On the trail to Clear Creek Hotsprings. Photo credit: Ken Lay
Proposed: Clear creek hotsprings pocket wilderness
DESCRIPTION
How about a Pocket Wilderness with hot and cold running water? Clear Creek Hot Spring is not the only hotspring in the Vancouver-Fraser Valley region, but it is the last remaining wilderness hotspring. Old growth forest with its thick carpet of bunch berry and moss surrounds the rocky clearing where the hotspring issues forth from under a large boulder. Gnarled old cedars point with wind carved spike tops to mountain goats on the cliffs above the springs. A well kept public cabin with loft and wood burning stove stands between a steaming cedar hot tub and the cold jade green waters of Clear Creek. The cabin and surrounding area are kept up by members of local 4x4 clubs. No one is paid for all the hard work. Clear Creek Hot Spring is a labour of love.
Hiking opportunities exist within the Pocket Wilderness for people of all ages and abilities. For the knowledgeable wilderness navigator, Hoodoo Lake is a two hour safari up the forested slopes along game trails. Another excursion consists of following the old mine exploration track up the valley of Clear Creek, through a canyon to a low pass that leads to the Fraser Canyon country. Seldom visited peaks and meadows await the adventurous, in the high country above the hotspring. After a hard day on the trail, it's back to the hot tub in time for the greatest show on earth. The wind in the trees, good friends, and a billion stars . . . that's Clear Creek Hot Spring Pocket Wilderness.
Hotsprings heaven. Photo credit:Dave Markowski
The B.C. Forest Service has put a postage stamp sized recreation reserve around the hotspring. This would allow logging to strip the hillside above the spring and to denude the upper part of the entire Clear Creek Valley. The rare wilderness qualities of the area would be wiped out. In fact the spring itself might be impacted by mudslides fromabove and by flash flooding caused by clearcutting the upper valley. We have seen such things happen before.
For the moment, Clear Creek Hot Spring Pocket Wilderness is in no danger from logging. However, the lower part of the Clear Creek Road is being widened and upgraded in preparation for clearcut logging the lower valley. Road upgrading or logging will not enter the Pocket Wilderness area for the moment, but public pressure must be applied to make sure they never do. It is important to remember plans could be submitted to log this area at any time.
Access
Access from the village of Harrison Hotsprings follow the signs to nearby Sasquatch Provincial Park, east of Harrison Lake. Just inside the park, take a left up a logging road that is signed Harrison Road East. Climb high above the lake at first, then descend to Rainbow Falls. You pass through one logging camp near the mouth of Cogburn Creek. Then, 11/2 hours and 53 km from the village of Harrison Hot Springs, you come to a second logging camp with stacks of cut logs, at the mouth of Big Silver Creek. Follow the road through the camp, past the logs, and up Big Silver Creek. Drive over the Hornet Creek Bridge, then a few minutes later, look for a rough road on the right. This is an old mining exploration road that heads up the valley of Clear Creek, past the hotspring. The valley has never been logged. You are now 10 km from the spring. 2-wheel drive pick-up trucks or skookum cars can usually get you to within a one hour walk of the hotspring and cabin, inside the Pocket Wilderness. 4-wheel drive vehicles may at times make it all the way.
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