Western Canada Wilderness Committee

From Brandywine to Alice Lake: My long weekend on the Sea-to-Sky

So I went up to Brandywine falls and was planning a full and exciting weekend of hanging out in the parking lot and camping in the small campsite there. What I didn't count on was Murray, the campsite manager...

Before I start discussing my weekend at the falls, I would like to talk about my bitter disappointment that the Liberal government deparked the eastern boundaries of the Southern Chilcotins. I've personally been discussing this issue with people door-to-door for two-plus years and I really thought we should not have seen this kind of nonsense happen. I guess it just goes to show you what a bunch of jerks we're dealing with. It really is a time when parks aren't safe and it drives home that this Park Lover's Tour is quite important. Reflecting also on the fact that we managed to prevent the Working Forest inititive from taking place (in this mandate, at least), I think that although the situation is kind of scary, there is hope for making the Liberals pause. While we can't win 'em all, hopefully they can't win another election (though I guess if you're reading this, you're probably the choir and I'm probably preaching).

So back to Murray. Murray is a cool guy who's various charming qualities I'm not going to elaborate on, but I'll just say, I liked him. He is a crdit to his profession and I wish there were more of him. He works the very small Brandywine area from 7am to 11pm everyday. He lives in the little A-frame in the lot. He did, however, call his supervisor and then ask me to move outside the park boundaries (about 30 meter from where I was). So I sat by the dusty highway and gathered signatures from those who were aware that if you park just off the highway, you don't have to pay for parking. After a full day of that and a night of listening to the trains that drive by right next to the campsite at all hours of the day and night, I decided to move down to Alice Lake for the last 2 days of the long weekend.

Alice Lake is a really nice place. It was smokin' busy on the Sunday I was there. I was told that it used to be the swimming hole for Squamish locals but now that the meters are there, it's mostly Vancouverites that go there. I learned here that management of every park on the sea-to-sky corridor is done by one company. Upon coming to power the Liberals cancelled all the bids of the park operator and got new ones submitted. Ben, who now works for the company that runs these parks, used to operate Alice Lake for about a decade (I forget if it was 8, 9 or 14 years, but it was one of those). I was told by another visitor that he used to consider it the best run park on the corridor. Ben was a good fellow who told me that new regulations take the onus for taking care of the parks away from the government and leaves them at the discretion of the park operator. So, if I wanted to maximize the profit of my company, I could probably cut all kinds of corners, by not repainting things or fixing picnic benches or whater it is (one of the handicapped parking spots was faded away and people kept parking in it). Ben told me some years he would lose money on the operation but that it was a good job and he really enjoyed it. He had a fair amount of contempt for the meters. They were always breaking down and the company that made them was a huge operation with meters from here to New York (which is where the guy who needed to fix them was headed on business one day when Ben called about a broken meter in Alice Lake). If they were going to get meters, he asked, why not get decent ones?

Lastly, I'll echo the sentiments of a Scottish man who spotted to sign the petition. "What aboot tha single moothers and poeple tha' can nay affoord to come to tha park with these stewpid fees?" (Okay, I'm no Bobby Burns, but you get that he had a strong accent). Yeah, people forget that poverty isn't just beggars on the street. Their are all kinds of hard situations in life (check out the Anti-Poverty Committees website if you doubt it) where charging people $5 to visit the lake means that some people can't go. That's not the kind of country where I want to live. A Persian lady added (and I won't try the accent), "What are we, all Donald Trumps trying to make a dollar off of everything?" Makes you wonder. This is about keeping our wild places wild and public. Let's not forget that the government works for the people, not the other way around.