The new Eagle's Nest is ready for visitors!
By Sara Golling
Bring on the snow! The latest day-use shelter for free, self-propelled public recreation in the Rossland Range Recreation Site has an expansive view to enjoy along with those grilled (or charred) cheese sandwiches, or whatever form of lunch or snack skiers, snowshoers, fat bikers or hikers prefer.
It’s a cozy place, and it’s six-sided instead of rectangular. Designed and built by volunteer Rob Richardson and his partner Sandra over the past summer, with the able assistance of Bob Lloyd and other friends, the clean new Eagle’s Nest makes a delightful change from the smelly packrat’s nest that the formerly well-loved A-frame shelter there had become.
The Eagle’s Nest location is an excellent destination for those who don’t feel quite up to trekking as far as Sunspot or Lepsoe Basin cabins, or just have limited time for an outing.
All the shelters in the Rec Site have been built by volunteers, and are maintained by the people who use them – the wood is cut by volunteers; and users are expected to chop more kindling and small firewood for the next visitors, and leave the place clean. Many visitors are amazed at the community spirit demonstrated by the new cabins and the energy that goes into keeping them tidy for everyone to enjoy.
Visiting a cabin? Other ways to help:
Signing the log book in any cabin you visit provides evidence of how many people use and appreciate the cabins. That’s useful for the government to know.
Please be aware that overnight use of any of the cabins in the Rec Site is not permitted.
There are outhouses supplied by the government, because as Buddy Wasisname notes in one of the group’s irreverent songs, “the government likes to keep all crap contained” – and that’s a good thing. But it’s best to carry your own toilet paper in case of need, because there may not be any otherwise. It’s not government -supplied.
Hunters: Please be aware that the Rec Site is rife with hikers and cyclists during hunting season as well as during most other seasons. It’s also busy with people cutting firewood for the cabins, and trimming brush along trails or along winter ski routes that are not trails. For that reason, it’s not a great place to hunt anyway – all the human activity tends to make the game animals take shelter in invisible places, and it greatly increases the risks of killing someone human if you fire a gun.
There are many trails and routes in use. Let’s not have any fatal mishaps of the sort that occurred this fall in France, when a 34-year-old cyclist using a popular mountain biking trail, and wearing brightly coloured clothing, was accidentally shot to death by a hunter.
The extremely popular Seven Summits Trail loops around the Strawberry Pass gravel pit; there are likely to be people moving around all sides of the gravel pit. Please, do not use the gravel pit as a place to sight in your gun.
But please do feel free to have lunch in a cabin!
Completion of Booty’s cabin, just past the south side of the gravel pit, is still an on-going project; events this summer conspired to prevent its volunteer builders from finishing it this year, though it’s open for use.
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