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Pinecone Burke Provincial Park

Backcountry BC and the BC Mountaineering Club have made a prosposal to BC Parks to allow for several new trails for Pinecone Burke Provincial Park. The proposal included the provision of several backcountry huts, for discussion as possiblities. The first draft of the park master plan for Pinecone Burke is being prepared by BC Parks. As of March 2020, the draft plan has still not been released. For more detailed mapping of the proposed trail and huts, click Pinecone Burke Proposed Trails.  More information about Pinecone Burke Park and the proposal can be found in the categories listed below.

Lead Advocates:  Paul Kubik and Chris Ludwig

PineconeBurkeMP

Mamquam access to Seed, Gillespie and Boise trails
An update on the access road to Seed and Gillespie in Pinecone Burke provincial park. I was talking to Sqomish Logging about the road deactivation plan. There is further logging planned for this fall and next year. I think their activity is on E-110 and E-23-1 (see map). The roads will not be deactivated before then. I asked for access to be preserved, speaking on behalf of a mountaineering club. The company recognizes the importance of the road for recreation. Their company reactivated the road after an absence of 15 years and they note a huge increase in recreation use as a result. They even made a parking area. Under their obligations, the road must be deactivated when they finish logging. But, Jeff did say that different levels of deactivation can achieve their purpose. So, 4WD HC access will likely be the outcome. He even said that last year, the former area manager for BC Parks supported maintaining access.
BC Timber Sales is also active in the area this year and perhaps next. I believe their activity is on E-100. BTS aggressively deactivates its roads, in general. E-100 is an access road to the Boise Trail, which has fallen into disuse. It is about 3.5 km in length. Aggressive deactivation implies tank traps, rendering the road impassable to vehicles. Is this a desired outcome? If not, how would access be maintained? Is road access desirable to reach the Boise Trail?
There is a park master plan for Pinecone Burke PP that is under development. These questions presuppose a willingness on the part of BC Parks to recognize the Boise Trail and proposed Coquitlam-Squamish hiking trail in the plan.

First designated a park 25 years ago, the 380-square-kilometre park occupies an area nearly half the size of the Kingdom of Bahrain. Since its opening, it has lacked a plan that would regulate the use of the park, something that has contributed to a kind of free-for-all where snowmobilers and mountain bikers, as well as hikers and mountaineers, carve out their own routes through its forests, peaks and valleys.

Full Article:  https://www.tricitynews.com/news/huge-increase-in-rescues-on-the-horizon-warns-coquitlam-sar-1.24183541?fbclid=IwAR3Xockj16kk2UoTjAcxXNs3nrcmuquurFVDNiwQrR7Dt0VMsAZAywSej9o

Province quashes Crawford Creek hut proposal by B.C. Mountaineering Club 
Last month, the BCMC was advised by the province in its decision letter that both BC Parks and RSTBC "remain unsupportive of the application at this time." Both agencies had earlier brought forward broad-ranging concerns regarding wildlife impacts, lack of a designated trail to the hut, financial burden on the province and impacts from recreation.
The decision letter stated, "FLNRORD is not in a position to continue review of the application in absence of a completed Management Plan from BC Parks for the northern section of Pinecone Burke Provincial Park...Further, RSTBC continues to have concerns with a proposed hut at this location and is unsupportive at this time. Their concerns remain around new access into this drainage and the financial burden of managing unintended consequences associated with construction of a new hut."

Coquitlam to Squamish hiking trail
I uploaded the 1994 final report of the Pinecone Lake-Burke Mountain study team to the link below. See page 45 and 46 for the discussion of the trail and mountain climbing and other activities.
The Coquitlam-Squamish trail would utilize the Boise and Fools Gold trails constructed by the Wilderness Committee in the 1990s by German tourists. I spoke with Joe Foy this week. He is personally in favour of the trails being restored and maintained.

Report of the Pinecone Lake Burke Mountain Study Team—Final Report, November 1994

Proposed BCMC Crawford Cabin Survey
The BC Mountaineering Club (BCMC) has proposed to construct a new cabin on Crown Land at the head of the Crawford Valley approximately 5 KM East of the current BCMC Watersprite Lake Cabin. The proposed Crawford Cabin (at approximately 5,100 feet elevation) would be accessed by an extension of the existing Watersprite Lake Trail.
Please take the time to complete the following survey as we seek your input to guide our decision making on such things as cabin size and cabin facilities.

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