For most people, camping in BC means logging on to the BC Parks website in hopes of booking a premium spot in a provincial park.
Steve Wallis is not most people.
A quick scan of his YouTube channel shows that Wallis has an unusual idea of an ideal camping spot.
Earlier this month, in a video viewed more than 2.6 million times, Wallis took viewers on a camping trip to the heart of a scenic roundabout on Langford Parkway in Langford.
“How could you not want to camp in there overnight?” Wallis asked CTV News in an interview this week, before demonstrating how the bushes at the roundabout unfolded into a dry, well-hidden spot, just big enough to camp inside.
He calls this type of adventure “sneaky urban camping.”
“I have trouble explaining it without sounding like I’ve lost my mind,” says Wallis. “It’s just a playful sense of adventure that I think is pretty benign.”
He said most of his viewers feel the same way, though sometimes it takes people a while to “get it”.
“As each wave of new subscribers comes in after a larger video like this, there are some people who will never fully understand the content and not have the fun of it, and then there are others. caught up and said, “Yeah, you know? That’s neat,” said Wallis.
On his website, he describes himself as a man on a mission to “bring back camping for the people.”
That’s not to say his approach is combative. He doesn’t do stunts and always packs all his trash and any other trash he finds.
“Mr. Rogers is more likely to go and break the law in a roundabout,” said Wallis.
He knows his hobby is against the law, but it’s usually a fairly minor offense, punishable by the same fine as in the book for negligent walking or not leashing the dog. Plus, the point is not to get caught. That’s why he never sneaks camping in the same spot twice.
“I wouldn’t do it again,” he said of staying on the detour.
“And I wouldn’t encourage anyone else to do it.”
With files from CTV Vancouver Island’s Jordan Cunningham
