Paula and Richard Pateman were shocked last week when a stroll along the KVR trail turned into a walk across a bed of nails and screws.
“Somebody is a really nasty individual,” said Paula in an interview with The Spotlight. “It looks like somebody just had handfuls and drove and just threw them.”
The couple estimated the nails and screws were scattered along two kilometres of trail near the Siwash Crossing east of Princeton.
Paula and Richard picked up as many of the sharp objects as they could find, and could not speculate on whether the sabotage might have been directed at an individual living on the trail, or at a group of trail users.
“It was obviously done on purpose,” said Paula.
Justin Shuttleworth, parks and facilities co-ordinator for the RDOS, said he was unaware of problems with sabotage on the KVR.
“I know in the lower mainland there were some issues on some mountain bike trails earlier this year, but nothing of this sort on the KVR.”
Shuttleworth said he would not necessarily link the incident to the ongoing debate about motorized vehicles being banned on the trail within Princeton town boundaries.
“We have a variety of different issues on the trail and sometimes there’s conflict along the way but it would be the first time I would have heard of somebody possibly, intentionally, going and hoping to either harm peoples’ personal vehicles or equipment or people themselves.
Shuttleworth said he plans to dispatch a crew this week to the site to “clean up and see if there is any intent.”
He encouraged anyone noting problems with the trail to contact him at 250-492-0237.