Finally got a chance to get down to Ladner to try my luck at snows but it turns out they have removed all the roadside parking and built a small parking lot 1.1 km back. The 800m hike on the dike to get to the marsh trail was already a little tough on my bad hip but adding an additional 2.2km to the trek puts this area out of reach for me now. Not to mention there were no parking spots available in the lot either.
I might give it a try with the electric bike next week but I'm not even sure that is permitted since there is also a brand new sign stating no motorized vehicles permitted past the trailhead and I ride a suron.
This is mostly just a heads up to anyone else planning on hunting there that access has been restricted.
I had heard they did this. I have a sled and cart and may try it again as I'm tired of being showered by skybusters at Boundary Bay. Maybe this means the fair weather hunters will stay away from Brunswick. Years ago I switched from Brunswick to Boundary because it was shoulder to shoulder with hunters so maybe it is time to return.
It should thin the herd but like I said, the parking lot was full when I was there... About 24 spots that I counted, not sure how many were hunters though and how many were just regular public dyke users.
I highly doubt many, if any of those parked vehicles in the lot were hunters. Before the parking changes happened the most i ever noticed was a out a half dozen hunter vehicles
It is not all one way or the other. Property owners have complained about trespassing including by hunters and because they need space for their activities it costs them money if people park illegally or otherwise interfere in their business. Since I moved to Boundary Bay I've become keenly aware how vulnerable that stretch between 72nd and 64th street is. If you read the minutes of the Delta hunting committee you can see that they have a pending item to consider prohibiting that whole stretch because of prior complaints by the nursery there of damage. I myself have spoken to one of the owners who told me directly that although he was not against hunting his aim was to close that area down because of having to replace glass from pellet strikes.
And it is hard to disbelieve him when you see during the season hunters in that area not abiding by boundaries, sky-busting and leaving trash everywhere. I am hoping there were no complaints this season - perhaps a few clean seasons of no damage will turn down the temperature on that mark. When I regularly hunted Brunswick I had to scold new hunters for shooting too close to the dyke there.
We can't control the nimbys or the true anti-hunters but we can stop with the own goals.
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