Spring into B.C. Parks cutback - feeding the Olympic sneaky snake · 27.04.09 by colin newell
Have you been to a Provincial Park or B.C. recreational area lately? And come away feeling like you have been on acid?
I have not camped overnight in beautiful British Columbia since the Renaissance – but I have frequented day use areas… and lots of parks. And correct me if I am wrong, but isn’t this the most confusing experience ever?
Click on the photo above for the big picture
Lets start with parking. We were on the west coast of Vancouver Island recently when we pulled into a large heavily used park – at China Beach I think… ostensibly to walk down to the beach for an hour.
At the orientation sign was a stump with a stack of envelopes on it. On the orientation sign were instructions about the ticket spitter (for those with credit cards) and a reference to a mysterious Box where one can fill out a form and deposit a parking or camping remittance – in cash.
Starters. There was no ticket spitter. I looked high and low and could not see an electronic ticket kiosk. I tried hard to even imagine one – but that was to no avail.
And there was no box to put the damp envelopes in once you have figured out how (if at all) you fit in and how much you had to pay to park for an hour – if in fact parking fees were in effect.
To add to this Fellini-esque scene were groups of 20-something slacker-plaid-clad camper guys and girls standing around in small groups looking bewildered and eager to get down to drinking and sex. Utterly surreal.
Come on Parks Canada and the Province of British Columbia! You can do better. Or can you? I just read that almost 50% of park rangers in B.C. are going to be eliminated… so this confusion is just going to get worse.
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Interesting.
We haven’t been to a provincial park on the island yet.
Maybe the slacker campers pushed the ticket spitter over into the bushes because there was no park ranger around to stop them.
— Jabba Apr 28, 10:19 am #
Two things: There is nothing more touching than helping out crowds of bewildered looking 20-somethings… who have mistaken you for a person in authority… I actually had a VHF radio with me and a serious RCMPish looking antenna on the roof of my car (It is ham radio equipment…)
And the post-teen campers where trying to figure out where/how to pay for their camp spot – the camp was actually open because there were other clusters of more satiated looking young people already settled in…
Oh yea… that 2nd thing. I could not, for the life of me, explain the presence of a semi-intact car half way down the trail. From what I saw, it was in an impossible position off the 3 km trail 1/2 way down to the beach – proving once and for all time… that young people are not only over-sexed, but also, they possess magical powers….
Wingardium Leviosa
— Colin Newell Apr 28, 02:01 pm #