Small community has impressive list of easy and challenging trails

Photo: J.P. Squire

The District of Lake Country held an official opening for its new $500,000 Lake Country Bike Park at 8865 Okanagan Centre Rd. W. on May 3. Open daily from dawn to dusk, the six-hectare park includes beginner and intermediate pump tracks, dirt jump zone, drop zone, intermediate technical skills loop, multi-use and gravity trails, mulch jump for practicing big air and an adaptive mountain bike trail.

(This is the fifth column in a series about the best trails to explore, city by city, regional district by regional district, in the Southern Interior.)

The District of Lake Country has developed an impressive variety of urban and backcountry trails, from the easy, flat Okanagan Rail Trail to the challenging Spion Kop Recreation Reserve to its new $500,000 bike park at 8865 Okanagan Centre Road West

However, it didn't always have such high-profile hotspots.

One reason it does, however, is the volunteers in Walk Around Lake Country (W.A.L.C) working relatively quietly with the district since 1999 to develop and promote walking and hiking trails.

As long as people have lived in the Okanagan, they have made the challenging climb to the top of the Spion Kop ridge immediately west of Wood Lake for the reward of panoramic views of five lakes.

Photo: J.P. Squire

District of Lake Country The Lake Country Trails brochure available at the district office and online uses a photo of the Spion Kop summit to introduce 16 local hiking and biking trails, plus maps of Spion Kop, Wood Lake Loop and Jack Seaton Park.

WALC, a small community service organization, gets the highest possible marks for a detailed trail map, trail signs and ongoing maintenance on the Crown land that local outdoor lovers fervently hope will eventually be turned into a provincial, regional district or local park.

Many may not know that the popular Okanagan Rail Trail through Lake Country may not have happened at all. The Sheriff perhaps played a small role in making that happen.

In the spring of 2015, each of four local governments—Kelowna, Lake Country, Regional District of North Okanagan and Coldstream—proposed buying the section of abandoned CN right-of-way that ran through their communities. The total cost for 49 kilometres was $22 million.

A small group of Lake Country residents objected to the $5.2-million purchase of 16 kilometres of rail trail in that community, suggesting the money should be spent on other priorities. There was enough opposition to defeat an alternate approval process to approve funding the purchase. So the district opted for a referendum on April 25, 2015 to borrow $2.6 million toward the purchase. The then governing B.C. Liberals promised to commit $7.2 million to the ORT - if the “yes” side won.

When many decried the lack of public information, the Sheriff stepped into the fray. He parked his truck at the foot of Dilworth Mountain in Kelowna and hiked the rail line to Kelowna Airport, documenting everything he saw. On the second day, he parked at Kelowna Airport and hiked through to Winfield. On the third day, it was Winfield to Oyama and along the shore of Kalamalka Lake.

In a major feature with photographs for then Kelowna Daily Courier, he argued Lake Country had a one-time-only opportunity to buy absolutely the best part of the former rail line with its almost endless shoreline along Wood and Kalamalka lakes.

The referendum had a then record-breaking 48 per cent turnout with 75 per cent of those who voted (3,336 of 4,462) in favour.

The joint purchase was completed and $7.8 million was raised to construct the trail, with the official opening for most of it on Sept. 27, 2018. However, the Okanagan Indian Band has still not finalized an addition to reserve application with the federal government, although an infrastructure agreement for the city-district-band area was announced in February 2022 and a construction contract to build the seven-kilometre missing link was awarded by Kelowna in early 2023.

The second major change in Lake Country was the province constructing the $78-million Winfield-Oyama Highway 97 bypass. After it opened in August 2013, the B.C. Ministry of Transportation turned the old, narrow, winding highway beside Wood Lake over to the district, which renamed it Pelmewash Parkway.

After investing $3 million, the seven-kilometre parkway officially opened on June 12, 2019 with a wide, paved multi-use path, as well as picnic tables, First Nation artwork, an enclosed dog park and bike repair stations. With Pelmewash, the ORT and Woodsdale Road, the “Wood Lake Loop” is a perfect hike and bike adventure.

Meanwhile, with funds from a 2021-22 Canada Healthy Communities Initiative grant, WALC members inventoried, mapped and signed all sanctioned Lake Country trails and created the interactive Lake Country Trails Map

The unfortunate part is it is an alphabetical listing of 62 named and described trails rather than grouped by location, i.e. Spion Kop (nine named trails).

A much better bet is the printed brochure, Lake Country Trails, which has a large overall map with location numbers for 16 named and described trails. It also has maps of Spion Kop, Wood Lake Loop and Jack Seaton Park. It is available from the district office on Bottom Wood Lake Road or online.

The new Lake Country Bike Park officially opened on May 3. It has beginner and intermediate pump tracks, a dirt jump zone with progression-focused jump lines for all levels, a drop zone with three lines for intermediate to expert riders, an intermediate technical skills loop, multi-use and gravity trails ranging from beginner to intermediate, a mulch jump for practicing big air and an adaptive mountain bike trail for greater inclusivity.

Photo: J.P. Squire

Pelmewash Parkway has three Indigenous sculptures by Clint George from the Penticton Indian Band and Les Louis from the Lower Similkameen Indian Band. The Syilx professional artists combined their skills in wood and metal work to design and create sculptures installed in December 2020.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.