In response to letter to the editor July 21 titled Cosens Bay.
If I understand the writer’s point, his concern is not having road access all the way to Cosens Bay poses a danger to horseback riders and others using the park.
As one of many horseback riders using the park over the past 20 years, the last thing any of us wanted to see was more traffic via a maintained road. As horseback riders, we were all aware of the dangers of the secluded trails — bears, cougar, rattlesnakes — and we used the park at our own risk. It is impossible to provide road access to every area of this 1,000-hectare park. Many times, the worst danger of the ride was getting into the park via Cosens Bay Road due to dangerous vehicular traffic within and outside of the park boundaries.
Have you ever tried riding your horse when a truck bouncing an empty boat trailer, going double the posted speed and spraying gravel in all directions, goes flying past you? Or how about a noisy motor bike coming out of nowhere behind your horse, or the car full of partiers who thought it was cool to blast their horn as they were swerving past you? Aside from the above issues, there are so many other reasons why increased traffic in the park would be disastrous.
The fire hazard issue alone is huge. As residents of Cosens Bay Road, we are seeing a steady increase in the amount of vehicular traffic going into the park at night and we have witnessed the damage of vehicles going off road and tearing up the grasslands, lighting fires and leaving their litter behind.
Large rocks have been placed along the roadside in a somewhat futile attempt to keep vehicles off the grasslands.
We are almost willing to endure the endless party-goers that collect at the Cosens Bay parking lot as complaining just pushes them further into the park where the consequences are deadly. Should a wildfire ever get started in the park, we won’t be worrying about protecting the grasslands, species at risk and the wildlife, as it will all be destroyed. Wildfire is an enormous risk to homes.
Even without road access, have you ever looked at the beautiful tables and benches at Cosens Bay beach that have been damaged, the garbage strewn on the beach, evidence of fires and washrooms trashed? Have you ever stop to think about the hours of work required to repair this senseless vandalism?
There is already a vehicle accessible beach at Twin Bays, with a large parking lot, beautiful maintained beach, lawns, picnic tables, washrooms and garbage bins for those that need an easy access to this magnificent park.
Even though the parking lot at Twin Bays is not secluded, and vehicles are only allowed from dawn to dusk, there is a tremendous amount of vehicle break-ins happening in broad daylight. Just think what would happen at a secluded parking lot close to Cosens Bay.
There are those that will say that the people in close proximity to the park are just trying to keep the traffic and park usage down for our own selfish reasons which is absolutely untrue.
More parking for horse trailers at the entrance to the park at the existing parking lot is required.
I can only hope that more people will write in and stand up for preserving our spectacular Kalamalka Lake Provincial Park as a resource for all to enjoy.
Kathy Nisse
Coldstream
