The Editor,
Re. “Keep Your Distance at Metro Vancouver's Regional Parks” (The Tri-City News, March 25)
With a growing sense of panic, I see trailheads crowded with more and more vehicles as individuals and families are itching to get outdoors.
The combination of prolonged social distancing and better weather mean more people are bound to want to access trails at Burke Mountain, Coquitlam River and Minnekhada Regional Park for their mental and physical well being.
As an avid hiker and trail runner who happens to be an ICU nurse as well, I beg the Metro Vancouver parks and recreation boards to not just sit by and let the inevitable closures happen, like at Buntzen Lake, as it will be impossible for people to allow for two meters of distance.
Please develop a system to fairly distribute trail use, such as allowing even or odd address days to use the trails on Saturdays and Sundays. Or perhaps even or odd addresses from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 1 p.m. to close. Anything to help us from finding ourselves unable to physically distance.
This whole system of self-quarantine has been based on an honour system as it is. I trust other trail users to abide by a rule that will enable continued access our beloved outdoors, needed now more than ever before.
Rebecca McLellan, Port Coquitlam
