Spring Hike – Cutoff Bute and the Kenny Dam
I knew there was an old volcanic cone along the the north shore of Knewstubb lake – the westernmost part of the Nechako reservoir. I’d seen the trail listed in the Northern BC Backroad Mapbook, and we had driven by the trail head shortly after we got married, but its not the typical draw when in the area of the Kenny Dam. Most people go to visit the dam itself, or go up the Holy Cross road a ways to hike to the impressive Cheslatta falls. But we were looking for something different, something south facing to minimize the amount of leftover April snow to hike through, something to get the kids excited about a hike.
Recently, the girls have been interested in lava, volcanoes, earthquakes and the like. I had told them about the “dried-up” lava floes you can visit in the Nass Valley near Terrace and they had been talking about it ever since. We asked the kids if they wanted to go for a hike, and then I remembered that Cutoff Bute was an old volcano. Which then prompted an explanation of the difference between a dead, eroded volcanic cone and a live volcano with lava that they were evidently expecting to see. I then further went on to illustrate and explain how the Kenny Dam and Cheslatta falls (which we were also going to visit) fit into the picture of the Nechako reservoir and the Nechako river that flows past our house in Vanderhoof. I guess its the old science teacher in me. Anyways, the kids were thrilled, and we packed up some snacks, TrailFare meals, and hot drink mixes before getting out of the house at a reasonable hour in the morning.
It is a 90 km drive on gravel roads from Vanderhoof to the Nechako reservoir. There are several resource roads you can take to get there and we decided on the Kenny Dam road as it is the most direct. I’m pretty sure its the road they built in order to build the Kenny dam itself, and its full of historic ranches and follows through the scenic Greer Valley. We stopped just before the approach to the dam to put up the drone and get some footage that would capture the scale of the reservoir and dam. After that we headed east along the north shore towards Cutoff Bute, keeping our eyes open for the little sign on the side of the road marking the trail head. We caught sight of the hill itself long before the sign – a thumb of rock sticking up sharply from the trees, craggy and imposing.
From the roadside, it looked like we might fare alright as far as snow was concerned. We didn’t get far into the trees before we found it deep enough along the trail that I was wishing I had taken the time to put the splash pants on the girls. They are pretty tough on these outings, but no one does well with boots full of snow. In some patches, it had a hard enough crust that they could walk on top of it, but we took to carrying them over the worst patches. Then came the blow down. Someone – probably the forest service – has taken the time to remark the trail with pink flagging tape since the Cutoff creek wildfire went through the area in 2021, but there is significant blow down of the dead and burned trees. We encouraged the kids to keep going by getting them to look for the next pink flag as the trail was not easy to find in the tangle. This cleared up as we got onto the slopes of the volcanic cone, but the trail got a lot steeper. Half way up the cone itself we found a bit of a flat spot with some views of the reservoir and a few trees to break the wind. We got some pictures while the kids poked around for some lava rock souvenirs before seeing how much further we would be able to get.
Not much farther, it turned out. Another few hundred yards and the pink flags led up a scree slope more akin to a goat track up the face of the rocky hillside. I stayed back with the girls and tried to find some inspiring (and small) lava rocks that we could put in our pockets for the trip home. Leroy continued on to see if he could make the top. We waited on the hillside for him to come back, but after watching a rain cloud approaching us from over the lake, I decided to take the kids back to the shelter of the trees until his return. It wasn’t long after we got back that I heard him halooing through the trees. With the wind and the look of the approaching weather, we decided to put off making our “camping food” until we were back at the truck. Everyone was tired when we got down but proud of what we had accomplished. Anna and Alice were especially happy to peel off their wet socks and curl up with their blankets – I’m sure Alice fell asleep within five minutes drive back towards the dam.
We made two more stops before heading home I had found some obsidian near the dam itself the first time I had been down this way twelve years ago, and I had told Anna we could stop and look for some today. She preferred to stay in the truck as she had no dry socks or boots, so I told her I would go look and bring any back that I found. Turns out there was a bunch of it – all different colours – so I filled my pockets. Anna was thrilled. She picked out her favourite one to hold on the way home. Next stop was the Cheslatta River rec site. It is here that the water that flows out of the Nechako Reservoir through the Skins Spillway on Ootsa lake and through Cheslatta lake finally makes its circuitous way back to the Nechako river canyon where it would have originally flowed out. The main falls are down a trail and are much more impressive that what you can see from the road where it crosses the river, but we weren’t up to anymore hiking. The rec site was still snowed in, so we pulled over by the bridge to cook our TrailFare meals. Anna wanted to stand on the bridge and have a look at the rapids that are visible from the first part of the trail, so I left Leroy to watch the kettle and held her hand. Alice was still sleeping when the food was done so we put her half of the kids’ Mac and Cheese in a container for when she woke up. Leroy and I had some Chili and Chicken Stew. It had started to drizzle as we waited so the hot food – and afterwards hot drinks – were very welcome. We didn’t get home until the evening – a day well spent in my books.
