HEWLETT PEAK (Nelson R) by Kim Kratky
On July 14th, Peter T. and I biked up Hidden Crk. and did Hewlett Pk. (7,382′).
Interesting new items about ownership and access. When we rode up, the gate at the bottom was unlocked, and on reaching km. 4 or 5 we ran into a small business logging show. A former student of both mine and Peter, Perry Salekin (ex-Selkirk College Wildland Rec), told us that this was Crown Land and his crew were hauling to Kalesnikoff. Sure enough, we didn’t run into a Darkwoods warning sign until about km. 8.
Following roads that go round the N. side of the bump at 927-500 on 82F/3 (between km. 11 and 12), we rode into a cutblock around 5300′ on the S. side of the ridge W. of Hewlett Pk. We then headed straight up an open burn (easygoing) and diagonalled E. to the top. 16 km. of biking took 2 hrs. 20 min. with a 3000′ altitude gain.
The hike to the summit was a further 80 min. as we reached the top just before 5:00 (we didn’t start the outing till after 1:00 pm). From the summit down to the cars near the highway was a cool 90 min., including a hike and ride. Total time: 5 hrs. 35 min. The main haul road goes south of that 5900′ bump and seems to go right through a pass E. of Hewlett and into Porcupine Crk. Our road ended in the cutblocks we hiked from. There’s certainly substantial potential here for road-type mountain bike riders.
On a related topic, I can tell you that Sacred Ride has a map showing a recommended ride up Oscar Creek, through Oxide Pass E. of Jubilee Mtn., down into Porcupine Creek, and back out that road to the highway. Mark, one of the owners, says that the Oxide Pass connector is all road, not trail, riding. This would be pretty physically challenging.
