Salmon – White – davie River Section
Section 5 of the VIT is comprised of a mix of logging roads and single-track trails. It traverses the Salmon and White River watersheds to the Kokummi-Schoen divide, and the Schoen Creek and Davie River watersheds to Woss.
From the Strathcona Dam (the earth-fill dam impounding Upper Campbell and Buttle Lakes), the VI Trail route initially follows two logging roads – the Greenstone Creek and Paterson Lake FSRs – through older second-growth forests that established after the major 1935 Campbell River fire, to Menzies Main near the Salmon River. Past Greenstone Creek, these roads were re-built atop old logging railway grades, resulting in a pleasant, narrow, shaded road-route apart from where adjacent to a scattering of cutblocks/plantations where second-growth was harvested in the last decade. Go left at the triangular-shaped intersection with Menzies Main and cross over the Salmon River bridge. Before the bridge, an old flume that carried water from a former diversion dam on the Salmon River (removed in 2019) can be seen. Riverside campsites are available just downstream across the bridge.
Salmon River Trail
Immediately across the Salmon River bridge on the left side of Menzies Main, single-track trail starts by dropping down a steep fillslope onto a river terrace. It follows close along the Salmon River, crosses a spur road that accessed the former diversion dam, and on to a point where the terrain steepens ahead of a gully and a rocky canyon. From here the route is back onto Menzies Main for about 8 km until upslope of the confluence of the Salmon and its major tributary, Grilse Creek.
Grilse Creek Trail
From this point (approx. 35.5 km on Menzies), trail drops down quite steeply to and then follows along a series of terraces of Grilse Creek. The river terrace trails are heavily used by Roosevelt elk; however, as is often the case beware of getting diverted onto intersecting elk trails. After crossing over South Fork Main, the trail is along another high terrace, through a brushy (salmonberry) section of floodplain and briefly across another terrace before dropping steeply down to cross a wooden arch bridge over a backchannel of Grilse Creek. This important coho salmon rearing habitat has been enhanced by instream log structures that add hydraulic and habitat diversity. Once across the arch bridge, the trail goes through an impressive stand of old-growth Douglas-fir and redcedar on a highly productive alluvial site – aka “Grilse Grove”. At the end of this section, a short but very steep pitch leads back into second-growth forest that was severely impacted during the winter of 2021-22. Winds that followed a heavy, wet snowfall flattened 100’s of trees hereabouts – in a process known as snow-press. The bucking out of fallen trees to re-open the VIT through here and ahead for several km of trail and road was a major effort (about 25 person-days).
After again intersecting another piece of Menzies Main, the route follows the road to a crossing of Grilse Creek. This is a ford for now, following the loss of a log crossing hopefully to be soon replaced by a log bridge.
Glen’s Trail
About 800 m past the Grilse crossing is the start of Glen’s Trail, so named after one of our dedicated volunteer trail builders. Glen’s Trail is almost entirely located across river terraces as far as a log crossing over Grilse Creek. Ignoring a work access trail that comes in from the south, continue west to intercept an old, grown-in grade that you follow to its end at about 2 km. The route is soon into old-growth forest known for its windfall and passes by and through a series of attractive wetlands in the Salmon-White divide. After emerging into a recent cutblock/regeneration that extends to the John Fraser logging road, cross directly over the road to link up with a trail around John Fraser Lake.
John Fraser Trail to the White River
The John Fraser Trail goes around the north side of the lake in old montane forest with the typical montane, high-density of blueberry shrub and continues past a small waterfall on the outlet creek before climbing up to John Fraser Main, which you then follow to its junction with the JF-100 branch road. A short distance (50 m at most) left on JF-100 will take you to a 650 m trail that heads downslope to Stewart Lake and its lakeshore campsite. The VI Trail route then continues northwest down Stewart Main to the recently re-built (Spring 2021) bridge over the White River. (A side trail about 350 m past the bridge over Consort Creek drops down to a terrace flanking Consort Creek as far as its impressively turbulent confluence with the White River. This trail formerly led to a ford over the White River since wading the river was necessary before the White River bridge was re-built).
White River Trail
The White River Trail starts behind a vehicle campsite immediately across the bridge (left/upstream side) and it extends for about 10 km upstream along the White River to the vicinity of Kokummi Creek. This trail passes through mostly old-growth forest alongside the beautiful, crystal-clear White River and affords great views of Victoria and Warden Peaks. The trail is heavily used by elk – often seen or heard by hikers. The route then follows up the Kokummi tributary valley via the Kokummi Main logging road, with several impressive peaks including Watchtower often in view.
Kokummi Pass Trail to Schoen Lake Park
From the end of the Kokummi road system, a single-track trail leads into Kokummi Pass (about 1000 m elevation at the divide). The trail goes right off the end of the road and climbs up through an old cutblock. The montane regeneration of amabilis fir and yellow cedar (cypress) is growing through a dense shrub-cover of blueberries which flourish and almost invariably dominate such montane cutovers. Once into the forest, the montane old-growth grades into mountain hemlock forest before breaking out into a series of subalpine wetlands through the pass. Trail use by elk is substantial throughout this section and their heavy traffic is obvious in the wetlands, including one gathering area of churned-up, organic wetland soils. Past the wetlands, drop down a bit to cross a creek, now flowing northwards, and back into forest to follow elk trail and crossing a snow avalanche track that’s brushy and with many snow-damaged conifer saplings. The last 100 metres of the route is through the slash of a 2018 cutblock, dropping down onto a logging road that leads down the Schoen Creek valley to Schoen Lake.
The combination of late snowpack in the 1000-metre pass and avalanche run-out zones restrict Spring travel through here, usually until mid or late May. Now within the unceded territory of the ‘Namgis First Nation, the unmarked route follows logging roads down the valley to Schoen Lake Provincial Park (its boundary coincides with re-entry into old forest). Continue along the main logging road to a point nearing the western end of Schoen Lake. From here, the route cuts down (no trail) through mossy, old-growth montane forest of amabilis fir and western hemlock to near the lakeshore to pick up an old trail that leads to the log jam at the west end of the lake (this old trail is not sanctioned by BC Parks hence windfalls across the trail result from the lack of maintenance). Getting across the Davie River just as it flows out of Schoen Lake requires caution – in the summer, crossing over a grounded log jam is easy enough, but at higher lake levels following snowmelt (earlier in June) or from late fall over winter (not the usual hiking season) the log jam will be floating and potentially dangerous to cross. At lower flows, the river can be waded a short distance downstream, but going too far downstream will lead into lots of brush. Across the log jam you will enter campsite #7 in Schoen Lake Provincial Park – an excellent spot for an overnight stop. The campsite is managed for BC Parks by the ‘Namgis First Nation.