The Nakusp and Area Trails Society has been hard at work this summer, doing their annual maintenance of the various trails around the village.
Along with clearing the trails, the society also fixed any water damage and blow down that has happened.
As a way to show their appreciation, a grant from the Nakusp and Area Community Forest (NACFOR) helped to pay the volunteers who put in their time and effort to clear the trails.
“We were able to pay three people to do this maintenance on the trails, instead of being pure volunteer work,” said Barb Chwachka, chair of the society. “It’s a lot of work every year, and we only have three or four people that come out anymore, so I think it’s really nice that we’re able to reimburse these volunteers.”
Along with the usual trails the society takes care of, two former trails were re-established.
The first is a trail that leads up to Kimbol Lake. It’s been around since the 1920s, but fell into disuse some time over the decades. There has been a cabin at the lake for quite some time, but the society just got around to clearing the trails this year to get to the it.
When asked why the society chose to re-establish the trail, Chwachka’s answer was simple.
“Why not?” she said with a laugh. “It makes the hike interesting to hike up to the lake and also to the cabin.”
Another trail that was re-established is the Hang Gliders Viewpoint trail. In the 1980s, hang gliders would take off from the viewpoint, but because they were flying over the airport, the practise became illegal, and the trail grew over.
It wasn’t all work for the society this summer. The group hosted several hikes, and even had two moonlight paddles, where they invited people to join them as they went out and enjoyed the full moon in kayaks or canoes.
There are still some things left to do before the winter season.
“We’re just now putting up signage along the trail so people know where they are,” said Chwachka. “We’ve put up some safety signage and some stop signage so people can travel the trail safely. We’ll be putting up information kiosks, hopefully before the winter, that gives a history of the rail trail and of the area.”
The Nakusp and Area Trails Society plans on having a meeting some time in September to put together their plans for the coming year.