Announcing the Bighorn Ridge Trails Project

We are very excited to announce the Bighorn Ridge Trails Project!!!

This project is a collaboration between HMBA and many partners: West Fraser (Hinton), Yellowhead County, Town of Hinton, and the Foothills Recreation Management Association - with Hoots Inc. as the builder! The project was realized last summer and work already started in the Fall of 2018 with a planned completion in the Fall of 2019.

HMBA and its Partners have secured over $300,000 for 1) a new trail to the Bighorn viewpoint and 2) upgrades and improvements to the original Bighorn Trail (descent) to make it sustainable (and fun!). Further plans are already being discussed, so this could be just the beginning.

The Bighorn Trail was originally built in the early 1900s by the Dominion of Canada Forestry Service as a pack trail to patrol the forested areas along the eastern slopes. Learn more about it's history here. 

Pine Beetle Control

Update from West Fraser Mills Ltd.

The HMBA has been in touch with West Fraser regarding the Mountain Pine Beetle work being done near Hinton.  They have a huge undertaking ahead of them and have begun work already.  They will have approximately 1500 trees to fall in the HMBA trails area - both in Jacks Trail System and Happy Creek Trail System.  The trees will not be burnt, but they will be felled, limbed and peeled.

The results will be very noticeable, especially on the Bighorn trail and a few other trails that have a large number of trees infected by the beetles.

Infested tree

Popcorn-like pitch tubes created by the beetles.

Key messages from West Fraser

• Crews will be walking into most locations as quading would only get them so far. Some may even be biking in.
• Crews will not be quading on our trails and if they do, it will only be to cross them.
• Before falling trees, they will use signs and have staff along affected trails to advise users to avoid walking or riding the trail where the work will be happening.  Users will be advised both at the entrance and exit points of the trail.
• Limbs will be pulled away from the trails and all peeling's and limbs, cones etc will be raked off the trails.
• Trees will be fallen away from trails as much as possible to help avoid any damages to the trails themselves.
• Any stumps within 5m of the trail will be rounded off.
• The trees, once fallen and peeled, will be bucked to small lengths and left in the bush away from the trails.
• The work needs to be complete by June 15th.  This means it will be an intense activity and will have some impact on accessing some trails but it will be short term.

Contact

If for some reason you run into any issues from crew members or just the public at large, you may contact Hal Jackson at 780-865-8741 and point him in the direction of the issue.

Please note that similar pine beetle control is being done within town limits, but under a different contractor.  Their methods may differ.  Contact the Town of Hinton if you have any concerns of the beetle control work being done within town limits.

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West Fraser Ltd. Helps HMBA with Dust and Erosion

A dry spring

Hot and dry weather in April created very, VERY, dusty conditions on the Robb Road adjacent to the Hinton Bike Park.  After contacting the Town of Hinton and West Fraser about how to best remedy the situation (i.e. to stop chocking on dust while executing the Superman at the Dirt Jumps - hey, it happens!), West Fraser used calcium chloride (retains moisture) on the road which did the trick!

And then summer happened

Then it started to rain.  And rain some more.  And it kept coming all summer.  (Has it stopped yet?)  Rain is good after such a dry spring, but it did create new challenges for our Bike Park, namely erosion.  Again, the Robb Road became a source of sediment (just too much rain!) which flowed into the park at various points along Flow Master, the Dirt Jumps and the Skills Area.

After positive discussions regarding the process of water diversion, West Fraser has re-graded the ditch and culvert area along the Robb Road, near the bottom of Flow Master.  With a few touch ups, HMBA volunteers were able to make some additional small changes to the drainage which will hopefully prevent further erosion from culvert problems.  Repair is still needed on some sections on Flow Master (TBA later in September!), but the source of most of the problems is greatly improved.     

Thank you to the staff at West Fraser for listening to our concerns and working with HMBA to resolve them!

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Working on channel diversion after the road was re-graded.

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