History of the Roe-Brew Trail

Avalanche Hazard

While this route is much safer than any of the other access routes to the Brew Hut, avalanches can still pose a threat under unstable conditions. The avalanche hazard along this route is similar to the avalanche hazard along the marked route to the Elfin Lakes hut in Garibaldi Park. The route crosses several open south facing rockslides between 1150m and 1300m elevation. These slopes are steep enough to avalanche under the right conditions. Since the slopes are at low elevation and sheltered from the wind, only rare circumstances would create avalanche hazard. The slopes are south facing so they frequently see pinwheeling and small wet loose snow avalanches, but these types of slides are generally not very dangerous here because of the small size of the slopes. The CAA below treeline avalanche hazard rating is applicable to these slopes.

None of the slopes are very large, with a maximum height of about 50m and thus they are not capable of generating avalanches larger than size 2. The first of the slopes at 1150m is difficult to avoid, but the remaining ones can be easily bypassed in the forest on the downhill side.

Route description

This route is presently only suitable for winter travel. Shoulder high blueberry bushes, devils club, bogs, alder, and a small lake are some of the additional obstacles that will be encountered in summer. For GPS waypoints see the brew waypoints page.

Road

All distances are from highway 99. Change Creek FSR and Roe Creek FSR are used for access to snowcat skiing in winter. This means that you won't have to break trail on these roads, and skiing down the roads is a lot easier too if the snow conditions are poor. The snowcat compaction also makes it possible to skate the short uphill sections below the roe creek bridge when coming down from the hut. Expect to see some snowcat and/or snowmobile traffic on the main road, but not on the R200 branch. So far the drivers hane all proven to be quite courteous.

• +0.0km: Turn off highway 99 onto Chance Creek FSR about 1km south of the Garibaldi Lake (aka. Black Tusk / Rubble Creek) road. This turnoff is near a pair of large yellow gates on the highway (as of Sept. 2006 there is construction on the highway and it appears that the gates have been removed). Cross the Cheakamus river and the railway tracks, then head left up a hill.
• +1.7km: At the base area for the cat skiing operation is a big switchback, go left. The road is plowed to this point mid winter, so start skiing here if it's snowed in beyond this point. (430m)
• +2.3km minor spur on the right goes to freeman lake
• +2.6km minor spur on the right goes to ????
• +3.0km Roe Creek FSR / Chance Creek FSR Junction. Take the right fork. There are a new set of km markers for this road that start at the junction. (580m)
• +3.1km minor spur road on right
• +3.5km minor spurs on both sides. The one on the right has a yellow gate.
• +3.6km branch road on the left. Keep right up the hill.
• +4.0km minor spur road to the right. Keep on straight ahead.
• +4.5km branch road on the left. keep right.
• +5.2km minor spur road on the right.
• +5.7km Take the lower right fork. This one is likely to cause some confusion since the left fork is newer and in better condition than the mainline.
• +6.0km Bridge over Roe Creek (700m)
• +6.1km Take the left fork up roe creek. The right fork is R-100 and it ends after only 500m. Shallow water bars start at the top of the first hill which may hinder the progress of low clearance vehicles. Most low clearance cars will have difficulty here and a little scraping can probably be expected if you want to get by. Should be no problem for 2wd pickups.
• +6.7km continue straight through a muddy log sort
• +6.9km big water bar at a wide spot in the road marks the end of 2wd and a good place to park. 4x4HC vehicle can continue, as the road gets rough above here.
• +8.4km take the branch that switchbacks to the right (R-200, 900m elevation). Follow this one steeply uphill to the trailhead, which is just above the first switchback, about 1km up R-200. Beyond this point water bars get steeper, deeper and more difficult. A lot of clearance and a short wheelbase are needed to make much progress up the road beyond this point.
• +9.3km Switchback
• +9.4km The trailhead is on the right hand side an is marked with a couple of orange diamonds. To get up the steep bank above the road, go about 20m past the markers to where it's less steep and the cut back to the first trail marker. It is about 3.6km to Brew Lake and 5.6km to the Brew Hut from here. (1050m)

Trail

• The marked route traverses right through the clearcut and into the forest, crossing a small creek to the bottom of some bluffs. A rising traverse to the right, staying below the bluffs leads to an open bowl with more rock bluffs on the left side (1100m).
• Climb up the bottom of the bowl, keeping to the left of center (1150m). Markers are a bit sparse here due to lack of trees to hang them on.
• At the top of the bowl, the marked route crosses a tiny lake and heads north through the forest, eventually traversing along the bottom of 2 more sets of bluffs (1200m)
• Beyond the third bluff is a flat section that crosses below a talus slope (1250m)
• The trail climbs steeply up the forest to the right of the main talus slope and then across a smaller talus slope continuing right. Back in the forest again is another short steep climb followed by a traverse to reach the start of a meadow system south of Brew Lake (1300m)
• Follow the meadows north to Brew Lake (1430m) where the marked trail ends.
• To reach Brew Hut, head WNW (300 degrees) for about 1km to reach another lake higher up in the basin and then turn N (0 degrees) and ascend to a col which is just west of the Brew Hut

Trail Building

Late winter / spring 2007:

• reposition a few markers where the trail first enters the old growth forest from the clearcut. They are currently too far to the right and should be moved left to where the trail is cleared along a gentle bench.
• The section where trail makes a left turn to go uphill in the clearcut could be straightend out by moving the markers 10-20m uphill, rounding off the corner. This would make the marked route straighter, the climb would be a bit more gradual and the orange square markers would correspond better with a beaten trail through the lower bushes.
• Consider repositioning 1 or 2 markers just below Brew Lake that cross back and forth across the stream. A single crossing point is probably better.
• Travel the route in winter and tie red flags onto trees that still need to be removed.

Summer 2007:

• Cut down all the red flag trees once we have permission from MTSA to cut down larger diameter trees.
• Remove the 6 or so large diameter blowdowns that span the trail with a chainsaw
• Build log stringer bridge over first creek
• Regrade a small bump near the very start of the trail that doesn't hold snow very well.
• Consider putting a small bridge over the creek between the 3rd and 4th talus slopes.

How to help out

Periodic workhikes will be posted on the Trip Agenda and Workhikes pages on the wiki. To find out about other ways to help out with the trail, contact Scott Nelson

History

Previous Roe Creek Adventure

May 1999 Roland Burton, Scott Nelson, Andre Zimmerman, Andre Zimmerman's mom.

Roland's Version

Lifted without permission from VOC bulletin board

After crossing Roe Cr we continued up the main line a ways then took a severely overgrown fork which heads back east a ways. Once into the trees, the veg thins out a bit, and we get into some bluffy country, not real steep, more like steps. Eventually you come out on the ridge to the South of Brew Lake, follow it to the end (West), then swing across to the ridge which the Hut is on

Scott's Version

Bushwacked up large clearcut on east side of roe creek, a couple km upstream from the bridge over roe creek. Road (branch R-200) was heinously overgrown with alder, thrashing through clearcut was not so bad. Old growth forest beyond still held snow (no idea about bushes) and was fairly steep. At the ridgetop, we encountered steps in the ridge at first, and then meadows higher up on the west side of the ridge. We dropped down from a col into the basin W of brew Lake, and the continued up the basin to the hut. Coming down from the col here looked like it might be corniced and/or avalanche prone in winter.

Roe Creek Route Exploration Part 1

November 13-14 2004

Matt Brown, Randy McVeigh, Scott Nelson, Roland Burton, Chris Michalak, Richard So, Kevin Murphy and Danielle Hallet bushwhacked in to the hut from Roe Creek.

Top of Bluff #2

Meadows above Brew Lake

There was some new helicopter logging lower down on the ridge running south from Brew Lake. Many small clearcuts are now present on the slopes above the roe creek road. These appear to have been helicopter logged, as there are no roads through them. There is also a new road going south from the bridge. It climbs a few meters and then runs level along the bottom of a few more new clearcuts. The new spur is probably less than 500m long, but we didn't drive to the end.

We hiked from the cars about 600m uphill from the bridge over roe creek at a pullout (end of 2wd road), and up through some clearcuts trending right (due E) to gain the ridge at about 950m elevation. Just above that, some bluffs got us briedly confused. A few climbed up onto the bluffs, and we determined it would be best to pass them on the east side up a small valley with another set of bluffs on the other side. Beyond the bluffs the terrain was very good, with mellow terrain and easy bushwacking (walking) in mature forest. We found a small open bowl that leads up to a system of benches at about 1200m elevation. On the way up, we scrambled up rocks on the left side of the bowl, but there is an easier route traversing into the bowl and following it up. The benches above the bowl led us NE into the creek that drain brew Lake. Some bluffs need to be avoided along here, we went high over the first one then low past the second one, then along the bottom of a talus slope. Smaller trees predominated, so the bushwhacking was more difficult but not bad. There were a few narrow valleys between outcroppings that would have been nice to follow, but they were filled with water (maybe good in winter). Continuing NE beyond the talus slope, we reached the end of the bench and a steeper climb up a ridge. At 1300m, a short traverse to the right led into the start of a meadow system that connected all the way to Brew Lake.

On the way down, Matt and Scott explored some different route options. The first was a prominent notch in the ridge that was passed on the way up at about 1360m. Passing through the notch lead to complicated rocky terrain the was inferior to the ascent route. This route connected back down to the bench between the talus slope and the third bluff through steep forest.

Next, a route around the bottom of the 2nd bluff was attempted. This proved to be a bit difficult, as the open terrain leads one downhill, too far to the east. The terrain was a bit rougher than the route along the top of the bluff, but more exploration is necesary here to find the best route.

We flagged the lower part of out route on the way down, starting just below the open bowl but wandered off the top of the ridge to the west. The flagged route is quite good at the bottom and top, but needs to be reflagged in the middle section. This would best be done when travelling uphill, because the ridge is easier to follow when travelling uphill. The flagged route starts at the top of one of the clearcuts (GPS location marked, will be posted here) and then goes up a narrow valley between two rock outcroppings. After that, the route diverts incorrectly to the west, when it should simply follow the ridge crest due North. The flagged route terminates at the bottom of a rock outcropping below the open bowl. The open bowl is the the climbers right (ESE) from the end of the flagging

Waypoints now available on the Brew waypoints page.

Meeting with Terminal Forest Products

December 17, 2004

The foresters from Terminal Forest Products were glad to meet with us to talk about our trail building aspirations. They are logging in Roe Creek only, and not in Brew Creek were the existing summer trail is. That logging is being done by Western Forest Products. They provided us with 1:10,000 and 1:5000 maps showing all the existing and future roads in roe creek, and indicated where their future logging will be. These maps are for VOC use only, and should not be distributed to others.

Also, they said that branch R-200 (the completely overgrown road from the 1999 adventure) was reactivated a few years ago, so it is no longer choked with alder. This road may provide the best access to the Brew Hut area, because it climbs to about 1200m on the east side of roe creek, and skiing up roads is easy work. A new branch will be extended north from this road in the near future for logging.

Roe Creek Route Exploration Part 2

February 5-6 2005

JP, Karine, Richard, Maciek, Doris, Soren, Scott and Sandra hiked/skied/snowshoed the Brew hut following a similar line to the November 13-14th route. See the Brew waypoints for more detailed information. We started at the first switchback on branch R200 at 1050m, bashed through the clearcut and then traversed east through mature forest to join the previous route at 1150m at the top of the old flagging. From here, we went up the bowl, across a small frozen lake (caution, there are many of these) and traversed the bench crossing below the 2 sets up bluffs. At the talus slope, we climbed part way up it (horrible with hardly any snow on the rocks) and then traversed north on some friendlier terrain to reach the start of the meadows at the same point as on the previous trip. Part of the route was flagged on the way up, and the rest was flagged on the way down, and we made some corrections on the way down as well. We used yellow flagging tape from Canadian Tire, the remains of which were left in the clubroom for future use. The start of the trail (the bottom) is about 30m above the first switchback on R200. We put the start of the trail here to avoid a patch of really horrible alder lower down.

The trail is flagged well enough to allow a party unfamiliar with the route to follow it, with the following difficulties:

• The section between 1150m and 1200m goes up an open basin with no proper trees in it. We resorted to tying some flags onto the slide alder. A significant snowfall could bury these flags completely. This section also had lots of devils club, which isn't a problem in winter, but it could be nasty in summer.
• Some of the sections could be very boggy or swampy, which is not a problem in winter but can be in other seasons. Further recon this summer will reveal more.
• The snowpack was definately less than average (only 1.6m at brew lake, nearly no snow in dense forest at 1300m) so some flags could be buried with a deeper snowpack. This would likely be most problematic higher up near brew lake, since the lower parts of the trail probably don't get enough snow in a normal year to bury the flags, most of which are a least 1.5m off the ground.
• Some parts of the trail had only young conifers, and the flags could be easily obscured if the trees were covered by snow. We did our best to make the flags as visible as possible. A longer term solution will involve strategically removing branches from trees to make the markers more visible.
• Flagging ends at Brew Lake, so some navigation is required to get to the Brew Hut, if that is your destination.

Roe Creek Route Exploration Part 3

April 9th, 2005

Karine, Sandra, Chee and Scott skied up to Brew. We drove to 900m elevation up roe creek FSR, with snow packed down by the snowcat operation, almost making it to the fork for branch 200.

We skied the new route all the way to micro Brew, which was great now that there is actually some snow on the ground. We made corrections and additions to the flagging along the way, and we reached microbrew at 12:30 after 4 hours at a moderate pace were we had lunch.

There was about 60cm of snow around microbrew, and we removed some of it to speed up the spring melting process. Karine found some gravel and took a sample to see if it was appropriate for use in a concrete mixture.

Then we headed down to the lake, which was ok skiing but not great, and out down the trail. We avoided skiing down the worst forested parts of the trail by traversing right and descending a talus slope and picking up the trail again at the bottom. We had no problems netgotiating the flatter sections without skins, and the rocky open bowl at 1150m actually made for a few turns.

Overall, I was quite impressed with how the route skied. Bushes and alder were not am issue, but there were many small trees that should be removed from the route to make for easier skiing, especially in early season conditions. Also, low down branches of larger trees were sometimes problematic, and this summer will probably include a workhike to go in and remove them.

Site visit with George Mulder of Terminal Forest Products

April 22nd, 2005

• terminal forest logs mostly cedar and cypress, so they have favoured these species in their replanting of the cutblock.
• they don't care for alder at all. hemlock and douglas fir aren't very valuable either. We have freedom to remove these trees if desireable.
• young trees can be pruned, but not the top 1/3rd of the tree. They won't be happy if we overprune the young cedar trees in the cutblock.
• pruning of branches is best done in the fall or winter (when there is less sap flowing) to reduce damage to the trees. I think he is mainly concerned with us pruning the young trees in the clearcut, and not prunning the lower branches off larger trees.
• In the mature forest, we can do away with any trees smaller than about 6inches diameter as we see fit, regardless of species. Cutting down larger hemlock or douglass fir would be ok too.
• most wood along the trail is crap, especially higher up, and is not really worth logging unless pulp prices skyrocket
• there is one moderately attractive stand of cypress, cedar and amebelis fir where the route goes from the clearcut to the forest. The stand is on the downhill side only. If this stand were to be logged, a road extension would be put in more or less along the route of the trail for the first 300m or so. George says that logging this stand is possible in the future under the right market conditions, but likely will not happen anytime soon.
• George suggested we cut a trail along the alder choked road the extends from the switchback on R200, instead of paralleling it higher up (as flagged). This would affect trees in the clearcut less, but might require a greater long term maintenance effort, as the alder will likely regrow more quickly here than in the cleaarcut above. However, if this old road is reactivated and extended then the new road would become the ski route.

Trail clearing

June 4th, 2005

Tim Blair and Scott Nelson removed much of the deadfall, slide alder and small trees from the route, relocating flags as necesary. There is still some more work to do, mainly clearing slide alder. The route is not a good choice for summer access to Brew Hut, due to very tall (up to Tim's eye level) blueberry bushes in the clearcut at the start. We were able to drive to all the way to the trailhead on R200 at 1050m.

June 11th, 2005

Removed the remaining slide alder on the way to Brew Hut for foundation work.

Scott Nelson 15:06, 6 Jun 2005 (MST)

Permanent Markers

March 18-19, 2006

Scott Nelson, Kerstin Bleitgen, Sebastian Oppel, Rueben Schulz, Christian Veenstra, Evan Morris, Tim Blair, Marko Marjanovic, Marc Rautenhaus, Sasha Podolak, Greta Raymant, Angela Code, Yuri Bylinskii and Artem Bylinskii

With a solid spring snowpack (2m at the trailhead) permanent orange diamond markers were placed up high on the trees where they should remain visible all year. Most of the yellow flagging tape was completely burried on the upper section of the route; only a few ribbons were still visible in the bottom of tree wells. Thanks to everyone who volunteered for this project: Rueben, Christian, Greta, Tim, Aiden, Sebastien, Kerstin, Yuri, Artem, Marko, Marc and Evan. We finished nearly all of the work on Saturday, so Sunday was for skiing the nice powder, climbing mount brew and suntanning in the beautiful weather.

The markers were supplied by Astrographic Industries: Licence plate aluminum with high intensity orange finish. Small marker size 3"x3". Large marker size 4"x4" with a 90 degree fold across one corner, from the center of one side to the center of an adjacent side. We ordered 100 large and 200 small, and received 108 large and 208 small. We used 66 of the large markers and about 120 of the small ones to mark 3.5km of the route. A few more markers may need to be added to make the route easier to follow with a less deep snowpack.

We used aluminum nails at the request of the government and Terminal Forest Products, because they can be cut through safely with a chainsaw if the trees are ever harvested. The aluminum nails were hard to find in Vancouver, but Dunbar lumber had them in stock for $45/kg for 1 inch nails. These nails are meant for nailing gutters onto houses, but they worked fine. I bought 300g, which should be about 600 nails. We used less than half of these nails as bending the soft nails wasn't as big a problem as anticipated. The painted white heads look a little funny though.

Application for trail permit to the MTSA

It turns out that the forest practices code definition of a "route" has been rescinded, so now we need to apply for a proper trail permit before doing anymore clearing or building bridge structures, etc. Please see the Roe Creek Ski Trail Application page to add any comments to the application.

Trail Clearning Oct 14-15, 2006

Scott Nelson, Eva Wingren, Isak Stoddard, Linda Vrbova, Ben Singleton-Polster, Ben Webber, Andrei Pop, Matthew Carroll, Lisa Cashel, Andre Malan, Daniel Berheide, Christian Champagne, Tristan Bennet, Natalie Taha, Andrew Rutgers and Robin Attas.

MTSA gave us the go ahead to brush out the trail, so a big VOC work party of 16 bulldozed the entire length of the trail (excluding conifers larger than 10cm), added markers and cut high branches off of many trees. Hopefully the trail will be an excellent, easy to follow skiing and snowshoeing experience this coming winter.

Land Use Considerations

Snowcat Skiing

Powder mountain catskiing had their tenure extended by LWBC to include much of roe creek, including slopes on the east side of the creek that are very close to brew hut. These slopes were not included in their previous 1 year exploratory tenure, but were added when the final tenure was approved in May 2004. PMCS seems to be willing to carefully manage use of the area for both user groups, but there have yet to be any conflicts to test how they will actually act.

Logging

Commerical logging in Roe Creek is being carried out by Terminal Forest Products. The contact person for the VOC is Scott Nelson.

Mining

Alberto Corso of Powder Mountain Catskiing also says that there will be a new mill built by Huckleberry Stone Supply in the near future about 1km uphill from the catskiing base at km1.5 of chance creek FSR. PMC's tenure indicates that they will be using a new road constructed by the mining company to access roe creek, and then the existing road higher up. This new road may offer a more direct access to the upper part of Roe Creek FSR, especially if the road is plowed in winter for vehicle access to the mill.