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Rossland Range’s Red Dog shelter getting renovated

Red Dog, located on the north side of the Rossland Range Recreation Site, is being renovated this fall.
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The Red Dog shelter will be renovated this fall.

While a number of shelters in the Rossland Range Recreation Site are being torn down and rebuilt, one shelter will remain standing after a bit of a renovation.

Red Dog, located on the north side of the highway, is relatively easy to access on foot or by snowshoe and is a heavily used shelter. It’s also the only pre-existing shelter that met the basic Recreation Site standards, and that’s why it was selected for a renovation instead of a rebuild.

Don Vockeroth, who along with his family and Michelle Cordiez, has taken on the renovation, explains that the woodshed will be replaced and there will be a porch for people to sit on.

“The woodshed, which is attached to the back of the building…, it was hard to keep clean because a lot of rats and rodents got in there, so we’re going to build a new woodshed, just outside to the left,” says Don.

Red Dog itself will have some new windows and doors installed, a new bench built along one of the walls, and its floors refinished.

“We don’t want to do too much, because sometimes those old log cabins if you do too much, then they’re not old log cabins anymore,” says Vockeroth.

The new renovation will also see a new outhouse put in at Red Dog.

“We’ve got that all painted, now we’ve got to haul it up and dig a new location for it,” says Vockaroth.

The improvements will also include better signage to help hikers, skiers and snowshoers find their way to Red Dog, and a small change to one of the trails.

“There’s a bit of a trail that takes off that little road that goes up and then it’s quite steep for a small section. We’re just going to bypass that, make it a lot more walkable,” says Vockeroth.

The project will begin in September and still needs more volunteers. Anyone interested can contact Don Vockeroth at 250-231-4612 or powderhoundstore@yahoo.ca.

Other Rossland Range shelter stories:

Friends of the Rossland Range build new Mosquito Cabin

Putting up timber: new Lepsoe Basin cabin

Original builders revive Viewpoint Cabin

44th Field Engineer Squadron building Chimo cabin in Rossland Range

Original builder of Not So Secret Cabin takes on rebuild

FORR volunteers begin work on Old Glory fire lookout restoration

Rossland Range’s Sunspot shelter to be rebuilt in sunnier spot