Brushing out and dialing in trails is happening right now and for seven more weeks this summer at the Soda Creek trail network.
Xatśūll First Nation is partnering with First Journey Trails to fund significant work to the mountain bike trails at Soda Creek to help get them back into better shape for riders.
Schoen said this shows how this small Indigenous community recognizes the value of this trail network.
“It’s really cool to see that they acknowledege that these trails are getting used … and now it became a part of their funding and economic proposal for the new gas station and campsite,” explained Schoen.
Soda Creek is the second biggest Indigenous trail network in the province, only the Simpcw First Nation near Barriere has more trails.
Read more: First-ever Allies Mountain Bike Festival back on for Simpcw near Barriere
After years of erosion and encroachment as well as many fallen trees, the trails will be getting some much-needed love. Michael Wijma, trail builder and crew lead from Horsefly, has put in two weeks of work already and will continue to lead the hands-on trail work.
“A lot of it is just brushing it out a bit and opening up line of site, rebuilding the lips and rebuilding transitions,” described Schoen of the work done so far.
While parts of the network have been kept open by volunteers and are still popular, some less-used and more remote parts of the network are unusable at the moment. The 17 km cross-country route from the Xatśūll First Nation administration office to the top of the Blue Lake trails, a route called Deep Blue, reportedly has hundreds of trees across it.
A plan to hopefully enlist the assistance of a Wildfire Management unit crew to help clear some of these trees is also in the works.
Currently, the clean up and maintenance is focussed on the shuttle-friendly downhill trail DH Hipsta and the Squiggly Bench, a climbing trail from the base of the Blue Lake Road which takes riders to the top of DH Hipsta.
“It’s such a cool zone, because you’re coming through this burned forest here … and from spots higher on the trail you look down into the Fraser Valley,” said Schoen of the scenic trails, which had seen some use over the weekend, with fresh tire tracks through the newly-filled sections.
Schoen said one of biggest advantages of the Soda Creek trail network is the exposure of a lot of the trails means it opens up earlier in the spring than many areas.
“You can ride this long before you can ride anything in Williams Lake,” said Schoen. “That’s what brings guys down from PG and Quesnel, they come from the north to ride this.”
To access the trails, people can park below Highway 97, and then ride or walk underneath the highway using an existing culvert underpass.
The culvert was originally intended for moving cattle back and forth across the highway, but also works well to keep bikers from having to cross the high-speed traffic on 97. This was a big advantage when the system was developed, according to Schoen, who did the network trail design.
“Otherwise it would have been tricky to establish a network.”
The trail network at Soda Creek includes a shuttle-friendly section above Highway 97 off of the Blue Lake Road and a climb for those who like to get their pedal in, and both a trail which drops below the highway to Xatśūll’s heritage village and a climbing trail to get back up to the parking area.
Schoen thinks the longer Deep Blue could become a really big draw to the area for both e-mountainbikers and those more ambitious cross-country riders looking for something different.
The trail, when cleared and resestablished, will be able to be shuttled by leaving a bike at what used to be the Soda Creek Emporium and then driving back to Deep Creek to start.
“It’s just going to be spectacular if you’re on an ebike,” said Schoen. “You can just do the long trail and end up at the heritage village or you do it in both directions.”
It’s a 10-minute shuttle on the paved road if you do need to leave a vehicle, Schoen explained.
“On a nice day in the fall … spend a couple hours at Blue Lake, it’s a really cool ride.”
Read more: Mountain bike trail grand opening event draws a crowd to Williams Lake
ruth.lloyd@wltribune.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter