Trails Manitoba Annual Report 2017 Annual Report 2 | Page 11

Member Report Pinawa Friends of the TCT The Pinawa Friends of the TCT have organized a variety of hikes over the past few years. These have ranged in distance from 2 to 28 km (usually 5 to 12 km), and have included all sections of the Pinawa Trail as well as neighbouring trails in the Seven Sisters Falls and Lac du Bonnet areas. Several hikes were included in the Great Trail celebration on August 26th, and others have taken place at all seasons, including novelties such as moonlight hikes. An Eco-Counter PYRO-Box has now been in use on the Pinawa Trail for almost two years, providing hour-by-hour counts of passersby. It uses infra-red technology to count “warm bodies”, and is revealing impressive levels of trail use. This plot shows mainly usage of the Ironwood Trail near the “pergola” picnic shelter, with warm-season counts typically in the range of 50 to 150 people per day, occasionally spiking close to 300. This plot shows visitor counts at the Pinawa suspension bridge. Even allowing for double counts of most visitors walking to and from the bridge (one-way through traffic is low here), it indicates spikes close to 1000 visitors per day on busy holiday weekends. This new counter is helping us get support from the Municipality as well as grant monies. Annual Report -2017 Year in Review p.11