A $75,000 grant from the B.C. Government will help pay for upgrades to the lit ski trails and to the snowshoe trails at the Overlander Ski Club.
“Its going to be another kilometre of lit trails that are a particular favourite for kids and then we’re also also going to be able to expand our popular snowshoe trails,” club president, Vesta Giles, said on NL Newsday.
“The other part of it is that we’re going to be able to do what’s called ‘off-piste’ trails. They’re not groomed so people will get more of a backcountry experience, but they don’t have to go out to the backcountry to get it. They can get it right there at Stake Lake.”
Giles says the work will be be taking place this summer with the goal of getting it completed before this coming winter.
“We have a contractor who managed some of the forestry issues up there and he has agreed to take it on and use his crews to do it, and so it saves us a lot of money that way,” Giles added.
“A lot of the work, like the lighting, has to be done this summer because we have to dig trenches for power cables and to put up poles and things like that.”
In all, the Province has provided $2.3 million toward 14 new destination and tourism infrastructure developments in the Thompson-Okanagan region.
“This fund creates new tourism infrastructure, which will help the sector recover, create local jobs and spur economic development,” Melanie Mark, the Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport said, in a statement. “Building on the calls to action from the sector, this fund invests in initiatives that link communities together and encourages visitors to spend time at several destinations within a region.”
Giles told NL News the Overlander Ski Club is always looking to improve the facilities at Stake Lake, south of Kamloops.
“Now that we’ve got this funding secured, now we can go to the table and say, ‘okay, now that we got this, what do we want? What else do we want to do?'” Giles added.
“We do have some other plans but we just can’t announce them right now. As soon as we can, we will and we’re pretty excited about it.”
(Photo via Overlander Ski Club)
