Hello BCMCers,

Please be aware that the Mountain Lake Hut is being rented this summer by a company contracted by the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources for up to two weeks starting in either the last week of June, or the first week of July.  They are using it as a base of operations to perform dam demolitions at Mountain Lake.  This will bring some welcome revenue to the club.  They will be accessing the area by Helicopter.  

I will post specific dates when they become available.

I have spoken with the Contractor involved with the Dam demolition work at the Mountain Lake Hut area.  Their work has been postponed due to the current extreme fire risk in the Sea to Sky corridor.  Apparently, they plan to access the area by helicopter and sleep in tents.  They are hoping to use the Mountain Lake Hut to store equipment.  Work will likely be delayed until late August/September, or even longer if heavy snow falls early.

They are dismantling the dams by heavy machinery apparently and not explosives as I was earlier led to believe.  This activity will still be extremely noisy.  To perform this work, they will be constructing a temporary rough road up to Utopia lake as well, but it will be deactivated/destroyed once the work is complete.   This road will facilitate the access of heavy equipment.  

Their intention to reduce the height of the dams, but not to eliminate them completely.  This allow the lakes to continue to exist, albeit in a much smaller/reduced form.

They will inform me when work is to commence, and I will forward that information to this forum.

Thanks for the update Chris. What is the purpose of "destroying" the access road? Can it be preserved as a foot trail without giving free rein to the dirt bikers?

I am uncertain as to why the contractor is required to destroy the road when they are finished.  The road will not be drivable by regular vehicles, but will be used by excavators and the like.  I can provide you with the contact info for the head of the project if you wish to make a case for the preservation of the road.

I phoned the contractor. The Ministry of Mines asked them to decommission the access trail. Not really a trail, just a rut to get the equipment up. He said he'd talk to the Ministry on his next call and ask about leaving the "trail" intact as a hiking route. Really helpful contractor.