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Retreat to Loon Lake
Friday, June 13th, 2008 by GetawayBC.com
Approximately one hour east of downtown Vancouver, on the shores of Loon Lake, is the Loon Lake Research and Education Centre. Set within the UBC Malcolm Knapp Research Forest, a 5,000-hectare forest dedicated to research and education in the field of forestry.
The centre is a camp retreat for groups. School research groups, firefighters, religious congregations and a group of kids and volunteers with bigger hearts than notebooks; almost anyone is welcome at one of B.C.’s unique park spaces.
“It was originally built to house UBC forestry students,” said Paul Lawson, manager of the Malcolm Knapp Research Forest. “But it became evident that there was a wider audience interested in the area and we started renting it, and by the 1980s we had a well-developed bunch of customers coming to use it.”
Opened in 1949, the camp was intended to provide a stable and natural research facility for UBC’s forestry students. The camp continues to provide the landscape for their work, while now providing a site for many groups looking for a weekend of natural exploration, outdoor activity, or just a vacation from the grey-flannel grind.
“This past weekend we welcomed a group of firefighters who were putting on a retreat,” said Lawson. “And the weekend before that we had a Buddhist group where no one spoke for six days.
“I think what we offer is a secluded conference retreat that has good value and a beautiful setting.”
The campsite is a small, but growing part of the research forest. And as its list of prospective tenants begins to grow, so to will the facility.
Presently the camp has sections for youth and adult groups, and according to Lawson, can house anywhere from 10 to 100 people in its six residential buildings.
However, three new buildings, the first of which was finished in 2004 with the last to be completed in the next year, will make the camp all that much more spacious and accessible for those interested.
The new facility will include adult bunks with two beds and a bathroom per room. Youth dorms will have eight beds per rooms. The camp will have a mess hall, as well as a gym, a rope course, a climbing wall and docks.
New additions include computer labs, an outdoor playing field and a lounge.
Once completed, the new facilities will be capable of housing and feeding up to 180 people.
The camp has restrictions on the outdoor activities which can be performed by groups staying there.
Fishing and hunting are restricted due to ongoing research projects (some of which have been active for up to 50 years), while there are restrictions on biking, horses and other destructive activities because of certain projects.
However, activity can always be found.
Besides groups which provide their own private programming, UBC has partnered with Pinnacle Pursuits, to hold rock-climbing, water-sports, repelling and other activities and courses for campers.
The Canadian Cancer society is a permanent fixture at the Loon Lake camp, as the group holds Camp Goodtimes for youth there every summer.
The facility itself, as well as the location and surrounding geography, make Loon Lake Camp a premier retreat centre.
From Vancouver take Hwy. 1 to exit 44 and follow signs for Maple Ridge/Mission via Hwy. 7b (Mary Hill Bypass). From the east, travel west on Lougheed Hwy #7 to Maple Ridge. Turn north off Lougheed Hwy onto 240th Ave. Turn west on Dewdney Trunk Rd. Turn north on 232nd Ave.;