Meager Creek Hot Springs, which was closed for more than five years after a bridge providing access to the springs was washed out in a flood, is closed again after a recent slide of mud and debris washed out a bridge and covered the road three kilometres downstream from the springs.

In spite of the closure, an official with the Sea to Sky Recreation District this week said there are a couple of silver linings in the slide along Capricorn Creek that washed out the Meager Creek/Lillooet Forest Service Road and bridge during a rainfall event on Sept. 18 and 19.

First, of course, is that no one was hurt in the incident. Second is that the busiest season at the hot springs — which had just re-opened this past spring — was almost at its end. And third is that the bridge will likely be replaced next spring, and at far lower cost than the $900,000 it cost to replace the upstream Meager Creek bridge that was washed out in 2003.

Norbert Greinacher, recreation officer for the Sea to Sky Recreation District, on Tuesday (Sept. 29) said that because the entire Meager Creek corridor is frequently hit by mudslides, most creek crossings along the road are bridged using old flatbed rail cars that have had their wheels removed, reducing the cost of bridge replacement.

“I don’t think anyone wants to stick a lot of money into a bridge under those sorts of circumstances,” Greinacher said, adding that a similar event at Capricorn Creek in 1998 had caused similar problems. “It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when because there are many areas in the valley there that are highly unstable, subject to debris flows and landslides.”

It took five years for the Provincial Emergency Program and the ministry of tourism, culture and the arts to come up with the money to replace the much more substantial Meager Creek bridge.

The hot springs are closed for the remainder of the season, mainly to reduce the incentive for people to try to make their way through the mud, rocks and debris, Greinacher said. He said the mud is waist-deep in some areas and some of the large boulders that came down with the slide could shift and injure someone.

The remainder of the area, however, is still technically open, though officials are not recommending travel via the Meager Creek route.

“It is hunting season, and there’s access to the Harrison Hut at the Overseer Glacier. You could always go in through the Elaho and go back the way you came in,” Greinacher said.