Nitinaht 2014: Road/Camp updates

[KUS]

Stuff on the message board:
Powerline and water, new camping sites. Full time attendant.

"I was speaking to the Ditidaht, and they said they spent 20k cleaning up the road. Added 11 more campsites. Added water in the campground, and power. They are super on board with Windfest too. - Thursday May 01

There is going to be a full time gate attendant. Limit on stays. Better service. No RVs close to shore, that's still for tents. They're working with Island Timber to remove squatters too. I don't know how that will go over with the kite schools. I imagine they'll have to start paying rent. "

Actual Sailing/Site Report update:

CampSite: yes, several new sites have been pushed in with fill, looks like a 5 year-old was let loose with a loader or backhoe. The sites are far from leveled and have huge rock nuggets everywhere, could not even pass with my truck in some sections. I expect minimal machine time with a decent operator could get this done in a couple of hours, one wonders why it was left like this, moonscapes....All new sites on the back loop, couple in the middle loop, with a couple enroute into the site on the front end of the road. Minimal logging looks like, all back loop I think.

Remainder of campsite appears unchanged. No new flood damage or huge tree deposits on the beach. The British properties fire pit windblock needs a bit of foundation work, Ray

No sign of power or waterline or an attendant building. A small 4' wide trail has been started/pushed in the bush half way out toward the village field but dead ends in the forest. This would not be wide enough for a powerline.

Road: South Road horrendous right til past Kissinger, don't do it unless you want to chuck your vehicle away. Apart from that our lovely forest company has absolutely raped and pillaged right to the waters of the lake and to the road, it looks like a Hiroshima bomb went off, guess they are getting the last few fir and cedars before pulling up stakes altogether....right into riparian zones from Caycuse to Heather, then on to Kissinger. Where is our Ministry of Forests???? Any harvesting codes at all left intact??....on the flip side tons of firewood available roadside. VERRRY dusty. 2-3/10
North Road near Heather I noted a grader working, on way back this stretch was very good and I did not see any grader marks so this musta been pretty good for a few days. No holes, some dust, some calcium left over but bit rough for trailers 7/10
Kissinger area has been logged and has a similarly huge mess, absolute washout areas created by machine, watch out, good road turns to tiger traps in a hurry! also they are hauling out of the cutback area just past Kissinger (near the closed access road gate)
Rest of the way to the Pt Alberni junction was average to a bit to very rough. 4-5/10, more and deeper potholes, water damage than usual and dusty.

Junction to the village turn off: absolutely stellar, never seen it this good in 15 years if ever, 100mph even around the red rock corner, amazing!! 10/10
Village road, average, some smaller potholes tho, no issue. 7/10
Campsite road, average, someone took one pass with a blade along the road and maybe filled the biggest of holes, drain pushed into the bush from the flooding hole, some big nuggets left in the road 6-7/10

Water: the faucet at the motel is on but there is no hose fitting except a female threaded one about 3/4inch, not sure what would fit in there excepting perhaps a male steel thread that a hose bib could be attached to....bring your containers or a hose with funnel.

The store is empty and closed. As is the gas bar. One phone is still there and appears to be working....at least it has dial tone, who knows...I did not check for band office Wifi.
There was one campsite occupied on this lovely day with two kiters out, place looks regenerated with greens, no new huge logs I noted. Ray, you need to prune our hedge at the dayuse area

The lake water was at least to me surprisingly warm, the beach like a day in July, the spit area grass is nice and thick, not loads of firewood but a few new sticks arrived. Lovely, stunning place as always.

[SaltSpringKiterPeaceGuy]

Hi KUS,

Thanks so much for the update. It's good to know that positive changes are in the wind...

When I say positive I mean water and hydro...squatting I'm well into...as are long stays at the Nat...

Great detailed report.

Kevin

[otisdadog]

It will be nice to see some sense of management to the campground. When you say gate attendant does that mean they will limit how many people can stay overnight?

[JL]

Read what Kus said. It sounds like business as usual: Bring toilet paper & water

[MartyD]

I don't know about the other school but just for the record we pay full rate for the campsite we use for the whole season. Not cheap.

[nanmoo]

Where is our Ministry of Forests???? Any harvesting codes at all left intact??....

Private Forest Land... It's the wild west.

[GWIND]

Thanks for the post Kuster. I really don't care about anything at Nitwit lake except the hedge near the fire pit. Get on that mr. Vanderbylt.
I do not want to see Martin unhappy that he can't see the lake from his truck in the a.m.

[windaddiction]

Sweet thanks for the report! hopefully the south rd will get graded soonish, as I have never taken the north rd.

[KUS]

Today: Road graded from about little Shaw all the way to Alberni junction, could see the last pass ridges but the heavy rains already did a bit of a number, but Kissinger area went from super nasty to wow great, the superhighway from Bernie junction to Nat, incl red rock corner, had some minor water damage but still very good, Nat village road turnoff was done, much better.

45 min Youbou to campground

sites backfilled with small gravel look mostly very nice now, good job! Still a few nuggets & a grader pass or two required. Two kites out, two WSfers

[JL]

Beer truck http://www.usedvictoria.com/classified- ... k_22100126

[KUS]

Update May 31, 2014:
Road are good to excellent:


Youbou road to Kissinger very good, hardly any potholes, some calcium coating, dusty in sections 8/10

Kissinger to One-way, there is some water damage and avoidable potholes, also some road leveling efforts have left graded shale on the roadway which loves cutting up tires, I would drive quite slowly over these nasty but flat sections, 6/10

One way to junction: ripper, 9/10

Junction to Village turnoff: pretty damn good still, some corners at red rock eroding a bit but nothing serious, 8/10

Village road some potholes as well as way into the campground has speedbumps, not all the paved kind. 7/10

[KUS]

Slight revisions....the heavy traffic has really deteriorated the Kissinger to Alberni turnoff section not much worse but probably 4/10 now

The stretch from Alberni turnoff to village exit is also sucking a bit more, likely 7/10 pretty good still.

Campground road sucks, some of those holes could easily be filled with a rake if someone tried machine is sitting right freakin there too. But I guess it's more important to collect $17 a head

Oh and the store appears to again be OPEN

[Jfish]

Road in from Port Alberni was freshly graded today. Like a highway the whole way except the usual suspect areas. Alberni outlook overlook and road into village after the Carmannah fork had the occasional potholes/rough surface, but barely bad enough to mention. Smooth sailing. Biggest concern is leftover loose gravel from grading which can be a little slippy on the corners. A few off-roaders, but not many.

Store was open. Sorry, I didn't go in and check the supplies though. Had to make it back out quick.

[ambientrax]

for a day like this, and can't say I was looking forward to it... next thing will be north beach los barriles baja... whoopdeedooo... find another place I suppose... oh well. soon you will need a license too kite. and required helmets next.

[eksrae]

shall i ask the question about having to pay ten bucks to park for the day
i dont see anything on gov website except 13 bucks per day to camp and 2 buck fee on top of for waterfront