Several of us from around here are planning a paddling trip to Gwaii Haanas in the Queen Charlottes this summer. It may interest others to know what the "ropes" are this year. We determined: 1. Reservations are required. The cost is $15/person to a maximum of $60/group. Reservations opened March 1, and need to be arranged through Super, Natural BC (1-800-663-6000). 2. Parks has private and commercial parties on a daily quota, 175 people maximum per day, with the commercial groups having "priority." It was unclear how this would work, but the Gwaii Haanas staff told us if we wanted to be SURE of firm reservations, we should make them as soon after March 1 as possible. (We did.) I believe commercial groups have a May 1 (?) cutoff date to secure the portion of the 175/day quota they need. What's left is available to private parties, the way I understand it. July is expected to be very tight. YMMV 3. For 1998, there will not be a "head tax" from Parks. There was a proposal to charge a per person fee for each day on Gwaii Haanas. That is delayed until 1999. Anna Gajda at Parks was very helpful to us in developing our plans. There is general information, not completely current, on the Gwaii Haanas Web site (http://fas.sfu.ca/parkscan/gwaii). It is also worth exploring their Web-based summary of back country management policies (current and future; at: http://fas.sfu.ca/parkscan/gwaii/incons3.htm). This piece of the site includes the opportunity to give feedback. Parks is managing the feedback as a mini-forum on the policies. Might be worth a read. Certainly a good way to air things before a policy is carved in stone. -- Dave Kruger Astoria, OR *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:32:47 PDT