson, Sandra Nelson)
 
We skied up the trail and ultimately came out Beverley Creek.  WOP has groomed the narrow road, making it very smooth and easy.  The sections cleared last falls skies really nicely.  At the uprooted tree traverse the hung up snag was not a problem.  At lower boulder climb the clearing work done in October worked out very nicely and no further refinements are needed.  On upper boulder climb switchback the snow was too steep to wrap completely around the tree so there was a shortcut switchback in front of it instead.  There is a new snagged leaning tree below the Hanging Lake Creek Bridge right were we pulled one down in 2018.  The trunk was not in the way but some of the side branches hanging down were.  Traversing out left and cutting back under the tree worked ok, but coming up from below was too steep.  Downhill skiers have side slipped this section making it tough to negotiate uphill.  The bridge itself was completely buried in snow.  The steep section above the bridge skied great and we continued easily all the way up to Hanging Lake.
 
=== October 27, 2019 ===
(Scott Nelson, Geoff Dosman, Reed Schrad, Einar Hansen, Alexander MacIsaac)
 
We cleared fallen trees and widened the trail from the top of trailhead climb to the uprooted tree traverse, where a big blowdown had exploded all over the trail.  Cleared brush and deadfall on lower boulder climb.  Felled all trees flagged for removal as far as the Hanging Lake Creek Bridge.  Geoff and Reed both reported having trouble following the markers in the mountain swamp section where there is a single marker on a skinny tree in the middle of the swampy patch.  Hanging Lake Creek bridge is in good shape - a couple of bolts managed to loosen themselves over the winter.
 
=== October 11, 2019 ===
(Scott Nelson, Sandra Nelson, Erik Nelson, Halle Nelson, Christian Veenstra, Fenya Veenstra, Nova Veenstra)
 
Kid friendly trail day near the trailhead.  Dug ditches on the narrow road between the collapsed bridge and the first switchback.  More clearing of trees and high branches to allow crossing the stream at the collapsed bridge without going down into the gully and back up the other side.  Kids more or less took care of themselves digging, harvesting clay and building their own beaver lodge.
 
=== October 21, 2018 ===
(Scott Nelson, Wayne Dalzell, Liam Kynaston, Lesley Stalker)
 
Completed the Hanging Lake Creek Bridge.  Tied down log stringers and bolted centre span support in place.  spiked down log stringers on alder bridge
 
=== October 6, 2018 ===
(Scott Nelson, Erik Nelson, Halle Nelson, Scott Webster, Anne Webster, Joel Webster, Alina Webster)
 
Kid friendly trail day clearing between the trailhead and the alder bridge.  Cleared new direct alignment on trailhead climb.
 
=== September 30, 2018 ===
(Scott Nelson, Geoff Dosman, Louis Arsenault, Rob Kay, Jeff Mottershead, Liam Kynaston, Matt Parisien) Finished gabion boxes, built adhesive rock anchor and pulled 5 log stringers across the creek.  Got totally soaked again.
 
=== September 23, 2018 ===
(Scott Nelson, Geoff Dosman, Matt Parisien, Liam Kynaston) Continued filling gabion boxes, rescued the big log that fell down the creek and dragged other logs to the bridge site.
 
=== September 9, 2018 ===
(Scott Nelson and Liam Kynaston) Placed gabion boxes and started filling them.  Got totally soaked.
 
=== August 6, 2018 ===
(Scott Nelson, Matt Parisien, Val, Wayne Dalzell) Carried Gabion boxes to site and pulled down unfelled trees with tirfor.
 
=== July 22, 2018 ===
(Scott Nelson, Wayne Dalzell).  Felled some trees, left others cut and standing because they wouldn't fall over.  Lost a big fir tree log down the creek when it slid away after being peeled and turned over.


(Scott Nelson, Ross Nelson, Eddie, Graham, Dave Percival).  We cleared the trail through the traverse to Beverley Creek.  This section was hard going with lots of tree to remove and steep sidehill.  We did an extra thorough job on this section because there are some ups and downs, making it challenging for skiers coming down Beverley Creek without climbing skins.
=== July 7, 2018 ===
(Scott Nelson, Jeff Mottershead & Devlin Mottershead).  We felled a yellow cedar tree and cut and peeled two 6m long log stringers.  The extra length will allow more flexibility in building a stone gabion foundation on the south bank back from the edge of the water.  Jeff used his tirfor to pull down the big leaning tree safely, then I bucked it into pieces with the chainsaw after it was down.


===October 4, 2014 – Beverley Creek Trail Clearing===
=== June 2, 2018 ===
(Scott Nelson and Lukas Schreiber).  We hiked up to scout out the main creek crossing for a bridge.  We found two good rocks to bolt a log to for a foundation on the south side, and one rock on the north side.  The north side will require a couple gabion cages and rock fill to build up the remaining foundation to the height of the rock.  Vertical clearance to the water is good - about 1m and the span is 4.2m.  There are several 25-40cm diameter yellow cedar trees in the vicinity that could be used to make stringers.  There are multiple good anchor points for winching logs into place on both sides of the creek.  After scouting the crossing we did some miscellaneous pruning on the way back down to the car.


(Scott Nelson, Chantelle Chan, Yolanda Clatworthy).  We cleared the trail from Key Lake to the start of the traverse to Beverley Creek.  The S turn in the trail where it enters the first bog was significantly modified, and requires markers to be hung along the improved alignment.
=== March 11, 2018 ===
(Scott Nelson and Matt Parisien).  We pulled markers from the old alignment, raised markers on the lower trail section and realigned markers on the boulder climb.  Set new markers on a more direct alignment on trailhead climb as some had fallen off.
 
===October 28, 2017===
(Scott Nelson, Sandra Nelson, Erik Nelson, Halle Nelson, Christian Veentra, Fenya Veenstra, Matt Gunn, Teigan Gunn, Andre Zimmermann, Luca Zimmermann) A trail-building trip with kids to dig ditches.  We improved drainage between the Biathlon Range and the small road switchbacks.  Water was diverted off the very first section on trail to allow skiers to use this rather than the steep climb a bit further east.  We also widened the clearing width near a stream where a small bridge had collapsed by cutting back slide alder to allow the stream to be crossed uphill where it bridges naturally.
 
===October 22, 2017===
(Scott Nelson, Bruce Cassels, Bruno Godin)  First we cleared numerous blowdowns between the biathlon range and widened the connection between the narrow road and the big road near the trailhead.  The largest blowndown was too big and suspended above the road cut so we notched it and build a ramp around it on the downhill edge of the road.  This should fill in nicely with a little bit of snow.  Higher up above the traverse bridge we found a huge blowdown that was too big to cut through (estimated 42" diameter) so we rerouted a short section of trail instead to the left (uphill).  The reroute is shorter and smoother than the old (now blocked) trail.


===Jan 4, 2014- Hanging Lake Ski===
===Jan 4, 2014- Hanging Lake Ski===
Line 39: Line 176:
We went below the big dead tree that was cut down near 1250m.  The fallen tree itself was still blocking travel on the uphill side.
We went below the big dead tree that was cut down near 1250m.  The fallen tree itself was still blocking travel on the uphill side.
Travel was easy for the uncleared portion above 1250m.  Clearing higher than 1250m would not be beneficial.
Travel was easy for the uncleared portion above 1250m.  Clearing higher than 1250m would not be beneficial.
===October 27, 2013 – Beverley Creek Trail Clearing===
photo(Scott Nelson, Matt Parisien, Evan Morris, Marlaina Rhymer, Luke Busta).  We built two bridges on the Beverley Creek trail and completed clearing between the trailhead on Madeley Loop XC ski trail and Key Lake.  Above the ponds, 40m of trail was rerouted to pass a large fallen tree.  This section needs to be remarked along the new alignment.


===October 26, 2013 – Hanging Lake Trail Clearing===
===October 26, 2013 – Hanging Lake Trail Clearing===


(Scott Nelson, Matt Parisien, Ben Singleton-Polster, Adam Palmblad, Tracy Wilkinson, Matthew Paley, Robin Curtis, Leor Oren).  We built three new bridges on the Hanging Lake trail – At the trailhead road ditch, directly above the trailhead, and just below the first big clearing.  The blowdowns from last winter were taken care of and we cut down all the trees marked with orange tape up to 1050m.
(Scott Nelson, Matt Parisien, Ben Singleton-Polster, Adam Palmblad, Tracy Wilkinson, Matthew Paley, Robin Curtis, Leor Oren).  We built three new bridges on the Hanging Lake trail – (trailhead bridge, sidehill bridge and alder bridge).  The blowdowns from last winter were taken care of and we cut down all the trees marked with orange tape up to 1050m.


===October 5-6, 2013 – Hanging Lake Trail Clearing===
===October 5-6, 2013 – Hanging Lake Trail Clearing===


(Scott Nelson, Austin Badger, Dan Domanski)  BCMC trip cleared the rerouted trail section that was marked in March.  The new stream crossing was easy, even with high runoff.  It is just below a pretty waterfall where the creek cascades down bedrock.  One big fallen tree at the first open meadow could be problematic in early winter.  We widened a naturally occurring gap in the tree but it may be too steep to climb on skis.  I will have to check it out after the snow falls and decide if more work is necessary.  At the trailhead the plastic coating on the sign artwork is shrinking significantly.  The screws won’t allow this, so it bubbled up a bit around the screws.  The map artwork underneath is totally fine though.
(Scott Nelson, Austin Badger, Dan Domanski)  BCMC trip cleared the rerouted trail section that was marked in March.  The new stream crossing was easy, even with high runoff.  It is just below a pretty waterfall where the creek cascades down bedrock.  One big fallen tree at big rock meadow could be problematic in early winter.  We widened a naturally occurring gap in the tree but it may be too steep to climb on skis.  I will have to check it out after the snow falls and decide if more work is necessary.  At the trailhead the plastic coating on the sign artwork is shrinking significantly.  The screws won’t allow this, so it bubbled up a bit around the screws.  The map artwork underneath is totally fine though.


===March 16, 2013 – Hanging Lake trail reroute marking===
===March 16, 2013 – Hanging Lake trail reroute marking===
Line 59: Line 192:


(Scott Nelson, Ross Nelson).  We figured out a better route that avoids the steep difficult part of the climb. The new variation is quite a bit easier to ski. We flagged it with pink ribbons, but they are not as frequent as the permanent markers, so a little bit of searching might be required. The new route leaves the old one at the creek crossing and stays on the climber’s left side of the creek for a further 500m. Then it cuts back to the right just as things start to get steep, crosses the creek and rejoins the old route above the difficult climb.
(Scott Nelson, Ross Nelson).  We figured out a better route that avoids the steep difficult part of the climb. The new variation is quite a bit easier to ski. We flagged it with pink ribbons, but they are not as frequent as the permanent markers, so a little bit of searching might be required. The new route leaves the old one at the creek crossing and stays on the climber’s left side of the creek for a further 500m. Then it cuts back to the right just as things start to get steep, crosses the creek and rejoins the old route above the difficult climb.
===October 21, 2012 – Beverley Creek trail clearing===
(Scott Nelson, Matt Parisien, Simone Williamson, Ignacio Rozada, Michael Huber, Angela Boag, Colleen Budzinski, Jonathan Ross) VOC and BCMC trail crew.      We widened the trail and built a few bridges from Madeley Loop XC trail to the steep climb with the big boulders (~950m).  We also cut a new trail down from the low point in the Olympic Biathlon trail.


===October 20, 2012 – Hanging Lake trail===
===October 20, 2012 – Hanging Lake trail===
Line 79: Line 208:


Maria Markov, Anna Szeitz, Ben Singleton-Polester, Chris Michalak, Skyler Ces Roches, Jean Francois Caron and Sandra Nicol joined me for the final round of hanging trail markers.  We covered the whole trail from the Biathlon Range to Hanging Lake on what turned out to be a fairly nice day.  The first section of trail between the Biathlon Range and the logging road above the XC trails was in really rough condition with little snow and lots of bushy trees, but the rest of the trail went really well.  The main creek crossing wasn’t filled in either, but it was pretty easy to cross back and forth about 50m upstream where the creek braids out into several channels.
Maria Markov, Anna Szeitz, Ben Singleton-Polester, Chris Michalak, Skyler Ces Roches, Jean Francois Caron and Sandra Nicol joined me for the final round of hanging trail markers.  We covered the whole trail from the Biathlon Range to Hanging Lake on what turned out to be a fairly nice day.  The first section of trail between the Biathlon Range and the logging road above the XC trails was in really rough condition with little snow and lots of bushy trees, but the rest of the trail went really well.  The main creek crossing wasn’t filled in either, but it was pretty easy to cross back and forth about 50m upstream where the creek braids out into several channels.
===March 14th, 2010===
Ilze Rupners, Sandra and I went up Beverley Creek to finish the job on Sunday, March 14th. With a nice coating of new snow right down to the parking lot, we found only a trace of the icy death crust that plauged us last week. After a couple hours of skiing we arrived at last week’s camp site, had a snack and started putting up more markers. This this time the primary hazard was tree bombs, which fall rather frequently when you start cutting off limbs and hammering on tree trunks. I got hit in the ear, in the eye, and of course down the neck.
A couple hours later all the marker hanging was done, so we decided to find something to ski. We went up to the end of the trail and starting climbing up towards Beverley Lake. There’s lots of micro terrain in this area and it took us off to climbers left, and eventually we found ourselves in sight, but slightly above the pass with the Soo river. Here we started heading straight uphill, working our way up micro terrain ramps on both sides of a loosely defined ridge. The clouds closed in and it started snowing harder as we climbed. We hit the top (or close enough – 1600m) at 2:40pm old time and started a really fun run down.
We dropped over all sorts of little steep rolls until the bottom of the run where there was a rather large cliff. traversing right didn’t work, so we went skiers left and eventually found a way around and down into the narrow talus gulley that runs between Beverley Creek and the Soo River. Some entertaining “Smurfland” skiing brought us back to the end of the trail and the start of the 6km glide, double pole, sidestep and skate back to the truck.
===March 6th – 7th 2010===
A gaggle of VOCers joined me on a beautiful Saturday to hang trail markers.  Battling the brutal, icy conditions and muddy patches we managed to mark as far as the intersection with the Rainbow Madeley Trail on Saturday.  Christian, Line, Phil, Vicky and Janine headed home for the day (via the shortcut over to the XC trails) while Roland, Maria, Anna, Peter, Theresa, Sandra and I headed up to camp on the banks of Beverley Creek.  We arrived just as it got dark, had some delicious food and were quickly off to bed.  The next day Anna and I tackled the upstream trail while the others went downstream from the camp.  The downstream crew did a fantastic job, but Anna and I ran out of markers before we could finish up.  When we went down to find the others, they didn’t quite have enough markers to cover the gap, so we all packed up and headed out, leaving about half a kilometer without markers, but with perfectly good flagging in place.  We also took the shortcut out to the XC trails to avoid the heinous lower section of trail, and everyone made it back to the car in one piece.


===Hanging_lake_signJanuary 21st, 2010 – Final map===
===Hanging_lake_signJanuary 21st, 2010 – Final map===
Line 96: Line 213:
The final version of the map is ready to view.  You can download a high res PDF here.
The final version of the map is ready to view.  You can download a high res PDF here.


===January 19th, 2010 – Beverley Creek avalanche terrain assessment===
===July 26, 2009 – Hanging Lake===


I joined avalanche forecasters Cam Campbell and Peter Marshall on a trip up Beverley Creek to rate the terrain and do some snow observation.  Low down conditions are still a little thin with some exposed creek, but up high there is a lot of snow. 4.4m to be exact.  On the way down we cut over from the lake to the bridge over madeley creek on Norwegian Woods trail. This was really easy – we just followed the Rainbow-Madeley trail northwest until it started to go downhill and crossed a substantial stream. Then we followed the stream downhill until it made a sharp left turn. At this point we cut over to the right  to join the Norwegian Woods XC trail right by the bridge over Madeley Creek.  We crossed over the bridge and returned to the car via Madeley Road trail. The ski out was quick – just 1.5 hours from upper Beverley Creek to the car.
(Scott Nelson and Sandra Nicol) We brought a chainsaw up the hanging lake route as far as the start of the open meadows that begin around 1250m. We cut all the large blowdowns between here and the upper logging road. Also did some considerable work on the worst of the dense patches of brushy young conifers around 1000m. This was my first time walking this route in summer conditions. It was hot and buggy, and there was more devils club than I’ve ever seen before. I guess that is part of the reason why the route skis so well in the winter. Another brushing day will be needed to clear from the shooting range to the logging road, as this section was definitely the worst of the bush (and it sees the least snow). I think this can wait until next summer, as VANOC might be causing all sorts of havoc in there for the Olympics.


===November 27, 2009 – Early Season Ski===
===June 6, 2009 – meeting with Lindsay Durno and sign scouting===


Jordan Best and Serguei Okountsev for joining me on this one.  We started at the Callaghan Country base area (800m) where there was less snow than advertised – only about 50cm in the forest. In a way this was actually a good thing because I wanted to see how the trail skied in low snow conditions.  We bought the $6 BC access passes and followed the groomed Madeley Loop XC trail to the bridge over Beverley Creek and started up the trail just west of the bridge.  At first, the trail was very wet and there were many open holes in the snow.  In fact, the first draw that the trail goes up was mostly bare and wet in the bottom. However we were still able to ski up the side. Because of the recent warm weather, the snow surface was primarily frozen tree bombs which made for difficult, slow travel.  We made it up to the small lake (1000m) just fine and I was relieved to find that it remained quite well frozen despite a week of warm temperatures.  We crossed and continued along the trail, which went quite well as there were only a few bare areas above here.  At the steep traverse to the valley bottom there were some small trees in the way that had been pushed over from the uphill side of the route by the weight of the snow.  Then at the steep section that is tight to the creek things went pretty well thanks to the clearing work at the beginning of the month. However at the north end of the tight section a diagonal fallen tree created a step we couldn’t ski up and over, so we had to detour around.  This fallen tree will be cut next time I’m up there with a chain saw.  Above the tight section things went smoothly and we tied on new flags as the ones that had been put up in October were close to being buried. Past the end of the trail we continued up east fork to the first meadow (1320m), where we decided to stop and do some transceiver practice rather than pursue the poor looking snow higher up. The ski down was difficult because of the poor snow conditions. Serguei’s new boots did not get along with his feet, so it took a few hours longer than expected and we arrived at the car well after dark.
(Scott Nelson). I met with Lindsay Durno, the operations manager at Whistler Olympic Park. He was keen on doing some large map boards for the backcountry trailheads at the Biathlon Range and Beverley Creek Bridge, in the same style as the existing XC trail map boards. He suggested that he would be able to provide the stand structures if I could provide the signs. Trailhead signs like this would put me over the original budget, so I will be applying for some more funding from the federal government trails program. Lindsay gave me the contact info for the contractors that made the existing signs at WOP – Century signs in Squamish for fabrication and Tom Barret Ltd in Whistler for the mapping and design. After the meeting I hiked up the Rainbow-Madeley Trail to check out the junctions where the new trail up beverley creek crosses it. I identified suitable trees for trail signs at these junctions. I continued up the Beverley Creek route to see how bushy it was higher up. It turned out to be really easy going, as it was mostly swamp. Only one section about 50m long, the steep traverse over to the valley floor, needs brushing.


November 1, 2009 – Upper Beverley Creek again
===February 1, 2009===


Went back to Upper Beverley Creek to finish clearing the blowdowns and get the chainsaw chain back.  Also cleared some brush along the tight spot by the river and straightened out part of the flagged route.  Thanks to Line Veenstra and Caitlin Schneider for helping out.
(Scott Nelson & Ben Singleton-Polester).  We flagging a bypass section through the forest between the biathlon range and the logging road above the XC ski trails.  (Note, this section is no longer used)


===October 18, 2009 – Upper Beverley Creek===
===December 14, 2008===


Thanks to Doris Leong, Hannes Fugmann and Svenja Herrmann with this effort.  We used the Rainbow Madeley Trail to access the mid point on the route up Beverley Creek.  First we checked out some alternative routes between the RM trail and the creek itself, but didn’t find anything better than what I’d already flagged.  We cleared some brush on the final steep traverse and then had lunch by the creek in the rain.  Then we headed up into the upper part of the creek to flag this part of the route.  There’s once section where there is a steep slope right down to the river that we didn’t flag – will wait for winter to see what the best route is.  Just above this point, numerous 20m long trees have fallen into the creek, but are still hung up on the bank.  Up at the fork in the creek, I started working on some blowdowns and got the chainsaw really stuck in one.  I managed to get the saw and bar off (with the chain sill stuck in the log) but unfortunately we’d left the other chain behind a ways downstream.  We finished the flagging on the way out and headed straight for the car as we were thoroughly soaked by this point.  Despite the forecast for reasonable weather, it rained on us for most of the day.
Exploratory ski trip to Hanging Lake


===September 7, 2009 – Beverley Creek===
===March 15-16, 2008===  
 
Thanks to Matthew Carroll, Phil Tomlinson, Shuyu Fan and Patrick Fan for coming out.  We walked the lower part of the Beverley Creek Trail, from the XC bridge over Beverley Creek to the small lake on the ridge between Beverley Creek and Madeley Creek – about 1.7km in all.  Once again, swampy terrain ruled the day, but fortunately this time the foliage was mostly skunk cabbage, deer fern and black huckleberry.  There was only a little devils club to contend with.  We cleared a few small patches of thicker brush and moved a dozen or so blowdowns off the route.  One more work day on the upper part of the trail should finish the clearing work for this summer.  We also made some adjustments to the route alignment, including figuring out and flagging the first few hundred meters up from the trailhead.  On my previous explorations in the area, I’d started further west (from Norwegian Woods trail) but I wanted the trailhead to be as close to the Beverley Creek bridge as possible.  I think the new route alignment in this section is actually better than the old one, but we’ll have to wait for winter to find out for sure.
 
===July 26, 2009 – Hanging Lake===
 
(Scott Nelson and Sandra Nicol) We brought a chainsaw up the hanging lake route as far as the start of the open meadows that begin around 1250m. We cut all the large blowdowns between here and the upper logging road. Also did some considerable work on the worst of the dense patches of brushy young conifers around 1000m. This was my first time walking this route in summer conditions. It was hot and buggy, and there was more devils club than I’ve ever seen before. I guess that is part of the reason why the route skis so well in the winter. Another brushing day will be needed to clear from the shooting range to the logging road, as this section was definitely the worst of the bush (and it sees the least snow). I think this can wait until next summer, as VANOC might be causing all sorts of havoc in there for the Olympics.
 
===June 6, 2009 – meeting with Lindsay Durno and sign scouting===
 
(Scott Nelson). I met with Lindsay Durno, the operations manager at Whistler Olympic Park. He was keen on doing some large map boards for the backcountry trailheads at the Biathlon Range and Beverley Creek Bridge, in the same style as the existing XC trail map boards. He suggested that he would be able to provide the stand structures if I could provide the signs. Trailhead signs like this would put me over the original budget, so I will be applying for some more funding from the federal government trails program. Lindsay gave me the contact info for the contractors that made the existing signs at WOP – Century signs in Squamish for fabrication and Tom Barret Ltd in Whistler for the mapping and design. After the meeting I hiked up the Rainbow-Madeley Trail to check out the junctions where the new trail up beverley creek crosses it. I identified suitable trees for trail signs at these junctions. I continued up the Beverley Creek route to see how bushy it was higher up. It turned out to be really easy going, as it was mostly swamp. Only one section about 50m long, the steep traverse over to the valley floor, needs brushing.


Exploratory ski trip up to Hanging Lake and down Beverley Creek


===2009 Funding===
===2009 Funding===


MEC kindly provided $1948.
MEC kindly provided $1948 for the Hanging lake and Beverley Creek trails.


National Trail Coalition of Canada (www.ntc-canada.ca) provided $1926.
National Trail Coalition of Canada (www.ntc-canada.ca) provided $1926.

Latest revision as of 06:02, 26 September 2024

Reference Points

This section assigns names to various sections of the trail for documentation purposes. These are listen in order starting at the WOP Biathlon Range

0km Biathlon Building Parking
Trail follow Olympic Biathlon XC trail to the low point past the bridge
km Olympic Explorer
Backcountry access trail follows Olympic Explorer snowshoe trail along an old narrow roadbed.
km Map Trailhead
This is the proper trailhead on the logging road above the highest WOP XC ski trail.
km Trailhead climb
The initial climb straight up through the forest above the map trailhead
km sidehill bridge
A small bridge on a sidehill section
km Uprooted Tree Bridge
A small bridge across a little stream just past the uprooted tree.
km bench bridge
Another small bridge a bit further uphill
km Big Cedar bridge
Another small bridge where the trail climbs heads right to avoid uprooted trees in a small alder patch. This bridge has 5 log stringers with room for one more.
km Big Cedar Hill
trail climbs past a huge Yellow Cedar and then angles right towards Hanging Lake Creek.
km Forest Ridge
trail climbs along a small forested ridge parallel to Hanging Lake creek.
km old trail junction
km Big Rock Meadow
An open area with a large rock in the middle of it. Trail goes climber's left of the rock
km gully traverse
trail traverses left across the bottom of a spring avalanche gully. The gully is not visible from the trail.
km gully meadow
km mountain swamp
km boulder climb
Lower boulder climb is below the huge boulder. Upper boulder climb is above the boulder.
km boulder traverse
trail traverses right (steep at first) towards the new creek crossing
km Hanging Lake Creek Bridge
km yoyo meadows
km talus bench
km headwall climb
km Hanging Lake Bench
km Hanging Lake

Tasks & Schedule

Winter Tasks

  • Replace missing markers as needed (some trees were cut down, a few of the big hole markers fell off). Completed from trailhead to bottom of yoyo meadows March 2022.
  • Trailhead climb needs marker adjustments due to September 2024 reroute around major blowdown
  • Uprooted Tree Bridge to Bench Bridge needs markers augmented due to September 2024 widening which removed 2 trees with markers
  • Align markers for switchback through yoyo meadows
  • Align markers to switchbacks on headwall climb
  • Improve marker visibility from talus bench to headwall climb

Fall Tasks

  • Nail down log stringers on Bench Bridge (rebuilt September 2024)
  • Clear brush at top of headwall climb and entry to Hanging Lake Bench
  • Replace collapsed bridge near start of narrow road just above Biathlon Range
  • Secure bolts on Hanging Lake Bridge middle stringer with loctite (all other bolts completed September 2022).
  • Clear large logs and brush on boulder climb where trail wraps around tree for highest switchback
  • Clear tree that obscures markers on boulder climb where trail wraps around tree for highest switchback
  • Remove trees as marked for minor widening from Big Cedar Bridge to old trail junction

History

September 22, 2024

(Tyson Schulz, Geoff Dosman, Lena Rowat, Nick Matwyuck, Charles, Christian Veenstra, Fenya Veenstra, Scott Nelson, Erik Nelson & Halle Nelson)

Rerouted trail around a new blowdowns just above the trailhead. Widened trail from uprooted tree bridge to bench bridge. Rebuilt bench bridge. Widened trail from old trail junction to big rock meadow.

March 31, 2024

(Scott Nelson, Erik Nelson)

We skied up the trail one way doing the Hanging Lake - Beverley Creek loop. I added new signage to separate uphill and downhill traffic above the Hanging Lake Bridge. Two large trees have blow over right above the trailhead (one broken one uprooted).

October 7, 2023

(Line Veenstra, Christian Veenstra, Fenya Veenstra, Nova Veenstra, Willow Veenstra, Scott Webster, Anne Webster, Joel Webster, Alina Webster, Ildiko Kovacs, Matthieu Van Vyve, Marion Courtois, Scott Nelson, Erik Nelson, Halle Nelson)

Today we had a big group with more kids that adults. We managed to build a new bridge at the end of the narrow road, dig a ton of new ditches to drain the narrow road, and clear out all the alder and blowdowns along the narrow road section.

October 6, 2023

(Scott Nelson solo scouting mission)

Scouted work for a big group on Saturday October 7th. Cleared a few trees and branches at top of uphill/downhill traffic separation, and widened gully traverse.

I also explored a potential shortcut between the narrow road and the forest trail, bypassing the trailhead sign so that descending skiers don't have to go uphill to return to the biathlon range. I set yellow flags on a feasible route, but it will require heavy work to clear it for skiing. There are many fallen trees perpendicular to the direction of travel and one bridge to build. The route has many small trees growing on it, so skiing it in it's present condition will be quite difficult.

September 25, 2022

(Line Veenstra, Christian Veenstra, Fenya Veenstra, Nova Veenstra, Willow Veenstra, Scott Nelson, Erik Nelson, Halle Nelson)

Cleared relaigned trail below big cedar bridge so the marked alignment is suitable for low snow conditions. Did the same at the top of the Big Cedar Hill where the new trail transitions into the old one. Applied DAP medium strength thread locker to all nuts on the bridge, except for the middle stringer which had one nut frozen. We left this one as is to use a wicking type thread locking compound in the future.

March 16, 2022

(Scott Nelson)

Skied up the trail as far as the main bridge, pruning high branches and augmenting markers as I went. I raised markers on the October 2021 realignment and pulled the markers off the old route here. The realigned trail skied really nicely as the snow formed a nice bench on the traverse, and the turn wasn't too steep. I changed the trail alignment below the big cedar bridge, so the trail flows more naturally onto the bridge without having to lose any elevation. There's a log or two under the snow here that ought to be cut through when the snow is gone. Higher up I improved markers in the Mountain Swamp section based on feedback from October 2019.

October 17, 2021

(Geoff Dosman, Tasha Salman, Scott Webster, Joel Webster, Scott Nelson, Sandra Nelson, Erik Nelson, Halle Nelson)

Moved alder bridge downstream using Geoff's come along (now called Big Cedar Bridge after the huge yellow cedar on the SE side of the bridge). We cleared a new section of trail to avoid the blowdowns in the alder patch. The new section is cleared and marked, but the markers need to be raised when there is snow. We could not reach the markers on the old trail to remove them.

October 9, 2021

(Scott Nelson)

I hiked to the Hanging Lake Creek Bridge to inspect the bridge and tighten up any loose nuts or bolts. On the way up I discovered that 5 trees had uprooted next to the trail at alder swamp, blocking passage except for a steep, narrow, wet corridor between the old uprooted tree and the new root wad. It was easy enough to pass on foot, but it will present a formidable obstacle once the snow start piling up, especially if it is warm enough that the snow melts in the hollow between the root wads. Other than that the trail was in quite good condition to the Hanging Lake Creek Bridge. Just before the bridge, the big leaning tree that was partially blocking the trail in February 2020 had fallen down naturally and slid 30 feet downhill and out of the way.

At the bridge I tightened the nuts, cut deeper grooves for the north turnbuckle, and reset the cable clip to tighten it up nicely. The south side turnbuckles were nice and tight. On the far side of the bridge I trimmed some branches and cleared a few small trees to give more freedom to maneuver on this steep climb. There should now be room to direct downhill traffic to shortcut directly down to the bridge, keeping the skin track intact.

On the way down I stopped to survey a new route to bypass the newly uprooted trees. This route starts just below the alder creek bridge and crosses alder creek lower down, then into the forest on the far side, avoiding the alder patch altogether. I found a good route along a natural bench that traverses right all the way to the edge of the creek, then makes a climbing turn back left to join the present trail. The route is heavily overgrown with small trees and would be completely impassible on skis with less than 2m of snow. An alternate route higher up the slope had a number of rocks that would make for awkward steep sections of skinning.

February 16 2020

(Scott Nelson, Sandra Nelson)

We skied up the trail and ultimately came out Beverley Creek. WOP has groomed the narrow road, making it very smooth and easy. The sections cleared last falls skies really nicely. At the uprooted tree traverse the hung up snag was not a problem. At lower boulder climb the clearing work done in October worked out very nicely and no further refinements are needed. On upper boulder climb switchback the snow was too steep to wrap completely around the tree so there was a shortcut switchback in front of it instead. There is a new snagged leaning tree below the Hanging Lake Creek Bridge right were we pulled one down in 2018. The trunk was not in the way but some of the side branches hanging down were. Traversing out left and cutting back under the tree worked ok, but coming up from below was too steep. Downhill skiers have side slipped this section making it tough to negotiate uphill. The bridge itself was completely buried in snow. The steep section above the bridge skied great and we continued easily all the way up to Hanging Lake.

October 27, 2019

(Scott Nelson, Geoff Dosman, Reed Schrad, Einar Hansen, Alexander MacIsaac)

We cleared fallen trees and widened the trail from the top of trailhead climb to the uprooted tree traverse, where a big blowdown had exploded all over the trail. Cleared brush and deadfall on lower boulder climb. Felled all trees flagged for removal as far as the Hanging Lake Creek Bridge. Geoff and Reed both reported having trouble following the markers in the mountain swamp section where there is a single marker on a skinny tree in the middle of the swampy patch. Hanging Lake Creek bridge is in good shape - a couple of bolts managed to loosen themselves over the winter.

October 11, 2019

(Scott Nelson, Sandra Nelson, Erik Nelson, Halle Nelson, Christian Veenstra, Fenya Veenstra, Nova Veenstra)

Kid friendly trail day near the trailhead. Dug ditches on the narrow road between the collapsed bridge and the first switchback. More clearing of trees and high branches to allow crossing the stream at the collapsed bridge without going down into the gully and back up the other side. Kids more or less took care of themselves digging, harvesting clay and building their own beaver lodge.

October 21, 2018

(Scott Nelson, Wayne Dalzell, Liam Kynaston, Lesley Stalker)

Completed the Hanging Lake Creek Bridge. Tied down log stringers and bolted centre span support in place. spiked down log stringers on alder bridge

October 6, 2018

(Scott Nelson, Erik Nelson, Halle Nelson, Scott Webster, Anne Webster, Joel Webster, Alina Webster)

Kid friendly trail day clearing between the trailhead and the alder bridge. Cleared new direct alignment on trailhead climb.

September 30, 2018

(Scott Nelson, Geoff Dosman, Louis Arsenault, Rob Kay, Jeff Mottershead, Liam Kynaston, Matt Parisien) Finished gabion boxes, built adhesive rock anchor and pulled 5 log stringers across the creek. Got totally soaked again.

September 23, 2018

(Scott Nelson, Geoff Dosman, Matt Parisien, Liam Kynaston) Continued filling gabion boxes, rescued the big log that fell down the creek and dragged other logs to the bridge site.

September 9, 2018

(Scott Nelson and Liam Kynaston) Placed gabion boxes and started filling them. Got totally soaked.

August 6, 2018

(Scott Nelson, Matt Parisien, Val, Wayne Dalzell) Carried Gabion boxes to site and pulled down unfelled trees with tirfor.

July 22, 2018

(Scott Nelson, Wayne Dalzell). Felled some trees, left others cut and standing because they wouldn't fall over. Lost a big fir tree log down the creek when it slid away after being peeled and turned over.

July 7, 2018

(Scott Nelson, Jeff Mottershead & Devlin Mottershead). We felled a yellow cedar tree and cut and peeled two 6m long log stringers. The extra length will allow more flexibility in building a stone gabion foundation on the south bank back from the edge of the water. Jeff used his tirfor to pull down the big leaning tree safely, then I bucked it into pieces with the chainsaw after it was down.

June 2, 2018

(Scott Nelson and Lukas Schreiber). We hiked up to scout out the main creek crossing for a bridge. We found two good rocks to bolt a log to for a foundation on the south side, and one rock on the north side. The north side will require a couple gabion cages and rock fill to build up the remaining foundation to the height of the rock. Vertical clearance to the water is good - about 1m and the span is 4.2m. There are several 25-40cm diameter yellow cedar trees in the vicinity that could be used to make stringers. There are multiple good anchor points for winching logs into place on both sides of the creek. After scouting the crossing we did some miscellaneous pruning on the way back down to the car.

March 11, 2018

(Scott Nelson and Matt Parisien). We pulled markers from the old alignment, raised markers on the lower trail section and realigned markers on the boulder climb. Set new markers on a more direct alignment on trailhead climb as some had fallen off.

October 28, 2017

(Scott Nelson, Sandra Nelson, Erik Nelson, Halle Nelson, Christian Veentra, Fenya Veenstra, Matt Gunn, Teigan Gunn, Andre Zimmermann, Luca Zimmermann) A trail-building trip with kids to dig ditches. We improved drainage between the Biathlon Range and the small road switchbacks. Water was diverted off the very first section on trail to allow skiers to use this rather than the steep climb a bit further east. We also widened the clearing width near a stream where a small bridge had collapsed by cutting back slide alder to allow the stream to be crossed uphill where it bridges naturally.

October 22, 2017

(Scott Nelson, Bruce Cassels, Bruno Godin) First we cleared numerous blowdowns between the biathlon range and widened the connection between the narrow road and the big road near the trailhead. The largest blowndown was too big and suspended above the road cut so we notched it and build a ramp around it on the downhill edge of the road. This should fill in nicely with a little bit of snow. Higher up above the traverse bridge we found a huge blowdown that was too big to cut through (estimated 42" diameter) so we rerouted a short section of trail instead to the left (uphill). The reroute is shorter and smoother than the old (now blocked) trail.

Jan 4, 2014- Hanging Lake Ski

(Scott Nelson, Matt Parisien) no work done on the trail, but a good assessment of what travelling the trail is like in extremely thin snow conditions. At the trailhead, the snowpack was just 5cm of ice and frozen tree bombs so we strapped our skis to our packs and hiked up to 1200m. Travel was surprisingly fast thanks to the clearing work. We still had to step over a few fallen logs and there were plenty of stumps poking through too. Travel would have been a little easier if the trail was cleared to full hiking trail standards (i.e. cut every single log across the trail). Bashing our way through the blueberry bushes and devils club stems was not a problem. Bridges were not holding any snow yet. just 1cm of ice. All creeks were solidly frozen. Puddle near the big uprooted tree (1000m) was not frozen. The icy logs that we threw into the puddle last fall were tricky to walk. Just below the main creek crossing we went underneath a big leaning tree. Going above it was not possible with the thin snowpack – perhaps 30-40cm at that point. Last spring we went above this tree. At this point it’s not clear if there is an awkward snowpack depth where neither over nor under work. We went below the big dead tree that was cut down near 1250m. The fallen tree itself was still blocking travel on the uphill side. Travel was easy for the uncleared portion above 1250m. Clearing higher than 1250m would not be beneficial.

October 26, 2013 – Hanging Lake Trail Clearing

(Scott Nelson, Matt Parisien, Ben Singleton-Polster, Adam Palmblad, Tracy Wilkinson, Matthew Paley, Robin Curtis, Leor Oren). We built three new bridges on the Hanging Lake trail – (trailhead bridge, sidehill bridge and alder bridge). The blowdowns from last winter were taken care of and we cut down all the trees marked with orange tape up to 1050m.

October 5-6, 2013 – Hanging Lake Trail Clearing

(Scott Nelson, Austin Badger, Dan Domanski) BCMC trip cleared the rerouted trail section that was marked in March. The new stream crossing was easy, even with high runoff. It is just below a pretty waterfall where the creek cascades down bedrock. One big fallen tree at big rock meadow could be problematic in early winter. We widened a naturally occurring gap in the tree but it may be too steep to climb on skis. I will have to check it out after the snow falls and decide if more work is necessary. At the trailhead the plastic coating on the sign artwork is shrinking significantly. The screws won’t allow this, so it bubbled up a bit around the screws. The map artwork underneath is totally fine though.

March 16, 2013 – Hanging Lake trail reroute marking

(Scott Nelson, Bill Maurer, Elisa Kreller and Goran Babic). BCMC group marked the improved route with permanent markers. We also remove the first few markers at either end of the bypassed section so they are not visible from the new alignment. Most of the old markers are still up.

February 9, 2013 – Hanging Lake trail reroute exploration

(Scott Nelson, Ross Nelson). We figured out a better route that avoids the steep difficult part of the climb. The new variation is quite a bit easier to ski. We flagged it with pink ribbons, but they are not as frequent as the permanent markers, so a little bit of searching might be required. The new route leaves the old one at the creek crossing and stays on the climber’s left side of the creek for a further 500m. Then it cuts back to the right just as things start to get steep, crosses the creek and rejoins the old route above the difficult climb.

October 20, 2012 – Hanging Lake trail

(Scott Nelson, Matt Parisien, Russell Porter, Jake Alleyne,Gili Rosenberg, Olga Lansdorp, Andrew Cavers, Sam Slota-Newson, Jo, Adrian Armstrong, Will, Rob Kay) VOC and BCMC Crew. We widened the trail and built a few bridges from the logging road sign to the creek crossing.

October 14, 2011 – meeting with Lindsay Durno and Soren Robinson

(Scott Nelson and Bryce Leigh). We met with Lindsay to discuss access signage on WOP property. Lindsay and Soren agreed to put up signs directing backcountry users to the established trailheads where backcountry skiers can leave WOP. Backcountry users will be allowed to use the XC ski trails to reach the backcountry. The small road that runs from the Biathlon Range to the Hanging Lake trailhead sign will be designated as a snowshoe trail and may be used by backcountry skiers and snowshoers. We also brushed out the connector between this small road and the bigger logging road where the trailhead sign is located.

October 11th, 2010

The trailhead signs are now complete. These signs were moved from their original locations at the request of Whistler 2010 Sports Legacies Society (the new owners of Whistler Olympic Park), who did not want the signs to be visible from the XC ski trails.

March 27th, 2010

Maria Markov, Anna Szeitz, Ben Singleton-Polester, Chris Michalak, Skyler Ces Roches, Jean Francois Caron and Sandra Nicol joined me for the final round of hanging trail markers. We covered the whole trail from the Biathlon Range to Hanging Lake on what turned out to be a fairly nice day. The first section of trail between the Biathlon Range and the logging road above the XC trails was in really rough condition with little snow and lots of bushy trees, but the rest of the trail went really well. The main creek crossing wasn’t filled in either, but it was pretty easy to cross back and forth about 50m upstream where the creek braids out into several channels.

Hanging_lake_signJanuary 21st, 2010 – Final map

The final version of the map is ready to view. You can download a high res PDF here.

July 26, 2009 – Hanging Lake

(Scott Nelson and Sandra Nicol) We brought a chainsaw up the hanging lake route as far as the start of the open meadows that begin around 1250m. We cut all the large blowdowns between here and the upper logging road. Also did some considerable work on the worst of the dense patches of brushy young conifers around 1000m. This was my first time walking this route in summer conditions. It was hot and buggy, and there was more devils club than I’ve ever seen before. I guess that is part of the reason why the route skis so well in the winter. Another brushing day will be needed to clear from the shooting range to the logging road, as this section was definitely the worst of the bush (and it sees the least snow). I think this can wait until next summer, as VANOC might be causing all sorts of havoc in there for the Olympics.

June 6, 2009 – meeting with Lindsay Durno and sign scouting

(Scott Nelson). I met with Lindsay Durno, the operations manager at Whistler Olympic Park. He was keen on doing some large map boards for the backcountry trailheads at the Biathlon Range and Beverley Creek Bridge, in the same style as the existing XC trail map boards. He suggested that he would be able to provide the stand structures if I could provide the signs. Trailhead signs like this would put me over the original budget, so I will be applying for some more funding from the federal government trails program. Lindsay gave me the contact info for the contractors that made the existing signs at WOP – Century signs in Squamish for fabrication and Tom Barret Ltd in Whistler for the mapping and design. After the meeting I hiked up the Rainbow-Madeley Trail to check out the junctions where the new trail up beverley creek crosses it. I identified suitable trees for trail signs at these junctions. I continued up the Beverley Creek route to see how bushy it was higher up. It turned out to be really easy going, as it was mostly swamp. Only one section about 50m long, the steep traverse over to the valley floor, needs brushing.

February 1, 2009

(Scott Nelson & Ben Singleton-Polester). We flagging a bypass section through the forest between the biathlon range and the logging road above the XC ski trails. (Note, this section is no longer used)

December 14, 2008

Exploratory ski trip to Hanging Lake

March 15-16, 2008

Exploratory ski trip up to Hanging Lake and down Beverley Creek

2009 Funding

MEC kindly provided $1948 for the Hanging lake and Beverley Creek trails.

National Trail Coalition of Canada (www.ntc-canada.ca) provided $1926.

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