A new Facebook post has gotten a lot of attention for highlighting what many believe is a growing problem: the lack of respect many people have for B.C.’s pristine wilderness.
Joffre Lakes Provincial Park, about an hour northeast of Whistler, is a popular destination for campers and backcountry revellers. The problem: too many leave their garbage behind.
That’s what Devan Frances and Vince Emond encountered this weekend. What was supposed to have been an ordinary camping trip to the park became an impromptu park clean-up for the pair.
It all started Emond wandered off to take photos.
“It was just off the trail,” he said. “I was walking around and discovered a huge pile of trash. It was pretty disgusting when I found it, to be honest. It was a lot more trash than I’d ever seen out in the wilderness.”
It’s not clear exactly how long the trash had been there, but Frances believes it was recent. They decided they could not leave it there, so they packed it all up and hauled it all out.
“A tent cover, beer cans, a lens cap for a camera, coffee cups, dog poop bags,” Frances said, describing the load they carried for about four-and-a-half kilometres.
“I was annoyed at first, but then when we got closer to the bottom that’s when we became so angry at the fact that you’re carrying so much stuff. But it wasn’t yours to begin with,” Frances said.
This isn’t the first time casual campers have made a mess of B.C. parks, leaving behind a trail of trash, and frustrating nature lovers here and beyond. But this latest incident is getting a lot of attention because the pair posted photos of their clean-up on social media.
They’re hoping to send a message.
“We were just out to enjoy the wilderness. It’s pretty sad that what was supposed to be a nice, casual, camp out at Joffre ended up being a trash picking up mission,” Emond said.