Proposed: ST. Benedict-Seven Lakes Pocket Wilderness
Sonny Lake, northeast of Deroche, B>C> Canadian Forest Products (CanFor) plans to eventually clear cut all the forest shown in this photo. Photo credit:Joe Foy
Description
A chain of pocket wildernesses linked together by unlogged forested ridge top corridors, the St. Benedict-Seven Lakes area is a necklace of diamonds in the rough, just waiting to be discovered. Right now most of the Pocket Wildernesses that make up this 20 kilometre Y-shaped network, are seldom visited. That will soon change. When the old trapper trails which crisscross the area are cleared, marked and linked together, the St. Benedict-Seven Lakes Pocket Wilderness will become one of the Lower Fraser Valley's premier recreational destinations.
Seven pristine mountain lakes, semi-alpine parkland, big-tree forests and many access points combine to create a unique wilderness resource. Terepocki Pocket Wilderness in the northern section is the big-tree sanctuary, with numerous large cedars and one hemlock that measures 19 feet around. Sonny Lake in the southern portion is an untouched wilderness bowl. The waters of Sonny mirror hills covered with acre after acre of untouched old growth forest. Bonzai Lake with its strange little-tree forest is near the middle section. The lakes, hidden in their own pockets, are seven beautiful gems.
Like any necklace, the St. Benedict-Seven Lakes area is fragile. Once broken, it loses much of its beauty and value. Logging threatens the St. Benedict Wilderness in both the northern and southern sections. Negotiations are underway and the Pocket Wilderness Coalition hopes to see this unique wilderness resource gain the protection it deserves. In the Maple Ridge Forest Service Office are plans that show future logging in Terepocki and Sonny Lake Pocket Wildernesses. Let them know your concern.
Access
Access may be confusing as routesare unmarked and road systems are complicated and unsigned. The PWC intends to change all this in the coming summer with road signs and marked routes to the lakes. For now, topographic map 1:50,000 scale 92 G/1 and a compass are mandatory equipment just to find your way in the car. Access points are in several different road systems...
1. Lost Creek road system
From Mission City go east on High-way No. 7 for 6.4 km., turn left onto Sylvester Road. Follow
the paved then good gravel road 17 km to a small parking lot just north of Murdo Creek in Davis
Lake Provincial Park. Walk back south across the bridge and pick up the trail leading to McKay
Lake and the top of Mt. St. Benedict. This is the south of the corridor. There is no trail from
here on out. Use caution. The route will be marked soon.
Back in the car, using a map, continue on the moderately rough logging road north, then southeast up a tributary of Lost Creek. Park when the going gets too rough and walk for one hour up an old road then through the open forest to the mushroom-shaped Bonzai Lake, not named on the topographic map.
Back in your car, backtrack to a road that runs near the eastern shore of Salsbury Lake. Continue around to the north side of the headwaters of Terepocki Creek. Park and walk south to the mouth of the north-south aligned valley below Mt. Kettley. This is a big-tree sanctuary.
2. Norrish Creek road system
From the village of Dewdney, take the Hawkins Pickle Road, which is paved but soon turns to
moderately rough gravel where it becomes the Norrish Creek Forest Road. Using your map, locate
Rose Creek Road and travel up it until it becomes too rough. Walk along the road to near its end
then navigate up the slopes through open forest and salmonberry to Thurston Lake, the southern end
of the Pocket Wilderness network in this area.
3. Chehalis River road system From Sasquatch Inn on Highway No.7 (also the turn off for the Hemlock Ski Development) head north up the good gravel Chehalis Road system. After crossing Statlu Creek bridge stay at the fork. Using a map locate South Statlu Road and take this road to access the logging roads that approach So Lake. Several overgrown roads may be walked to within one half-hour of lake. From the end of the roads its easy bushwack to Sonny Lake.
Access to the St. Benedict Nets Wilderness should be improved vastly by the end of summer, 1987.
Click on map to enlarge.
