Wet weather and big trucks take their toll on McLean Creek this weekend

Big trucks and wet weather haven't been kind to the McLean Creek area, according to one off-road enthusiast camping there.

"Out in the boonies, I guess in the four-by-fourarea, it's a lot worse this year," said James Taylor, who was out having fun with his own ATV over the long weekend.

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"Fields that were nice grass are just destroyed because they're playing around in it in big trucks and messing it all up. It's kind of sad because it makes it so that they want to shut it down for people that want to treat the trails properly."

Taylor said other camping areas have been closed, as well as trails, leading to a concentration of users in the area. Combined with the wet weather and the bigger trucks, it's a recipe for chewing up the land.

"If it was drier at least they wouldn't have destroyed as much, but because it's wet it's easy for them to do donuts and stuff like that. We saw a lot more destruction out there than we've ever seen before this weekend," he said.

Taylor would like to see a 1,000-pound maximum weight rule put in the place for the area, restricting off-roading to ATVs and dirt bikes.He added that most users respect signage tellingthem to stay on the trails.

The RCMP said it's been an incident-free weekend in terms of handing out tickets, with most people leaving the area yesterday to avoid getting stuck in the mud.

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