A new set of walking tails is just the beginning for a new committee, aimed at getting more Flin Flonners out to see both their area’s nature and history.
The wâhkôhtowin Trails committee has been hard at work this past spring and summer, opening up their first hiking and snowshoe trail at Phantom Lake and making plans for further trail development in the future.
Leslie Beck and a group of likeminded nature enthusiasts began work on creating a new walking trail system earlier this year, part of a larger project of connecting the area with trails. Beck and others began a committee last spring and started pursuing grants to make a more extensive trail system a reality, getting money from the Flin Flon and District Chamber of Commerce, which took the group in as a non-profit community venture.
“That really opened the doors for us,” said Beck, who serves as the group’s cochair and fundraising chair.
From there came meetings with similar groups from around the north, deciding to start their work near Phantom Lake.
“In the spring, a call went out and a bunch of people went out there and rushed a trail through the old campground, a two-kilometre trail with five outlooks,” Beck said.
That trail runs down the western shore of the lake once well-known for its amenities and summer happenings. Those days are long since past, but the trail includes several viewpoints of the lake and an optional three-kilometre winter extension for snowshoers, leading to the narrows in the middle of Phantom Lake.
The organization of the project has led to partnerships with local businesses and individual donors to cover the costs of insuring the trail - that cost, around $2,500 a year Beck estimates, cannot be covered by grants, but has been covered by donors.
“The feedback has been really positive. I’m out there almost every day, as well as our other committee members and we’re always pleased to see that it’s very busy,” Beck said.
“It’s close to town, it’s accessible, pretty and they’re looking forward to us putting some canoe routes down that people can follow.”
The group selected “wâhkôhtowin” as its new name earlier this year - wâhkôhtowin being the Cree word for “kinship”, as in how different things are interconnected, including people, nature, communities and the like.
“For me, a great portion of this trail originates with Indigenous people and it must be a part that we recognize that the origins of Canada come from Indigenous people - the growth, the industry, it comes from there,” Beck said.
“I’m so wanting to talk about the pre-contact part of what this area means. We have artifacts dating back 7,000 years that show trade and commerce in this ara of Canada.”
The trail group’s next plan is to create a new trail near Creighton by Myo Lake, a trail that would have interpretative signage detailing the Precambrian geological history of the area.
Beck said the group also wants to work with groups like the Flin Flon Ski Club and the Border Explorers Snowmobile Club to create a full map detailing which trails are made for vehicles and which are made for human transport - meant to keep hikers and snowshoers off sled trails and snow machines off ones full of skiers or hikers.
“We really want people to understand that snowmobile trails are motorized trails. They’re rated for 60 kilometres an hour, they’re not safe for people who might be walking or snowshoeing, because on any curve, it’s not easy to stop a snow machine on a dime,” she said.
“The same goes with the Ski Club - they’re now opening the trails up for use in the summer as non-motorized trails, but we really want to focus that once they track them for cross-country skiing, those are not walking trails.”
