Part 1 of a two-part feature.
By Estelle Noakes
Skmana Lakes lie just north of Loakin-Bear Creek Road, 14 kilometres from the Village of Chase or eight off the Adams Lake Road.
The two lakes and surrounding area offer a delightful multipurpose recreational area with skiing, snowshoeing and sledding in winter, and camping, fishing, hiking, biking and horseback riding in summer.
In early logging days, Adams River Lumber Co. diverted the creek, damming the lake for a flume that transported logs down to the Adams River. Later, the area was used as a Japanese work camp during the Second World War (the old buildings have just recently been bulldozed). A biathlon training area was set up in the 1970s (although there is no evidence of its actual use).
The origins of Skmana Lakes as a winter recreational area began in the early 1980s when a group from Chase and Pritchard (including the Spencer, Crema, Clark, Lovlin, McLellan, Hopland, Grube, Hutchings and Boscher families), were searching for a winter recreational area for cross-country skiing and a tobogganing hill.
The first area they tried was the Neskonlith meadows and they skied and tobogganed there for a few years. Jean Jenks along with sons, Hamish and Ian provided ski lessons for children.
The area proved unsatisfactory due to the early disappearing and sometimes absent snow.
Roger Behn, a teacher from Chase High School, who had been instrumental in the planning for the Biathlon at Skmana Lakes, had some good maps and it was soon discovered that Skmana Lakes lay in a snow belt. An informal recreational area was set up at Skmana Lakes.
To enable the club to trackset the trails, Don and Eileen Boscher supplied a snowmobile. The home-fashioned tracking equipment was such that someone had to sit on it to weigh it down – a very precarious perch. When the snowmobile turned out to be inadequate, the Boshers lent the club $5,000 for the purchase of a Yamaha snowmobile.
The club, through fundraising – which included logging and, later through assisting at casinos – was able to pay off the debt. An old cabin was donated by Quaaout Lodge, hauled to Skmana and put on the west side of West Skmana Lake near the road to the Forest Service Recreation Site. It made a cozy warm-up hut until 2001 when it was burned down by vandals.
A new hut was built in the meadow which is not accessible to road traffic. The builders for the cabin were John Thornbury and George Carlin, with the assistance of many club members.
With the money raised from casinos, the club was able to afford better tracking equipment. Ted Kay, who was president at that time, was instrumental in the purchase of a Bombardier and trail groomers to track the trails. He did the tracking for many years and looked after the maintenance of the equipment, a position which George Carlin took over and continues to do with help from other members.
The old Bombardier served the Skmana Ski Club for more than 20 years and was replaced by a Ginzugroomer and new tracking equipment in 2010.
The fundraising for the new equipment was spearheaded in the capable hands of Brian David, then president of the club.