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CRANBROOK, BC
In search of snow
The search ended in Lumberton
by DWAYNE BRANDLY
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SNOW DAYS: Bob Mckinnon found great snow in Lumberton near Cranbrook.
—photo courtesy Dwayne Brandly |
It was early January 2006 and I was getting anxious to go sledding, so I spoke with my buddy Dan Hall, president of the Cranbrook Snowmobile Club in southeastern B.C., and begged him to make some snow. On January 12, he sent me an e-mail that said: "Went yesterday afternoon, oh my god it was outrageous. May be the best weekend coming in near history."
Well, with temptation like that who could resist?
The fun begins
On Sunday, Bob Mckinnon and I packed up and left Leduc, Alberta, headed for Cranbrook. We arrived at 3 p.m. and with little delay we were unloading in the parking lot at the Lumberton trailhead. We could sure tell it was a gorgeous afternoon—the parking lot was crammed full of trucks, trailers and sleds: lots and lots of sleds.
As most of the sledders were just starting to wind up their day and head down to their trucks, we were going up the main trail. That was scary, but everyone was very courteous, not travelling excessively fast and keeping to the right side of the trail. I found out later this is a normal courtesy extended by sledders in this part of the country.
We soon found an open area with virtually untouched snow and decided to test our first sledding wings for this year. It didn’t take long for us to discover the need to renew our skills a bit before tackling the more challenging hills.
We climbed hills, laid over on either side, wove between trees and snow humps that represented stumps, and sidehilled to our heart's content. All too soon it was getting dark and day one was over.
Significant discoveries
The next morning we discovered we had several groups of muscles that hadn't been properly used in a long time. After breakfast, it was time to shake off the stiffness and hit 'er again. We drove to Ranchers Supply in Cranbrook and spoke with Dave Ward of www.bcsled hed.com fame. He sold us a trail pass, gave us a map and we talked about different areas to try and some to avoid. What a friendly guy. Dave said a big dump of snow had arrived the previous week and we should have virgin snow conditions. He told us how to get into areas like Sugar Bowl, Cooper Lake, Heaven and Helen’s Lake.
For the next four days we followed the excellent map of the Lumberton Trail System, provided by the Cranbrook Snowmobile Club, and had a blast. The snow depth ranged from four feet near the lower parts and around the club cabin to 12 feet close to the tops of some of the play areas.
Amazing conditions
By Thursday we had covered a lot of areas and could not believe the number of places we found that were untouched—especially considering the number of sledders we’d seen using the trail system on Sunday when we arrived. This is such a large area, much larger than it looks on a map or even when driving up to it. The trails are well marked, and it is not hard to identify where you are on the map. It never went below 8° while we were there—perfect conditions.
On Monday we met up with the groomer, who was already packing the trails. We saw he was up again on Thursday going over the trails one last time before the weekend crowd arrived. What a great job the Cranbrook Snowmobile Club is doing to keep the trails in shape so that everyone, not just the hillclimbers, can get out and enjoy the scenery and great weather.
These trails have been voted among the best-maintained snowmobile trail systems in B.C. The club is very family oriented and makes every effort to ensure that everyone feels welcome. They have a cabin back on the trail that is the finest I have seen anywhere. It has a generator, propane stove and lights, a large stove, many coat hooks, benches, chairs and a glove/helmet-drying pole. The kitchen is fully equipped, there is a big barbecue on the porch and the cabin can sleep 12 comfortably. It even has satellite TV and a VCR for the kids. |
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