[Nick Heath]

SKABC always welcomes your suggestions for ways to improve local paddling access and destinations.

We are fortunate to have a substantial Legacy Fund for this purpose. This has made it possible to build overnight capacity and sanitation in Howe Sound and to provide leverage and credibility in applying for other grants.

Ever-tightening parking restrictions seem to be the most common challenge for us paddlers, even at out-of the-way launches.  Maybe SKABC members could be added to those who qualify for resident passes (e.g. the $10/yr District of North Vancouver passes)?  Any ideas?

Topic

[Kapila Jayaweera]

We needs to find a way to help trip leaders, get more people to lead trips. I see many people have skills to lead though they seems to be bit hesitant. We only do trip planning meeting early in the year but may be add a second session in the middle of the season to add more trips, fine tune existing trips.

Also like what we did last year by posting trips without a leader or co-leader to see anyone wanted to pick up and carry on.

Also if club can provide additional training for the trips leaders like Wilderness First aid, subsidy for Paddle Canada courses, leadership training etc assuming they lead trips after taking training.
First aid kit idea was great, now I carry SKABC First Aid kit all the time.
Paddling film festival also a good idea to bring people together.

I like to see if we can setup a meeting or in person session to brainstorm how to get more people into trip leading.

[Kevin Amos]

As Membership Officer I agree that access to equipment is a challenge for Members who join the club without a kayak. However we have paddles at locations were rentals are available. However I do feel we don’t want the club to own equipment. Club Locarno is what I always suggest and believe we co-exist very well together. I have been reaching out to club Locarno to invite them to our social events in the hopes of growing our membership & possibility increasing our enrollment in training.

[Mick Allen]

Another idea with respect to launches, their parking allowances and possible adjacent parking would  be a thread in this forum that included a continuously updated kml file.

this file would have specific launch locations and any additional notes or locations that would be of interest plus any related comments too.

The updates could come from posts to that forum thread or possibly by each poster – as  files are so small, if the ‘most recent’ one was corrupted, it would be no problem to just load up the previous one and move on from there.  And for backup, an older but perfect version could be held by a nominated person.

All that would be required would be the ability to upload a file of some kind [a kml or probably a zip file] to one’s post.

anyway, another idea.

[Mick Allen]

Interesting . . . a reply I previously wrote has disappeared even tho’ the ‘Last Post’ and reply number reports that it’s there.

Anyway:

The use of ‘less than optimal’ bivouac-style overnite stops is a strategy that I think will be workable. Using this approach or one that slightly challenges ‘policies’ could go a long way to enabling transit past this difficult Keats to Thormanby stretch at least. To me at least, there are several candidate locations, in a descending order, that exceed, or meet this strategy:

The first, and to my mind the best, is Wilson Creek. This is actually crown land and has previously designated for public enjoyment for decades. The main drawback to this and other Sechelt region site designations is that the local indigenous group will not support any additional BCMT designation. However in the meantime, this, and other, crown locations should be able to be used until literally closed to public use. Altho a small site, it has quite interesting weather shelter at all except at extreme low water. And is about the best location one could want:

Wilson Creek:

Next, just a little SE of Wilson Ck, is a weird undesignated piece of land in seemingly perpetual limbo: the very end of Beach-David Avenue. This piece of previously private land seems to be in the never-never-land of handover to the Sunshine Cst parks system, but not yet accomplished [from when I last looked into it]. Quite a large undeveloped upland, with a small sea access that is used by locals in-the-know for small boat storage. So temporal ‘kayak storage’ should be ok while just ‘inadvertently’ bivouacing a few meters upland – or possible right there at the t.o. the beach:

Beach Avenue:

The next one is a [66’ wide, 21+ meters] Road End Right-of-Way that is the water access to the Roberts Ck Campground that is about 1 km upland. While certainly not a designated overnight stop, I think a ‘temporary’ overnite stop could well be ‘argued’ for as that upland hike is just too far just this only time. This location is just a little more SE of Wilson Ck and Beach Ave – so all three are reasonable central betw Keats and Thormanby.

Park Ave:

And the last one included here would be more ‘stealthish’: a small wooded area at the SE corner of Chaster Beach. This location has been used by others for temporary stays but another drawback is that it’s quite a bit further S: only 6 km from Keats – so not a great halfway stop​ – but provocative like the others:

Chaster  Bch:

Anyway, these are locations that could qualify for the mentioned short ‘overnite’ stop strategy. I personally think that Wilson Ck is the best because of location, ocean shelter, and wilderness aspect.  Leaving aside the BCMT hat, comments?

[Nick Heath]

Thank you, Mick, for these non-standard suggestions. Let me address just one point.

As you are well aware we tried long and hard to find some overnight camping along the “stretch” from Keats I and Gibsons to Sechelt and the Thormanby Is. The solution might be to simply accept a less-than-optimal bivouac-style camp on one of several beaches that are not directly overlooked by homes. The upland might be Private, but the foreshore is not, so camping seems feasible – at Neaps anyway. Won’t the neighbours complain? Perhaps, but you would be on the public intertidal strip, so the  Regional District rules will not apply there (“No camping or overnight parking”) and I doubt you could be forced to move along. The polite/discrete way to do this is to gave no fires and to put up hammocks/tents only at dusk and take them down as early the next morning as practical. So this would not be for lazy, destination camping but simply and overnight stop when touring. Who is willing to try it?

[Nick Heath]

The ‘club owned boats’ idea has much appeal, but SKABC in the past has been challenged  to own/maintain/ share even small equipment such as VHF radios (we had to sell them off cheaply), hydrophones (all ‘disappeared’.) This is not to mention marine charts and BBQ – all impacted by a lack of suitable storage space

Having a formal membership arrangement with a group like Club Locarno would seem to make the best sense. We’ve mulled this idea before and encourage non-boat owners to look into joining the kayak section of that club.

A mutual range of benefits might result – they get increased access to trips and training etc and maybe boat maintenance too. We get access to some boats for beginners or apartment dwellers and their boats can be booked and used either at or away from their Jericho site.

I think this should be explored more vigorously than I was able to do in the past couple of years. We have or have had several dual members.

 

[Yekaterina Yushmanova]

The idea of club boats is very appealing. I think it is a huge barrier for folks in the Lower Mainland due to lack of storage. Or/and a secure club storage facility.
Also adding a campsite between Keats and the Thormanbies.

 

[Nick Heath]

I received a suggestion from Tony C for a new path from the parking lot to facilitate launching kayaks etc off the N beach at Porteau Cv. I ran the idea by BC Parks, but the problem is that the dive area buoyage prohibits all vessels (even human powered) from the N bay all the way to shore.

[Mick Allen]

So throwing stuff against the wall, here’s a bunch of ideas:

–          Investigating availability of club volunteer shuttling: ie from a launch adjacent parking location to the launch.

–          Organizing max 3hr parking protest letters. Promote having 10%  unrestricted [ but no on-site camping.] Or say a proportion being offsite launch parking with some unrestricted [ this might be an achievable strategy in few cases]

–          Or same thing with commercial shuttling. Or Uber situations: setup at launch, driver parks, Uber delivers driver. [difficult with solo paddler admittedly]

–          As more and more potential members are in apartments/condos etc what about having 3 or 4 club touring boats. Or looking at people getting into kayaking, what about smaller boats [12-14’] for anyone learning basics.

–          Add more sites to existing Howe Sound sites.

–          Add Wilson Ck [lower Sunshine Cst] to Thormanby Is transit understanding by club members. Or promote that North connection possibility.

–          Put pressure on Parks to open up capacity in Lasqueti and Lower Texada region.  Or the reverse, publicise or promote possibilities in this area – as it is an achievable alternative to Howe Sound.  Promote the Sechelt Portage to Sechelt Inlet – for arriving to, coming from or both. Why use car or ferry?

–          Promote in-club understanding that the Fraser River and/or  Pitt Lake are easy, accessible, historical local paddling areas. Maybe have a few 5 minute talks ea meeting about various local excursions. Maybe require  [heh heh] members to give a 2-5 min talk about where they go so that others get the feel of getting out there.

–          On day or short paddles, eliminate all ‘safety’ requirements , so that gear or skill is not an impediment to getting out there. [I presumable  local weather and main member judgement  would over-ride any reasonable concern]. Idea is to get ppl out, easily. Locations next. Then internally promote v. short trips: Howe Snd, Indian Arm, Pitt Lk, Sechelt In maybe

–          Discuss ‘stealth camping’ :  stealth camping possibilities, techniques, and concerns.  Where to employ and equipment and setup to achieve.  Who uses bivies; should all tents/tarps/boats be camouflage.

[Nick Heath]

Big thanks to those members who wrote in to me directly but we’d rather to see those suggestions here on the Forum to drum up some lively debate!

[Author]

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