It will be some time before Metro Vancouver staff have reopened all of their North Shore park trails, after the Nov. 15 storm dealt heavy damage to some trails and made a mess of others. And more extreme rainfall is coming.
Metro Vancouver closed Grouse Mountain Regional Park due to erosion on the Grouse Grind, Baden Powell and BCMC trails, thanks to the heavier than usual rains.
More significant was a portion of the upper Fisherman’s Trail between Circuit 8 and Spur 4, sliding into the Seymour River.
“The river just eroded the toe of the slope there and then the slope slumped into the river, and then that material gets washed away,” said Mike Mayers, Metro's division manager of watershed operations and protection. “It's a regular process that occurs in river systems. It just happens that we have a trail right close to it that it's eating away at.”
Metro has hired a geotechnical expert to assess the site, but it’s clear from a crack in the ground that another part will slide sooner or later, Mayer said.
There is no timeline for when repair jobs will be done but they are anticipating closing trails when the next storms roll in.
“This is not the time of year to be doing trail work or work right beside a creek or river,” he said.
