It’s getting to be that time of year when the call of the ocean is getting stronger and stronger. The southeasters have abated which ultimately means that, for us locals, Queen Charlotte Strait is a friendlier place for small craft.
My good friend, Dan Kirby, lets me keep my small aluminum skiff at Hidden Cove; so when the painting spirit hits me, I throw my 9.8 outboard on it and head out across Johnstone Strait for the shelter of the Pearse Islands. From here I usually go island hopping, ending up somewhere in what they call The Broughton Archipelago, a maze of islands roughly grouped around the huge entrance to Knight Inlet.
Our First Nations people have always prized this area, inhabiting and establishing villages here since time immemorial. Throughout this area remnants of these can be found, abandoned with the coming of the white man and his prohibitive laws. Some, such as Mamalilaculla on Village Island, are being reclaimed and recovered from the forest and appreciated as historic sites. There is a renewed interest among First Nations people to recapture a heritage that was lost when they relocated.
Locally, we are just beginning to realize the tourism potential of this incredibly scenic group of islands that vary in size from fifty or more square kilometres to some that are so small they disappear at high tide!
Because this area is so sheltered and peaceful, kayakers have discovered it as an ideal place to island hop, camping and playing as they go. It is but a short paddle from places like Telegraph Cove, Hidden Cove, Alder Bay, Alert Bay, Malcolm Island and Port McNeill. Over ten thousand are expected this year, making its popularity a problem in finding enough campsites for the growing numbers of outdoor enthusiasts. Simple things, like going to the bathroom, become an exercise in waste management.
Peaceful pockets, little coves like the one from which this picture was painted, are becoming sought-after meccas for wilderness-hungry urbanites. Because there are not enough suitable campsites like this, larger vessels are often used as hotels. These vessels transport the kayakers and their gear out to the area and remain anchored there as a home base while the adventurers launch out on day trips returning at night to what are often luxurious quarters. Ah, roughing it, that’s the life!
Other packages have kayaks permanently cached in the area while their renters are flown in each day by float plane or helicopter, returning to home base, either a lodge or town, each night.
The growth of this phenomenon is typified by Telegraph Cove, where in 1985 perhaps a hundred kayaks embarked from there for whale watching at Robson Bight and a bit of a paddle around the Broughton Archipelago. This year they are expecting between five and ten thousand!
Whether we like it or not, we have been discovered and we might as well make the best of it, quit complaining about the poor economy and get in on the action. This is an industry in the making that needs scores of different services. If local folks don’t take advantage of it --- well, what can I say?
