Alps Alturas

Alps Alturas Trail
Distance: 9.61 km (6.0 mi).
Route type: Out-and-back
Suitable for: Hiking
Elevation change: 509 metres up, 509 metres down

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The Alps Alturas trail will fill a big half day, or a lazier full day. The access road takes about an hour to drive the 28 kilometres each way and is best suited to 4WD vehicles, but it's a drive that holds its own magic: the views begin to open up by the 12 km mark and are breathtaking. The drive is not for the faint of heart, but this year the road is in good shape except for the last 750 metres or so. The turnoff from Highway 6 is at Rosebery, 5 km north of New Denver, along East Wilson Creek Road. After a couple of kilometres, take the right fork towards Dennis Creek Basin and Alps Alturas. Keep following the main road. Once the views open up, the road descends for a bit. Don't worry: you're still heading the correct way!

We took it easy and found that the hike took about two and a half hours of moving time. With breaks, and a bit of picnicking and exploration time at the top, we probably took closer to 4 hours on the trail. In late August the wildflowers were a little past their prime, but the boggy area was relatively dry and the temperatures were perfect -- not too hot despite the bright clear exposure.

This is a trail best undertaken by people who are reasonably fit. We brought a determined little 10-year-old with us and it was easily within her capabilities, but it was a fair bit of work. The climbing isn't overly steep, and is broken up by some rolling sections, but you do gain 300 metres of it over the first couple of kilometres.

The trail affords some spectacular views and changes of terrain, everything from lush green basins, vistas of the Valhallas, raw stony slopes, last winter's snow to cold clear lakes. If you have the vehicle for the drive and thighs that don't mind a bit of muscle burn now and then, this is one of the best day hikes in the area.

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Hills Nordic Trail loops on Reibin Rd.

Hills Nordic Trail Loops on Reibin Rd.
Distance: ~4-5 km (2-3 mi) depending on route
Route type: Multiple loops
Suitable for: XC Skiing
Elevation change: 26 metres up, 26 metres down

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About half the local kids seem to participate in XC ski lessons in the winter. Classes run for about 8 weeks along the groomed trails in Hills. This year there are three different age-groups. The older group trains on the groomed system of trails off Reibin Road.

These trails are a busy network of flat and rolling loops with a few optional technical sections. While a first-timer may have some difficulty navigating the trails, they are so tightly coiled together that it is hard to get lost: within a couple of minutes you'll end up somewhere familiar and find your way to wherever you're hoping to go.

To access the trails, park near the carport halfway along the road above Elvendel Farm. The farm is privately owned by a XC ski family who help maintain the trails and lend skiers access across and within their property. Please be respectful, and mind the goats if they're about!

There is a hand-drawn map of the trail system on a piece of corrugated plastic at the top of the driveway, and trails are usually beautifully groomed. Most are groomed wide enough to allow for skate-skiers.

From the road you can head down, to the left or to the right. Most people start out skiing towards the left. After a short flat section you head gradually downhill and arrive at a flatter four-way cross-roads of trails. Straight ahead will take you to a sunny promontory above the gravel pit where the views are beautiful. A left turn will take you alongside a fence and then to a tiny almost-circular flat loop in a meadow. It's worth exploring the entire network.

 

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Hills Nordic Rail Trail

Hills Nordic Rail Trail
Distance: 10.75 km (6.68 mi).
Route type: Out-and-back
Suitable for: XC Skiing
Elevation change: 70 metres up, 70 metres down

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A beautiful, easy ski alongside Bonanza Creek. Turn west off Highway 6 in Hills (about 12 km north of New Denver) on Reibin Road, drive 400 metres to the end of the road and veer right onto a little spur called Huckleberry Road, which ends shortly thereafter in a parking area with a generous turnaround. Access to the rail trail is via a 20-metre pathway on the left side of the parking area. Gear up at the bottom of the slope.

The trail extends in two directions. To the south (left) it falls away with a ~3% grade for about 1.3 kilometres before reaching a precipitous hill where judicious skiers normally stop, turn around and head back. To the north (right) it climbs with a 1-2% grade for many kilometres, with the first 3.5 kilometres being groomed regularly by the lovely movers and shakers at the Hills Nordic Ski Club. The trail is well worth skiing in both directions, though the northerly direction as far as "the red house" (a falling-down shack was once painted barn red) is particularly attractive and easy to ski.

The trail runs pleasantly straight while beautiful Bonanza Creek meanders in and out of view to the west. The running water gives a zen-like ambience for those who choose to linger and glide. The tracks of coyote, deer, elk, hare and moose are commonly seen, with moose tracks likeliest to be found in the bermed area that runs through the marshy region on both sides of the red house.

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Telegraph Trail

Telegraph Trail
Distance: 8.55 km (5.31 mi).
Route type: Out-and-back
Suitable for: Walking, running, mountain-biking
Elevation change: 266 metres up, 266 metres down

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A sweet little trail for mountain-biking, walking or running. It's an out-and-back smooth, flowing route through a magical mossy forest.

To get to the trail-head, drive north from New Denver along Highway 6. The hamlet of Rosebery is about 3 km out. There are three roads leading off Highway 6 to the right; you want the third one, right after the road to the Provincial Park campground. The road is marked W. Wilson Creek Rd / 5th Ave.. Once on the road, check your odometer. Avoid the fork to 5th Ave and head uphill for 2 km, driving past the old decommissioned landfill site marked with copious "No Hunting No Dumping" signs. At about exactly 2.0 km you'll come to a cleared flat area.  Here there's a secondary gravel road leading directly off to the right. Follow this for another 500 metres, until you come to a small gravel pit area. Although it's possible to drive a little further, this is the logical parking spot.

Continue on foot or bike along the same road, staying to the upper fork (marked with a discrete rock cairn) at the junction 200 metres along. After about 700 metres you'll come to an open area that used to get used as a campsite. Continue straight ahead beyond the campsite area, onto a single-track trail. The trail seems to peter out after another 100 metres, but a keen eye will see that it heads off at an angle down to the right through the trees. A short, rooty downhill access spur leads into the Telegraph Trail forest.

From here you can't really go wrong. The bench-cut trail is all single-track. It's smoother than most Kootenay trails, and is well-maintained with four or five short bridges and regular clearing of deadfall. For beginning mountain-bikers, some of the roots that cross the trail will tend to kick your rear tire out a bit, and the trail is narrow, so on wet days you'll need to stay vigilant and have reasonable control over your line, but otherwise the trail is very much suited to beginners. There are no long climbs or descents, and even the short ups and downs would be ridable by most kids and inexperienced riders. 

Runners will love the quiet and calm of this trail, and the forgiving surface of pine and cedar needles. Hikers will enjoy noticing the telegraph resistors still wired to some of the trees, and the magical stillness of the forest. 

The trail goes a full 5k distance, but there's currently a washout at kilometre 4 that requires a bit of soggy and steep scrambling through a freshet, so I haven't mapped it beyond that point.

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Upper Galena-Alamo Loop

Upper Galena-Alamo Loop
Distance: 4.97 km (3.1 mi).
Route type: Loop
Suitable for: Walking, mountain-biking, running, children
Elevation change: 226 metres up, 226 metres down

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This is a sweet little 5k single-track loop that begins at Three Forks, at the junction of Highway 31A and the Sandon Road. There's a parking area on the right just after you turn off the highway. From here you walk a few dozen metres down the road and hang a right onto the trail. Follow the trail as it crosses the creek, and then begins to meander into the forest on the far side. Sometimes it's a little muddy right here, but the rest of the trail tends to be pretty dry. In a hundred metres you'll come to a prominent trail junction marked with a signpost. This is the beginning of the loop.

You can do the loop in either direction, of course, but clockwise (beginning up the H-Road towards Sandon) puts most of the moderately technical stuff on the downhill. The sign says the road isn't maintained, but few hundred metres you'll be taking is in perfect shape.

The trail climbs for about 300 metres, after which you'll take the first hard right onto the Alamo Wagon Road, otherwise known as the Old Sandon Road. Before the highway was built, it was this wagon track which supplied Sandon from New Denver, running on the south side of Carpenter Creek. The loop follows the wagon road for about two kilometres, gradually downhill most of the way. There are a couple of fun small bike jumps built along the way if you're so-inclined, and the usual rickety boardwalks and bridge-lets over freshets and mucky sections. Overall the trail is rooty and rocky but not too technically challenging for fair-weather mountain-bikers.

After a couple of kilometres it's time to leave the Old Sandon Road and head downhill towards Alamo. This is the one significant fork leading off to the right and it's hard to miss -- unless you're screaming along on a bike. The connector here will take you past a recently collapsed house from a century ago, and through the ruins of the old Alamo Siding railway stop, where high-grade ore was loaded into railcars. The descent here is fairly steep. A few technical sections would be best walked by inexperienced cyclists.

Below the Alamo Siding ruins, you'll get spit out on the Galena Trail across from the outhouse. The cable-car is just a hundred metres to the left, if you're inclined to look it over, take a jaunt across, or help other trail-users to cross. The loop itself, though, heads back towards Three Forks by taking a right turn on the Galena Trail. From here you've got a rolling gradual uphill of a couple of kilometres until you meet up with the junction marked by the signpost above.

Retrace your steps across the creek bridge to the parking area and you're done!

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