I went looking on the Slow Food Cycle Sunday website to start planning my bike ride tomorrow, which is admittedly a little oblivious. I have been away for the past week, and tracking events via my iPhone, not my air quality or neighbours’ distress levels, and hadn’t quite grasped the magnitude of the unfolding emergency. (As the SLRD posted just 16 hours ago, “We are currently in the middle of a significant weather event which has required emergency operations to shift priorities constantly.”)

Fortunately, Tourism Pemberton’s Executive Director, Christine Raymond, has a good grasp, and made the tough call to cancel tomorrow’s event.

Tough, because it means altering plans for a lot of people not just mid-stream, but at the 11th hour, and that kind of momentum can be hard to stop. But guess what. We’re living in unprecedented times, or what the futurist Alex Steffen calls, “a discontinuity” – meaning, we cannot expect what used to happen to be good guidance for us any longer. I have become familiar with the slide lurch slide lurch sensation of life, making plans, having them cancelled, moving towards a goal or event, oh, cancellation, and it’s probably not ever going to get easier, but it’s possibly the new normal. My disappointment is nothing compared to what folks evacuating their homes and beloved communities are going through.

The call to cancel the event, which would have filled Pemberton Meadows Road with cyclists and families, was a no-brainer, when we take into consideration that that road is the only evacuation route for folks leaving Bralorne and Goldbridge, because of the Downton Lake wildfire (K71649) burning out of control in the Gun Lake Area.

Yesterday, an evacuation order was given to include all SLRD properties in Electoral Area A, that are west of Terzaghi dam.

• Gun Lake, Lajoie Lake, Slim Creek areas
• Marshall Lake and north of Carpenter Lake areas
• Gold Bridge, Brexton and Bralorne areas
• Tyaughton Lake and Gun Creek Road areas
• All SLRD properties in Electoral Area A as outlined on the below map.

Please help spread the word so anyone who was planning a last minute pedal can shift their plans, and celebrate consideration and community care while keeping Pemberton Meadows Road completely clear.