Over the past three years Volunteers spent hundreds of hours restoring and maintaining 55 – 60 km of the High Rim Trail from hwy 33/Philpott Road to Cosens Bay in Kalamalka park. This section of trail is between Cosens Bay in Kalamalka Provincial Park and Mission Creek and Wrinkly Face Provincial Park is situated midway on the trail. The High Rim Trail is a section of the Okanagan Highlands Trail which was proposed in the early 90’s to circle the entire Okanagan Lake.
Recently, Cabin Forestry Services was successful, through a provincial Job Opportunities grant to put unemployed forestry workers back to work on the 55 km section of the High Rim trail where maintenance is still required. Crews have been working on the High Rim Trail since June and have completed about 17 km from the north end and about 15 km from the south. Some of the work includes widening the trail, restoration, removing danger trees and adding new creek crossings – new signage and km signs will be added. This year the trail has been used by more backpackers, runners and hikers.
In addition to this project, a federal grant has been applied for to work on the 55km section of the Okanagan Highlands Trail which continues south from Mission Creek to the Little White section. A bridge over Mission Creek is in the plan and will connect the High Rim Trail with the Okanagan Highlands trail. The backpacking opportunities are unlimited. This work will compliment the work that is going to be completed this October on the northern 55 km section of the High Rim Trail project. The contact person for this project is Steve Milne of Cabin Forestry Services – 250-308-4288 – email: cabinforestry@telus.net
We need support from the hiking community to make sure that we continue to have wonderful wilderness areas in the Okanagan to hike.
Trails in the Kelowna area are slowly being lost to cut backs to provincial parks budgets – for example the Goodes Basin trail in Okanagan Mountain Park has large timbers across the trail as does the trail to Lacoma Lake, making the route almost impassible. We have hiked these parks for decades but since the fire of 2003 the trails in Okanagan Mountain Park have been deteriorating.
The recent fires in Glenrosa and Terrace Mountain have impacted our hiking trails on Mt. Drought, Shorts Creek and Sugar Loaf to name some. It will be a very long time before we will hike these areas again.
We need non motorized multipurpose trails such as the Okanagan Highlands Trail which are centrally located and very accessible to everyone from Vernon to Naramata and beyond.
I am writing to a letter of support to The Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts to help have a Grant approved for the completion of the following hiking trail work by Cabin Forestry Services. Please comment below in support of making the Okanagan Highlands Trail world class and for everyone to enjoy.
is this work available for volunteers? i read that it was a work project for forestry workers. can trail users get involved in this?
I will give the Cabin Forestry guy a phone call and find out! Good question. I just spoke to him a couple days ago and he should be posting some info here soon as well.
The work that they are doing is great! I did a section off of Goudie Rd which was fantastic! They even added a hand rail at a steep section. But this work is DEFINITELY needed, because at another mid section, off Postill Lake Rd, going south, it was virtually impassable, and I didn’t have my chainsaw (joke) so I couldn’t do it myself – although a big part of me wanted to! I hope they keep it up because this could easily be the best trail I’ve done in the okanagan so far!
I’m very interested in exploring the High Rim Trail. While searching, I’ve found the below information several times but the links suggested (Naturalist club) do not work? Do you happen to know if these organized hikes did actually happen? And who would I get in touch with to join them on the last one Oct 3rd? Thanks for your help! LK
Cut nPaste:
High Rim Trail Scheduled Hikes – 2009Posted on April 22nd, 2009 in High Rim Trail The High Rim Trail meanders 50 Km from Mission Creek near Highway 33 to Cosens Bay on Kalamalka Lake.
The High Rim Trail consists of 6 sections and each will be hiked – one day per section – this year.
Sat. May 16
Sun. June 21
Sat. July 11
Sat. Aug 29
Sat. Sep 19
Sat. Oct 03
For all the details visit Central Okanagan Naturalists Club and peruse the site.
Hello Lorraine.
I have fixed the link to the Central Okanagan Naturalists’ Club on my hiking links page – it is new one – http://www.okanagannature.org/hiking.htm and the High Rim Hiking Schedule post that you referred to above – The new link will take you to the home page and you can download a pdf of all the guided hikes along with the name and phone number of local guides.
Thanks for the info on the broken link.
Accommodation for the Grampians that isn’t located in Halls Gap can be found in few other places. Pomonal, Dunkeld, Wartook, Stawell, Roses Gap and Ararat are all close by. Motels, Bed and Breakfasts, campgrounds, backpackers and self contained houses/cottages/units are all plentiful. Try an owner operated place for the personal touch. You can be assured of one thing – the views will be great. Log fires in winter are available but hard to find; most places these days have electric reverse cycle air conditioners. Hope to see you down here one day if your blog brings an income. http://www.hallsgapvictoria.com.au
Appreciate it for sharing Hiking Trails in the Okanagan Highlands to be joined with a bridge accross Mission Creek! with us keep update bro love your article about Hiking Trails in the Okanagan Highlands to be joined with a bridge accross Mission Creek! .
Does anyone know if they are still working on the High Rim Trail? I just went from Cosen’s Bay to Goudie Road this past weekend and the trail is in such rough shape in some areas. One notable spot was just before the Microwave Tower where there was a massive and potentially dangerous log jam. If there isn’t any work being done still, I wouldn’t mind getting a group together to help clean up some areas. Do the whole “User maintained” type of thing.
Hello Catalin,
I am shocked – that area was full of blow downs – like every metre – when I hiked up with a group a few years ago – see: https://www.tracksandtrails.ca/2008/07/kalamalka-lake-and-high-rim-trail/ I am shocked because I spoke to a contractor who had won a contract for over $100 000 to clear and improve the entire trail. He said that the trail clearing was done. I wonder if there is a possibility that he just used the old logging road near that trail section instead of clearing the blow down area. (that is what we were forced to do when we hiked up)
I am booked up until mid June but maybe we could agree on a weekend for the end of June – before July 1st. I would like to do the whole trip by mountain bike this summer.
How long ago did the contractor say he finished clearing the trail? Because I was up a couple years ago in 2010 and all of the same trees I came across are still there and not touched (between Highway 33 and Postill road) plus all the newly added ones since then.
Some sections of this trail will definitely be difficult to do by bike right now. I have some pictures of the log jams by the Microwave Tower. There’s approximately a good 20 trees covering the trail in that one section. My only free weekend at the end of June would be the 16th/17th.
Bonanza – Here are the GPS Tracks, pictures and pdf trail maps for all the High Rim Trail – Huge Thanks so to Cabin Forstry – the company who did a nice job on the trail upgrade contract. I believe most of the work took place beginning in 2009. http://www.cabinforestry.com/rec-trails (ps – thanks for asking as I had never seen all these great files and maps for the hike before!)