Re: [Paddlewise] attn. Apostles Islands Paddlers

Hi Dave,

So you have booked for the charlottes this summer? Do you
have route planned yet?

                                                Bill Pierson
                                                Bowen Island BC

Dave Kruger wrote:

> Chuck Holst wrote:
>
> Sarah wrote:
>
> > >Last year for the first time, our club had real trouble finding spots to
> > >camp on the islands, although we usually don't schedule our trips far in
> > >advance,  [snip]
>
> > I'm frustrated by this, too. Because the outfitters camp on the Park
> > Service reservation phone the first day group permits become available,
> > Andy Knapp has for the last few years had trouble reserving the group site
> > for the traditional Stockton Island Rendezvous. Up till a couple of years
> > ago, it was possible to reserve as late as April a group site on Sand
> > Island for both Saturday and Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. This year, the
> > Sand Island sites were already booked for Saturday when I called in
> > February. I was able to book a site for Sunday, but we will have to camp
> > somewhere on the mainland Saturday night.
> >
> > It is definitely time to talk to the Park Service. For my part, I will
> > propose that non-commercial groups and individuals be given preference in
> > the reservation system. One way to do this would be to allow them to make
> > reservations earlier than the commercial outfitters, in the case of group
> > sites, by two to four weeks; in the case of individual sites, by five to
> > seven days. Though this would not help the spontaneous paddler, I think it
> > would make the situation more equitable than it is now.
>
> Probably the interests of the commercial outfitters will not be well-served by
> that proposal, Chuck.  They need firm dates well in advance so they can
> advertise their trips and set up guides, etc.
>
> It might be more workable to allocate half the slots for commercial groups and
> half for non-commercial groups and run the reservation phone-in system for each
> in parallel (same phone number to call; two lists).  That way, each interest
> group has good access in advance.
>
> This is the system which now is used on Gwaii Haanas, in the Queen Charlottes.
> Previous to this year, GH had a reservation system in which outfitters took
> their slice of the pie first, and on many prime dates, they took the whole
> pie!  We got snuffed in '99, but were easily able to make reservations for '00
> in February.  To see a description of how Parks Canada does it, hit:
> http://fas.sfu.ca/parkscan/gwaii/ and search for the info packet.
>
> --
> Dave Kruger
> Astoria, OR
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