What could be more exciting than a trip to Paradise! Where the scenery is breathtaking, the history astounding, the trails challenging, the friends entertaining, and the volunteering exhilarating.
Paradise Valley in EC Manning Provincial Park is one of the oldest projects in the history of BCHBC. Members have been volunteering here for 35+ years, keeping the saga of the old trails alive and open for travel by horses, mules, and humans. There are many trails that lead the adventurer into Paradise: Dewdney, Whatcom (hikers only), Hope Pass, Whitecloud, and Blackeyes trails. Each have their own chronicled stories to share. Amazing!
There is an annual BCHBC multi-day, multichapter trail clearing work-bee event. This year (2023) my friend Linda and I drove 4.5 hours from the Shuswap to help. We still hold it dear. It’s an old haunt and passion of ours from our younger years with Yarrow Chapter. It was also the birthday of one of our founding members.
We met Aldergrove and Yarrow chapter members at the Cascade staging area. Others came in from other trailheads, some riding, some hiking.
On the hike in Jim and Larry averaged (they say) approximately 1km/hour. On the way home they figured they were twice that fast. Whoooosh.
My pack horse has aged out, so this trip we were trying to pack in on our riding horses only. If back packers could do it, so could we! Nearly made it, could have done it, but as there was room in a couple pack boxes, we decided to make it easier on our riding horses and lighten their load.
Even though the trail had been cleared earlier the month before, you can never tell if there will be more downed trees since. We rode in, armed with chainsaw, buck saw, hand saws and a chain saw in a can! Lo and behold, there were 3 trees and a couple snags to remove.
BCHBC members from Aldergrove, Shuswap and Yarrow riding in from from the Cascade Recreation area. Photo by Rose Schroeder
Heading back to the horse trailers at the Whipsaw, dodging ground wasps. Photo by Janet Schmidt
The other danger at this time of year is ground wasps. More dangerous than any other species of wildlife. It is usually the 3rd or 4th horse in a string that gets attacked. In total, over 4 days, the whole group while riding and clearing the trails hit 24 nests! Some horses react quite strongly, others hardly at all, some develop large welts. In general, a warning is yelled out by the 3rd or 4th rider and the first horses bolt ahead out of the way. If possible, the rest halt and look for a detour around the nest. Unfortunately, when the first horses bolt ahead, the rest want to go too! Sometimes, you are better to rush through and deal with the aftermath on the other side. At times, a rider will have to vault off a fractious horse that is being bit (usually in the underbelly and chest) to avoid being bucked off and to swipe off a few wasps. We got so we would tease whoever was in the 3rd or 4th spot, that they were in that spot ‘cuz they were not well liked! Not true, we all took a turn to face the attackers.
Each day we broke into smaller groups of 4-6 riders to go out and clear trails. Some cut, some cleared away the logs, some brushed and someone always stayed with the horses that were tied away from the work area. Each night brought us back to camp where the horses went out to graze on hobbles and bells.
Volunteers cooked hearty meals and shared treats. A lot of tall tales were told,
memories shared and new ones made. Every story gets better with re-telling right?
And then, it was time to pack up and ride back out. Trails are clear till next year!
The whole group before everyone headed home in different directions. Photo by Rose Schroeder
Want to find out more? Check out the Back Country Horsemen of BC website at www.bchorsemen.org or the HCBC trails database at www.hcbc.ca under Recreation tab.
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