Hunter Creek revisited

[BC backroader]

Since my post on this steep creek valley trail back in 2015, I've been back there twice. The trip in 2016 ended after only 5km up each of the west and east branches. The east branch had a bridge washed out, leaving a drop into the side creek that it spanned that was much too steep to try and ford, and a few km up the west valley, I found a wide deep washout that was also impassable. That left only the south branch off the west road, and only 2km up that, there was a landslide of boulders and mud about twice the height of the TB, so another no-go.

I went back there again this past weekend for a short day trip with my youngest son, who was visiting, and we hadn't been out on a backroad adventure in several years, so it was a great chance to get out and refresh our souls in the high country.

Changes were obvious as soon as we turned off pavement, as there was a warning sign about a gate 2km ahead that would be locked at 6PM, and further warnings about large vehicles on the road. Since we had lots of time before 6, we headed up the now well graded, but still very steep road, stopping at the construction trailers by the gate at the 2km point. Even though it was a holiday Monday(BC Day), it was obvious that there was a crew working, so a chat with the site super to assure him that we had the proper radio to communicate with the trucks got us permission to proceed, as well as a report on the condition of the roads ahead. Since they were blasting along the road into the west fork, we agreed not to go there, but were pleased to hear that the washed out bridge on the east fork had been rebuilt, as there was a new logging cut being worked near the end of that valley.

The project underway at 2km is a new run-of-river power plant, and the work further upstream is to lay a 1m dia. pipe from the confluence of the east and west forks down to the turbine in the as yet unbuilt powerhouse. We were soon following a huge Volvo rock truck up the road at very low speed, until he met a loaded one come down at a wide pullout, where they both pulled over and let us pass. Just beyond there was the west branch road where the heavies were travelling and blasting was going on, so we turned up the east fork, and had the rest of the trail to ourselves for the day.

Soon after leaving the work zone, we started to see lots of bear scat, and stepping out of the truck to check that out, and take some pics of the view, saw some very fresh deer tracks on the road shoulder, too. The panoramic view that I recall from the first trip was unfortunately largely obscured by the heavy pall of smoke that has hung over much of the province from the 100+ forest fires burning in the interior regions for several weeks now. You'll see the grey sky in the photos below. After a short hike beyond the driveable road, we returned to descend to the work camp to let the super know we were leaving the area, and get a shot of the TB next to one of the rock trucks. All in all, an interesting afternoon in the local mountains.