Busy signals and crashed websites greet stir crazy B.C. campers

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After being stuck indoors while taunted by gorgeous weather and pristine mountain and water views, it is no surprise that British Columbians are eager to plan the camping trip they have been dreaming about and reserve their campsite.

However while British Columbians prepared to book their sites, the B.C. parks website seemed woefully underprepared for the mad dash of reservations that came barreling in when its online booking service reopened at 7 a.m. this morning, only to have its website crash.

Hopeful campers were greeted with busy signals on the reservation phone line and error website pages as they tried to book their reservation. Twitter was ablaze with people complaining about difficulties they had on the website including having pages crash while entering payment information.

Site functionality seemed to be restored at 8 a.m. though many popular campsites like Porteau Cove Provincial Park have been mostly booked up for the Canada Day week.

The province tried to be proactive in preparation for the flood of bookings by restricting reservation to dates that were no more than two months out, rather than the usual four to help spread-out the demand through the summer.

Parks are being reopened for overnight camping on June 1 to B.C. residents only. Reservations from out-of-province campers made before the COVID-19 shutdown will still be honoured. Some reservations may need to be cancelled due to reduced capacity at certain campgrounds.

While parks are reopening for camping, it is not business as usual. In order to allow for physical distancing, fewer sites will be available in some campgrounds and there may be changes to campground services and communal facilities.

Hot springs, backcountry communal cabins, group campsites and campgrounds with shared cooking facilities will remain temporarily closed.

In a press release the province highlighted that 180 new campsites have been added with 1,200 campsites added since 2017 as part of the campsite expansion program.

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