After a hiatus of three years, Powderface Trail the Road finally opened on May 16. We and everyone else out inspecting the road can report that it’s in pretty good condition especially the northern half. Occasional soft spots elsewhere will need a bit more ditching and gravelling. Particularly noteworthy is the work done in the meadow just south of Prairie Creek crossing where the ground has been completely reshaped and two big culverts installed under the road. Extraneous water flowing out of the bogs — and there was a lot of it — has been rerouted into an overflow dike. As for the four new bridges over Prairie, Canyon and Jumpingpound creeks, they will surely stand up to all future floods! Only one old wooden bridge now remains.
Twin culverts just south of Prairie Creek
Canyon Creek bridge.
There are still several soft spots along the road.
Bridge over Jumpingpound Creek.
TRAIL ACCESSES: From what we could see, the Jumpingpound Mountain and Ridge trails and Prairie Creek trail are all a go with footbridges intact.
TOM SNOW and COX HILL TRAILS: From Dawson day-use area there’s a new start (wrongly signed Jumpingpound Ridge) which is 100 m longer. Horse traffic uses the original trail, everyone else crosses the Jumpingpound via a brand new fiberglass bridge located farther downstream in a most impressive location. Both routes join just before the final climb to the T-junction.
Trail sign at Dawson trailhead. It should read Cox Hill, not Jumpingpound (one word) Ridge.
The Tom Snow trail has a new bridge high above Jumpingpound Creek.
BELMORE BROWNE, TIARA PEAK ACCESS: The trail down the bank has grassed over below the first few feet which is what we expected. The good news is that when the logging road was rehabilitated during the road closure, most of the slash was piled up on the left side of the road and a trail with reasonable tread still exists near the right edge. A couple of trees need a chainsaw, but hand clearing should take care of the rest. Beyond the creek crossing, the pleasant grassy road has been churned up and is lumpy-bumpy. In time it should smooth out and grow grass, but in the meantime, follow the tread on the left side. Two boulders with cairns on top indicate the turnoff from the logging road into the pine plantation. At the tree edge are two more cairns. The first part of the trail has lost its tread, but deadfall piled up at the edge of the trail should help guide you to the left, after which the trail gradually improves to the forest edge at the cutline (flagging here). This section needs some trimming. Overall, much better than anticipated.
A tread is developing along the right side of the reclaimed logging road.
If everyone moves a few pieces of slash or rocks a good, cleared trail will soon develop.
A better section of the upper logging road through the plantation.
The two cairns at the start of the trail through the young pines.
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The fire was out several days ago, so no problem.
Thanks Gillian, do you know if smoke from the McLean Creek Fire is affecting Jumpingpound Ridge?
The road is fine. Bit slippery after rain in parts. Regular vehicle is OK.
Does anyone know the current condition of the Powderface Trail? Do you need a high clearance vehicle?
Thanks!
Accidentally drove this road from Bragg Creek to the transcanada today and it was beautiful. The road is slightly more than a single vehicle at times, but going slow is the way to go. You can almost touch the mountains!
We too drove the road recently and noticed that all the soft spots have a good covering of gravel. Yea!
I’m late with this report, but had no trouble getting to the Jumpingpound Summit trailhead from the north on July 21st. The road is fine.
The Summit trail hasn’t changed. I’m not a fan of the drainage ditches in the first 300 m of trail, but there you go. Note that the trail is signed as being approved for mountain bikes but not for horses.
Not that I camp that much, but I keep forgetting that the Dawson trailhead is also a campground — one which had no one in it on the 21st, while other campgrounds in the area were full to overflowing. The campground’s a bit overgrown, it’s so ill-used. Bring a weed whacker.
And the new Dawson bridge is beautiful. And unfortunately has graffiti on it already.
We drove from the south end to Sacramento Pass in a low clearance vehicle and it handled it no problem. It seems to be in considerably better condition than before the flood.
We drove Powderface trail today on our way to hike Prairie Creek. The road is in good shape all the way. The barricades at the Elbow end have been removed and the grader operator assured us that the road would remain open from now on. There is still more work to be done on the road, so expect to see the grader and possibly other equipment working in there for a few more weeks. Heavy rain may cause more soft-spot problems.
The most recent trail report said -“Powderface Trail Road open but poor driving condition”. That was good enough for us, so off we went mid-morning (May 29) for a quick jaunt up Powderface Ridge from 3 Trail Pass, via the shortcut route. It was a surprise to find the barricades up at the Hwy 66 end, however, a well traveled easy track around them enticed us onward to find that the big iron gate 100m up the road was open. Game on! The road to our starting point was in fine shape (as it has been ever since the 2013 floods). After our hike on Powderface Ridge and the ridges to the north of the pass, a number of dusty vehicles passed by headed south as we snacked in the warm sun at roadside, indicating to me that it is likely OK all the way through to Dawson. We would have exited to the north to check it out but had no desire to get caught in the paving delays that are plaguing Hwy. 1 once again this summer ( eastbound backed up for several K’s yesterday around 4 pm west of Jumpingpound Creek). It seems to me that the barricades might be a case of “CYA”, maybe by Volker Stevin or whoever is responsible for maintaining the road?