Re: "Rotted trail not a risk, park says," Sept. 8.
Parks Canada does an extremely good job of maintaining the bridges, cable cars and ladder structures on the West Coast Trail where a fault would result in a serious injury. However, the trail bed and older boardwalks in many places have simply not been maintained.
Climate and age, coupled with the thousands of hikers who walk this trail, have resulted in rotten boardwalks and mud pits for trail beds in many places. This is not, as some of the writers suggest, part of a wilderness experience. It is the result of large numbers of people confined to a narrow trail, much like cattle in a feedlot. In fact, poor trail conditions detract from the wilderness experience and can cause environmental degradation as rutted trails channel water, and people trample adjacent vegetation while attempting to avoid the mud and rotting boardwalks.
Any structure used as intensely as the West Coast Trail requires a matching effort in maintenance. Wilderness values are retained by managing the users and respecting the existing trail infrastructure, not by letting it degrade into some kind of artificial challenge.
Del Williams
Saanich
