KANANASKIS COUNTRY – Thousands of volunteer hours and more than a few buckets of sweat went into building Kananaskis Country’s newest trail.
Cloudline, a multi-use trail extending about five kilometres eastward from the Highline in Bow Valley Wildland Provincial Park, opened to the public June 30.
“There’s not a whole lot of new trail development that’s gone on on that scale in this area in the last decade or so, so I think that’s in part why the project’s so exciting,” said Justin Deoliveira, president of the Canmore and Area Mountain Bike Association (CAMBA). “I would encourage people to let Alberta Parks and the provincial government know they’re excited about this trail and ultimately would love to see more of this style of trail development.”
The Ministry of Forestry and Parks designed and developed the trail, and parks division enlisted help from its partners the Friends of Kananaskis, CAMBA and many other volunteers.
The trail was funded by the Ministry’s parks operations budget over several years and was initially proposed by local stakeholders in 2002 and brought to the Bow Corridor Ecosystem Advisory Group for planning.
To ensure a balance between conservation and recreation values was met, the development went through environmental and cultural assessments, said Alberta Parks spokesperson Bridget Burgess-Ferrari.
“A level one environmental assessment was conducted in 2016, approval under the Historical Resources Act was granted in 2019 and a level two environmental assessment was conducted in 2020,” she said.
The trail runs through a north-facing lodgepole pine forest with “significant small pine deadfall and areas of moss groundcover,” said Burgess-Ferrari.
“Field visits confirmed many common plants in the area, including buffaloberry, twinflower and showy aster. There are no known rare plants in the area.”
The trail was cleared via machine-cut by Alberta Parks crews. The Friends and CAMBA went through after to conduct finishing work, including trail brushing. Work was limited to when conditions would allow in the spring and summer season.
Some have used Cloudline in winter when the trail crew was off, said Friends co-chair Derek Ryder, but each spring it would quickly close again to protect it during wet conditions and allow construction to resume.
“Some people have been on it, but now it’s finished and now they’re going to fall in love with it,” said Ryder.
Both the Friends and CAMBA also hosted volunteer nights to get others involved in the project.
“I think that really got people excited about the trail once they were up there and they saw it and I think getting volunteers involved in trail nights is just such a great way to give the community a sense of ownership over trails, and also do some education about how we build sustainable trails,” said Deoliveira.
Acting Kananaskis regional director and regional operations support manager Duane Fizor said Cloudline would not have been possible if not for the trail community’s support.
“Cloudline trail is a testament to the positive recreational outcomes a community can achieve when working together towards a common goal aligned with functioning wildlife corridors,” he said. “This trail offers incredible views and supports a variety of outdoor activities and we are pleased with how it turned out.
The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada. The position covers Îyârhe (Stoney) Nakoda First Nation and Kananaskis Country.