Additional restrictions on movement have been added, and existing ones extended to the long weekend and beyond.
New restrictions include no non-essential movement across local health area boundaries. So that means that those living in many municipalities are not to travel across the border into the next. Campgrounds and hotels are to cancel any bookings made by any outside of their own local area. Ferries are to cancel any bookings for recreational vehicles. There will be angry people who were creating their own cognitive loopholes in the previous guidelines, or just outright ignoring them for purely selfish reasons.
I feel for those living in concentrated areas, or in areas that have little access to open green spaces where escape from four walls is possible. This will add to the exhaustion, add to the mental stress, especially as summer approaches.
For us it means that the insurance went on the bikes, but those anticipated rides up the Sea to Sky to enjoy a great stretch of road….will have to wait a bit longer. On the flip side, the boat is almost ready to go so we can still get off the dock and enjoy some day trips or evening putts up Indian Arm without breaking any rules.
And walks.
I am extremely grateful to have the access to forests, mountains, rivers, and lakes as little as a two minute walk from my front door…just a block away is the Capilano Canyon with a river within and a lake above.
The lake itself is off limits since it is our drinking water supply, but there are other small lakes that lie along the North Shore Mountains that are accessible, some with a bit of effort. And the trails; there are trails literally everywhere, including many green belts that crisscross neighbourhoods and allow one to weave their way from the mountain/forest above, to the ocean below, with only the occasional requirement to cross a street or walk on a road for a short distance. And it’s so abnormally quiet compared to a normal year…I don’t miss the hordes of tourists that are usually populating the trails.
The world is a smaller place that normal this past year, and there are still challenges ahead, but I am so deeply grateful to have all of this only a few minutes walk from home even though I live in BC’s most densely populated area.
Walks in the forest are good for the brain. Knowing that wider vaccination is on the horizon is even better.