Family:
I started visiting the Bridge River Valley in the early 1970’s and fell in love with it. Debbie and I met in 1976. Gun Lake and the Bridge River Valley has been a central part of our lives the entire time. We have been married for over 40 years and likewise have owned property at Gun Lake for all those years. We have two children Dan, Cara, daughter in law Sheila, and three grandchildren Sophia, Oscar and Bowen, all of whom spend lots of time here.
Work History:
I have worked in the resource industry for most of my working career in an open pit mine and then the forest industry in the manufacturing facilities. I took a millwright pre-apprenticeship course and became certified. I quickly moved up and became a Maintenance Supervisor, then to a Maintenance Manager and finally as the Corporate Maintenance Leader for a large forest company. The company had many varied forest product manufacturing facilities across western Canada that I visited regularly. I was fortunate to have opportunities for personal and managerial development, as I moved forward in my career. While in management I was able to help the company with continual improvement initiatives including but not limited to budgeting, maintenance best practices, facility productivity improvements, and employee engagement and development.
Recreation:
Dirt biking brought me to the valley in the early years and since then have enjoyed pretty well every corner of the valley with most of the recreational opportunities available. Some of them have been hiking, mountain climbing, mountain biking, swimming, x-country skiing, snow shoeing, dirt biking, quading, four wheeling, boating etc.
I have done many one day and multi day trips into the backcountry with friends, neighbors and groups. I have volunteered a number of times to take tourists to the valley out also. I am particular proud of having taken youth groups into the backcountry, great learning experience for all! For most of them it was their first experience in the backcountry and am sure they have long lasting memories of the trips.
Over the years I have also gone out recreating with many of the valley residents, property owners and their guests throughout all seasons of the year.