Only the daring try Meager Creek volcanic hot springs

2010 UPDATE: On August 6, 2010, a massive avalanche on Capricorn Creek, the second-largest such natural event in Canadian history, swept down into Meager Creek and pushed its way along into a portion of  the Lillooet River.

Road access into the hot springs, the Lillooet River campground, and Upper Lillooet Provincial Park, is now completely cut off and seems  likely to remain so for the foreseeable future.

A selection of photos of the devestation around Mt Meager and Meager Creek is posted at http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbsteers/with/4869549959/ To read the photographer’s account, visit  thetyee.ca/News/2010/08/12/MeagerLandslide/

Note: The Lillooet River Forest Road is closed at kilometre 9.

Pemberton’s  Slow Food Cycle on Sunday, August 15, is scheduled to go ahead as planned. Visit for www.slowfoodcyclesunday.com for details.

2009 ALERT: During heavy rains on Sept 18 + 19, 2009, a mud-and-debris slide washed out the Capricorn Creek Bridge and covered the Meager Creek/Lillooet Forest Service Road three kilometres downstream from Meager Creek Hot Springs. The mud is waist deep in some areas and some of the large boulders that came down with the slide could shift due to slope instability. The Sea to Sky Recreation District says the bridge will liely be replaced in spring, 2010

2008

When you’re looking for a little sanctuary, a wilderness hot spring does it every time. And there’s nothing like bathing in the most geologically active corner of Canada to up the adventure ante.

Such is the case at Meager Creek, where raincoast weather often adds even more frisson to the hot springs north of Pemberton. In October 2003, heavy rains triggered massive flooding in the Pemberton Valley. Fed by swollen tributaries such as Meager Creek, the Lillooet River, which charts a crooked course through the heart of the valley, jumped its banks. From the air, the scene looked more like the Gulf Islands than prime agricultural land.

The force of rapidly flowing water overwhelmed a 70-metre-long wooden bridge that spanned Meager Creek, cutting off road access to the hot springs located a short distance upstream on the west side of the creek. Thanks to an injection of $900,000 from the Provincial Emergency Program, which covers damage to high-value recreation sites such as the hot springs, a new steel-and-concrete structure was eventually installed. On August 1, the Meager Creek hot springs officially reopened, to the acclaim of local residents and Pemberton tourism officials alike.

In early September, I visited the springs to assess changes in the frequently volatile region. The bridge washout was only the most recent in a long history of cataclysmic events there that stretches back to 400 BC, the date of Mount Meager’s most recent volcanic eruption. That earth-shattering episode spewed ash as far as the Alberta-Saskatchewan border. An inventory of similar incidents includes an avalanche on Mount Meager’s companion, Pylon Peak, that covered a glacier over which Pylon Creek continues to bubble. Nearby stands the jagged remnant of another volcano, Devastator Peak. In 1975, a substantial rockslide on Devastator buried a party of geologists and partly blocked the flow of Meager Creek. The creek’s waters backed up, creating a small lake that took several years to drain. Geologists predict that a resumption of volcanic activity is likely to occur within the next several centuries. With these events in mind, sobering roadside markers were just installed along the Meager Creek Forestry Road. They direct travelers to refuge areas in case of emergency.

The sweeping grandeur of the peaks is enough to momentarily take a visitor’s mind off the prospect of suddenly finding oneself in the midst of chaos. The upside of all this geothermal activity is the presence of B.C.’s hottest and most voluminous hot springs, which percolate on an open terrace above Meager Creek’s silt-grey waters.

“Creek” doesn’t do justice to Meager. Even at its lowest annual level, this is not a stream to be trifled with. Still, as you soak beside it in a near-scalding thermal pool with the wild sounds of cascading white water in your ears, there’s no more relaxing place to be. Just ask Dave Edgington, chief administrative officer of the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District. On the telephone from his office in Pemberton, Edgington said that having bathed in the springs himself, he believes there is no finer restorative, holistic experience to be found within the SLRD’s purview. He was quick to credit not only financing from PEP for the restoration but also the Ministry of Forests crews who rebuilt the bridge, as well as funds from the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts that paid for a complete cleanup of the pools, change house, and pathways at the recreation site.

Although the hot springs are situated on provincial land, the site and nearby campground are managed by the local Lil’wat Nation, with the Lil’wat Business Corporation’s Creekside Resources in partnership with the Tourism Ministry. When contacted by telephone at his office in Mount Currie, the corporation’s general manager, Larry Miller, said that work crews spent months rehabbing the site prior to its reopening. “We cleared blow-downs and installed picnic tables as well as put in culverts and ditches to prevent Hot Springs Creek from undermining the access trail.”

Creekside Resources, which manages a network of recreation sites within Lil’wat traditional territory, has no elaborate plans to develop the hot springs beyond their current “rustic” status, but Miller hopes that a series of interpretive signs will be installed next year to explain the site’s geological and cultural history. “The Lil’wat have millennia of legends about the use of the springs, from poaching fish in the hot water to revering the springs for their natural healing qualities. We look after the place to demonstrate our ownership.”

Over the decades since a road to Meager Creek was built by B.C. Hydro in pursuit of geothermal-power production, the springs have been a magnet for both families and party animals. To preserve the peace and ensure that yahoos and dogs are kept away from the springs, a Creekside Resources caretaker monitors activity, including weather conditions, at the site. With good reason, “if in doubt, bail out” is the operative motto there.

Access: The Meager Creek hot springs lie 205 kilometres north of Vancouver via 52 kilometres of paved and gravel roads from Pemberton. Opening hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. A day-use fee of $5 is collected at the springs from those 12 or older; a night at the pleasant campground on the Lillooet River Forestry Road is $10 per site. The hot springs officially close for the season on October 31. From then until snowfall shuts the Lillooet River Road, access to the springs is on foot or by bike from the gated entrance to the Meager Creek road, seven kilometres west.

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Text CR Jack Christie

Photo CR Louise Christie

View Original Article here.

Standup paddleboards ride wave of popularity

In Deep Cove, Rachel Greenwood takes out her standup paddleboard, which is longer than most surfboards, but easier to ride.

There seems to be a special bond between humans and shaped wooden boards, one that over the past century has evolved to rival that of people and pets.

First came skis and surfboards, followed by skate, skim, and windsurfing boards, and, more recently, snow and wakeboards.

Riding the latest wave are standup paddleboards, or SUPs, poised to break big this summer thanks to a growing fan base.

One of Vancouver’s first SUP proponents was adventure athlete “Super” Dave Norona.

North Shore-based Norona, who, by his own account, has participated in over 400 adventure races, became interested in SUPs after his passion waned for surf skis—sleek, open-cockpit racing kayaks.

“I got a little burned-out on racing in general,” the professional motivational speaker admitted.

“The thing I like about SUPs is that you can only go about five to six kilometres an hour, which means that when I’m in an event like MEC’s Big Chop [Summer Paddle Series], I’m always at the back of the pack with the fun people instead of out front thinking, ‘I can’t let him beat me!’ ”

If you’ve ever seen a vintage photograph of wooden Hawaiian surfboards that tower over the likes of Duke Kahanamoku, the father of modern surfing, it won’t be a stretch to wrap your mind around the size and shape of an SUP.

Wider and longer than most surfboards in vogue today, they allow a rider to balance upright while propelling the board forward with a long-shafted paddle.

Norona pointed out that the best part is that SUPs are far easier to master than regular surfboards.

“You catch every wave, and because the board is longer, you catch them earlier. Using a paddle to move forward is also much easier on the arms, which is otherwise so hard when you’re just starting to learn to surf.”

Norona highlighted the sport’s secret: “The reality is that you don’t have to be fit at all. It’s like being in a double sea kayak without knowing what to do. SUPs are like the cruiser bikes of boards. The more you do, the fitter you get.”

One sign that SUPs are stoking interest at local beaches is the appearance of locally made boards.

In the past year, Pemberton-based Andy Lambrecht and his gleaming wooden boards have been featured nationally in outdoors magazines.

When reached at his studio beside the Lillooet River, Lambrecht was at work on one of the half-dozen boards he shapes each year, which sell for $2,000 and up.

“I started making fibreglass surfboards seven years ago, but in 2007 I stopped doing foam because it’s so toxic,” he said.

“Besides, once a plastic board is done, it’s done. There’s no recycling them. I love the green aspect of wood. One of my boards will last 10 to 20 years, whereas in the same time pattern four or five foam boards would get tossed into the landfill.”

Lambrecht, who works full-time for Whistler Blackcomb as a carpenter in summer and a ski patroller in winter, switched to making smaller, hollow wooden surfboards.

“They’re a third heavier than foam,” he explained. “I use recycled wood from unusual sources, so they already come with a story.”

Last year, he crafted a four-metre, hollow red-cedar SUP for professional guide Norm Hann, who paddled the waters off the Central Coast’s Great Bear Rainforest to test the feasibility of multiday SUP tours in the Hartley Bay region.

In May, in an expedition dubbed StandUp4GreatBear, Hann piloted an SUP 380 kilometres between Kitimat and Bella Bella to raise awareness of the potential risk to the Central Coast’s delicate ecosystem from oil tanker traffic from Kitimat, designated as the terminal for energy giant Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline linked to the Alberta tar sands.

On the phone from the office of his Squamish-based expedition company, MountainSurf Adventures, Hann said he’s enjoyed surfing since coming to the West Coast in 1999 from Sudbury, Ontario.

“I saw Hawaiian surfer Laird Hamilton on an SUP and I knew right away I wanted to get one, though I had a tough time finding a board,” he recalled.

“I rented one from a guy on the North Shore, and after the first outing I begged him to sell it to me. The potential of the sport is clear to me. I’m excited about what you can do and where you can go in a different way.”

Hann foresees exploring inland lakes and rivers on SUPs having more nationwide appeal than surfing.

“It’s got the coolness of the surf industry coupled with paddling, which is in Canadians’ blood.”

With the likes of Norona and Hahn as the apostles of SUP, this summer Vancouver-based water sport companies Windsure, EcoMarine Kayaks, and the Deep Cove Canoe and Kayak Centre are set to minister to novitiates by offering lessons and rentals at their respective locations at the Jericho Sailing Centre, English Bay, and Deep Cove.

Four years ago, Jeff Hunt, manager of EcoMarine Kayak’s SUP program, brought one back from Hawaii.

“I tried to convince the owner to offer rentals last year but he was tentative as to how it would take shape. This year we’re in.”

As a longtime board rider, Hunt finds paddling an SUP a good way to stay in surfer shape.

“I come from a competitive gymnastics background, so now I look for any tool to keep me out of the gym. I like to change things up to avoid lifting weights. Once people try an SUP it becomes another great way to get out on the water, appreciate the natural environment, and become an advocate for causes such as the Dogwood Initiative which our company supports.”

There seems to be a growing connection between SUPs and expanded environmental consciousness.

Not only is this the dawn of a new sport, it’s yet another way to save the planet.

Hop on.

Original Article
Text CR Jack Christie
Photo CR Louise Christie

Kayaking’s easy on the calm Sunshine Coast

Powell River Sea Kayak guides Joel Baillargeon and Marianne Lafrance paddle Malaspina Strait.

You’ll find plenty of information on the Sunshine Coast in our best-selling guide book 52 Best Weekend Getaways from Vancouver.

Check out this article to see why heading there this month is a good idea before the summer holiday rush.

Access: Egmont lies 75 kilometres north of the Langdale ferry terminal on Highway 101 via Sechelt. For information on kayaking at West Coast Wilderness Lodge, call 1-877-988-3838 or visit www.wcwl.com/. Okeover Arm lies 48 kilometres north of Egmont near Lund on Highway 101 via a 50-minute ferry ride between Earls Cove and Saltery Bay. To contact Powell River Sea Kayak, call 1-604-483-2160 or visit www.bcseakayak.com/. Detailed information on transportation, accommodation, and recreation on the Sunshine Coast is posted at www.hellobc.com/.

Late spring is imbued with the expectancy of summer’s imminent appearance.

Nowhere can you experience that more keenly than in a sea kayak on the Sunshine Coast.

Mountains and sunlight reflect off the ocean in flashes of chrome as you drift along.

Beneath the surface, clarity reigns.

An orange sea urchin looks close enough to touch.

In truth, the globe of spines sits a paddle length below.

Reach down and your kayak will roll just enough to momentarily seem about to tip.

Pull back as you snap out of a spell cast by the scene’s overpowering magic.

Although the Sunshine Coast is visible from Vancouver’s western beaches, the Sechelt and Malaspina peninsulas, which dominate this semi-isolated stretch of the Lower Mainland, seem a world apart.

No need to pack a passport. All that’s required to experience the tangible essence of this rarefied cosmos is the will to travel an hour or so beyond your back yard.

How hard is that, especially when the rewards are guaranteed to send you home with a whole new peace of mind?

Before you begin to think that you’ll somehow have to rough it to achieve this sense of release, consider this: life is challenging enough when you’re coping with the pressures of urban living.

As soon as you disembark on the Sunshine Coast, you’ll sense a soothing difference.

There’s more room to breathe—not just between you and others with whom you share the road but in the whole realm of nature that spreads before you.

Take your time.

With the Coast Mountains rising sharply from the shoreline, the inclination here is not so much to explore vertically but to put out to sea in a small watercraft and explore the sheltered bays and inlets.

No boat? No experience?

With plenty of local outfitters and guides, sourcing equipment and directions is hardly an issue.

When reached by phone at his company’s sea-kayak base on Okeover Arm near Powell River, Vallance was buzzing about a recent appearance by several orcas.

“Even though historically orcas used to feed here on salmon before local rivers were dammed for hydroelectric generation, this is the first time in the 16 years I’ve been here that I recall them visiting. That stirs up optimism in me.”

In that same vein, Hansen reported that paddlers around Egmont have been sharing space with hundreds of surf scoters—large, black sea ducks given to ululating while struggling to get airborne—as well as inquisitive minke whales that enjoy people-watching just as much as the seafarers are bent on nature observation.

A distinguishing feature of the inland waters around small ports like  Okeover Arm is the abiding sense of tranquillity.

At this time of year, few sailboats or yachts appear.

Come summer, all that changes, particularly around Okeover Arm, which opens onto Desolation Sound.

As Vallance pointed out, the sound is one of the Sunshine Coast’s more popular destinations for fair-weather sailors.

“For starters, Desolation’s got a great name and warm water, which is rather special. Plus, it’s got the best intertidal marine life on the coast. Based on their experiences from around the world, our guides tell us there are some unique things going on here, which is why they’ve dubbed our day trips the ‘famous aquarium tour’.

Desolation is sheltered by towering Coast Mountains,” he continued, “and dotted with islands and islets. There are no strong currents. This creates what people are seeking in a kayak tour.”

Extreme currents are one of the chief attractions for visitors to Egmont.

Except at slack tide, the mighty Skookumchuck Narrows at the entrance to Sechelt Inlet south of the small village offers a playground for experienced kayak paddlers who pull stunts in their stubby play boats on the roiling white water within sight of those who journey to viewing spots on foot.

Currents of a decidedly less threatening nature characterize the waters around Paul Hansen’s West Coast Wilderness Lodge in Egmont.

“Compared to the Strait of Georgia that can be choppy, the waters offshore from us are always flat calm. You never feel like you’re in big, open water with winds pushing you around.”

As well, Hansen pointed out that in a kayak you’re not sitting as high above the water as in a canoe. “When it comes to paddling, canoeing is an art, kayaking a joy.”

Whether you’ve sea kayaked before or not, now is the time to spring to it.

Original Article
Text CR Jack Christie
Photo CR Louise Christie

Bygone era returns at the Kilby Historic Site

Animal husbandry volunteer Cecily Joseph introduces visitors to members of the barnyard family at Kilby Historic Site’s Waterloo Farm in Harrison Mills, where time stands still.

Here’s a great Fraser Valley day trip suggestion for families with young children. For more informationon Kilby and nearby Harrison Hot Springs, check our guide “52 Best Day Trips from Vancouver”

ACCESS: Harrison Mills lies 120 kilometres east of Vancouver in the North Fraser Valley. The quickest approach is via Highway 1 east of Chilliwack. Take Exit 135 and head north on Highway 9 as it crosses the Fraser River and through farmland around Agassiz, and then go west on Highway 7. A slightly longer way is by taking Highway 7 (Lougheed Highway) starting in Pitt Meadows all the way to Harrison Mills. Details on the historic site, as well as information on special events can be found at www.kilby.ca/.

For information on Kilby Provincial Park, visit www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/kilby/.

To find out about circle farm tours in the Fraser Valley, visit www.circlefarmtour.com/.

As daffodils and tulips fade in the fields surrounding the North Fraser Valley hamlets of Agassiz and Harrison Mills, blossoming orchards take their turn, carpeting the side roads in a blizzard of pink and white petals.

Of particular significance is a Gravenstein apple tree planted in 1926, the oldest of its kind in the region. The tree stands propped up in all its gnarled glory beside the equally venerable Kilby General Store.

In rhythm with the vernal season, the gates at the Kilby Historic Site on the banks of the Harrison River have swung open once again for the summer, offering a window on both the valley’s past and, thanks to spring’s vibrant renewal, an incipient future as lively as a newborn lamb.

As it has for the past three decades since being acquired by the province from the Kilby family, who set up shop in Harrison Mills in 1904, the historic site hums with life thanks in large part to the commitment of local volunteers from the Fraser Heritage Society.

For fruit-pie lovers, chef Vera Point of the local Chehalis First Nation is back at the helm of her kitchen in the Orientation Barn’s Harrison River Restaurant, where the smell of fresh-baked goods wafts out the windows of the former stable and into the grassy area that surrounds the imposing heritage store and former hotel complex. The restaurant is housed in a reconstruction of a wood-planked barn that was raised in 1917 alongside the Kilby General Store.

Long before the construction of a dike system sturdy enough to hold back the waters of the Fraser River, whose confluence with the Harrison lies a short distance downstream, the Kilbys wisely mounted their two-storey enterprise on pilings high above the floodplain.

Nothing else akin to its quaint grandeur remains from the glory days when, in the wake of the Cariboo gold rush and the advent of the transcontinental railway, sawmills sprang up at riverfronts like Harrison Mills and spurred settlement in the valley.

For over 70 years, goods from the Kilby General Store’s well-stocked shelves filled shopping baskets, while rooms in the Manchester House Hotel housed workers.

These days, day-trippers journey to Harrison Mills and the nearby farming centre of Agassiz for recreation at Kilby Provincial Park and to go on a self-guided circle farm tour of the region in search of locally created crafts and artisan produce. Much of this is on sale in the Orientation Barn’s Waterloo Farm Gift Shop.

That’s where we talked to Jo-Anne Leon, the historic site’s sales and marketing manager.

“There are all sorts of unique holes-in-the-wall around Agassiz where we source everything on display here, including a whole range of farm-fresh products, which Vera and her staff use to bake from scratch,” Leon said. “Visitors to Kilby are inspired by a way of life from the past that we’re moving away from. It represents values and traditions of a day gone by that people feel good about and like to be reminded of, a history that’s still close but which represents a totally different way of living than today—a slower lifestyle.”

One arrival this spring is a crossbred Dorper–St. Croix sheep named Benji, a red-ribbon winner at the Agassiz Fall Fair whose owner donated him to the Waterloo Farm component of Kilby Historic Site’s array of attractions.

Animal husbandry volunteer Cecily Joseph is in charge of a menagerie that includes potbellied pigs, Shetland ewes, a billy goat, and a cocky rooster.

“Last winter’s cold snap was really hard on a lot of the animals,” she said while hand-feeding a bronze turkey named Beau. “His partner, Buttons, didn’t survive.”

Joseph, who lives near Harrison Mills on the Chehalis Indian Reserve, is studying early childhood education at the University of the Fraser Valley.

“With the potential demise of the Stanley Park petting zoo, my goal is to open an animal education centre for kids at Kilby that will eventually be enlarged to include ponies.”

Pack a picnic and head out to the North Fraser Valley.

If you’ve got a canoe or a kayak, bring it along as well, and don’t forget the binoculars.

Not only does the Kilby Historic Site offer an attractive place to enjoy a fresh-air outing, the nearby provincial park on the shore of Harrison Bay does as well.

A sandy beach beckons windsurfers, while a boat launch provides the opportunity to paddle as bald eagles and the occasional breaching white sturgeon soar above the surface.

Time stands as motionless as a blue heron.

Thoughts of yesteryear float on the breeze as the Kilby family legacy lives on. -

Original Article
Text CR Jack Christie
Photo CR Louise Christie

Time to tackle a portion of the Matsqui Trail

Here’s one of our favourite destinations for a spring day trip

Matsqui Trail Regional Park lies 40 kilometres east of Vancouver. Take Highway 1 to Abbotsford, then Highway 11 north toward Mission. Watch for the green Metro Vancouver Parks signs that point the way to the park, the main entrance for which lies beneath the south end of the Mission Bridge on Riverside Road. For information, visit www.metrovancouver.org/Pages/default.aspx and search Matsqui Trail.Have you ever stopped and shivered just because you were looking at a river?

The Fraser River makes that kind of impression on people such as Doug Petersen, park-operations supervisor of Matsqui Trail Regional Park in Abbotsford. On the phone from Metro Vancouver Parks’ East Area office, Petersen explained that exploring the Fraser between Yale and Fort Langley has been one of his paddling passions.

“Do it in bite-sized pieces,” he counselled, “probably spread over three days, with stops in Hope, Agassiz, and Brae Island. It’s not for novice flat-water paddlers. The river has strong eddy lines that can easily catch up a canoe.”

The thought of being caught in the grasp of a river as mighty as the Fraser is enough to make anyone’s adrenal glands flutter.

Conversely, walking, wheeling, or horseback-riding beside the river as the spring season freshens is enough to arouse shivers of delight in the dourest of souls.

Spring has a way of doing that, especially when you detect its scent on the wind where the Fraser Valley begins to widen and flatten around Abbotsford. This month, breezes bear a decidedly floral fragrance as they waft down from the daffodil fields surrounding nearby Bradner, a welcome counterpoint to the odours from local farmyards.

European settlers on both sides of the Fraser used to tremble when the river began to rise. High-water markers at the Dyke Crest Gauge mounted beside Matsqui’s main trailhead illustrate the heights that flood waters reached over the past two centuries, including the record eight-metre mark in 1894, as well as lesser inundations in 1948 and 1972, and, most recently, in 1999, all of which prompted refortification of the dike system. As you explore the main trail, look down to see evidence of modest, earlier levee-building endeavours that predate the existing barricade.

When queried about an extension to the riverside trail below the dike, Petersen explained that Metro Parks had acquired more access to the Fraser, thanks to a land purchase. Finishing touches have just been applied to the one-kilometre trail that links with the main route to form a loop. In particular, parents of young children will appreciate the improved path, as it provides easy access to sandy stretches of the riverbank, where kids can toddle or practise their casting. Cyclists will also welcome the new riverside stretch, especially on breezy days when the dike trail acts as a windbreak.

Matsqui Trail appears deceptively short, but there’s more here than meets the eye. Decide at the outset how much of its 14-kilometre length you’re game to tackle.

The park’s main jumping-off point beside the Mission Bridge lies midway between the Fraser Valley Regional District’s Sumas Mountain Park to the east and the City of Abbotsford’s Douglas Taylor Park on the western perimeter. There are advantages to exploring in either direction.

Petersen’s favourite portion is a 4.5-kilometre wilderness corridor that leads west from rolling farmland through Matsqui First Nation territory into a forested setting above the river before dropping down into a marshy area bisected by a small creek.

“This is a spectacular transition with a little bit of everything,” he enthused, “created during an expansion done in 2000. Do this section on one visit; next time, head east to Page Road at the foot of Sumas Mountain. As a benefit to runners, we put up kilometre markers along the way.”

Petersen has witnessed sturgeon breach a metre above water offshore of the trail’s eastern extremity, where the Fraser bends around Strawberry Island and a sense of wild, natural rhythms governs the landscape.

“Depending on the time of year, there are snow geese in the fields and eagles in the cottonwoods. There are lots of First Nations connections along this stretch for traditional fishing rights as well.”

A plaque affixed to Matsqui Trail’s info board acknowledges the influence of the Fraser Basin Council on shaping the park’s current identity.

Bob Purdy, external relations and corporate development director with the Vancouver-based council, pointed to a report his group published in 2000 that detailed how park planners, Matsqui First Nation members, and a myriad of local citizens’ groups began the process of creating a greenway beside the Fraser from Sumas Mountain to Fort Langley.

“Valley bottoms are where 85 percent of species live,” Purdy said. “You build environmental resiliency by creating connections. You minimize fragmentation by maximizing the ‘connectiveness’ of green fragments. When climate change hits, these corridors will be critical for survival.”

If you long to be awoken by a dawn chorus of songbirds returning to the Fraser Valley, consider camping at one of Matsqui Trail’s four modest riverside sites, which have just reopened for the season.

With the exception of hot summer weekends, Petersen said there are usually vacancies.

Many people who camp here are cycling the Trans Canada Trail, of which Matsqui Trail is a well-forged, spirit-shivering link, indeed.

Original Article
Text CR Jack Christie
Photo CR Louise Christie

Former Olympian Nancy Greene passes the flame to next generation

Sun Peaks Resort is a feature chapter in our best-selling guide book Best Weekend Getaways from Vancouver. Here’s why.

Nancy Greene wears so many mantles it’s a challenge to tally them all: world-champion skier, Olympian, hotelier, university chancellor, senator.

The woman nicknamed “Tiger” could also just as easily be dubbed “coach”, especially by those who tag along on one of the daily mountain tours she offers visitors to her home at Sun Peaks Resort near Kamloops. She has been the director of skiing there since relocating to the Thompson Plateau from Whistler in the early 1990s.

As we discovered during a recent trip to Sun Peaks, the 66-year-old wants everyone to shine on the slopes just as brightly as she has since her first appearance on the international racing scene at the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California, when she was 17.

Greene doesn’t simply lead a tour; she coaches as she goes, offering gentle encouragement as the group speeds along. “Relax your arms. Let your poles hang loose. Remember to stand on the balls of your feet and push with the metatarsal bone just below your big toe. Feel how it helps your skis carve.”

Yikes! How many other athletes of this stature would turn a casual get-together into a two-hour skills clinic?

Yet this is something Greene has offered free of charge year in, year out, wherever she goes and whomever she skis with.

The trick is keeping up with her.

This is one skier who knows how to milk every drop of speed from her turns—except when she’s racing with kids, that is. “My boy will remember beating an Olympic gold medallist for the rest of his life,” one proud father enthused.

Honorary chair of the Nancy Greene Ski League—Alpine Canada’s grassroots ski program for youngsters—Greene takes obvious pride in nurturing a passion for skiing that downplays winning in favour of encouraging a love of sport.

“We held an open house here last fall and signed up six new families,” the ever-youthful grandmother said, beaming.

As if to demonstrate that she can ignite enthusiasm through sheer desire, Greene beckoned to two half-pints who were standing in awe nearby. “Do you guys want to see a snow cave? Follow me.” With the helmeted tykes in tow, she ducked into a grove of snow-encrusted trees through an opening just large enough to accommodate the trio. Looking back, she flashed a triumphant smile.

When asked what role she played in helping Vancouver win the right to host the 2010 Winter Games, Greene said that as a member of the bid committee she lobbied for the yes side in the civic referendum.

“I did a little commercial about growing up in Rossland and going to the Olympics. When I added it up, even if we didn’t win the bid, we’d still be getting…plans for upgrades to the Sea-to-Sky Highway and building the  Canada Line. Historically, under the equalization program we’re always sending dollars to Ottawa. This is the first time B.C. ever got a swack of money back from the feds. Plus, even if you don’t care about sport, holding international events creates pride. There are intangibles in this world that count, and pride in your country is one of them.”

For the past three decades, Greene’s sense of pride in performance has been further enhanced by managing boutique hotels with her husband, Al Raine, first at Whistler and now at Sun Peaks.

“Al and I have worked and stayed at enough hotels in Europe to know what you have to do right,” she said.

Last June, she agreed to become a spokesperson for the Canadian Tourism Human Resource Council.

She described her role as encouraging work and professionalism in the tourism sector.

“As a young person, if you’re unsure of your future, get a job in the hospitality industry to learn what it’s like to work a small business. You don’t make as much money in tourism, but it’s an entry into the work force. These are very valid jobs where you actually learn how to work. Plus, it can be fun. One of the young Australians here at Sun Peaks told me how much she likes her job because she gets to ski on the way home!”

In the contagious spirit of the 2010 Winter Games, this February 12 to 28, Sun Peaks Resort invites everyone to be an Olympian, at least in their dreams.

Although the action at the Vancouver and Whistler venues will be as serious as a heart attack, revelry knows no bounds at this triple-mountain complex.

From the creative minds who added snowshoe golf to B.C.’s winter-sports vocabulary come two new demonstration sports: Nerf-ball biathlon action and an extreme-speed event, tube luge. Trophies will be as highly prized by the winners as any medals listed on the resort’s podium-count board, where Canadian athletes’ accomplishments, together with those of the top five nations, will be regularly updated.

To fully appreciate what makes an Olympic medal special, drop by Nancy Greene’s Cahilty Lodge to check out her impressive trophy stash.

If she’s home from her full-time job as a senator in Ottawa or acting as Canada’s official Olympic ambassador, Greene will likely offer to hang her gold one around your neck.

Talk about a priceless bonus.

Access: For information on Sun Peaks Resort, visit www.sunpeaksresort.com/. For more on Nancy Greene, visit www.nancygreene.com/.

Original Article
Text Cr Jack Christie
Photo CR Louise Christie

Whistler Snowboard Pioneer’s Fireside Chat

Come along to Whistler’s GLC tavern and prepared to be amazed as Mark “Toaster” Torlay  hosts the best episode yet in Whistler Blackcomb’s Snowcast series.

Watch this fireside chat among a group of pioneering snowboarders, including Ken Achenbach, co-inventor of the twin-tipped snowboard, the single most revolutionary design innovation in 20th-century sports history.

Kiddie fun awaits at Sidney’s Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre

Sidney is one of our favourite destinations on Vancouver Island. You can read more about it in our best-selling guide “Best Weekend Getaways from Vancouver”

ACCESS: Sidney lies five kilometres/3 miles south of B.C. Ferries’ Swartz Bay terminal at the north tip of the Saanich Peninsula, 27 kilometres/17 miles north of Victoria.

For information on the Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre, phone 250-665-7511.

For tourist info on Sidney, including a map of the Saanich Peninsula, contact the Saanich Peninsula Chamber of Commerce, 250-656-3616, or visit www.hellobc.com.

If there’s an award for B.C.’s best new tourist attraction, Sidney’s Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre is a shoo-in—except for one thing. Although displaying the patina of an art gallery, the Vancouver Island town’s new focal point isn’t technically a tourist attraction at all.

As the centre’s development and special-events director, Joan Eaglesham, explained during a recent visit, “Our mission is to be an environmental-education centre to treasure and protect the ocean.”

From her desk in the Ocean’s Heartbeat classroom-laboratory, educational director Linda Funk offered further clarification: “You won’t love it unless you understand it.”

The “it” in question is a portion of the Salish Sea (the Strait of Georgia) bordering the Saanich Peninsula and the southern tip of Vancouver Island, between Sooke and Salt Spring Island, an easily accessible, scenic coastline seemingly designed with day trips in mind.

Couple the magic of shoreline exploration with a growing curiosity about what goes on beneath the surface of B.C.’s marine environment and you’ve got a hit.

Since opening in late June, the centre has had a tsunami of almost 80,000 visitors pour through the glass-panel doors, designed to mimic a kelp bed. That’s twice as many visitors as the New Marine Centre Society’s board forecast to break even in the first year.

Sidney and its environs have long been hubs of interest in the life below the waters of the Georgia Basin, an inland sea stretching from the south end of Puget Sound to Desolation Sound at the north end of the Malaspina Peninsula on the Sunshine Coast.

Bert Webber, a retired Bellingham, Washington, biologist, first dubbed this body the Salish Sea in 1989. The $8-million facility—owned and funded by the nonprofit New Marine Centre Society—is the gifted offspring of two humble-but-proud facilities that once anchored the waterfront: the Sidney Marine Mammal Museum, which opened in the 1980s, and the Marine Ecology Centre, which relocated there from its original home in Cowichan Bay in 2001.

Talk about a kid magnet.

This high-tech space is not a place where parents have to ask their children twice if they’re interested in exploring for an hour or two.

There are 17 habitat tanks full of marine life on display, and the centre’s theme shows change every two weeks, in part to cater to a growing list of 6,000 annual pass holders and also because staff want to demystify the underwater world just metres away in the coves that indent Sidney’s coast.

Early on weekend mornings, children line up in front of the centre’s massive curved elevator door, seemingly designed to mimic the airlock to Captain Nemo’s submarine in Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. As the elevator slowly descends, video projections on the walls and ceiling give the impression of being transported beneath the waves.

On arrival, the sensation is like stepping onto the ocean floor. In addition to saltwater tanks filled with marine life, real-time scenes broadcast from a Web cam positioned beneath Bevan Pier adjacent the centre play across a wall-sized Smart Board.

Although modest when compared to large-scale seaside research centres such the Monterey Bay Aquarium, don’t let size fool you. Aquarist Paula Romagosa said the Ocean Discovery Centre roughly equates with the Vancouver Aquarium’s Gallery of the Pacific, specifically the massive B.C. Waters tank.

“Our deep-sea tank in the Gallery of the Salish Sea is about that big. What sets us apart are cutting-edge features like the GestureTek, which is so innovative that even kids who play with the latest technology are intrigued.”

Imagine the floor beneath you as a computer screen with a glassy veneer of the ocean projected on it.

Step on its gesture-controlled, interactive surface.

As you move, waves are stirred into motion and ripple across the screen.

The more you move about, the more animated the marine world becomes below.

Trippy, very trippy.

Equally popular is a Plexiglas bubble that allows kids—and adults willing to get down on their knees—to wiggle inside a kelp forest and make eye contact with schools of juvenile rockfish and grunt sculpins.

Even though Romagosa pointed out that the centre’s collection doesn’t feature anything “exotic”—think beluga whales—there’s far more on display than most land dwellers can appreciate on quick inspection.

Knowledgeable, easily engaged interpreters are the centre’s strength.Visitors’ questions are fielded by both full-time staff and an all-ages roster of volunteers who embody the dictum “science explained; mysteries revealed.”

Before stepping outside to admire the distant, though no less impressive, view of Mount Baker on the Washington state mainland, pause at the Take Action Station, where visitors are encouraged to post a comment on a wall covered with resolutions, such as “Only eat Ocean Wise–approved seafood”, “Don’t take starfish home from the seashore”, “Never litter the ocean”, and “Don’t buy seashells in gift shops unless they’ve been sustainably harvested”.

Judging from the handwriting, a new generation of planet-loving kids has just been given further pointers on how to make a difference. Right now, the world can’t ask for more empowerment than that.

Original Article
Text CR Jack Christie
Photo CR Louise Christie

Persistence Personified: Snowboarder Alexa Loo

Snowboard racers are reputedly the hardest-working athletes in a world dominated by badder-assed half-pipe freestyle riders and snowboard cross racers.

They’re more persistent souls too.

After seasons of training and rehab, coupled with more good and bad fortune than most pain thresholds could tolerate, come February 26th, 2010, Richmond-based snowboarder Alexa Loo makes her sophomore appearance at the Olympic Winter Games, this time plummeting down old-growth-lined slopes on Black Mountain in West Vancouver’s Cypress Provincial Park, venue for Olympic freestyle ski and snowboard events.

Over the past month, I spoke with Loo during early-season glacier training in Solden, Austria, and again while dealing with a leaky roof at her grandmother’s house in Richmond.

Talk about typifying the challenges many athletes face balancing home and work.

After a decade on the World Cup circuit, Loo sounded more than up for the challenge of dealing simultaneously with tradespersons and a journalist.

By her own estimation, since she began competing in 1997, Loo has entered about 100 World Cups, 7 world championships, plus numerous Nor Am Cup contests where she won three gold medals last season.

Still, whatever plays out this year, the first Canadian woman to earn a World Cup medal in alpine snowboarding won’t ultimately be satisfied until she adds winning the Mt. Baker Legendary Banked Slalom to her roster of accomplishments.

Canadian women, including Squamish’s Mäelle Ricker, who won the past three LBSs, have a lock on the classic race first staged in 1985.

Owing to a scheduling conflict—the Washington State event runs each year during February’s Superbowl weekend—that’s not likely to happen in 2010 as both snowboard cross racer Ricker and her Canadian Snowboard Federation teammate Loo will be in the final stages of focusing on their Olympic events.

“Still, I’m hopeful that, come 2011, I’ll get an invitation,” Loo said somewhat wistfully.

Meanwhile, the chartered accountant-turned-Olympian’s got enough work cut out for her in the next six months as it is, including capitalizing on her bronze medal at the Sunday River World Cup in Maine last February, a hard-won accomplishment she acknowledged as a defining moment in her recent career.

Understandably, the 38-year-old found the lofty view from the podium most satisfying. “After a long wait [since her previous World Cup top-three finish in January, 2006] the podium was a gratifying place to be. You feel this is where you belong. It validates everything I believe about myself and what I’m capable of achieving.”

An oft-repeated judgment in the Book of Changes advises “Perseverance furthers”.

Two key individuals Loo most wanted to credit for inspiring her recent successes are teammate and current World Champion Jasey-Jay Anderson and Olympic racer-turned-coach, Mark Fawcett, the one Ross Rebagliati once told me was pivotal to his gold medal giant slalom win at the Nagano 1998 Winter Games.

“Since Mark became my coach two years ago, I’ve evolved from being an athlete who could, at best, qualify for a spot in the top 16 finalists in my sport, to one who could be a legitimate podium contender in every race,” she said.

“His technical skills, plus an ability to explain the finer points of letting it all hang out at speeds of 100 kilometres-per-hour, are what made the difference. Plus, training with [multi-World Cup winner] Jasey-Jay and understanding how he squeezes every hundredth-second out of his board has helped me make vast improvements as well.”

Thanks to her accomplished “ski-crazy” parents, Toni and Charlie, Loo carved her first turns at Mt. Baker Ski Area south of Abbotsford in the North Cascades Mountains, the home of snowboarding in the Pacific Northwest.

“We had a small cabin in the woods at the base of the mountain where we spent lots of family time. When we weren’t skiing, my dad and I played Scrabble. When I finally beat him, we never played again” she recalled, laughing at the memory.

After graduating from UBC with a commerce degree, she worked at the KPMG accounting firm’s Vancouver office.

At the same time, she became drawn deeper into the vortex of racing after joining the Blackcomb Snowboard Club.

Drawing on her background as a varsity swimmer and rower, coping with the pressure of blending work and fitness training was second nature.

Even more, she readily welcomed the opportunity competitive snowboarding offered to tour the world.

“At first, I worked at KPMG in summer. They gave me the winter off so I could train in winter. Along the way, I managed to write my Chartered Accounting exam but I got so stressed before the 2006 Olympics that I left before being able to put in my practical time.”

Years after embarking on her journey, Loo spoke with pride of the portfolio of life lessons now tucked under her Lycra.

“Hard work isn’t always the answer to achieving a dream,” she said.

“After working with sports psychologists [like former Vancouverite Dana Sinclair of Human Performance International], I’ve learned to reevaluate and develop the personal side of my nature. To succeed, I need to bring the strongest part of my being to this year’s Winter Games. Dana’s style worked for me because I was ready for the message: inner happiness and self-belief are the keys to staring down defeat.”

Life on the World Cup circuit where she spends lengthy periods of time has taught the veteran not to let little things get under her skin.

“You have to develop more coping techniques than working in an office. There’s no going home. You have to work everything out in front of your friends.”

No matter what follows this season, it doesn’t sound as Loo plans to head back into the world of finance any time soon, although she does credit the analytical skills she learned from accounting as talents she can take forward as a board member with Athletes CAN, an advocacy group for Canadian athletes, and as a volunteer with the International Paralympic Committee.

“As I’ve matured in my sport,” which she compares to driving a Ferrari, “I’ve acquired leadership and soft skills. I enjoy motivational public speaking, helping people be the best they can be.”

There’s one thing Loo can count on: if she makes a name for herself at the Olympics, she a shoo-in for a spot in the next Legendary Banked Slalom.

Inspired by the likes of fellow B.C-bred racers, such as Karleen Jeffery, Victoria Jealouse, Don Schwartz, and her old-school racing alumnus Rebagliati, Loo might still achieve immortality—a name plaque affixed to the unpretentious wooden snowboard which occupies a shrine of honour in Mt. Baker’s day lodge.

In the inner sanctum of her once-outlawed sport, glory doesn’t shine with more golden radiance than from that trophy.

Sea To Sky Trail Video Released

With the help of an all-star cast, including environmental educator Dr. David Suzuki, Paralympic ski skier Brad Lennae, cyclist extraordinaire Ryan Leech, and Olympic gold medalist Beckie Scott, the Sea to Sky Trail comes to life in my newest video production, this time on behalf of the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District’s 190-kilometre-long route. Take a look at the results.

To celebrate the  Sea to Sky Trail Society’s partnership with the Trans Canada Trail Society, the SLRD wanted to highlight the beauty of this work-in-progress at the TCT’s annual general meeting held at Rideau Hall in Ottawa where it premiered in September

Thanks to the great talent that helped put this video together, both videographer Kirk Tougas and the team at upNext Media who also work their design magic here at jackchristie.com.

Enjoy!

And check out the detailed description of the Sea to Sky Trail in our just-released 2010 editon of “The Whistler Book“

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