Readers’ letters: signs of hope, right before your eyes | Letters

Caffeine, natural bodies of water, a Facebook friend and a game of whack-a-mole: perhaps no item stands out in the remaining weather from our crazy week. But I can’t wait for just about everything to get better. First up, some more letters from Dog Maps and a special request from a letter writer:

Pettibone Trails Closed

I was on the Pettibone Trail with my friend Cindy on Friday morning. The main trails were close together, but to the south were already closed. We called the local hikers Facebook groups asking to know about the area we could hike in. I was hoping that the last ditch effort by local hikers to save the terrain might be enough to persuade the Public Works crew to keep the trails open. They informed Cindy that the trails are closed for construction of the Lorain Gorge Parkway South. The trails will be closed until 2021. The original cycle and pedestrian paths are still open. In addition to the closures, the Skewings Creek floodway has been completely closed. You can see a photo of the closed area here.

Thank you to (letter writer)

Eric Platt

Coffeehead Pass

A National Snooper Alert

Whether you live a rural area or spend a lot of time in Vancouver, the amount of free public Wi-Fi that is available in an area is a fantastic benefit of the city. It’s far more generous than the amount of free Wi-Fi that is available in, say, Portland, OR, for example. In Vancouver, there is always a Starbucks or two within earshot of you, and if you have never noticed the excellent Hike wi-fi that is available, wait till you start working for Google.

You should always be alert for free wi-fi around you, so if you are a guest, perhaps you could request to be screened during your stay. Just say something like “Sorry to bother you but if I discover that you want to see what I’m working on, I’ll request that you request that I be filtered from using Hike wi-fi”.

Tim Holmes

Squamish

Trail construction without signage

When I had walked (the Port Angeles Trail) on Friday morning, I saw no trail closures signs for trail shutdown. I think that’s the first time that has happened on the Port Angeles Trail in two years of observing the trail. It could happen again, especially in springtime when there are six trails on it. If you have any interesting or funny anecdotes of trail closures during the year (particularly when the new trail runs through an area where it was closed before), please let me know.

For example, could you remember when before 2014, there was no trail between the Main Street bridges? What did it look like during winter? Or when a trail would close because of flooding? Since 2017-18, the trail has been completely closed once during winter. Yet it is routinely closed in spring, summer and fall. There has been no trail closures during those seasons. What’s happening?

From Maureen Pettit

Port Angeles

Ican? Oh, yeah: barn owls

My husband and I took a walk with our son and his friend. As we walked, my son saw a barn owl. My husband called it a peacock, and it paused for three or four seconds before lifting its head and then suddenly flew out of our area. It turned and flew about 20 metres out of our view.

Sandra Sahiandey

Port Alberni

Dear Metrolinx: No electric bus

From your transportation round up:

1) $26,772,535 has been spent on rail projects to date and that is before consultation and public feedback is taken into account.

2) 15 sets of tracks have already been demolished from the, and failed, Expo Line.

3) Plans to build a new station for the new subway at Cambie and Georgia have been scrapped because of the failed, proposed, and currently defunct, TransLink transit station at the 6th Avenue and Oak Street subway station in Vancouver.

4) People aren’t happy.

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