GRACE LAKE

Grace Lake was initiated, because of a need to have a legal Off Road Vehicle (ORV) staging area. In the past, ORV’s wanting to ride the West Harrison area, would unload at the Weaver Fish Hatchery parking lots. This was a convenient location and riders felt, that because this was the start of the gravel road, this was a legal place to stage from.

In actual fact, this section of road was under the control of the Ministry of Transportation and Highways (MOTH), thus making it an illegal location to unload unlicensed motorized vehicles.

The RCMP were alerted to this fact and regularly the RCMP were waiting for the unsuspecting riders to return to their vehicles, only to be issued a ticket and fined.

S.W.A.T.T. attempted to stop this action until this could be dealt with, but with no success.

S.W.A.T.T. furthermore, attempted to have the MOTH, transfer the status of the road to the Ministry of Forests, this was met with resistance and an agreement could not be made.

S.W.A.T.T., with  substantial support provided by,  Mike Peters of the Ministry of Tourism and Terry Wardrop of ATVBC, placed their efforts into solving this issue.

After the assessment of available sites was completed, the committee zeroed in on Grace Lake, just off the public road and direct access to the West Harrison Forest Service Road. Staging areas have been constructed, which has created a safe and accessible area to park, while people are out riding. In addition to this project, we have moved forward to redevelop approximately 400 KM of trails in the West Harrison area, Grace Lake being the starting point to this trail system