We took in a Metro Vancouver watershed tour today. We visited the Capilano Watershed, getting a behind-the-scenes look at where much of our drinking water comes from in the Vancouver/Lower Mainland area of BC.
It was fun and informative — highly recommended. We’d been to the Cleveland Dam several times before, but had not taken the tour into some of the restricted parts of the waterhed.
Also cool to see some signs of early water supply infrastructure still visible though slowly being reclaimed by the forest. . .
Capilano Dam spillway
Reservoir
Masks optional on the bus — most folks were still wearing them
Interesting seeing the forest gradually reclaiming old infrastructure from long ago. Settling ponds, a furnace for thawing frozen filters . . .
Testing the structural integrity of a back-country bridge : – )
I got a summer weekends gig through early October being an Ambassador on ParkBus that picks up hikers in downtown Vancouver and delivers them to Joffre Lakes past Pemberton on the Sea to Sky.
I give them the standard “don’t pick any flowers, pack out your garbage, and don’t pet the grizzly bears” orientation before sending them off .
They’re on their own to hike as many of the lakes as they’re able in five to six hours, and then I make sure everyone gets back to the bus and bring them home.
The Joffre Lakes trails have gotten crowded over the years, so First Nations, Parks, etc., got together and came up with a management plan.
You now need a (free) permit to hike the lakes to limit congestion, and services like ParkBus are helping to reduce vehicle traffic and parking.
It makes a lot more sense to transport up to 50 or so folks on a bus than having, say, 25 dual-occupancy private cars making the trip.
Capilano Dam spillway
