By Steve Hubrecht
The Village of Radium Hot Springs is intimately tied to the world-famous Radium hot pools in Kootenay National Park. The pools are the village’s name sake and its raison d’etre.
Plans are afoot to make the tie between the two entities even more explicit — and even more concrete — with village officials hoping to create the Pathway to the Pools, a paved multi-use active transportation trail that would run from the village to the boundary of Kootenay National Park near the pools. Eventually the path may go right to the pools themselves, if Parks Canada chooses to extend the trail within the park.
These plans are as yet still very preliminary, but the vision behind them is compelling.
Radium chief administrative officer Adrian Bergles explained to the Pioneer that it is already technically possible to walk or bike from the village to the pools “but it’s not necessarily super inviting for everyone . . . the connection does exist now, at a certain level, but we want to improve it.”
The initial thought was that the trail would run along the south side of Highway 93, but Bergles said it may eventually end up starting on the south side then switching to the north
The path would be a joint venture involving the Village of Radium Hot Springs, the Columbia Valley Greenways Trail Alliance (CVGTA), the provincial Ministry of Transportation and Transit (MoTT), and (if at some point extended right to the pools) Parks Canada as well.
CVGTA program manager Lianne Lang explained the alliance has a bit of money leftover from upgrades to the Old Coach Trail, and wanted to put them toward the Pathways to the Pools project.
More specifically the group wants to do an initial engineering study to determine the safest way to connect the village and the hot pools.
“It would be very much preliminary, outlining several options for exact routes and the pros and cons of each,” said Lang, adding that “there’s good infrastructure (between the village and the hot pools), but there are a few pinch points.”
Lang pointed to Sinclair Canyon as one of those pinch points.
Radium mayor Mike Gray commented, “It really is such an important connection (between the village and the hot pools). It just makes sense to have an active transportation pathway that links the two.”
