In November of 2013, Duncan MacTavish of Recreation Sites and Trails BC came to the Campbell River ATV club (CRATV) with a proposal.
Off-roaders needed a place to call their own, he thought, and CRATV president Mike Coulter was immediately on board.
“It’s always a challenge in the summer to find campsites that are off-road vehicle friendly,” Coulter says, and even when they’re found, conflicts understandably arise between the different types of users of those areas.
“We really wanted a place of our own to be able to quad from,” he says, where those conflicts wouldn’t arise.
Thousands of man-hours of work over the following two-plus years and $140,000 later, Pye Mountain Recreation Site, which opened to the public this past Dec. 31, became the answer they’d been looking for.
After that initial meeting with MacTavish, Coulter and the club started looking for the “how?” of making this thing happen.
Then, out of nowhere, as if in response to their question, the National Trails Coalition (NTC) sent out notice in June of 2014 that they were making money available for people who wanted to build trail systems – including ones for off-road vehicles.
That was the bump the organization needed.
“We jumped in there and got the paperwork in and we were successful at getting that grant,” Coulter says. “Once we got that, Duncan (MacTavish) went to work and got Rec Sites and Trails to match those funds,” as the NTC grant was contingent on matching funds coming from somewhere, “and that gave us enough money to go forward and make definite plans.”
Getting a site approved was possibly the most difficult aspect of the process – at least administratively.
“We had to find a site that fit not only our own criteria but all of the stakeholders’ criteria. Everyone from trappers to woodlot owners had to approve that we build the site, and that was only step one,” he laughs.
Their own main criteria was that it not be located on a lake. They figured that if it was located beside water, they’d become “just another rec site,” Coulter says, and would be back at square one, fighting for space with boaters, fishermen and other recreational users.
Once they had a spot everyone was satisfied with, they got the land designated a provincial recreation site – which happened in late August 2015 – and they got into the dirty work of creating the trail system and recreation area.
They were running out of time. The grants they’d received were set to expire at the end of the year, the first shovel hadn’t yet gone in the ground, and days were already starting to get shorter.
They somehow managed to get a four-kilometre trail system created – including location and directional signage – along with a 24-space camping area, complete with custom-made picnic tables, outhouses, fire pits and picnic shelters, all completed by years’ end, complying with their grant requirements, thanks to various volunteers and sponsors.
“There’s nowhere else on Vancouver Island like this,” Coulter beams. “There’s no other site that is primarily designed for off-road vehicles.”
As far as the trails themselves are concerned, the club has an area map on display at the site that rates different paths’ difficulty, much like ski runs on a mountain. Green trails are considered relatively easy riding, blue ones require having a bit more technical riding skill, and black ones are the most difficult.
Another benefit to the process, aside from the obvious one of ending up with a dedicated area in which to ride and camp, is that lines of communication between riders and other forest users have been opened and improved, Coulter says.
“We’ve developed a really good relationship with the forestry people in the area out by Stella Lake,” Coulter says. “We cooperate, we get along, we interact. They let us know where there’s active logging going on, now, which is great,” he says, because then they can stay out of each other’s hair, so to speak.
The forestry companies and government, Coulter says, are also starting to realize that off-roaders are, “another set of eyes out there for them. We pop out of nowhere, so people who are up to no good are more cautious, because they know we’re out there.”
The property is just five kilometres off Highway 19 on Elk Bay Road – just north of Roberts Lake – and Coulter couldn’t be happier about how it turned out. After all the hard work, administrative hurdles and complications, along with engineering issues to be dealt with, he’s still smiling, and clearly itching to get back up to the trails.
“It was all worth it,” he says, leaning back in his chair.
The site is open to the public now, and those who are into riding should watch for an official grand opening event to happen soon. The club is also hoping to soon begin planning various events such as family rides, poker rides and jamborees.
Like them on Facebook – just search “Campbell River ATV Club” – or head over to cratvclubwebsite.com or cratvclub.com (their online forum) for more details and to keep up with what’s happening at Pye Mountain and with the club.