
Lucky you! You are actually getting a newsletter on the day it’s supposed to come out – even though I am painfully typing this with one hand. (yeah, I know – I’m such a hero – NOT).
You see, on June 20, I was doing my favourite thing – hiking! As if I needed to tell you. We were up on Lightning Strike, then down the valley and then up to the saddle of Ripple Mountain – and then back – and it was on our way back down Lightning Strike that I crossed a small snow bridge that I didn’t feel good about – apparently for good reason, because I broke through. And fell. And broke a bone in my left arm.
So – as soon as I get this newsletter out, I am off to Trail for surgery. This all leaves me with several small dilemmas: first, I am getting married in four weeks and my wedding dress has long sleeves. Second, our honeymoon is seven days at Durand Glacier – hiking every day. Okay – I can do that with one arm. Third – I need people who are willing to hike with the one-armed woman!
Things you can’t do with one arm: put a fitted sheet on a bed. Tie shoelaces. Do up a zipper. Slice bread.
Things you can do with one arm: hike!
Happy summer hiking everyone! It may be a slow start to the season due to the cold, late, wet spring, but I suspect we’re going to make sure it’s a good one. As you will see from the trip reports, the fun has begun!
— Goody Niosi

Skattebo Reach
By Curt Nixon
On April 20, a fine day dawned with clear blue skies and brisk temperatures.
Once the shuttling of vehicles was accomplished, we started on the newly widened hiking trail commencing from the glacial “exotic” boulder about 2 km south of the end of the public road in Glade.
The trail parallels the Kootenay River and climbs up and down to travel along benches or to scoot around rock bluffs. A crew, hired by the Castlegar Parks and Trails group, was widening the trail to allow for non- motorized bike use as well as hiking. We ran into Graham Marshall’s ATLAS grade 12 outdoor group who were doing the trail in the opposite direction. We stopped for lunch at the Big McPhee Creek rocky point, which was especially lovely. We then exited the trail system at the Brilliant Power Station and returned home happy!

Thanks especially to Linda and Doug Clark for lending the use of their vehicles to facilitate the shuttle.
The trail is becoming very popular due to all that fantastic work the Castlegar Trails Club is doing on the network.
Time required: 2.5 -3 hrs or so one-way.

We were: Andrea Vowell, Leo Jansma, Doug and Linda Clark, Connie Parisotto, and Laura Ringer. Curt Nixon, coordinator.
Brilliant Overlook Loop Hike and Cleanup
By Chris Cowan
This day felt like “old times” as 14 of us assembled at the Golf Course parking lot in Castlegar on April 23, a fine spring Saturday Morning, with pandemic concerns, rightly or wrongly, on the wane. It’s been a while since I led a trip that needed the usual circle of intros, and we were happy to welcome three new members along with a lot of familiar faces, some not seen in quite some time. We chose our weapons from the club’s collections of clippers, saws, and loppers and set off up the trail. I had advertised a “moderate” (geriatric?) pace, and so it was, enjoying the profusion of glacier lilies in the open areas on the ascent. Greyhounds were instructed to wait for us at trail junctions, and were, I’m happy to say, mostly cooperative. Some of those ahead encountered a few fallen logs and eagerly set to work on them, enabling better group cohesion. Also, one of those greyhounds about a km up the hill, discovered she was missing her phone and had to retrace her steps to retrieve it; happily, she showed up once again, not even breathless, about a half hour later.

We had the usual water break with a lovely view over the Kootenay river valley at the half way bench, and a relaxed lunch up at the overlook itself, having removed a few more offending logs on the way. More branches got removed along the ridge, and we managed to really clean up the descent route that short cuts across the loops in the forest service road, with some significant deadfall taken out and a lot of brushing.

The trail clearing made for a bit more time than is usual with this loop, and we took about 6 hours rather than the usual 4.5, but everyone appeared to enjoy the day very much. The weather was very cooperative with a chilly morning, getting a little warm toward the end of the hike, and sunny with just a few pretty shower clouds showing up during the afternoon, but none directly overhead. (I have to keep my reputation intact!)

Thanks to everyone for coming and making it a fun day.
We were: Andrea Vowell, Janet Henderson, Connie Parisotto, Curt Nixon, Emmy Vuik, Fariba Khanom, Sess Sakimoto, John Tisdale, Phil Best, Vicki Hart, Robert O Kruk, Ross Bates, Hayleigh Bailey, and Chris Cowan (coordinator).
BIKE RIDE-NELSON, PASS CREEK, SYRINGA PROVINCIAL PARK
By P’nina Shames
The only sunny day we found in weeks, thankfully, was June 1, bracketed by overcast, rainy, wet, soggy days totally unsuitable for riding a bike. This is a bike ride I love as it takes us through the rural outskirts of Nelson and Castlegar and along the Columbia River on one side of the Keenleyside dam, and Arrow Lake behind the dam to Syringa Provincial park.
There were three meet-up points for riders of all levels. The first was at the Rosemont end of the Observatory Street bridge (the hwy 6 overpass) in Nelson. Getting an early start at 7 a.m. was just fine for three of us. Our route took us along Granite Road, which is, at that hour, virtually free of cars, through large rural properties, along Blewett Road and down the 49 creek hill across a couple of bridges and BC hydro plants, always close to water, eventually reaching Playmor Junction (our next meeting place).

We were half an hour early, so raced on our bikes to Frog Peak Café for a quick coffee, making it back to the junction park ‘n ride just in time to meet two more riders. We rode west on Pass Creek Road, rush hour traffic now long gone, enjoying the green fields, sections of forest, and always, a lovely winding country road. The highlight was zooming down suicide hill, managing to not hit any of the many potholes that punctuate this section of worn-out pavement. Thankfully, paving repairs are coming soon.
Our third meet-up spot was at Lion’s Head Pub, where the last of our cycling crew joined us and one cyclist left us to return back to Nelson. The headwind between LH pub and Syringa Park was strong, giving us an extra challenge. This section is graced with some lovely properties, all heavily planted with lilacs in full bloom. We were very grateful that the intoxicating scent of these lavender beauties overrode the foul smell of the belching pulp mill.

Arriving at the park, we found the day use area had plenty of empty tables and a great view of Arrow Lake. By the time we finished lunch, it looked like weather might move in, but, fortunately, the only big weather we had was a nice tail wind. At the LH pub, we said goodbye to rider Stephan, and carried on to the junction park ‘n ride. One brave, strong rider mastered riding up suicide hill, while two of us took the long slow route along Winter Rd. to bypass that steep crazy climb.
At the junction, fearless Sean carried on to ride the rest of the way back to Nelson also tackling the long 49 Creek Hill by Carlson Rd in Blewett. The rest of us indulged in a Num Num ice cream (yum). We were: Sean Ryan, a new KMC member who rode the entire round trip Nelson-Syringa and back for about 135 km, Jim Falvo (guest rider, but has already put on several thousand kms this year alone), Peter Martyn and Curt Nixon (mastering the 80 km round trip from the junction to Syringa and back), new to KMC Stephan Piernitzki joining us on his gorgeous mountain bike at the LH pub, and P’nina Shames (trip leader and riding from Nelson to Syringa and back to the junction-about 105 kms, but couldn’t master another inch).
Lyon’s Bluff
By P’nina Shames
This June 9 hike was originally supposed to take us up the Una Canuma bike trail above Svoboda Road and the very level waterline trail, on the north face of what I think is Evening Ridge. But, winter did its work, blowing down oodles of trees across the trail. Confirming with Gerrick’s cycle that no trail clearing had taken place, I elected to hike the newly installed Lyon’s Bluff trail as far as we could get, according to Derrick, the trail builder.
The first part of the Lyon’s bluff trail is well known and already a couple of years old. The rock work on this section is stunning, with edges neatly articulating with the natural curve of a vertical rock wall, stunning views, and only a couple of hundred metres elevation gain before the roar of traffic below fades to silence, allowing the sounds of chirping birds to overtake the auditory landscape.

The section to the rocky outcrop called the Bluffs is about a 300-metre elevation gain and less than 2 km each way. A stunning view of Nelson and the bob (big orange bridge) is the reward for knee hammering plates of pure granite that serve as our staircase in this section of our ascent. After a brief rest, we continue on the newer section, mostly carved out of duff, dirt, tree roots, and carefully placed rocks at the switchbacks. A sign posted on a tree at the start of this section tells us we have 600 or so metres to climb and a few more kms of distance to cover.
This section mostly orients us to the east, looking out over the west arm toward Balfour. Within a kilometre or so, we come to a place called “the canyon” with high rock faces, and downs as well as ups. This part of the trail is soft, easy on the knees, and mostly in the trees, with some openings. Eventually, we come to Derrick’s now abandoned campsite, as he’s moved himself and dog Lucy to higher ground, as he advances his trail building prowess.
The route takes us through a cedar grove on a steep slope with a noisy creek below. After a few more long switchbacks, we arrive at an opening, almost like a meadow with lots of deadfall on which to sit and appreciate another view of the west arm and mountains across the water. We could almost see the Una Canuma we couldn’t hike. This is where Derrick has now set up camp. He was able to explain the plan for the last leg of the trail as it joins up with the link between the flagpole and CBC radio tower from the Pulpit Rock side of Elephant Mountain. He calls this the fourth floor of an ever-ascending staircase, with Lyon’s Bluff the first floor. We can see that the last leg of the trail is flagged and some work has started, delineating a faint imprint of this section. Derrick says he believes there are only 200 vertical metres to reach the ridge and CBC tower, but a GPS track suggests there are probably 600 vertical metres to go. Time will tell, and so will one of our party, who decided to continue upward and onward to connect with the CBC tower/flagpole section and descend by way of Pulpit Rock, thus making the full circuit.

The rest of us, after a lunch break, headed back down, retracing our route, just in time to get lightly sprinkled upon, between glimmers of sun. The prevailing opinion is that once this trail is complete in the very near future, it will be an epic hiking circuit that will take a full day with some drop off and pick up coordination.
We were: Debbie Gerrits, Tom Johnston, Joanne Harris, Peter Martyn, Curt Nixon, Cathy White, Stephan Piernitzki, Doug Clark (fearless GPS tracker), Andrea Vowell (who has hiked the whole thing a thousand times and left us shortly after the Bluffs), Ben Aubin (who carried on to the top and hopefully, did not get soaked at the CBC Tower and Elephant Mountain ridge or anywhere else along his full circuit route), and P’nina Shames (trip leader).
The Lost Mountain Handsaw Massacre
By Goody Niosi


With this year’s snowpack at 170 percent of normal, our staunch group of 15 hardy souls was well-prepared for all kinds of weather when we set out to hike Lost Mountain on June 12.
Few of us, however, were prepared for heat, wishing we had packed shorts instead of puffies on the way up.
That said, we were on a double mission, Fearless leader, Chris Cowan assembled us in the parking lot before handing out an array of snippers and handsaws – we were going to attack the winter deadfall on the way.
And we were off under mostly sunny skies, a small group of about six charging full steam ahead, the rest opting for a more leisurely pace. Then we hit the first downed trees – the fast group slowed to a crawl – and stopped, hacking away at branches and limbs.


It didn’t take long for the entire unruly mob to be strung out across several hundred metres of uphill, Peter Oostalander and Chris trying to keep a modicum of control with their two-way radios. I wouldn’t say it was a total success.

We stripped layers off on the way up, the sun beating down – hurrah! And, after a brief snack stop at the viewpoint, up we went to the false summit where a black cloud loomed ominously. Not to worry. Chris, the weatherman was with us – and so we continued on through snow the rest of the way.

One by one, we straggled to the top, signed the summit register, and took in the glorious views. The black cloud moved slowly toward us. No concern, Chris said – we’d see some rain and hail but no thunderstorms – our biggest concern on that exposed top.
We scarfed food down quickly and beetled our way down – and there it was – as predicted – hail and rain, but nothing our many layers couldn’t handle.
Thirteen of us reached the summit. Bill and Dave chose to stay lower on the trail, engrossed in maintenance and hand sawing big trees. One of those trees took almost an hour to get through – amazing work and kudos to the crew!

We were: Bill McNally, Peter Oostlander, Deborah Gerrits, Stefan Chobotar, David Brackett, Phil Best, Vicki Hart, Ben Aubin, Laura Ringer, Tina Herman, Janice Isaac, Goody Niosi, and Chris Cowan.
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