Copied & pasted from another forum...A heads up to anyone headed to the Chilcotin. A friend was at Raven Lake a couple of weeks ago and had his truck stolen. His trip was over and he had packed everything except his tent and sleeping stuff and when he woke up his truck was gone. He Was keeping his bottle of booze in the truck (every thing was packed) and after his last drink he forgot his keys on the console beside his wallet. They found it later, about 5 km's away--- everything was still in it except the booze, wallet and cash. Unfortunately they had torched it and there was nothing left.According to the officers in Williams Lake there are 5 or 6 locals who are hitting the local lakes fairly regularly so make sure you take proper precautions.Can you picture all the stuff in your truck, from flies to cameras, that they would be burning? It would be wise to NOT leave your gear & tootle off for the day! Turkeys!

Also this...I spoke to the owner of the stolen pickup and the RCMP officer knew exactly who it was but there is no proof. To add insult the remaining members of my friends group were sitting around the camp the next night when a pickup slowed, backed up and stopped and one of the guys inside yelled " hey white man, how do you like having no truck? F' you" and drove away.They also got a quad out of the camp the same night as the pickup was stolen.Apparently they are hitting all of the lakes in the neighbourhood and Palmer is supposed to be worse. They are going through camp in the daytime also.

It is no worse there than anywhere else but is isolated so reasonable precautions need to be taken for protection from two and four legged predators. Sounds like this guy had a few too many and got careless with his keys.

romore wrote:It is no worse there than anywhere else but is isolated so reasonable precautions need to be taken for protection from two and four legged predators. Sounds like this guy had a few too many and got careless with his keys.Well no, I'd say this is much worse than most isolated campgrounds. I've been camping 40 years or so and have very rarely heard of this sort of thing. Around urban areas caution is warranted many times. The one other time I know of such a thing was in the Wind River Range and we personally experienced hostility from the people living in the area. That was more than 30 years ago.

Seriously? He had been drinking, left his keys in the truck, didn't wake up when someone stole it and people are SURPRISED? That was a crime of opportunity if I ever saw one. The turkey is the guy who lost his truck!

I am so sorry to read this story. Firstly..this is a cut and pasted story, not an actual verified event to one of our members. And I am grateful to member Crowe for pinting out the rather obvious..drunk and leaving keys in the ignition is asking for trouble.Having said that, is it only fair to acknowledge that there are issues in the Chilcotin between some First Nations people and non-natives. To suggest otherwise would be untrue. Prince George is listed as the most dangerous city in Canada...whew...I didn't know that till I researched this note. That was from a study in 2012, but I guessing it's not a lot better. And most, many, of the stats will have been involving FN people. Just as in many parts of our country there can be serious problems when dealing with First Nations folks. I travel thru the Chilcotin often and to get there, Prince George and I will say that I have never had any problems. Ever. But...I probably would be very mindful of where I was leaving my RV if I were to be going off hiking or fishing from a remote location. This whole thing troubles me a great deal but it would be a huge dis-service to pretend that all is rosy. I stop and assist where I see a need and never would I not, just in case. However, I do remember..this was their land and I am polite and respectful, especially to elders. And..if I had an encounter with dudes in a vehicle that were yelling as quoted? I'd leave.Gary Haupt

Use caution camping in the Chilcotin! | Good Sam Community

Paoli
Explorer
Aug 10, 2015
That's absurd.
We own a house at Lac La Hache (since 1996) and in Quesnel(since 1994) and never experienced these things between Lac La Hache and Williams Lake.

They must have been talking about the Chilcotin area.
sue_t
Explorer
Aug 08, 2015
About five years ago we were looking to move from Vancouver Island to a quieter area. We had always liked the landscape between Lac La Hache and Bill's Puddle (Williams Lake ;) ) so chatted with various residents on our numerous trips through the area.

I'd make comments about how peaceful it seemed, how lovely the area was, how nice the lake areas were...

And locals would start talking about the vandalism and thefts. We were told to not leave our vehicle unattended anywhere and if we did expect it to be spray-painted, broken in to, vandalized, or not be there when we returned. I asked about the properties around the lakes in the area. Advice was to get a good security system. People clucked about the problems in the area rather than the peacefulness.

So we struck that area off our list of beautiful places we thought we could live in.
Seamutt
Explorer
Aug 08, 2015
Garyhaupt that was a poorly put together story from MacLeans magazine. I live in PG and it is a lot safer than Surrey. Almost a murder or shooting there a day. I will add though when traveling west of Williams Lake I travel similar to our good friends south of the border.

Some people commenting it was the fellows fault who had his truck stolen, amazing!
2gypsies1
Explorer III
Aug 06, 2015
This happens daily - somewhere.
brokeboater
Explorer
Aug 06, 2015
I appreciate the heads up. We traveled through the area, trouble free I might add, and had not a clue there were problems.
GaryKH
Explorer
Jul 28, 2015
Yep, I Copied & pasted this story with a mind to give people a heads up if they were going that way. Better to know what one is walking into, than getting blindsided! I realize that we can still have fun in the Chilcotin & that this is a (fairly) rare event. Just gotta take precautions is all...
Orion
Explorer
Jul 28, 2015
We lived in Port Alberni years ago. It used to be the same there on some of the backroads. Breakdown with your truck & boat on one of these roads and one of you would have to stay with it until you could get help, or there would be nothing to come back to!
The road(s) to Bamfield or the West Coast were especially bad.
garyhaupt
Explorer
Jul 28, 2015
And I read that Paoli is correct in his mentions.

Gary Haupt
Paoli
Explorer
Jul 28, 2015
We live in the Cariboo Chilcotin and I can tell you that crime has increased a lot in the area around Williams Lake. Many vehicles are stolen and burned. A lot of cases of home invasions as well. I would not walk around Williams Lake in dark, that's for sure. And would not pull over in dark on the Chilcotin Highway!
Crowe
Explorer
Jul 28, 2015
Gary, thanks for the clarification. I'm not familiar with that area at all and I had visions of "southern redneck" vs. "northern yankee" type scenario that we see in the states. In some ways it's very similar and unfortunately, all too common.

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