I was recently camping at Golden Ears and was asked to fill out a B.C. Parks survey. One of the questions asked, on a scale of 1 to 5, how useful or welcomed the addition of WiFi to the campground would be. I have to admit my initial reaction was that it would be great.
There is no cell service in the park, so you are unable to call out, or get data on your smartphone to check emails, weather, etc, etc, etc. I thought ‘well, yeah it would be nice to quickly check my work emails and make sure my inbox is nice and tidy for when I get back… and I could also send an email to this person about that… and I wonder what the score in the Whitecaps game is….oh, and while I’m at it….’
But, this is obviously not what camping is about. Its about time with your family, and time in the outdoors. Its about hammocks, lakes and ice-chilled beer. Would I use WiFi if it was available? If I’m honest, yes. But that doesn’t mean its good to have the option.
There have been a few articles pop up in the last week about this subject:
– BC not keen to offer WiFi at campgrounds
– More provincial parks offering Internet access
– Should there be Wi-Fi in B.C. parks? Most campers say no.
In B.C., there is currently only 1 site with WiFi – Meziadin Lake park offers a wireless connection for a fee of $5 per day. “However, B.C. Parks has reportedly said it has no immediate plans to expand Wi-Fi service elsewhere.”
And you have to agree with this:
“We aren’t looking at anything like that right now,” said Stu Burgess, park operations manager for Golden Ears Park in Maple Ridge. “You come out into the wilderness to get away from all that stuff and leave it behind; you don’t want your spouses bringing their work with them.”
My Dad is notoriously bad for being buried in his Blackberry. On the golf course, or relaxing on a boat in lake Okanagan, the thing is constantly pinging. I’ve never been camping with him since the days of modern cell phones, but I can imagine he would go nuts without access to emails.
But, for the Crackberry addicts, maybe a park offering WiFi might just be what it takes to get them out camping. ‘Oh no, I couldn’t be away from work for a few days’ is no longer a valid excuse. Or, it could help the college student submit a paper that’s due, when otherwise they may have to miss the family camping trip all-together. Or, say you’re a tourist camping for a week and have some friends that want to meet you. The logistics become difficult without email access, and would require driving out of the campground into cell service to arrange.
It could be useful for these things, but I find it encouraging that most people in the survey said it would be undesirable – unlike me.
But if you are like me, and you can see the benefits of remaining connected to the outside world with WiFi or even just having reliable cell phone reception, camping is obviously not your only option. You can just as easily enjoy the beauty of B.C. from any one of the many hotels, ski resorts and timeshares in the area. And renting a timeshare in Whistler or a hotel suite in Vancouver can be quite a welcome change from camping in the great outdoors.
Nicole
Great and interesting post about BC camping ground.
Good point here: “But, this is obviously not what camping is about. Its about time with your family, and time in the outdoors. Its about hammocks, lakes and ice-chilled beer. Would I use WiFi if it was available? If I’m honest, yes. But that doesn’t mean its good to have the option.”
I can say that there are advantages and disadvantages in this scenario. Advantages you can easily check or update your emails and disadvantages it can ruin your camping trip. However, it’s still up to you if you will use the Wifi services or not.