Jack Gregson Trail
The Jack Gregson Trail connects the eastern end of Lorne Street with the industrial area of Valleyview along the South Thompson River. It was named after Jack Gregson whose property and gardens were at the end of Lorne Street. Jack was an entomologist, naturalist, hiker, and gardener. He was a founder of the Kamloops Outdoor Club, the Kamloops Naturalists, and the Kamloops Garden Club. His many achievements are summarized in this obituary article. The Jack Gregson Trail continues to be used by hikers, walkers, dog walkers, and others. It is a linear trail 1.25 km long and most people hike it out-and-back. The western end is in good shape, but the east end is a bit of a mess now.
Some years ago we used to run from downtown Kamloops out to Valleyview and the only reasonable route to walk or run from the end of Victoria Street to Valleyview Drive was along the highway off-ramp/connector. In summer we could stay away from the speeding cars, but in winter this was not a safe route to run or walk. Our club wrote a letter to City Council asking for a walkway to connect Valleyview to Kamloops and we were told in a return letter from Council that we should use the Gregson Trail. That was not a reasonable alternative because the dangerous section was only 300m long and a walk, hike, run along the Gregson Trail and up through the Industrial Park and across the highway back to Valleyview Drive was 2.0 km. In addition, in winter the Gregson Trail was covered in snow. Clearly, City Council had never actually used the Jack Gregson Trail. Many years later a walking path was built.
Today, the trail is listed on the City of Kamloops website as a walking trail, but I don’t think anyone there has tried to walk the trail.
At the end of Lorne Street is a small parking area between the street and the railway line. The gravel trail goes between two fences then drops down to a bench area above the river and below the CP Rail Line. This section is quite pleasant. The first section of beach starts after a short walk.
Views down the South Thompson River and across to Mt. Paul are a feature of the firs section of the trail.
In this mild winter, some ducks, geese, and swans were in the open water of the river next to the beach.
The wider section of beach has become a bit of a dumping ground for beach parties, homeless camps, and day users. There are discarded tarps, shopping carts, fishing gear, bicycles and a wide variety of trash on the beach and up along the trail. The single track trail also goes below Emterra and windblown trash covers the trail.
This is a fine section of beach, but since it is out of sight, it also attracts some less-than-responsible people who don’t respect the natural environment of the riverside beach, trail, and hillside. The east end is not a pretty sight. In addition some of the single track has been eroded from drainage run-off above through the industrial park. The section in behind Finning, Kelly Douglas, Bandstra, and the other businesses in this stretch appears to have had some debris tossed down the hill and the trail is not passable because of the damage. We used to hike all the way to Vicars Road, but the trail is not reasonable now.
For now we can enjoy a walk to the west end to the beach and back. Some coordinated effort to clean up the trail and restore it would be a good thing. While I walked the trail there was someone there with a chainsaw cleaning up some fallen trees (with our thanks). It will take a lot more work to restore this trail and the shoreline back to what Jack Gregson started decades ago.
