Long gone are the days when one might expect to find peace and tranquillity on the path to rest and relaxation away from the noisy hustle and bustle of civilization while camping out on public lands in the Rockies.
Although the vast majority who embark on an excursion to enjoy the breathtaking views and fresh mountain air remain courteous with a keen understanding of mutual respect in relishing this prized shared resource, setting up to camp out on Crown lands at places like Abraham Lake has sadly become a roll of the dice with the risk of encountering a contingent of the most rudely inconsiderate specimens humanity has unfortunately managed to produce.
My better half and I pulled into a spot called Abraham Slabs, a rustic camping area located along the lake’s shore that requires a public lands camping pass.
We arrived a bit later than we’d hoped on the evening of Friday, July 18 and the campground – which has an accessible gravel road and some tidy outhouses but no delineated sites – was fairly busy.
But even though most of the best random sites were already spoken for, we nevertheless managed to find a perfectly pleasant spot overlooking the lake and set up our camp.
Our plan had been to establish a little base from which to embark the following day on a roughly five- to six-hour hike near Nordegg about half an hour’s drive away along a trail that goes up a mountain called Coliseum.
The idea was to have a nearby camp set up so that we wouldn’t have to drive two-plus hours to get home after an exhausting yet exhilarating excursion.
Little did we know those plans would shortly be unravelled courtesy of a group of the most insufferably selfish and disrespectful people we’ve ever had the misfortune of crossing paths with on a Crown land random drive-in camping area.
Not long after getting settled in, obnoxious music reminiscent of a bar in the city began to reverberate so loudly the sound carried all the way to the lake’s shore. The noise of their generator that ran the entire time paled in comparison. We thought we had gone camping but it quickly felt as though we’d inadvertently stumbled into a club.
Hoping against all hope that decency would prevail and this group that had set up a mini-RV city would eventually show a shred of consideration to everyone else in the campground by wrapping up their party by midnight proved wishful thinking.
As we mustered up the courage to approach them and ask they at least turn the music down, we crossed paths with a brave fellow who had just returned to his site adjacent ours after unsuccessfully attempting by himself to appeal to common courtesy only to be subsequently told to take a hike.
Emboldened by the fact we weren’t the only ones frustrated by this group’s callous disregard for everybody else, we teamed up with him to make the rounds visiting other campers and before long had rallied up about a dozen people who were equally as appalled as us by the staggeringly selfish behaviour of these individuals.
Despite our numbers, our bid to request they turn the noise down – not even turn off as should have been the case, quite frankly – was met with indignant indifference.
“It’s Crown land, we can do whatever we want!” they claimed, apparently obliviously to the fact they had confused public land – which is shared by everyone – with privately-owned land where owners can host raucous rave-like gatherings if they wish.
But at least one among their large group seemed to have a semblance of a conscience, and upon hearing about plans many people had to hike the next day – we weren’t the only ones – he said they’d turn down the music.
Walking away feeling as though at least a modicum of a compromise had been reached, we to great dismay later on realized they actually ended up cranking the music even louder.
It must also be stated we’re not talking about adolescents or 20-somethings either. These were fully grown adults with a brood of children running around throughout the entire night, at one point through our site shining lights into our tent.
Unable to sleep and feeling nature’s call, we left our tent at approximately 2 a.m. to head over to the outhouse only to be confronted by three members of the group who were on the prowl for someone who’d apparently pulled the plug on their speakers, which came as a surprise to me as the music never seemed to stop longer than the momentary lull between songs.
The confrontation fortunately did not escalate despite one clearly drunk guy itching to fight.
But the experience certainly left us rattled.
Others were so unsettled they packed up in the dark and left in the middle of the night.
We waited until later in the morning.
The music stopped as the partiers finally passed out in an alcohol-induced coma as the sky was lighting up after 5 a.m. and we managed to get maybe one hour of rest.
Before heading off to find somewhere else, we had plenty of positive conversations with many of the other exhausted campers who also barely got any shuteye and shared our sense of utter disbelief.
Our neighbour who had tried to approach the group solo before we rallied more campers even invited us to share the breakfast he’d cooked.
We later found a nice campground in Nordegg near our trail head at a place called Shunda Creek, set up and got some desperately-needed rest.
Our plan to hike that day was derailed, but we managed to somewhat salvage the situation and went out on our last day. We didn’t do the whole loop we had initially intended to do since we’d later have to drive home, but we despite the unpleasant weather that had rolled in nevertheless did the bulk of the hike along the Coliseum Mountain trail.
So the weekend wasn’t entirely ruined, and we’ll always be grateful to have met so many wonderful people who had also sought a peaceful camping experience in the great Canadian Rockies.
But if this Wild West, free-for-all attitude born of an indignantly ignorant me-first, me-only and everyone else be damned mentality becomes more prevalent, expect the provincial government to have little choice other than to introduce even more regulations.
And those responsible for even needing regulations in the first place, will of course be the loudest complaining about the rules.
