The Lakeview trail system at Long Lake Provincial Park was designed to stand up to weather events as much as possible. Recent torrential rains have been a severe test for the design. While most parts of the trail system have passed the test, there have been some washouts of the fine ‘crusher dust’ surface material. These washouts tend to occur where relatively steep slopes could not be avoided in the trail design.
Washouts result in rutted trail surfaces, smothered plants at trail margins, and altered soil conditions due to crusher dust being deposited where it is not wanted. The changed soil conditions result in non-native weeds spreading into the forest and native plants being displaced. Losses have included some of the native orchids that visitors love to see beside the trail.
Armed with rakes, shovels and wheelbarrows, a volunteer trail repair crew turned out to repair a few of the washouts one weekend in early August 2023. Rather than dump lots of additional crusher dust, the crew used somewhat coarser material to fill the ruts and excavated some of the displaced topping material. We are hoping that this will produce a trail that is more resilient to weather impacts.
LLPPA will continue with this trail repair work when volunteer teams can be assembled. A few washouts are severe and will require purchase of new materials and may need professional help to get the job done. As a volunteer not-for-profit group we have very limited resources. In light of this we ask that trail users be patient and cautious when using the Lakeview Trail system.
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