River of Golden Dreams, British Columbia - Jim Lawson

The waterbody that I am going to describe today is called Alta Lake and also, the River of Golden Dreams, that is part of that. First of all, they are connected. They are very important to me because they are situated an hour and a half away from our house. We have a small boat there - a Laser. We go sailing. The family also goes canoeing, windsurfing, and of course we all end up in the water. Swimming is also a lovely activity too. The last time I was on (in!) this waterbody was late August 2016. My daughter got married and we had a big family reunion up there. In the water, we used the boats - the windsurfer and maybe the canoe. I went out by myself in the Laser and had a lovely time. The wind was perfect - it was just able to blow through my hair. The interaction with the water was beautiful, knowing that I could fall in and there wasn't going to be any pollution there. It looked pretty clean to me.

Alta Lake in navigable for small boats today. It is connected to the River of Golden Dreams and that connects all the way down to Green Lake. That is particularly precious because if you want to canoe you can go down there presently. You can go all the way. What a lovely tranquil time you can have!

Whistler really is world-known as a ski-resort. But, it's so well known now for other activities including sailing. To have a lake up there is terrific to go sailing on. My concern is that with a build up of such a popular area there is going to be unknown projects today (or future projects for tomorrow) that we won't know about and that we may not be able to participate in to find out what are the projects - some may be good, others may be limiting our access to the water. Who knows. That's what concerns me. Any crossings that may be put in or change of bylaws etc. that may restrict that body of water. The access to the park where Alta Lake is fine, granted there are a lot of geese around that they have to control because of all of the droppings! The water itself is lovely. The access is good. I would say you have a manageable number of property owners. But, if that changes, to massive construction (flats, apartments, and resorts), then things could really change and, of course, the number of roads and paths that might be crossing the River of Golden Dreams. We would not like any changes to either Alta Lake or the River of Golden Dreams.

We'll probably be going back there next in the spring of 2017.
 

Collector
Claire Lawson
Contributor
Jim Lawson

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