Vote throughout the month here.
Abbotsford is blessed with dozens of parks, some among the very best in the Lower Mainland. And although everybody loves Mill Lake Park, Abbotsford has dozens of other parks as well. Some parks you may have never heard of.
So over the next couple weeks, we’ll be running a Final Four-style bracket that pits Abbotsford’s lesser-loved parks against one another. Proclaim your favourite park and see if you’re in the majority. At the end, we’ll set the favourite against Mill Lake and see if its backers can help it knock off the city’s crown jewel.
At the end of the day, hopefully you will find a new park to explore.
Last week, we asked commenters to choose our 16th seed from six options: Matsqui Village Park, Yale Court Park, Straiton Park/Clayburn Creek Park, McDonald Park, Townline Hill Park, Lower Sumas Mountain Park.
Matsqui Village Park – which your bracket organizer almost neglected to include – easily garnered the most support. Its reward is a face-off with Sumas Mountain Regional Park.
There are going to be a couple ways to vote over the next month. First, you can vote below and within other Park Vs. Park stories. You will be able to find those under the ‘Community’ banner on our website. We’ll also create polls on Facebook. The results will be tallied separately, depending on where you vote. The winner will be determined by merging the two sets of results together.
For the first round, we’ll be posting two contests each day.
Sumas Mountain Regional Park vs. Matsqui Village Park
1. Sumas Mountain Regional Park is a huge park. And although it’s largely undeveloped, it is beloved by the Fraser Valley’s large outdoor communities. The park is frequently home to trail running and mountain biking events that draw hundreds, and a recent proposal to build a quarry in the area met with stiff opposition and was eventually rejected by the provincial government. TRAIL MAP.
RELATED: How Sumas Mountain’s trails were saved
16. Matsqui Village Park may be the complete opposite. It’s small, built for the local community, and easy to overlook. But it has amenities like a softball field, a tennis court and playground. It’s also situated next to a small slough and has some of the quaintest picnic areas in Abbotsford. The park once had a pool, but it was filled in in 2011, after a leak revealed the need for more than $1 million in repairs. MAP. Historical photos.
RELATED: Matsqui Village Pool filled in
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Voting is also open for the following match-up: