This low elevation trail provides an easy walk through a very scenic stretch of mixed forest on the north side of Colvin Creek. The trail features a waterfall that can be quite impressive in winter. The falls are an absolute barrier to salmon, which spawn in the gravel beds below Redrooffs Road, even if they were able to negotiate the culvert. However, small Cutthroat Trout are present in the creek above the falls. One just wonders how they got there.
Large big-leaf maples, covered with mosses and ferns up to the highest branches qualify the forest as real rainforest. There are many “wildlife trees”, trees that are dead and decaying, but are actually alive with fungi and bugs. Such trees provide food and shelter for all kinds of cavity-nesting birds, such as wrens, woodpeckers, owls, and bats. It is not unusual to see bears along the trail.
The trail was flagged by the Sargeant Bay Society. It was built during the first three months of 1994 by a crew employed under the Unemployment Insurance Job Creation Program of Employment Canada. It took 45 personweeks to complete and opened up a stretch of forest that, until then, was virtually inaccessible to the general public. A dense thicket of Himalayan Blackberries was the first obstacle to overcome and a bridge had to be built to reach the other side of the creek.
This “hiking only” trail was built “from scratch”, i.e. not on an old logging road, so its surface is susceptible to damage. We therefore encourage mountain bikers to use the parallel trail (ride up “Roller Coaster”, then follow “Little Knives”) that starts from the same trail head and leads to Trout Lake.
