In March of 2021, My friend Sam Popoff and I ventured out to try to find the “Sunshine Trail” on the front face of Observation Mountain. I had a Google map link that Chris Moslin made of the observation mountain trails, but somehow I couldn’t figure out how to sign in/open it so that it would show the actual coordinates of where we were walking with that map simultaneously, so we were just vaguely looking for the off trail on our way up observation from the green shed. We ended up missing the trail turnoff completely but made it up to the top that other way. When we made it to the top, I tried again to sign into that trail map and it worked that time, and we could find the end of the trail and work our way down.
I/we decided that a sign should be made so other people could find that trail since we figured others might have trouble locating it as well. John Westaway did such an amazing job creating the trail, (and lots of others on Observation Mountain) it needed to be found more easily so others could enjoy it! Especially since it’s the earliest observation mountain trail of the year since all the sun melts it much earlier than the trails on the back side which were all still covered in snow/ice/or mud.
So I decided to make a “Sunshine Trail” sign and placed it near the start of the trail.
Later, Sam helped me make a bunch of arrow signs to add after the main sign, and then she, I, and Jenna Campbell went up with a drill to place arrows to help people navigate through the zig and zags of the trail.
Mr. Westaway then asked me to make more signs for some of his other trails that had not yet been marked with signs and gave me some funds for more supplies.
At one point Michelle Mallette suggested I apply for a Neighbourhood Small Grant to help with funding for materials, and I applied last year and this year and have been able to make many more signs to help mark trails in the Grand Forks area.
Project Leader: Camilla D
