Keep your distance if you’re going outdoors
Sunshine, blue skies, fresh air — and two-metre separation.
Enjoying outdoor recreation should be a priority during the current pandemic, but maintaining that crucial social distancing is a challenge, not only with large groups of friends, but retail shopping for essential items.
So the Sheriff and Constant Companion Carmen have adapted by hiking and cycling with only a couple of friends while we maintain our coronavirus-free distance. We have revisited some of our favourite outings like the Grand Kelowna Triangle, John Hindle Drive-Okanagan Rail TrailGlenmore Valley loop and Brandt’s Creek Linear Park. Some of our favourite routes will be shared in the coming weeks. In the meantime, there are cancellations and alternatives to group outings.
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The Central Okanagan Naturalists’ Club has cancelled its monthly meeting, which was set for next week, and “out of an abundance of caution, we will also cancel executive meetings, conservation committee meetings, hikes and snowshoe trips, Monday, Thursday and Saturday birding trips, and all early-season botany trips until the end of April,” said president Rick Gee in the latest newsletter.
At the May 12 meeting, 7 p.m. at Evangel Church in Kelowna, if it goes ahead, Craig Lewis will provide a glimpse of the Mustang area, a highland area in Nepal similar to the Grand Canyon of Arizona with its towering snow-capped peaks, arid landscape with spectacular hoodoos, eroded canyon walls and an ancient human history.
Lewis is a past president, a lifelong hiker and outdoorsman, who spent his career as a gardener and golf course superintendent.
In the newsletter, Gee also provided an update on the CONC Bluebird Trail after he and two other club members checked bluebird boxes at the upstream end of the trail in Gallagher’s Canyon. They cleaned out all the boxes (none had winter residents), soaped the insides and moved half the boxes to what they believe are better locations (further away from trees) in an attempt to discourage house wrens.
While doing this, they saw three western bluebirds in the neighbourhood. “Maybe they will like our houses this year,” said Gee. Still to be done are the eight houses further downstream but the trails used to access them were still icy so members will hold off pending warmer weather.
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Several Making Tracks’ readers responded to a recent column about the barely-visible marked crosswalk at the intersection of the Okanagan Rail Trail and busy Airport Way in Kelowna.
A button on a utility post activates flashing yellow lights overhead for motorists, some of whom don’t stop. But ORT hikers and bikers can’t see those lights and there are no pedestrian/biker symbol lights indicating it is safe to cross.
“There used to be a crossing light like the one at the airport near my place,” wrote Thomas S.
“Whenever I used it, I had to watch the traffic to know if it was working. Near my daughter’s place in Burnaby, there is a similar crossing light. However, instead of just the lights flashing towards the traffic, there is also a flashing light facing the pedestrians. With this light, pedestrians know exactly when the crossing light is flashing. This is a much better system than the ones used in Kelowna.”
“Thanks for getting after the city about the Okanagan Rail Trail crossing at the airport. It’s a difficult crossing and will only get worse as the weather improves. Maybe COVID-19 will delay the problem until next year,” wrote Rick.
“The same type of flashing lights exist on Lakeshore Road by the Siesta Motel,” wrote June B.
“Majority of users are elderly from Lakeshore Place. Lights are hooded and my mom doesn’t feel comfortable stepping out when she can’t see if they are activated. Perhaps having a slit in the hood so pedestrian can see would help. Also at airport, people may stop for pedestrian pushing bike rather than a rider. Just a thought.”
One reader also reported a nearcollision with a vehicle at Airport Way.
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On Feb. 15, the Sheriff wrote an open letter to the Provincial Trails Advisory Body which is conducting a formal review of B.C.’s trails strategy. The advisory body is cochaired by the Ministry of Forests (which includes Recreation Sites and Trails B.C.) and the Outdoor Recreation Council. But recent events show the ministry is up to its old tricks.
In 2004, the 164-kilometre Columbia and Western Rail Trail between Castlegar and Midway was gifted to the province by the Trans
Canada Trail organization for nonmotorized use and TCT investments made in the trail, yet RSTBC allowed motorized use to continue.
On July 26, 2019, John Hawkings, RSTBC director, asked for feedback from stakeholders on a proposal to cancel the recreation designation for a 67-kilometre section between Paulson and Fife, and turn it into an official road tenure. Stakeholders had only until until Aug. 26 for feedback. More than 650 letters and a 600-name petition opposed it. A decision is expected early this year.
On July 30, 2019, only four days later, the Ministry of Forests gave Interfor permission to construct a logging road on 12.5 kilometres of the Columbia and Western Rail Trail immediately east of Christina Lake. No public consultation. No stakeholder consultation.
That isn’t the only one: about a dozen other ministry authorizations have been provided in the past along much of the Great Trail.
In spite of that provincial trails strategy review which includes rail trails, Hawkins announced on March 6 that he will conduct his own Former Rail Corridor Assessment Project.
This assessment of the current state of the network of former rail corridors under provincial ownership will include corridors managed as trails, segments of corridors within BC Parks, corridors used primarily for transportation as well as abandoned corridors that may no longer be accessible, he said.
“Information from the assessment will be used to guide decisions and ensure appropriate management of the full network of former provincial rail corridors.”
Over the next few months, McElhanney Ltd. will reach out to local government contacts, tourism organizations, volunteer and stewardship groups to gather information about the current status, use and interests in the corridors, said Hawkins.
That’s the same procedure used in the provincial trails strategy review.
The Sheriff received feedback on his open letter to the PTAB via Facebook from Andrew Drouin of Penticton.
“An excellent ‘Open Letter’ from our friends to the North. As a founding member of the Provincial Trails Advisory Body, I agree with J.P. in full. At one point during his letter, he suggests that Recreation Sites and Trails BC (RSTBC) and the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Ö are working a little too closely to be unbiased.
“I can confirm this, as during our battle with BCTS over the Carmi clear-cut proposal, half the time that we met with BCTS and RSTBC, they arrived in the same vehicles, from the same Vernon office.”
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Friends of Okanagan Rail Trail had to postpone its Filmed by Bike film festival on April 30 at the Rotary Centre for the Arts in Kelowna.
“But there is an exciting online Global Bike Festival that is sure to help to lift your spirits, fill your sails and hold you over until the showing of the full film package later this summer,” said member Ashley Lubyk on Facebook.
At 5 p.m. today, the paid event will include:
— A live performance by bicycleloving musician and poet Ben Weaver;
— A collection of independent bike movies curated by Filmed by Bike director Ayleen Crotty;
— Community Global Hangout + Film Chat with bike filmmaker Manny Marquez;
Get your online tickets at filmedbybike.org/global-bike-festivaltickets
Filmed by Bike is a touring film festival, launched in Portland, Oregon, that features the world’s best bike movies.