A new staging area planned this year near Nordegg marks the first steps towards the dream of a regional trail to Rocky Mountain House.
Clearwater County plans to kick-start the project with a $100,000 Alberta Tourism Parks and Recreation grant that the municipality received over a year ago.
The county is also awaiting word on a $232,000 Alberta Lottery Corp. grant.
Mike Haugen, the county’s community and protective services manager, said it is hoped that work will begin this spring on a staging area on the Forestry Trunk Road near Nordegg. The plan is to build a gravel parking lot big enough for trucks hauling horse or off-road vehicle trailers to manoeuvre. Outhouse-style toilets would also be in place.
If the additional cash comes through, more work could be done on the staging area and an accompanying trail to the Beaver Dam Recreation Area.
The site southwest of Nordegg is already used by back-country visitors, who use informal trails and abandoned industry roads.
“On those existing trails, they’re in pretty good shape for the most part but there is some work we need to do, whether that’s clearing or rebuilding part of them,” he said.
Meanwhile, the county has not given up on the plan for a Nordegg-to-Rocky Mountain House link, although it is recognized it will be a long-term project.
The three-metre-wide trail will have washrooms, garbage cans, picnic sites, signage and a few remote campsites. The route would be open to motorized and non-motorized traffic.
Cost is the biggest obstacle. The price tag for the 109-km link is about $6.8 million.
Haugen said there are also other challenges since much of the land near Rocky is privately owned, which makes lining up approvals and setting a trail route much more difficult.
“Realistically, that $6.8 (million). I’m not sure we’ll ever realize that,” he said.
But the county would like to see a 50-km link to Nordegg from the Horburg area, about 25 km west of Rocky. It would be built in phases as funding becomes available.
pcowley@www.reddeeradvocate.com