Tragedy and raging creeks on the Monashee have changed routines for one Cherryville resort.
Trails were closed this week at the Gold Panner Camp Ground Chalets & Pioneer Village where a Vernon man was missing and presumed drowned after slipping into a melt-swollen tributary of the Shuswap over the May long weekend.
Search and rescue personnel scoured the banks of Cherry Creek to search for a 31-year-old Vernon man missing and presumed drowned in the creek.
For safety reasons, they didn’t go onto the fast-flowing waters of the Shuswap River tributary to search.
Lumby RCMP received a report of a man falling into the creek near the Gold Panner Campground. Reports indicate the man, 31, was goldpanning when he went into the creek to retrieve his dog, who had previously gone into the water.
Both the man and dog were swept away. The man hasn’t been seen since.
In a phone interview, co-owner Marilyn Potter recalled the tragic evening.
“He and his brother went down, and his brother came up a short while later and said his brother was down. The dog went into the water, he went to get his dog and he was gone,” she said.
Potter said she was puzzled by reports that indicated the brothers were gold panning, because as far as she knew they didn’t have any pans and none had been provided by the resort.
Hopes for a happy ending to the story have been dashed so far.
There were reports that a dog was found along the creek banks and taken to a vet in Nakusp.
“It wasn’t the same dog.,” said Nakusp vet Dr. Laurie Page.
“The people that found the dog on the Monashee brought it here,” she said.
Page said Sunday that after the reports were published, she got a call from the father of the missing man. He was hoping for some word about the whereabouts of the dog or his missing master, she said.
“The dog was different looking, it had a tag – and it got returned to its owners,” she said.
The Gold Panner is nestled creekside on 35 acres. Marilyn Potter said the incident prompted the resort owners to close the trails for the foreseeable future.
“We decided ourselves to do so. The search and rescue people and the RCMP had mentioned because of swift-running waters you can be standing on what looks like solid ground but water running under can be eroding it,” she said.
“The water’s too high and too fast – we’ve closed the trails. We have (visitors who) love to do the trail, but we can say it’s safe to do so right now. It will probably be more safe in August,” she said.
“We thought, ‘Do we really want people going down there and figuring they’re okay and they’re not?” she said.
“This will affect our business – as long as the waters are high and fast, I think it’s a safety issue,” she said. “This is the fastest and highest the water has been since we’ve owned it.”
Police encourage all residents to use precaution when visiting waterways such as creeks and rivers. RCMP and search and rescue volunteers will not go near a high creek or river without a flotation device or life jacket.
With high water, the banks will get eroded and slippery because the water is going so fast. Tributaries routinely change course because of high water, a spokesman said.