Great Divide Trail to relocate to keep hikers away from coal blasting site
40 km of 1,200-km trail to move away from Teck mine in B.C., giving hikers safer route on Alberta side
Volunteers will begin relocating a stretch of the Great Divide Trail from B.C. to the Alberta side of the provincial border this week to make that section of the 1,200-kilometre hiking route safer for travellers.
Dave Hockey, chair of the GDT Association, said the main reason for moving the trail is that the current route runs too close to Teck's busy Line Creek Mine on the west side of border.
"The safety of the hikers is being compromised because they're actively blasting, so we want to keep hikers away from that," he said.
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The new route will also be "much more scenic" than the current stretch of the trail near the mine, he added, which largely follows a gravel road.
Under an agreement with the Alberta Government, the new section of trail will run from Dutch Creek south to Chinook Lake, following the proposed High Rock Wildland Provincial Park.
In all, a 40-kilometre section of trail will be re-routed, and the work is expected to take up to three years.
"It's going to tough going with chainsaws and brushers and everything else that we have to do the work, but we'll get 'er done," Hockey said.
Among the dozens of volunteers involved in the project is 62-year old Dave Higgins, who was a member of a small team of summer students who surveyed possible backcountry routes in the 1970s — work that led to the creation of the Great Divide Trail.
"The whole concept that you could travel hundreds of kilometres through some of the most beautiful alpine country in the world by putting one foot in front of another inspired me back then ... and it still inspires me now." Higgins said in a release.
The Great Divide Trail extends from the U.S. border in Waterton National Park to Kakwa Provincial Park in northeastern B.C.
From August 2015 — Erin Saver tells the Calgary Eyeopener about hiking the Great Divide Trail:
The route follows the continental watershed line that forms the basis for the southern part of the Alberta-B.C. border.
Water flowing down one side of the divide ends up in the Pacific Ocean; water flowing down the other side ends up in Hudson Bay and eventually the Atlantic Ocean.
Still not an 'official' trail in Alberta
Hockey said the association is still working to get the trail officially recognized by the Alberta government, something that has yet to happen.
"Alberta still doesn't have any trails legislation," he said.
"They've been working for about 50 years on trails legislation but are having a hard time getting it together. But I think they're making progress."
He noted that the province's relatively new South Saskatchewan Regional Plan is putting some work in place that will add trails to official provincial government maps.
"We're hoping that will happen next year and we're also hoping that [the Great Divide Trail] will get approval," Hockey said.
The association is fully funded by donations, but Hockey said attracting larger sponsors can be tricky because they often ask whether the Great Divide Trail is "official" and there's not an easy answer to that question, due to the legal limbo in Alberta.
"We do feel if we get the official designation it would be much easier for us to fundraise," he said.
With files from Dan McGarvey