On our travels a week or so ago, recreating in the form of camping and kayaking in the boonies west of the Arrow Lakes, we took the opportunities of gadding about in some of the small towns to see what we could see. One place, and I’m not entirely sure where we were, perhaps Winlaw, we stopped at a second hand store to poke around, and in the course of the conversation mentioned we were from Creston. Interestingly, we seem to have a reputation as a community because we ended up chatting about our valley and its amenities for a half-hour and other patrons drifted over to pick our brain as well. A couple of people were quite interested in relocating as they had been through the valley and found it totally beautiful and the reputation of the year-round aquatic centre played a large part in that potential decision, especially in light of the Nelson pool being temporarily shut down for repairs.
While I have noted it for years, people from other locales voicing the desirability and dream of living in the valley reinforces the fact we live in the “undiscovered country” at present. We have enough amenities to comfortably exist and reasonably close to larger centres for the features we don’t have, yet we are still small enough that we still wave to people on the street; a distinction not necessarily found with larger populations.
Speaking of recreational camping, and if you follow trends in that area you may have heard of “glamping” which is the new term for “glamour camping”. This is not the regular camping where you are grabbing the roll of TP and hoofing it to the outhouse, trying to dry out your tent and discovering you have a distinct odour towards the end of the week. Glamping provides a camping experience, but you have a nice warm bed, and perhaps a glass of wine with a good meal — “Oh Heathcliffe, dear, I’m ever so glad we are glamping this weekend. By the way, is the butler done catching our trout?” This would be camping on a grand scale with many of the creature comforts not normally found in regular camping.
I’m going to guess that there aren’t many around here that get the chance to experience that; at least, the folks that I am acquainted with grew up with the car top carrier groaning under the weight of a canvas tent that was large enough to host a small travelling circus, or the tent trailer, which, despite being warned against touching the canvas sides during the rain, you did anyway and lived with the drip onto your now damp sleeping bag. That was not glamping; I’m not sure the current generation even knows what canvas is. The important part is whether you camp or glamp, prefer nylon and Gore-Tex to canvas and gumboots, it’s that you are experiencing the outdoors and everything it has to offer.
Neil Ostafichuk is the recreation supervisor at the Creston and District Community Complex.