Photo: Contributed

Gates block access to a portion of the Okanagan Rail Trail

A small portion of the Okanagan Rail Trail remains in limbo while plans are made to begin construction of the trail in the fall.

About two kilometres of the trail on Okanagan Indian Band land between Kelowna and Lake Country is fenced off, pending a final sale by CN Rail.

CN, which sold much of the 49-kilometre line between Kelowna and Coldstream to several Central and North Okanagan jurisdictions, still owns the portion running through OKIB land.

"CN can't sell that to local governments because it has a First Nations issue tied to it. It has to go through the federal government before it can go to the band itself," said Andrew Gibbs, inter-jurisdictional development team project manager.

Gates are up at either end to keep people from trespassing.

"It is owned by CN, and they don't want anyone on it. We're trying to discourage people from trespassing from the Kelowna section onto the CN section.

"We're also trying to stop people, no matter which direction they are coming from, from doing damage on the ranch property."

How long it will be before the land is transferred, Gibbs says he doesn't know.

However, he says if the other sections get built before the transfer is complete, money will be set aside to build that section when the transfer does go through.