Down at his personal dock, Reese starts the engine of his aluminum boat and steers around the sandbars towards the main floating dock. It's not uncommon to see seals in the river, he said - particularly when the salmon are spawning. His favourite view is the Golden Ears Mountains: "We never take it for granted."

The main dock is maintained by the cabin owners association, formed 10 years ago to deal with dumping, theft, partying and lack of maintenance of trails and common areas.

The group charges fees, organizes work parties and has built an open longhouse and bulletin board. It maintains the trails and common areas, and organized a bulk purchase of compost toilets to reduce the number of outhouses. Its 46 members share resources - those with ATVs or motorcycle trailers help haul things to and fro from the dock.

Chief Road - the main drag - was almost a creek when the Reeses first started coming. Now it has gutters and a sidewalk of sorts to get around the muddy parts - strips of wood with asphalt shingles or concrete stepping stones.

"We've cleaned it up. The riff-raff, if I can call them that, is gone. Everyone's involved in the association," Reese said. "It's been a labour of love."

The cabin owners pay taxes to Coquitlam and also play a key role in Marine Watch - a sort of Block Watch for the 220 Pitt Lake cabin owners. Their spot at the mouth of the lake gives them a good view of any suspicious boaters passing by.

It all ties into that sense of belonging, of family, that never existed before the association formed, Reese said.

"It's a community," agreed Flostrand, who recently organized an Easter egg hunt for some of the owners' kids. "You walk down the trail and you say, ‘Hi' to somebody, stop for coffee somewhere else."

At their Maple Ridge condo, he said, the couple can go days without seeing a neighbour. "You hop out of one cocoon, into the moving cocoon and then you go to your cubicle at work."

Each bend in Chief Road reveals another cabin peeking out from the forest, still lush from the winter and spring rains. About a dozen cabins have been abandoned over the years. Some others are surrounded by clutter - a function of the teardown process and the lack of transportation and garbage service.