March 25, 2021

Snow Report – Ran into snow west of Fife and East of Snow Slide Bridge

Cascade West Access Point

GFATV members were on the trail from Cascade West to Catlin Road. Cascade West is where the old train trestle goes over the gorge west of Christina Lake along Highway 3. This area is very significant for its history. There was a dam located here, the Kettle River was dammed for power and there was a large sawmill operation. The falls are especially spectacular in the spring. If you follow along the Mixed Use trail to the east you can see where the penstocks used to direct water to the turbines. Catlin Road is where Interfor has developed a Forest Service Road to connect to the Rail Trail.

The crew was pleased to see the outhouse and area very clean and only one pile of garbage having to be picked up. The bridge deck looked good and there are two new picnic tables installed. We did some brush removal; the aspens are very prolific along this section and a few dead trees had to be removed. There are a few spots further east that need to be addressed but trail looks great. There is a few patches of snow in the shade. Just on the east side of the trestle we filled, and we brushed.

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Cascade West to Santa Rosa

Trail to Santa Rosa looked good with only a few rocks that had rolled onto the trail. At Santa Rosa we found:

1. In a few areas, signage could be more clear for users head west. The private drive and the trail are confusing.
2. There should be a new picnic table installed at Santa Rosa.
3. There where two signs that have been broken, not sure if they should be replaced or?
4. We picked up garbage from the parking lot and around large Kiosk.
5. Outhouse was in good shape and the surrounding area looked good.

Santa Rosa to Fife

This is a challenging section as rocks continually roll down the steep hillside and fall from the bluffs onto the trail.

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1. There was debris on the trail and rocks have rolled down from Santa Rosa for approximately 2km.
2. We should clean out these rockslides and reestablish a ditch line.
3. There is a large dead tree hanging over the trail 2.5 km, east of Santa Rosa.
4. There is a narrow section where the trail drops straight off and we removed rocks on the hi-side of the trail and flagged the area.
5. Checked culvert entrance to make sure they were clear.
6. CPR pump house still has snow on its roof, but the trees have been removed. Looks like the structure has been improved. The culvert looked clear.

Fife to Catlin

Fife area looked good! We did not go into CPR shack. The new historic sign (where we took off the plexiglass) looked good. There is heavy growth along the side of the trail in several sections all they way to Catlin road, we will have to mow this area with the new mower. One pass up, one down should work. It’s about 5 km one-way from Fife to Catlin.

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1. We removed several trees and many rocks.
2. There are a few rockslides that need clearing.
3. The historic sign at Baker Creek looks great, and we got a picture of the culvert below 1908.
4. A few more trees and some rocks but the last few km to Catlin road were great.

Looks like Interfor has done a great job linking to the trail. The trail was accessible all the way to Snow Slide Bridge.

On the return trip

We travelled back to Cascade West and did some touch ups along the way. We left at 8am, and returned by 3pm