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 (now CN rail) has been cracking down on tresspassing lately, and the trail has now been disturbed by logging. The so called 'winter route' from Brandywine FSR is steep, prone to avalanches, and has the annoying snowmobile factor. Access to the Brew area is important to ensure that the new Brew Hut is well used, and well taken care of.

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.

The FMCBC, the Ministry of Transportation and CN rail are all very keen on creating an alternate start to the existing Brew Lake Trail that avoids tresspassing on the rail line.

Roe Creek Route

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.

Road

All distances are from highway 99.

• +0.0km: Turn off highway 99 onto Chance Creek FSR about 1km south of the Garibaldi Lake road. This turnoff is near a pair of large yellow gates on the highway. 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
• +2.3km minor spur on the right goes to freeman lake
• +2.6km minor spure 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.
• +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 aheadh.
• +4.5km branch road on the left. keep right.
• +5.2km minor spure road on the right.
• +5.7km Take the lower right fork.
• +6.0km Bridge over Roe Creek
• +6.1km Take the left fork up roe creek. The right fork is R-100 and it ends after only 0.5km.
• +6.7km continue straight through a muddy log sort
• +6.9km big water bar than marks the end of 2wd and a good place to park. 4x4HC vehicle can continue, as the road gets gnarly and a bit bushy above here.
• +8.4km take the branch on the right (R-200). Follow this one steeply uphill to the trailhead, which is just above the first switchback, about 1km up R-200 at 1030m elevation.
• +9.3km Switchback
• +9.4km The trailhead is on the right hand side an is marked with yellow flagging tape. It is about 3.6km to Brew Lake and 5.6km to the microbrew from here.

Trail

• The flagged route traverses right through the clearcut and into the forest, ascending the the bottom of an open bowl with a bluff on the left side.
• Climb up the bottom of the bowl, keeping to the left of center. There are no trees to flag for this section, so there are no flags. Just follow the line of least resistance for 200m or so.
• At the top of the bowl, the flagged route crosses a tiny lake and heads north traversing the bottom of 2 bluffs.
• Beyond the second bluff is a short steep climb and then a traverse to reach the start of a meadow system south of Brew Lake.
• Follow the meadows to Brew Lake.

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. Clearing of the lower part of the trail can start once the snow melts back and a permit has been obtained.
• 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 - Pruning work can be done.
• Winter 2005 - 2006. More pruning (higher up on trees than possible in summer) and putting up permanent trail markers (orange squares), possible some signage too.

Previous Roe Creek Adventure

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

Roland's Version

Lifted without permission for 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 chocked 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 I 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.

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

Brew Lake Trail trailhead relocation

Trail Building Plan

• Spring/Summer 2005 - find a suitable route which is acceptable to the VOC, CN Rail, local property owners, the Ministry of Transportation and the FMCBC.

Information from Western Forest Products

January 2005

Western Forest Products is the company that is logging around the existing Brew Lake Trail from the railroad tracks to brew lake. They were kind enough to forward a map showing their logging plans for the area, but asked that the plans not be released publicly, so I will not post them here. Email me (Scott Nelson) if you want to look at them. They have 1 clearcut that intersects the trail, and falling was started on the clearcut last fall. Harvesting will be completed on that clearcut this spring, and no more clearcuts will intersect the trail. Western Forest Products is planning to rebuild the section of the trail that they logged over once logging is completed, routing the trail along the edge of the clearcut. The VOC should communicate it's plans for the Brew Lake Trail to Western Forest Products as soon as a decision has been made on whether to continue maintaining this trail.

Road access to the clearcut is from Brew Creek FSR, which leaves highway 99 just south of the bridge over brandywine creek. Since the brew creek watershed is used to collect drinking water for Black Tusk Village and Pinecrest Estates, the entire road system has been gated to prevent public access. This is consistent with other watersheds such as Magnesia Creek (lions bay), 21 mile creek (whistler) and Capilano (north vancouver). We may be able to arrange a key to the gate for the duratoin of brew hut construction, but the road system will not be publicly accessible in general, and thus cannot serve as a new trailhead access. The road system is not very suitiable for access to the trailhead on foot, because it takes a very round-a-bout route to reach the point where it intersects the Brew Lake Trail. It would be faster to hike the lower part of the trail to this point than to take the road.

Scott Nelson 16:16, 3 Feb 2005 (EST)

Brew Lake Trail Relocation Exploration

March 8th, 2005 Scott Nelson (VOC) Evan Lovelss (FMCBC) and Ethan ? (MOT consultant).

There is a pullout about 1km south of brandywine falls which Ethan had proposed as a possible new trailhead location for the Brew Lake Trail. We bushwack from here to the BC rail line, and then crossed the rail line (and a stream) and continued west towards the current trailhead by the railroad tracks. Progress was made difficult by many steep sided ridges running N-S through this area, and by trying to find a route that avoided going through recently logged clearcuts. It seems that the best route would be to use branch 31 of brew creek FSR (this branch will be accessible once the gate is moved to accomodate a proposed trailer park and campground further up the road) and then go up beside a stream (heading NW), then climb out of the stream, cross branch 100 of Brew Creek FSR (beyond the new gate), cross another stream and then start up the mountainside to intersect the existing trail a few hundred meters above the present trailhead. This route has only been partially explored.

Much of the land south of the trailhead is privately owned. There is the Brew Creek Lodge and some undeveloped land owned by a private landowner, which complicates access from this direction. It would seem that the terrain on this side is much flatter, and the trail extension would run mostly N-S instead of E-W which should make for easier travel given the topography.

March 13th, 2005

We now have a key for Brew Creek FSR. Sandra and I walked branch 31, which is deactivated, but only has 3 gentle water bars and a few small alders, and explore around the end of the road. This could be a good potential trailhead. I would take 5 or 6 people about 1 day of work (triming alders and armouring water bars against erosion) to reopen the road for vehicles. In the future, the gate on brew creek FSR will be moved up past branch 50 to allow for a RV Park and Campground off branch 50, so branch 31 should be publically accessible by car.

ScottN 14:15, 14 Mar 2005 (EST)

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. Logging around the summer trail, on the east side of Mt. Brew, is being done by Western Forest Products. The contact person for both companies 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.

Private Land

Much of the land south of the existing Brew Lake Trail trailhead is privately owned, which is unfortunate since this would seem to be the best to relocate the trailhead to. Perhaps a route can be found through here that avoids the private land.

Brew Creek Community Watershed

Brew Creek is the water supply for Pinecrest and Black Tusk Estates. For this reason, Brew Creek FSR is gated to limit public access. In the near future, a trailer park will be constructed off branch 50 of Brew Creek FSR. The trailer park will not be in the watershed, but the gate will be moved up the road to accommodate it. This will open up the lower parts of Brew Creek FSR, including branch 31, to public vehical access.