Chek Access Road

[Charlie]

As many are aware, the access road up to the Chek climbing area, Conroy Forest Service Road, is in bad shape. Due to irregular maintenance, lots of 2-wheel drive vehicle traffic, and poor surface water runoff control, a lot of rutting has occured. This has led to cars having to park at the bottom of the road leading to under-utilisation of the parking lots.

Members of the Access Society, incuding myself, are coordinating a work crew to do some maintenance this coming Thursday evening. We cannot do the work ourselves and are looking for some able bodied volunteers to help with the labour required to re-grade the bottom portion of the road and compact the road surface.

SAS will be supplying all tools and compactor. We have a truck for moving the equipment to and fro. Now we need volunteers to operate the tools.

If you are available to lend a hand, please post a reply to this posting so we can get an accurate count of volunteers. We will meet at the north end of the Extra Foods parking Lot at 5 pm on Thursday to coordinate carpooling. We will attempt to leave the parking lot no later than 5:15 pm to head up to Chek. If these times do not work for people, we can endeavor to adjust meeting times so that we can get the work done with a maximum number of people possible.

Future work is planned to remediate the upper section of the road that has caused access issues for years. The solution to this probelm requires a more sophisticated approach to prevent the massive rutting that tends to occur. More to come...

Thanks to all who can lend a hand.

SAS

[MGarcia]

Do it on a weekend and I'll happilly help.


But I don't think it will last. Some good guys where out there with shovels and a compactor too and it lasted about a week. The main problem is city drivers that stop half way and then restart. There should be a sign at the base saying something regarding pavement only drivers to park at highway level. Anyway, it is a 5 minute walk unless you are camping and need multiple trips.

Again I am in for weekends.

[kirk]

I'm coming from Whistler, but i'd love to help.
I can get there by 5:30 or 6pm.
I may bring able to bring a couple of people also.

email me akp444@hotmail.com to organize
thanks!
Kirk Paterson

[5.4 Slayer]

I'm in. Should be able to make it by 5:00. If not I'll meet you and whoever in Chek.

[mr_staggerlee]

Pave the fu$%^#@ and be done with it. It's a highly frequented recreation area, not some remote crag.

[J Mace]

Walk its good for you

[gearheart]

A couple of quick points - this plan has had the benefit of being considered by an engineer and we hope that it will be both a cheap and effective short term solution. I also would like to see the road upgraded, but that is likely big $$$. Getting government buy-in may be possible, but that kind of thing takes time and effort. Anyone interested in getting involved in that kind of effort for Chek, please contact the SAS.

In the meantime, it looks to me like we are currently choosing to have bunch of cars parked in a potential high-theft area, rather than parked up at an existing far safer parking lot off the highway. Yes, climbers can walk the 5 mins, but I hope the thieves will not. Hopefully we get a good turn-out to get the lower section of the road done tonight and save a few climbers the grief of a future break-in.
Todd

[dakine]

does anyone have a guess on how much it would cost to pave it? or perhaps pave the problem sections? I'd be happy to throw money into a project for that.

[paulc]

I never go to Chek, but parking at the bottom and walking is dumb. There isn't enough parking there for a full weekend crowd, especially with all the new routes there.

Paving is nice, but perhaps some in between option is more likely? I like engineering opinions, but then again that's what I do... How does it look now?

P

[flounder]

Thanks to everyone who did the work on the road this week, in hot weather at that. Much appreciated!

[Brendan]

Thanks to everyone who did the work on the road this week, in hot weather at that. Much appreciated!

And?

Is it 2WD accessible now?

[Peter]

It is, but unfortunately it is getting bad already, I think it's just too dry and too much traffic. Keep your speed up!!!!!!!!

[woeisme]

As of Sun July 19 it was 2WDrivable to the small upper parking lot but best with 4WD beyond that to the final parking area. It is 2WD drives with spinning wheels that create the ruts in the stepper sections.