Whistler resident Gordon McKeever wakes up in the morning and goes to bed at night dreaming of an arterial trail connecting the communities in the Sea to Sky Corridor.
As the Sea to Sky Trail project manager, McKeever has teamed up with 14 government and private-sector sponsors to complete the project in five years, contingent on funding.
"It's amazing working with people who have the vision and the passion but also the authority to get things done," he said. "It's been a great team effort."
Substantial progress has been made, particularly in the south section, since fall 2010.
The portion of the trail between Squamish and Whistler has improved dramatically, with only three problem areas left.
The first portion is between Brandywine Park and the Pinecrest-Black Tusk exit, a section that's just over three kilometres long. A pedestrian overpass of Highway 99 is needed, he said.
Next is the four-kilometre portion from Chance Creek Bridge through Cheakamus Canyon, a difficult section to manoeuvre because the trail needs to be located between the river and the highway and it's a narrow gap.
The third problematic area is a section that needs to cross the rail tracks south of Starvation Lake - the railway tracks are in a depression and cannot accommodate a level crossing. Instead, McKeever said trail builders plan to install an overpass above the gully.
McKeever said the trail is completely rideable, but because it's federally, provincially and municipally supported, it has to follow specific regulations.
"Part of the challenge is making it a legitimate legal entity," he said. "This isn't the guys with pickaxe and shovel building a trail because it's a legitimate, properly authorized trail."
That, he said, means it has to be done by the book, but because of that it will never be taken off the books.
The improvements made on the rest of the trail between Squamish and Whistler were dramatic, and McKeever said Cheakamus Challenge participants will have a much easier time cleaning (not having to dismount) along the course.
"The areas that we've improved have never been better," he said. "The Cheakamus Challenge is on a 100-year-old road that wasn't maintained until now."
McKeever said a five-year work plan (put together in fall 2010) should bring the trail to substantial completion, subject to funding.
"There's so many unknowns, there's so many variables," he said. "If some big corporation stepped up tomorrow with a $1 million grant, time frames would change.
"And if money is super tight and we can't get funding, it's going to take a lot longer because there's no secure funding in place for a project like this."
McKeever refers to himself as a knitter - "I take existing pieces and exploit opportunities and knit it all together to make it continuous, but it's not the kind of project where you start at one end and build it to the other."
In comparison to the improvements in the complicated terrain between the two communities, Squamish's portion of the Sea to Sky Trail is still relatively incomplete.
In July 2010, council members expressed dismay that only 3.5 of nine kilometres of the corridor trail was completed, despite having spent $500,000.
Staff members explained they had completed some more expensive portions of the trail - the Adventure Centre to Brennan Park, Mamquam Road to Garibaldi Way, upgrades along Highway 99 from Depot Road to Squamish Valley Road and the Kingswood Crossing overpass.
The two sections from Clarke Drive to Scott Crescent and Garibaldi Way to Kingswood Crossing are undergoing engineering, environmental review and right-of-way negotiations at the moment.
More development around Pemberton and Squamish-Lillooet Regional District Electoral Area C is scheduled for 2011 and McKeever will be orchestrating every step of the way.
"It will be an amazing feeling when I can finally ride the entire stretch," he said, laughing and adding that he'd also likely feel (and be) older.
