Crystal Falls trail, bridge spruced up

BY NANCY KELLY

Kings County Register

Thanks to the diligence of one Rocknotch Road resident, the trail that leads off that road south of Meadowbrook Road to Crystal Falls and beyond now has a new bridge.

Hikers, horseback riders and off-road vehicles will now be able to travel through the wooded area to the waterfall safely.

Gerry Tamlyn first approached Kings West MLA Leo Glavine about the “deplorable and unsafe condition” of the bridge on the Crystal Falls trail in early summer. Tamlyn, who has lived in the area for over 40 years and spends a lot of time in the woods, says he has witnessed firsthand the deterioration of the structure that crosses the river. “It’s been in really bad condition the past four years,” says Tamlyn. “It just got to the point that I didn’t want to walk over it, let alone go over it on an ATV.”

When Tamlyn brought the condition of the bridge to Glavine’s attention, the question of ownership was the first issue that had to be resolved. “We first assumed the trail was privately owned by Bowater-Mersey, which owns considerable woodland property in the area,” says Glavine.

After making a lot of calls to various companies and government agencies, Glavine learned the trail and bridge sits on land owned by the provincial government. “Years ago, there was an old mill up here and this road was maintained by the province to get logging traffic in and out,” says Glavine, who alerted the province about the bridge’s decayed and unsafe nature.

Not too much later, on one of his regular forays into the woods, Tamblyn was surprised to see a Department of Transportation work crew from Berwick making upgrades to the rocky trail. “It was a real mess back here and the trail wasn’t very accessible so, before they could bring the big equipment in here to haul in the bailey bridge, they had quite a job to do.”

Impressed by the speed by which the work was done, Tamlyn says it took only seven working days to get the bridge installed. The result, he says, is “almost unbelievable. “Not only did they put a new bridge in, they cleared up the trail itself - it’s in much better shape. I’ll tell you, I was about a foot off the ground when I saw the finished product.”

Prompted by additional concerns about illegal dumping and excessive garbage on the trail, Glavine got EFR and Valley Waste involved. “They came on board and did a great job,” says Glavine. “This is such a great place for families to come and enjoy the natural environment. Without recovery of the bridge, there would have been no future for this trail to the back lakes. That is all changed now.”