When mud and debris closed Hwy. 99 at Turpin Creek south of Lions Bay on Sunday (March 20) some local residents refused to let Mother Nature ruin their travel plans for the day.
The Squamish Atom Rep hockey team was involved in a tournament at Aldergrove and a few players stayed in the city for the weekend while others decided to travel back and forth.
When coach Joe Webber found out the highway was closed Sunday morning because a slide dropped debris onto the road at 5:30 a.m. he called Squamish Tugboat Co.
Steve Tamburri, the general manager of the company, told The Chief the hockey team wasn't the only group in need of transportation out of Squamish. "One of our employees was supposed to catch an 11 a.m. flight to Disneyland," he said.
Seven hockey players, two coaches, a hockey parent and the vacation-bound family loaded into a water taxi owned by the tugboat company. The group boarded at the harbour in Squamish and headed to Horseshoe Bay.
According to Tamburri, the water taxi is like a little school bus on the water. The trip in the covered and heated vessel took 40 minutes traveling at 30 knots.
"The hockey team made the game," said Tamburri and the vacationers made their flight to California. "Everything was good."
The slide had impacts on many other residents and businesses, however.
According to Julie Wolfe-Dennis of Furry Creek Golf and Country Club, her operation had to function with minimal staff because many of the employees and managers live in Vancouver.
"We had to cancel Sunday brunch," she said.The small staff operated the restaurant for people who wanted to wait at Furry Creek as crews worked to clear the mud, trees and rocks from the highway.
Wolfe-Dennis said there wasn't sufficient staff to operate the golf course so it closed but she noted the weather wasn't great for golfing and it would have been a quiet day on the course even if the highway was open.
Only one vehicle was caught in the slide. The driver had to be rescued.
The debris came down in the middle of the Sea-to-Sky Highway Improvement project area so heavy equipment was on the scene of the debris flow shortly after the highway was forced to close. A single lane of traffic started to flow early Sunday afternoon.
A Ministry of Highways spokesman said the construction on the highway did not contribute to the slide. The wall of debris reportedly originated well above the highway
