The 31 places to go in 2010
Vancouver Island
Vancouver will have the sporting world’s attention when it hosts the Winter Olympics this year, but the most rewarding outdoor exploration is found outside the city, away from the crowds and off the beaten path. Hop the BC Ferry from Vancouver to Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island’s east coast, and drive three hours through mountain passes to the wild, dramatic west coast. The new Wild Pacific Trail skirts the rocky, rugged shoreline, overlooking sandy coves lined with driftwood and tidepools and the Pacific beyond them.
The hiking trail is being built in sections (there are three of seven set up so far), hand-cut through dense old-growth forests of cedar and spruce, with viewing platforms that let hikers see turn-of-the-20th-century lighthouses, kayakers heading to nearby islands, and the annual gray whale migration (about 20,000 pass by the island from February to late May). The base for the Wild Pacific Trail is a folksy fishing village called Ucluelet, a former First Nations settlement dotted with seaside inns, bed-and-breakfasts and beach cabins like the Terrace Beach Resort (www.terracebeachresort.ca), which has direct access to the trail. BONNIE TSUI
Wild Pacific Trail is wild and wonderful
Posted by Brian Cantwell Seattle Times
UCLUELET, B.C. -- Our first encounter with the Pacific Ocean on this trip couldn't have been better, thanks to a bunch of people we don't know and never heard of, but who deserve their praises sung to the highest hills of Vancouver Island.
They are the members of the nonprofit, all-volunteer Wild PacificTrail Society, who have created a wonderfully accessible and well-designed trail that puts visitors close enough to this rugged and surf-splashed coastline to get saltwater in their eye.
Before the road's end in Tofino, we took a short detour south to Ucluelet because we'd heard about this new trail -- still a work in progress -- and let me tell you why we were glad we did.
For one thing, I had always wanted to see the wild waters of Barkley Sound. Some years ago, we had set out to sail here but a crew member's illness turned us back.
Now here we were, on the Wild Pacific Trail's 2.5-kilometer Lighthouse Loop, with a ringside seat to watch the rolling white combers bash themselves silly on Barkley Sound's Broken Islands, which look to have gotten that name because someone came along with a Jupiter-sized sledge hammer and broke a big island into a bunch of little ones.
I mean, there are rocks and reefs to the right, left and center -- everywhere you look. As my daughter and I sat on a sun-warmed afternoon and made PB&J sandwiches at a trailside bench, surrounded by twisted cedars and the lushest salal in the hemisphere, our soundtrack was the whoosh, whoosh of surf hitting half-submerged, knife-edged rocks; the clang, clang of a bell buoy just offshore, marking a ship-eating reef; and a baritone whooo-whoo sound like someone blowing into the neck of a beer bottle -- coming from another buoy off to our right, probably marking a nest of sharks so large as to be a hazard to navigation.
My overriding emotions were of (A) enthrallment, at the bare-knuckle, beautiful seascape, and (B) relief, that I had never brought my boat into this mariner's nightmare.
A helpful informational placard along the trail told how many ships had perished here, including one just in front of where we stood, a British four-masted bark headed for Port Townsend that blew off course and crashed on the rocks in 1905, with the loss of all 27 people aboard.
So the location makes this trail exceptional. Add to that the many thoughtfully placed benches -- most in little private alcoves just off the trail -- that are perfect for whale-watching, bird-watching or a knapsack picnic. And besides the ocean views, you enjoy a walk through a mossy temperate rainforest with salmon berries, thimble berries, huckleberry, ferns of many kinds, skunk cabbage and rhododendron. Halfway around the loop is the red-roofed Amphitrite Lighthouse.
The trail is wide and graveled, to stand up to the heavy use it deservedly gets. It has ample free parking, trash receptacles and helpful signs and maps.
And all it costs is whatever you feel like dropping in a donation box.
It can grate to be forced to pay to visit the outdoors, but here I was eager to pony up a few bucks. These folks, originally inspired by the vision of Ucluelet's "Oyster Jim" Martin, have earned every visitor's gratitude.
To learn more, watch this video, narrated by Jason Priestley. (Yes, he's the "90210" guy, all grown-up now. He was born in Victoria, and he and his family now own the Terrace Beach Resort in Ucluelet, just a short distance from the Wild Pacific Trail.)
By Keven Drews
Published Date: 2010/3/13 12:42:50 Excerpt from www.westcoaster.ca
UCLUELET — One of B.C.’s best-know oceanfront trails opened a new spur Saturday.
The spur, which cost $40,000, winds through the old-growth forests of the municipality’s He-Tin-Kis Park down to Terrace Beach. It includes a 100-square-metre observation pad, and highlights thousands of years of First Nation’s history through three signs.
“The focus of doing this trail was to recognize the First Nation’s history right under our feet,” said Barb Schramm, trail society president.
Schramm said the society wants people to know they’re standing on 4,000 to 5,000 years of First Nations history, and a midden exists at the end of the spur.
She said three new signs will be found along the spur and will discuss that history.
Mayor Eric Russcher called those who turned out Saturday morning a “great gathering,” and he lauded “Oyster Jim” Martin, the trail’s founder, for his vision.
“It just adds one more thing to our community,” said Russcher. “The vision continues.”
Vi Mundy, chief councillor of the Ucluelet (Yu?lu?il?ath) First Nation, a signatory of the Maa-nulth First Nations Treaty, said the spur and its recognition of native history cements the band’s relationship with the municipality.
“Our council has been really involved with the village council,” she added.
Mundy said every area on the municipality’s side of Ucluelet Harbour has a First Nation’s name with special meaning.
Band members, fluent in Nuu-chah-nulth, helped the society with the signs, she added.
“We provided the history. We also provided the correct spelling of the names of the area.
“We hope to see more of this.”
Rafts of sea otters in Ucluelet waters exciting residents
Yasmin Aboelsaud, Westerly News Published: Thursday, April 21, 2011
Ucluelet residents are seeing rafts of sea otters around Little Beach, a rare sight in the area.
"There were two groups, a group of about 50 and another group maybe 60 or 70," said Brian Congdon of Subtidal Adventures in Ucluelet. "As I understand it, they came in and moved around a little bit. But [the otters] mostly hung out, floating around drifting back and forth in the bay with the wind." ...According to Congdon, this was the first recorded instance of this many sea otters in the area. Congdon first spotted a sea otter in Great Bear Rock, between Ucluelet and the Broken Group Islands, about 20 years ago. At the time, he wasn't sure what to look for and hadn't noticed them in the area. But after seeing his first otter, he would see a couple of sea otters every once in a while.
Never has he seen a raft such as the one spotted last week.
"Sea otters really haven't been seen since the late 1700s," said Josie Osborne, marine biologist and Raincoast Education Society (RES) executive director.
At the time, sea otters were hunted for their coats. The last sea otter was shot in 1929, and no otters were spotted in Canada until 1968 when the government and a group of scientists translocated them from Alaska to Checleset Bay.
"Since 1971, they have been increasing in population," Osborne said. "They are pretty established now." Osborne said the raft spotted in Ucluelet was a group of bachelor males.
"The sexes don't mix except for during the mating season," she said. "So when you see a big raft, it's always either all males or all females."
The sea otters in Little Beach were less than five years old, according to Osborne, and were mainly "cruising around." "They don't have established territories. When they get a little older, they will find a mate then begin the cycle." Osborne said. Without established territories, the rafts are highly mobile and can be seen in Ucluelet for a couple of days and then the same raft can be located up in Clayoquot sound a few days later. Based on the sightings in Barkley Sound, Osborne predicted that within three to five years, sea otters "will be everywhere." The sea otters have come a long way on the West Coast.
Under Canada's Species at Risk Act (SARA), sea otters are a species of concern. But Osborne said sea otters are one of very few species whose status is improving. For now, residents and visitors can look out for the sea otter rafts in both Barkley and Clayouqout Sound.
"I think the Wild Pacific Trail is an excellent vantage point," said Osborne. "Ucluelet is lucky, there is nowhere in Tofino to watch sea otters."
As for the future of the sea otters, both Congdon and Osborne remain positive..."Lots of changes are coming," said an excited Osborne. "I've been waiting for a few years now to see [the sea otters] make it into Barkley Sound."
--reporter@westerlynews.ca .
Wild Pacific Trail marks 10 years... 
by Drew Burke, Special to the Westerly
Nearly a decade has passed since ‘Oyster Jim’ and other dignitaries cut a ceremonial ribbon marking the culmination of over 10 years of planning and hard work.
Residents and visitors gathered at Amphitrite Point in front of the lighthouse for the opening of phase one of the trail back on Mon., Aug. 2, 1999.
The Westerly was on hand to cover the event, and published a photo of ‘Oyster Jim’ decked out in shorts and a WPT t-shirt flanked by Provincial Minister Moe Sihota, MLA Gerard Janssen, MP Bill Gilmour, and Mayor Bill Irving.
All of the speakers that afternoon paid tribute to ‘Oyster Jim’ who had been the man with the plan to construct the coastal trail.
The ceremony marked the realization of an idea that began in 1988 when ‘Oyster Jim’ went before Ucluelet council and the chamber of commerce to propose his idea for a rugged natural trail up the coast.
He told the Westerly this week he was encouraged by the positive response he received at the time as the town was enjoying a boom in fishing and logging and tourism in Ucluelet was largely ignored.
The proposed trail was seen as a good asset for Ucluelet, and ‘Oyster Jim’ said he found allies at the district level especially in the planning department.
However, despite the initial enthusiasm little happened until he stood before council in 1996 and asked if they would support him if he took the project on himself.
Council agreed and when the first phase of the trail, built across federal lands by a local crew, opened on that sunny day in August ‘Oyster Jim’ told the crowd — “This isn’t the end of it, this is just the beginning. This section is stunning, but up the coast is even better.”
It was his plan to extend the trail all the way to Halfmoon Bay to meet the boundary of Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. Then, said ‘Oyster Jim’ in 1999 — “We can stand shoulder to shoulder with Whistler and Banff.”
He and the Wild Pacific Trail Society have been working hard to realize this dream ever since, and have completed four of the seven proposed phases.
Believing the trail has become part of the fabric of Ucluelet, ‘Oyster Jim’ says that its eventual completion will make the seaside town “a place where developers come because of the trail and place the trail as a prominent feature in their development planning.”
The WPT Society has now begun work on an initiative to purchase Proposed Lot 74 on Marine Drive which is on the market for $10.5 million as a possible hotel site.
Schramm says ... “This initiative is trying to create parkland surrounding that section of trail because otherwise a resort will eventually be built there.”
Though regulations will ensure the Wild Pacific Trail will run along the coastline even if a hotel is constructed on Lot 74, ‘Oyster Jim’ wants the area protected as a park.
“The big thing is, it’s got a wonderful stand of trees in there, and some even refer to it as the Cathedral Grove of the West Coast or at least of Ucluelet. It’s adjacent to the downtown core, unlike the lighthouse section which is a distance away, and it would be nice to have a park in that location and to have those trees set aside.”
“We hope to cobble together a partnership with the district, the landowner, the land conservancy, and private funding,” says Schramm, “And if we get a single funder that’s all the better.”
Walking on the Edge, a documentary-style movie that follows the story behind to the building of the trail was created as a marketing tool to promote the trail and help raise funding for the purchase of the hotel lot.
Featuring Canadian-born actor Jason Priestley as the narrator, the movie is the brainchild of local videographer Lance Blackwell who says the project marks an important step in bringing the trail to the world stage allowing for greater funding opportunities.
Walking on the Edge premiered at an invite-only screening at the Wickaninnish Restaurant on April 23, 2009... Blackwell had hoped to make the premiere event open to the public, but he says it became too large.
“The idea is that there will be a second screening because we’re restricted by numbers. I definitely plan on doing a public screening in the next couple of weeks and inviting absolutely everyone in Ucluelet to come and see it, because I think people here will feel a kind of ownership about the movie and the trail.”
Schramm echoes Blackwell’s sentiments about the sense of local ownership that has developed with regards to the trail.
“I think it’s deeply rooted in the identity of Ucluelet, and I personally believe it’s been pivotal in people’s appreciation for the natural beauty of the area, because they don’t have to drive anywhere or park anywhere and there are no fees. I think the longer it’s in place the more fiercely the locals will embrace it. It’s just a big part of a lot of people’s day to go out and take a quick walk on the trail. It’s been a good fitness call and a tremendous benefit to the lifestyle of everyone in Ucluelet.”
Article run in Westerly News, April 23.
