Improving information for snowmobilers

This request, posted to the Kamloops Snowmobile Association website before the new year, caught my attention:

(from the KSA News: Private Land Issue)

I have property at Lac Le Jeune at the west end of the lake. each year I have problems with snowmobilers trespassing on my private property. I have it signed and posted with No Snowmobiling or No trespassing signs. It seems as if once they get on a machine they lose their ability to read. Have you any suggestions to alleviate the problem? 

The Ridge Mountain Forest Service Road goes through our place, and as long as they stay on the part of the road that is not maintained I have no problem, but unfortunately, many of them do not. I do not want to involve the police, and with help I would rather solve the problem at this level. 

I would appreciate a response so we could talk this over. I realize that it is probably not your members that create a problem but maybe they have some ideas that would help 

Thank you very much 

Jocko Creek Ranch

https://flic.kr/p/bnYwVa

I don't know the outcome of this request, but it occurs to me that signage isn't the complete solution. The question of where snowmobiles are permitted in the Lac Le Jeune area has been raised over the years. Some areas are obviously off limits, yet in other areas it's not always clear. For example from the lake, snowmobilers often weave in and out of the provincial park. There are no signs; they might not even know it's a park.

It seems that anyone venturing out on snowmobiles in a new area would first research trails systems and locate the staging areas. As someone who knows very little about snowmobiling, I thought I would do a quick search to see what information is readily available.

I started with the Kamloops Snowmobile Association (KSA) website since they have a stewardship role. This is the description of the Lac Le Jeune area on the Kamloops Snowmobile Association website:

Located 20 minutes south of Kamloops, the Lac Le Jeune area snowmobile trails run generally towards the south and east of Lac Le Jeune. The elevation is 1300m to 1680m, there are many other users in the immediate area of Lac Le Jeune that must be respected. There are cross country ski trail systems and local residents. This area is managed by agreement with the KSA (Kamloops Snowmobile Association) and MoTSA (Ministry of Tourism, Sports, and the Arts. Once you are far enough south of Lac Le Jeune conflicts are not an issue (obey signage). The ungroomed trail system runs through picturesque rolling plateau terrain on unplowed forest industry and ranching roads, through numerous meadow complexes, lakes and old forest fire burns. Sightings of moose are common in this area, ice fishing is also popular. This area is also accessed through Edith Lake and Rossmore Lake.

The Sun Peaks section on the KSA site includes maps in various formats: PDF for download, GPX for GPS devices, and KML for importing to Google Earth. That's useful! But nothing for Lac Le Jeune.

The next logical step was to check the Ministry of Tourism, Sports, and the Arts referred to on the KSA website. It's now called Ministry of Community, Sport and Cultural Development. That ministry doesn't seem to deal with anything related to snowmobiling. Rather, the focus is on competitive sports.

I then checked the BC Recreation Sites and Trails website,  which is part of the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources Operations. Oh good, it's an interactive site! I clicked on "planning your trip" then selected activity type: Snowmobiling and region: Southern Interior West. No mention of Lac Le Jeune... or Logan Lake... hmmm.

The advice on the BC Snowmobiling page on the Ministry of Environment website (so many ministries, so little time! :D) gives the following advice for people exploring new areas:

• actively seek out local recreation maps for the area you will be visiting 
• respect and protect all local land use signage 
• avoid entering designated non-motorized areas 

https://flic.kr/p/eQsEFe

This is good advice if you have 1) maps, and 2) good signage. It would also be helpful if they would provide links to places you can find these recreation maps. A search looped me back to the BC Recreation Sites and Trails website. Sigh.

As far as I can tell, from the KSA website and other recreation and government sites, there are no area maps available for Lac Le Jeune. There are also no concise resources that educate visitors and newcomers to our area about where snowmobiles are permitted. I found lots of websites, loops, broken links, and heaps of descriptive text -- it's a lot to navigate and make sense of. And in the end, none of it was helpful for someone considering a snowmobile trip to the Lac Le Jeune area.

It seems better information (along with good signage) would be a big step in the right direction to solving this problem.

Help please! Where can we find useful information and maps for visitors and newcomers to Lac Le Jeune? If it doesn't exist, how can we work together to create it? 

Sylvia Currie