Capturing the Art of Nature
Trestle Bridges and the Dewdney
We hiked in to see the Ladner Creek Trestle Bridge and then spent the afternoon avoiding vacationers on the Dewdney FSR
Category
Serendipitous Discoveries
2014
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Earlier this year we learned about the old Kettle Valley Rail Trestle Bridge over Ladner Creek. The bridge is a relic of the old railway and is not much of a hike off of the Coquihalla highway. The rail bed passes through a short tunnel just before the bridge but it is unfortunately collapsed and so one must hike around it. Though walking on the bridge is strongly discouraged due to the rotten state of the cross timbers, it is still an interesting sight to see. So we felt it a good day to go see it and then spend the day on the surrounding logging roads.
Our drive to the trail head started off slow as our truck battery wouldn’t start the truck, we had to jump ourselves from our second battery – handy! Then after a short drive to get coffee, it once again was still not strong enough. Now on the road, we soon learned that the highway was stopped due to a truck fire at the Mt. Lehman crossing – our crossing. So we took a detour south to skip that area and join the highway on the next overpass. Then just as we were getting close to the highway we were passed by a burned garbage truck being towed! The vehicle on fire was reported to be a garbage truck! Well, excitement behind us, we made good time the rest of the drive to where we would be starting the hike.
The initial segment of the trail is quite steep as one climbs the slope to the level grade of the track bed. Fortunately it was also a short distance. The walk along the track bed was easy being completely level, and we made great time to the tunnel. It was indeed completely filled with rock, Geoff climbed the loose rock to the ceiling to see what was there. He noticed that by looking through some of the gaps in the ceiling cement, he could see a series of rotten beams! Did they line both sides of the cement with wood? Done with the tunnel, we made our way to the path that leads to the far side and the bridge. The path crosses some very sketchy spots with a vertical drop of 100+ feet. It was not really the safest place to be. There are some ropes and cables in place but none of them are well secured. Descending the far side there is a steep path with a bit of network cable strung out for balance (it sure won’t hold one’s weight). This section has had some major erosion and there are a few spots with only a few inches of path width remaining before the slope takes a near vertical drop for quite a distance. We did make it past this area but then came to a swath of loose gravel on a steep incline. A rope had been tied here but it wasn’t all that safe looking and wet gravel tends to offer little support should one start to slide towards the drop only 30 feet down slope! Neither of us thought it safe enough to cross. So we took photos from the path about 40 feet from the bridge. Heading back up the eroded trail was not much fun either.
Well we safely got back to the level track bed and took a few moments to relax after the unwanted adrenaline rush. Watching for bears as we hiked back now seemed quite anticlimactic! We felt a bit disappointed we didn’t reach the bridge but also felt good that we didn’t push past our level of comfort and experience (at least not too much past). Geoff suggested we try approaching the bridge from the other side of the valley, it might be possible but I found no online guides for that side.
Done with the hike, now we had the rest of the day to explore some roads. The side road we parked on for the hike continued down the valley and crossed under the highway. Just prior to our hike we initially drove down here as we thought it would be a short drive but we discovered that the road connected to the service road for the gas/oil pipeline that travelled through here and it was quite well maintained and crowded with campers! We were quite surprised by the number of people holed up in every spot they could find along the river. So now that we were done hiking and ready to drive the roads we skipped down the highway to the next exit – the Dewdney FSR - and started to drive its branches. We came across dozens of campsites and groups all over the early section of the road as it tracked the river. I was even more surprised by the number of motorhomes in here. As we drove in and away from the river, the crowds quickly tinned out and we had the road to ourselves. We spent several hours driving through the area enjoying the mossy slopes and dense forested areas. As we continued along, we discovered a number of nice viewpoints looking down on the Highway.
We stopped for lunch at the end of one road which had followed the ridge line of a series of hills. Here we had a nice view of the Coquihalla valley. It was a very lovely spot and we had it to ourselves. Though up in the hills and seemingly in the wilderness, we were still so close to the highway that our cell phones had full digital coverage! After eating, we drove a few more side roads but ended up skipping a number of them due to time, a few look like they could be quite interesting. We made our way down to the crowded motorhome city and continued north parallel to the highway. We eventually came by one stream with a nice waterfall where I took some time to photograph. While busy shooting, Geoff managed to slip on a rock and scratch himself up. Now he was in some pain and not all that happy. We continued along the road and it eventually merged via an on-ramp to the highway. We drove north on the highway to the next exit which was also a U-turn spot. This exit is also where a road along the pipeline continued north around the far side of a short mountain range to join back up with the Coquihalla Highway. When we had set out we had planned to drive this road as it looked very interesting, but we were stopped by a locked gate. Now that was very annoying. The excuse given was that they were doing road work!
Well it was getting on in time and Geoff was starting to feel some pain from his scrapes so we decided it was time to head back and get a coffee at the Blue Moose in the town of Hope before driving the rest of the way home. We enjoyed both parts of the day’s adventure and plan to retry the bridge from the other side.