Crest Creek Crags, BC Parks and The Heathens Mountaineering Club
A personal retrospective, and perhaps an epitaph.
The Heathens over on Vancouver Island for many years performed extraordinary volunteer trail work at Crest Creek Crags on Vancouver Island. Unfortunately, they fell into conflict with the Government pertaining to camping and a proposed volunteer agreement, which eventually led to a court case culminating in a plea agreement.
Fast forward to 2020, and I have read reports of overgrown and deteriorating trails at Crest Creek Crags. Having to my knowledge never signed the volunteer agreement, The Heathens appear to be long gone - perhaps even extinct. A vacuum has been created.
It is interesting and oftentimes tragic how we humans can become utterly convinced that we are on the side of what is right during a dispute. In the aftermath of two entrenched opposing sides who believed precisely this, all that is left now is trails choking with bush and deteriorating trail structures.
In this way, it is possible for both parties to be right, but absolutely wrong at the same time.
Unsettling as it is, things often end not with a bang, but with a quiet whimper.
The cynic in me wonders if in fact Government and BC Parks actually wanted this outcome; less park, people and volunteers to manage, less hassle, less expense. They certainly appear to have broken the volunteer spirit of the Heathens.
I can't help but feel a sense of sadness and loss now that the dust has long settled. Indeed, the politics of Crest Creek Crags has grown virtually silent now.
Just another footnote on the page of history that I will endeavour to remember and preserve.
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