Clayoquot River Valley Witness Trail - Reclearing Trip - Week 1
Monday, August 17, 2009
Photo: by Geoff Senichenko - Trail Crew taking a break near Murrelet Lakes in beautiful Clayoquot River Valley.
I just got back a few days ago from a 6 day trip reclearing the Clayoquot River Valley Witness Trail in Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations new Ha'uukmin Tribal Park in Clayoquot Sound. This trail was built between 1993 - 1995 and hasn't been maintained since. Last August we began reclearing the overgrown trail and removing rotten boardwalk, so this was the first of three trips this year continuing where we left off last year. We had 13 people including myself on the trip, wow did we get alot of work done! It rained alot, especially on the Monday, but everyone was tough and we made the best of it.
We even found a cave near our base camp at Solstice Lake where we were able to get out of the rain and dry off a little. We set up a base camp with many large tarps at Lower Solstice Lake, right near Solstice Pass, which is the high point at 640m elevation of the trail and the divide between the upper Kennedy River Valley and the pristine Clayoquot River Valley. It was a two day hike into Solstice Lake, with an overnight stop at Trailworker's Camp on the shores of Spires Lake. After setting up base camp, we went onto remove all the remaining rotten boardwalk on the trail. The sections that were left were between Solstice Lake and Spires Lake. We spent the rest of the time then going forward over the pass into Clayoquot River Valley clearing shrubs from the trail all the way to the second Murrelet Lake.
It was beautiful, even in the rain, spending time in this amazing ancient rainforest amongst massive trees, and seeing several waterfalls and lakes along the way. We had a diverse crew, a mix of WWOOFers from as far away as the Czech Republic, Spain, Germany, Argentina and Tennessee, as well as a few of us locals. Thanks to all of you for making it a great trip, and especially to Ira who is leading the next crew as we speak this week and who built a beautiful toilet seat for the new outhouse at Solstice Lake.
Good luck to the crew this week and next!
Geoff Senichenko
Director of Research and Mapping,
Wilderness Committee
P.S. More photos of the trip below:
Photo: by Geoff Senichenko - Giant red cedar tree along Witness Trail in upper Kennedy River Valley.
Photo: by Geoff Senichenko - Lower Solstice Lake and our base camp at Solstice Camp along Witness Trail at Solstice Pass.
Photo: by Geoff Senichenko - Base camp in fog at Solstice Camp on the shores of Lower Solstice Lake.
Photo: by Geoff Senichenko - Trail crew having breakfast at base camp at Solstice Camp on shores of Lower Solstice Lake.
Photo: by Geoff Senichenko - Owl carved by Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations chainsaw operator along Witness Trail.
I just got back a few days ago from a 6 day trip reclearing the Clayoquot River Valley Witness Trail in Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations new Ha'uukmin Tribal Park in Clayoquot Sound. This trail was built between 1993 - 1995 and hasn't been maintained since. Last August we began reclearing the overgrown trail and removing rotten boardwalk, so this was the first of three trips this year continuing where we left off last year. We had 13 people including myself on the trip, wow did we get alot of work done! It rained alot, especially on the Monday, but everyone was tough and we made the best of it.
We even found a cave near our base camp at Solstice Lake where we were able to get out of the rain and dry off a little. We set up a base camp with many large tarps at Lower Solstice Lake, right near Solstice Pass, which is the high point at 640m elevation of the trail and the divide between the upper Kennedy River Valley and the pristine Clayoquot River Valley. It was a two day hike into Solstice Lake, with an overnight stop at Trailworker's Camp on the shores of Spires Lake. After setting up base camp, we went onto remove all the remaining rotten boardwalk on the trail. The sections that were left were between Solstice Lake and Spires Lake. We spent the rest of the time then going forward over the pass into Clayoquot River Valley clearing shrubs from the trail all the way to the second Murrelet Lake.
It was beautiful, even in the rain, spending time in this amazing ancient rainforest amongst massive trees, and seeing several waterfalls and lakes along the way. We had a diverse crew, a mix of WWOOFers from as far away as the Czech Republic, Spain, Germany, Argentina and Tennessee, as well as a few of us locals. Thanks to all of you for making it a great trip, and especially to Ira who is leading the next crew as we speak this week and who built a beautiful toilet seat for the new outhouse at Solstice Lake.
Good luck to the crew this week and next!
Geoff Senichenko
Director of Research and Mapping,
Wilderness Committee
P.S. More photos of the trip below:
Photo: by Geoff Senichenko - Giant red cedar tree along Witness Trail in upper Kennedy River Valley.
Photo: by Geoff Senichenko - Lower Solstice Lake and our base camp at Solstice Camp along Witness Trail at Solstice Pass.
Photo: by Geoff Senichenko - Base camp in fog at Solstice Camp on the shores of Lower Solstice Lake.
Photo: by Geoff Senichenko - Trail crew having breakfast at base camp at Solstice Camp on shores of Lower Solstice Lake.
Photo: by Geoff Senichenko - Owl carved by Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations chainsaw operator along Witness Trail.
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