Brew Hut Trail Upgrade

Introduction

Access has been one of the Brew Hut's biggest challenges. A trail goes up to Brew Lake from the railroad track near Brandywine Falls, but BC Rail has been cracking down on tresspassing lately. The so called 'winter route' is steep, prone to avalanches, and has the annoying snowmobilers factor. Potential for a new trail in to the area exists coming in from Roe Creek. The terrain is generally quite mellow, and a trail built here could be used in both summer and winter. Furthermore, the first 2km of this route is up Chance Creek FSR, which is now being plowed in the winter for snowcat skiing near Tricouni Peak, shortening the approach by a little bit. Building a new trail to the Brew area is important to ensure that the new Brew hut is well used, and well taken care of.

Rumour has it that the Ministry of Tranportation might be able to cough up some money for replacing the existing Brew Lake Trail. Highway upgrades before the 2010 Olympics will make the existing trail completely inaccessible, so they might chip in some money for a new trail. How much money is involved is not yet known.

Trail Building Plan

• Winter 2004/2005 - ski the route up to the Brew Hut and flag an appropriate line through the forest. It's important to choose a line for the trail which can be easily skied both up and down, so checking the area out in winter first is a good idea. Plus, snow keeps the bushes down. The goal is exploration

• Spring 2005 - planning the route based on 1 or more winter sessions, further exploration on skis if necesary. Construction of the lower part of the trail can start once the snow melts back.

• Summer 2005 - most activity will probably focus on building the new hut, which should be the priority. There might be a weekend workhike or two of trail building.

• Fall 2005 - with the new hut in place, the trail can be finished without feeling guilty about it.

Discussion

• What sort of trail do we want? Wide or narrow? Should we clear more than the minimum number of trees for better skiing? Should it be gently graded or steep? Should steep sections have switchbacks?
• Do we want to put up a big sign that says "Brew Hut this way"?

Progress

Roe Creek Route Exploration 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.

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 to gain the ridge at about 950m elevation. Just above that, some bluffs got us briedly confused, but beyond the bluffs the terrain was very good. Not steep and easy bushwacking. We found a small valley that leads up to a system of benches at about 1200m elevation. These benches 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. Beyond the talus slope was a steeper climb up a ridge, and then a short traverse right into the start of a meadow system at 1300m that leads to Brew Lake.

We flagged the lower part of out route on the way down, 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.