On the Southwest End of the Rivers Trail

When spring approaches the snow is slow to melt in the hills and hikers will have to face snow, ice, or mud for a while, In the meantime, we can hike the lower elevation routes in the river valleys to find dry ground. The Rivers Trail (West) is one of the first to clear. From the parking area at the end of Aviation Way, we followe the raised trail for a while, but then we veer to the left, following a parallel track into the cottonwood forest. We followed a single track along a fenceline then angled down into what is a slough in high water. Once below the high water mark, there is no real trail, but we can follow a route out to the end of the sand.

In the slough is an area sometimes called Dales Antique Beach, an old vehicle dumping area. The wrecks have been rusting for decades as the willows grown among them.

It is hard to know how many vehicles were abandoned there. The dump has becoming grown-in and the old track that came from the north is now claimed by shrubs. An old concrete building can be found in the bush at the west end.

Coming out of the red ossier dogwood, cottonwoods and willows, an expanse of shoreline and beach extends for 1.5 km west.

At the end of the sand, we could see the shoreline continuing to Tranquille, but the route there is not good for hiking so we looped around, following the water’s edge of the sand-silt flatlands.

In the bays and channels between sandbars and silt islands thin ice still lingered.

Behind the sandy beaches is a riparian zone of shrubs and cottonwoods and Mount Mara stood above, due north.

The river sediments and silts are a collection of whatever is washed downstream from the Shuswap, the South Thompson River, the North Thomspon River and the operations along the Thompson River, coloring the shoreline at various points.