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New signage for Lois Creek

Goal is a fully integrated trail system throughout Kimberley
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Volunteers have been working hard clearing brush on Lois Creek trails this summer.

No chance of getting lost on the Lois Creek Trails nowadays, since the installation of over 80 new trail signs. Armed with a map from the trail head map boxes it is much easier to become oriented to where you are in the trail network by referencing the map with the trail signs. Increasing usage of the trails is very gratifying to members of the Friends of Lois Creek who made the signs and who provide maintenance to keep the trails clear of blow down. It has been a bigger than normal task this summer and fall with more than usual heavy windstorms that uprooted numerous trees that needed to be chainsawed.

The non-motorized multi-use trails cater to bikers, hikers, cross-country skiers and snowshoers. Now that winter is on the way, teh trails will be regularly groomed with a tracker for cross-country skiers and you consideration is requested to not walk in the ski tracks. Snowshoe trails will be laid down alongside the ski trails for the use of snowshoers and walkers. These are dog-friendly trails but we just ask that you take along a plastic bag to scoop up your pet's doggie-doo.

Kimberley is fast becoming a mecca for multi-use trail systems and many communities are recognizing the economic value of developing trails that are being sought by tourists from far and wide. The recent successes of the Round the Mountain event after only its second year testify to the popularity and benefits of having high quality recreational trail resources in the community. The Kimberley Trails Society is an umbrella organization that oversees trail development and one of their objectives is to establish an integrated multi-use trail system that will link all the trails within the community.

A major issue for trail builders is having to compete with logging companies who are encroaching ever closer to the trail networks. Friends of Lois Creek,  a loose-knit organization of trail users, was formed with that partly in mind to provide a strong, vocal lobby to counter proposed logging close to the Townsite area. We were successful in having Tembec take some of their logging prescriptions off their maps and a promise to leave buffer zones between the trail and the cut blocks in the early stages of trail development but the issues are still on the table and the encroachment into the trail network is still imminent.

To become a Friend of Lois Creek, you can purchase a membership for $20, which buys you a t-shirt with a logo and a map of the trails on the back from Townsite Grocery and from Kootenay Cycle Works in the Platzl. Your support will help to pay for trail maintenance, signage and proposed benches and shelters.

Contacts for Friends of Lois Creek are Don Davies, 250-427-3966, davies41@shaw.ca; Blake Rawson, 250-427-5495, blakerawson@shaw.ca and Nigel Kitto, 250-427-7789, ngkitto@gmail.com