Home Away...

Fairy Lake, BC.

Every so often, I need to feel the wind off the ocean, hear the sound of waves crashing on rock, and watch as the sun burns itself into the curve of the earth at days end.

This need often prompts me to head for the ferry and to drive out to British Columbia’s Wild West Coast on Vancouver Island. This is a beautiful, rugged, rocky shoreline with endless bays, tidepools, and deep-water fjords. The coastline stretches over 2,000 miles (3,440 km) and is home to coastal wolves, black bears, grey, humpback and killer whales…  and just offshore, some of the highest diversity of sea stars and sponges anywhere on the planet.

Coastal Foothills, Vancouver Island, BC.

Depending on the actual destination along the coast, it can be a relatively short trip from Bellingham. Last week, Stephanie and I, and our dog Willow, took the opportunity to get away for a few days in Port Renfrew, just a few hours from Victoria. Home, but not quite. Away, but not too far. Any situation, sunny skies or slate grey storms off the Pacific, any opportunity to spend time here on the coast… is worthwhile.

This is where the unhindered might of the Pacific Ocean crashes onto the Island’s ancient beaches and rainforest, often complete with heavy rain and wind and massive offshore swells. On this trip, all of that was tucked away, and it was sunny, pleasant, and nearly impossible to stay off the beaches.

Hair Ice (Fungus). Botany Bay, BC.

I first discovered the Port Renfrew area as it is the southern terminus of the West Coast Trail. Looking to get completely away, I spent (years ago) a week hiking this forty-six-mile (75 km) trail which traces traditional First Nation routes, was developed to assist shipwreck survivors from Pacific storms, and is part of the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. I went solo at the very end of the season and saw, the entire week, maybe ten others. I encountered more bears, seals, big trees, and sand than I did people – and that started my enduring love for this area.

Tide Pool Forest! Botany Bay, BC.

A relaxing ferry ride to Vancouver Island, then an hour and a half drive along the coast to this small city of less than three hundred people with its quiet charm and quiet romance. Located on the south shore of Port San Juan Inlet, Port Renfrew is remote and disconnected, surrounded by wilderness and with intense beauty in every direction.

Anemone & Sea Urchin! Botany Bay, BC.

Port Renfrew may be the last remaining city or town where you can experience the wild west coast without the crowds. Like everywhere, that is changing, but slowly here. A short enough drive to stock up on food and gas in Victoria or Sooke, but only one small store and one gas station (which doesn’t open until eleven and closes at five). There are some wonderful restaurants, but they may not be open at all in the off season. Cell coverage is fine, but internet is dicey at best. Again, a good place to disconnect for a while.

Wood Ducks at Stream Confluence. Botany Bay, BC.

Port Renfrew is a perfect place to come to kick-back, take a deep breath, and release all the angst and anxiety of daily life. Even the drive out is pure pleasure! Motoring along the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the international marine boundary separating Vancouver Island and Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. And all the way bordered and covered by towering Sitka spruce, Western red cedar, Western Hemlock, and with a dense groundcover of salal, huckleberry, ferns, mosses, and shrubs – all flickering in and out among the forest shadows and the beams of sunlight as you drive along.

De-stressing here is easy to do surrounded by deep forest, mist-shrouded lakes, and nearby Botany Bay and Botanical Beach with their sculpted sandstone, green anemones, starfish, and spiny sea urchins.

Coastal Mink! Botany Bay, BC.

A good place to chill with a book, a friend or significant other, and an early dinner at the local Pub. After that, you have the evening to wander the nearby beaches listening for kingfishers and eagles, searching for mink running among the rock (we saw four), or just drinking in the lap of waves, the setting sun, and the brisk ocean breeze.

Port Renfrew is historically a logging community  and so has its share of logging roads, logging trucks and clear-cuts (more than seventy-three percent of productive old-growth forests on Vancouver Island have been logged – and BC’s remaining old-growth coastal rainforests represent approximately one-quarter of all remaining coastal temperate rainforests worldwide). Today the community is trying to rebuild based on tourism (the “Tall-Tree Capital of Canada”), and to protect its remaining old growth areas including the Avatar, Jurassic, and Edan Groves, and Fairy Creek Old Growth Forest. Wood vs. tourism, protection vs industry, money/jobs vs. beauty/fragile ecosystems! It is world-wide, centuries old – and still a battle acre-by-acre to protect those special areas.

Deer Fern! Botany Bay, BC.

I’ve spent time all along this coast in British Columbia -- in small cabins with my wife and dog, huddled in a wet, windblown tent in the Bunsby Islands, and car camping alone in a complete west coast deluge. I love this place, this wild coast, and if it never changes it will be fine with me!

 Endnotes:

Running between the Gulf Islands south of Victoria to just north of Prince Rupert (Portland Canal), the coastline of British Columbia dips into bays, sounds, fiords, river inlets, and around some 40,000 islands of varying size. In total, there are over fifteen thousand miles (over 25,000 km) of rocky coast, cliffs, and beaches. This includes Vancouver Island, the Sunshine Coast, the Great Bear Rainforest, and Haida Gwaii (Canada in its entirety has 243,000 km of coastline). Seventeen distinct First Nations call this home, including the  Pacheedaht First Nation “People of the Seafoam’ near Port Renfrew. And more than five million seabirds (storm-petrels, auklets, murrelets, and others) use the BC coast as breeding habitat.