Don't be fooled by the sunshine.
Freezing temperatures and the risk of avalanche may be gone but that doesn't make the wilderness surrounding Prince George any less dangerous.
The Willow River claimed another victim this week, a woman walking her dog along its banks Tuesday. Police abandoned the search after six hours, with little hope the elderly female survived the frigid and fast-flowing waters.
If the nearby Highway 16 is the Highway of Tears, the Willow River has earned a reputation in this region as the river of tears.
During the Mother's Day weekend in 1974, the river claimed eight boys in one day. Most of them were set to graduate the following month from PGSS. On May 10, the group of boys headed down the river on three canoes and a kayak, never to be seen alive again.
The teens who died were:
- Paul Edward Trudeau, 17
- Jeff Pick, 16
- Robert Lloyd Haney, 18
- Dwight Devere McFarland, 18
- Brian Donald Weaver, 18
- Ian Stuart Rice, 17
- David Michael Walker, 18
- Murray Harold Sales, 18
Over the summer of 1974, seven of the bodies were recovered.
Trudeau's body has never been found.
On the same day, four other teenagers headed out on the river and narrowly escaped the same fate.
The Willow has taken other victims over the years, as have other rivers and streams, particularly in the spring when area residents, eager to get out in the sun after enduring another long and cold winter, flock to the water but underestimate the speed and force of the rivers, filled to the banks with spring runoff from the mountains.
And it's not just the waterways that are cause for concern. People aren't the only creatures enjoying the spring weather. A grizzly and her two cubs were out in clear view last weekend, about 200 metres from Highway 97, in a field between the historic Johnson farm and Salmon Valley. Bears are not to be messed with at the best of times, bears with cubs are particularly dangerous and grizzlies - with or without cubs - are afraid of absolutely nothing.
So enjoy the outdoors, especially since the mosquitos aren't in full flight yet, but be as cautious out there as you would be in the winter.
History has shown the wilderness rarely forgives.
