Code:GC3PANE Rails and Trails Written and Researched by Doug Smith TCT Trail Site Identification Nearest Community: Merritt, BC Geocache Location: N 49 48.831 W120 56.479 Accuracy: 3 metres Overall terrain: 2.5 Overall terrain difficulty: 2.5 (1=easiest;5=hardest) Ownership: Crown Land Access and Restrictions: From the Coquihalla Photo: Marcie Down Highway, turn on Exit 250 onto the Brodie Siding Road. The Trans Canada Trail now be traversed for almost through the southern Interior 600km. It is still a work in Letterbox Clues: From the Coquihalla area of B.C. follows the Ket- progress with featured sec- Highway, turn on tle Valley route, starting in the tions like the Myra Trestles Exit 250 onto the west Kootenays, winding and other sections that still Brodie Station Site, through the Okanagan, have detours, washouts, and then cross the through the Similkameen private land parcels. Many bridge and follow area, then north to Brook- of the sections are multi-use the rail line to a mere, before bearing south to and visitors may see bicycles, small grove of trees. Hope. horses, hikers, cross country skiers, or motorized users at The Kettle Valley Railway any point. from Penticton to Brookmere was known as the Princeton The Trans Canada Trail pro- For more information or to report a Subdivision. Completed in ject started in 1992 to cele- problem with this site please contact: th 1915, it linked the mines, brate Canada’s 125 year. It Gold Country Communities Society lumber mills, orchards of the is a connection of 400 sepa- PO. Box 933 Interior with the Coast, either rate trails, linking 1000 com- Cache Creek, BC., through the Merritt Subdivi- munities and when it is fin- V0K 1H0 sion (especially in winter) or ished, will be the world’s through the Coquihalla Subdi- largest network of trails cov- Tel: 1-877-453-9467 vision to Hope. By 1961, ering a distance of 22 500 email: [email protected] sections of the railway were kilometers. As of 2012, 73% For more site pages go to: decommissioned and by 1990 of the trail is now ready for www.goldtrail.com the last rails were removed. use. The Trans Canada Trail (TCT) enters Gold Country The government of British just east of Brookmere and Columbia purchased the rail links to the Coquihalla Subdi- Apply Sticker Here lines with the goal of estab- vision and Merritt Subdivi- lishing a trail network on the sion at Brodie Station on the rail bed. With the work of Coldwater River. many groups, the route can From Princeton, the TCT heads north along the Tulameen River to Coalmont and Tulameen. Bibliography & Sources: It follows the east shore of Otter Lake and then http://tctrail.ca/ through farmlands along Otter Creek, follow- Langford, Dan and Sandra, Cycling the Kettle ing the old Aspen Grove Stage Road to Thalia Valley Railway, Rocky Mountain Books, Cal- Station. A trestle leads up the Spearing Creek gary, 1994 drainage to Brookmere, now in Gold Country. Obee, Bruce, Trans Canada Trail, British Co- Brookmere was formerly known as Otter Junc- lumbia, Whitecap, North Vancouver, 2008 tion and was the divisional junction of two http://www.trailsbc.ca/ railways, the Kettle Valley and the V, V, and E http://www.kettlevalleyrailway.ca/ Line. A wooden water tower and caboose are still on display here and the TCT goes right through the middle of the village. From Brookmere, the TCT descends for 6.4 Waypoints: kilometers to “the loop” at Brodie Station on N 49 49.051 W120 52.309 - Brookmere the Coldwater River. The old rail bed lines go N 49 48.828 W120 56.468 - Brodie north along the Merritt Subdivision or south along the Coquihalla Subdivision. The TCT follows the railbed south to Hope. The route is in good shape for most of the route to Juliet Station at 15.8 km from Brookmere. From there the route follows the Coquihalla Highway to Coquihalla Lakes. As the high- way takes the high route down Boston Bar Creek, the TCT follows the Kettle Valley route, following the Kettle River on its way to Hope. Although the TCT only has a short section in Gold Country, connecting sections up the Coldwater River through the Merritt Subdivi- sion are in use now and as negotiations and progress is made on access, a TCT connecting trail to the heart of Gold Country is in our fu- ture. .