Tourism BC/JF Bergeron

The North Pacific Cannery near Prince Rupert offers tours and accommodation.

Have you ever heard of the Lulu Island Canning Company? The Fraser River salmon cannery was just one of up to 150 that operated in this province, beginning in the 1880s up to the 1950s.

Canneries once flourished along B.C.’s coast and are a unique and fascinating part of our history. Usually tucked away in remote locations, the canneries were a hive of activity and employed workers from all walks of life. Chinese immigrants, First Nations, men and women all worked towards the same goal of catching, washing, canning, loading, and dispatching millions of cans of salmon around the world. See our Winter 2010 article “Cannery Life” by Rosemary Neering for more information.

These days, there are remnants of old canneries around the province, such as the Butedale Cannery on Princess Royal Island, but few are fully restored to welcome visitors. This spring, as the canneries open to visitors, why not consider a unique trip into the recent past?

The North Pacific Cannery

This national historic site in Port Edward, near Prince Rupert, is open to visitors from May to September.
The cannery was established in 1889 and ran for 100 years. These days, visitors can stroll along the boardwalk, enjoy a salmon dish in the café, or even spend a night in the authentic but comfortable Bunkhouse Hostel. Displays describe the fishing and canning process and the workers’ way of life.

The Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site

The popular cannery is located in the fishing village of Steveston, about 30 kilometres from downtown Vancouver. Guides will fire up the cannery line and visitors can experience the process firsthand, with many of the site’s machines still operational. The structures date back to between 1894 and 1964 and include an icehouse and a vitamin oil shed. The cannery holds more than 10,000 items pertaining to the processing of salmon, herring, and halibut, including machinery dating back to the 1900. As a preview, watch our editor’s video shot live at the cannery.  

Other canneries in the province offer unique overnight accommodation, including Good Hope  at Rivers Inlet, and Tallheo, near Bella Coola, which also features tours.

 Two festival goers take a break from the action at the Salmon Arm Roots & Blues Festival.

British Columbia has dozens of great music events over the summer. Here are six to consider during your vacation planning:

BURNABY

Even Lower Mainlanders get the blues. The Burnaby Blues + Roots Festival http://www.burnabybluesfestival.com/ lands August 10, 2013 in Deer Lake Park. This year will feature acts excelling at the hummable track, such as Jon and Roy and Blue Rodeo, as well as representatives from the funk revival department, such as Charles Bradley, the “Screaming Eagle of Soul.”

COURTENAY

The beloved Vancouver Island Music Festival http://www.islandmusicfest.com/fairgrounds/ brings its magic to the Comox Valley Fairgrounds July 12 to 14, 2012. This family-friendly festival sells out, so don’t sit on the fence. This year’s headliners include Kris Kristofferson, the Indigo Girls, and John Hiatt.

MISSION

This long-standing Mission Folk Music Festival celebrated 25 years in 2012. The tunes return to Fraser River Heritage Park July 25 to 28, 2013. The festival is known for affordability, small-town friendliness, and fine folk, world, and roots music in a bucolic setting. Check their site later for a full 2013 line-up.

SALMON ARM

The 21^st Annual Salmon Arm Roots and Blues Festival returns August 16 to 18, 2013. This year’s lineup includes legendary folkie and humanitarian Bruce Cockburn, City and Colour, Chicago blues outfit Mississippi Heat, and Vancouver-based duo The Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer. 

VANCOUVER

Slide into your Birkenstocks and get into the groove at the 36^th Vancouver Folk Festival  July 19 to 21 at Jericho Beach Park. The 2013 lineup will be announced in late June.

VICTORIA

Rifflandia rocks out again at Victoria’s Royal Athletic Park September 12 to 15, 2013. Stay turned for the 2013 lineup.  Last year’s headliners included the eclectic Flaming Lips, Cake, and Vancouver’s Dan Mangan.

In the Spring 2013 issue of British Columbia Magazine, Susan Rybar wrote about the hundreds of British children from poor, urban families who were sent to Fairbridge Farm School on Vancouver Island to learn about agriculture, a social experiment with mixed results. In this guest blog, Rybar recounts part of her journey to Fairbridge while researching the story:

Like many roads in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island, Koksilah Road is bucolic, tranquil, and inviting. If I had to raise my two boys all over again, this is where I would want to do it, close to rolling hills and a natural playground full of treehouses and tire swings, crickets and creeks, exploration and adventure.

Last summer, after extensive arms-length research on the Fairbridge Farm School, I drove down Koksilah and turned into Fairbridge Drive, the street where the school children resided before the school closed in 1952. My imagination took over and I could almost see the hazy outline of kids playing tag on the grass, running into the woods to throw rocks in the creek, or walking to the library to read a book and perhaps get a moment of peace. “I could live here,” I thought, as I slowly drove around.

At the Fairbridge Chapel heritage site I parked and got out to take a look, but I could barely move as I stood on the lawn with imaginary children walking around me. Suddenly, the church bell rang out. Quite unexpectedly, I burst into tears.

Sometimes a story just grabs you by the heart and turns your world slightly upside down. The story of the Fairbridge Farm School children did just that to me. Perhaps I was overwhelmed by the personal accounts I had just read, some happy, some sad, all endearing; perhaps I was overcome by the beauty of the rural setting. Or perhaps I was thinking how grateful I was my boys spent their childhood safely close at home, close to me. Perhaps—all three.

I took a few deep breaths, pulled myself together, and left with an even deeper understanding of life at Fairbridge and greater respect for the 329 children who migrated to Canada and found a new life along Koksilah road. 

— Susan Rybar

Spring is here—what better time than now for new beginnings? Unplug and retreat to the Kootenay Rockies, where our multi-tasking writer discovers the value of doing one thing at a time. Travel to a remote coastal community on the edge of the Great Bear Rainforest, where the Nature Conservancy of Canada and the Wuikinuxv Nation are working together to help the area heal from its industrial past. And learn how dedicated biologists are reversing the fortunes of Vancouver Island’s decimated marmot population. Plus: Navigate a chain of northern lakes in Nenikekh/Nanika-Kidprice Provincial Park as the wilderness awakens from a long winter sleep. Head to Hope, a friendly town at the confluence of two mighty rivers where Mother Nature steals the scene. Then drink in the peace and quiet of a Gulf Island with city mixologist Shawn Soole.

Cover: A guide from Mountain Trek Fitness Retreat and Health Spa leads guests on a hike up Idaho Peak in the Selkirk Mountains.
Photo: David R. Gluns.

A woman paddles with views of downtown Vancouver, the site of the outdoor show.

Tourism BC/Kevin Arnold

Seeking inspiration for your next excursion? The Outdoor Adventure and Travel Show treks into Vancouver this weekend, and British Columbia Magazine will be there.

The show, with more than 200 exhibits, is the province’s largest display of outdoor gear and travel experiences. Find out about exciting destinations, learn how to scuba, snorkel, or paddle at the Whitewater Demo Pool, take a travel photography workshop, and hear Olympian Adam van Koeverden’s tales of adventure. Discover the latest advice and devices for hikers, surfers, bikers, runners, racers, and more.

“There’s something for the whole family— kayaking in a pool, sampling delicious snack foods—and it’s a great place to plan your next big adventure all in one place,” says Cindy Connor, our online sales and circulation coordinator.

Junior Outdoor Adventurers can even enter to win a British Columbia Magazine backpack full of prizes by having their Official Passports to the Outdoors stamped.

“It’s always fun meeting so many of our subscribers at the Outdoor Show, ” says Connor. “I recall meeting a gentleman who confessed to carrying around BCM’s 50^th Anniversary issue (50 Things To Do…) on his world travels last year, and he used it as a way of introducing B.C. to the world. Very cool.”

The show runs March 2 and 3 at the Vancouver Convention Centre. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday.

Do beavers know which way a tree is going to fall?

Oliver Busby, an environmental consultant in Delta who deals with urban wildlife, says beavers typically fall trees “towards the water where they can further access them safely away from predators.” Trees on the shoreline also fall more predictably because they naturally lean towards open water; as beavers clean out the easy pickings and move inland the risks could increase.

 iStockphoto

“They have no idea what way a tree will fall, and some are killed by falling trees,” says Jack Lay, a veteran trapper based in Princeton and retired provincial problem-wildlife officer.

Partially caught cut trees abandoned by beavers also run the risk of falling down in the wind and posing a threat to anyone or anything in their path. One illustrative Internet youtube posting from the Large Herbivore Network shows a beaver repeatedly taking a few bites of a tree, and then hesitating, before scurrying away just before it falls. Clearly, logging is not something this animal takes for granted.

— Larry Pynn

Masters of disguise: A Q and A with Jude Isabella

Science writer Jude Isabella spent months researching wildlife camouflage for her article “Visual deception,” published in the Winter 2012 edition of British Columbia Magazine. Read on to learn about the animal that stopped her in her tracks.

Jude Isabella in the field.

Credit: Dee Cullon

Which animal impressed you the most?

“While the decorator crab is entrancing with its slavish devotion to Fashion Camouflage, edible camouflage no less, I would have to say the giant Pacific octopus.”

How does the animal camouflage itself?

“They instantly morph themselves, changing colours and textures to match their surroundings. Obviously a winning life strategy—octopuses have roamed the planet for 450 million years. And, aside from their presto-chango antics, they’re also brainy. All this makes octopuses otherworldly to me. As someone whose beach reading list is full of sci/fi and fantasy titles, I can see how watching an octopus would tickle a writer’s imagination. Changelings, for example, in Star Trek—inspired by octopuses? Maybe. Changelings are also naturally gelatinous when not taking on human or other forms.”

What do they hunt?

“Changeling or octopus? Ha! Octopuses usually dine on crabs, scallops, clams, shrimp, and fish. (Their saliva has a kind of venom that paralyzes their unlucky entrees.) They will scavenge too, given the opportunity.”

When do they hunt, typically?

“Typically at night. They hide in crevices and small caves during the day.”

What are their known predators?

“Sea lions, harbour seals, sea otters, and sperm whales prey on octopuses, which escape an attack by squirting ink at the threat and then using jet propulsion to distance itself from the danger of ending up as some other creature’s meal.”

Any other facts we should know about this master of deception?

“The giant Pacific octopus has pale blue blood. And the latest octopus housed at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., named Pandora, is Canadian, hailing from British Columbia as did the zoo’s last beloved octopus, Octavius, who died in 2011, age four. (The octopus’s average life span is three to five years.)”

Tourism BC/Insight Photography

A family skates at Grouse Mountain.

The province’s first Family Day is February 11, 2013. Here are 11 fun things to do with your family on the weekend from around B.C.

1)   Marvel at the Brackendale bald eagles on the Squamish River. Read our article here.

2)   Go back in time at Fort Steele Heritage Town, north of Cranbrook. Read Bruce Kirkby’s story here.

3)   Look way down from the Whistler Peak2Peak gondola, a 4.4 kilometre ride in the clouds. 

4)   Skate a figure eight at your local outdoor rink such as the Outdoor Ice Oval in Prince George, the Smithers community rink at 7^th Avenue between Main and Queen Street,  Vancouver’s Robson Square and Grouse Mountain, Vernon’s Silver Star Resort and more!

5)   Be amazed by the world’s top wildlife photographers at the Royal BC Museum’s visiting exhibit Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2012. The show includes work from the province’s own Paul Nicklen, Adam Gibbs, and John Marriott, who photographed our Winter 2012 cover. While you’re there, don’t miss the new exhibit on Victoria’s Chinatown, opening Feb. 7^th. 

6)   Pack some energy bars, dress in layers, and go for a family winter hike. Here’s our blog on 10 family hikes from BC Parks.

7)   Strap on some snowshoes and enjoy the scenery in Tumbler Ridge on one of the community’s many trails. 

8)  Climb the batteries at Fort Rodd Hill and explore Fisgard Lighthouse in Colwood while being wowed by the views of Juan de Fuca Strait.

9)   Discover the secret world of sharks and rays at a new exhibit at the Vancouver Aquarium, opening Feb. 7.

10)   Thrill the train buffs in your family with a trip to the Revelstoke Railway Museum (open February 9 only) or the West Coast Railway Heritage Park in Squamish.

11)   Soak your muscles in one of the province’s many hotsprings, such as Liard River, Ainsworth, or Radium. See our Share your B.C. database for ideas.

In the spirit of the new holiday, we’ve created a special Family Day Buy One Get One (BOGO) offer for you. Buy a one-year subscription for yourself, and get a second for a family member at no extra cost!

Do you have any big ideas for the rest of  2013? How about trying to ascend Fairweather Mountain, British Columbia’s highest peak? Our contributors writer Andrew Findlay and  photographer Steve Ogle did just that and came back with quite a tale (and all their digits!) as well as some amazing photographs and video footage. Put on a sweater, make a hot drink, and enjoy these images from the team’s adventure, profiled in our Winter 2012 issue. You can view the photos here and the video below.

Video

David R. Gluns of Nelson has photographed a vast range of landscapes for British Columbia Magazine, from granite spires to canoe circuits and wildflower fields. Here, he shares this advice for great landscape images:

“Add the human element. People give landscapes scale.  They also help create the sense of ‘being there’ for the viewer.  Not only do I like to have people in my images, I also like them to be wearing a bit of colour, so that they “pop out” and draw the eye in. On the other hand, clothing needs to be chosen carefully so that it’s appropriate for the person and what they’re doing in the image.  Visually, you get more impact with one person than a group as it allows the viewer to identify with that person. What if you don’t have a person to add?  Set up your tripod and make yourself part of the scene.” 

For examples of this technique see David R. Gluns’s website or his photo gallery on our website, Hiking the Great Divide. 

We’ll be sharing more helpful photo tips over the coming weeks.  Don’t forget: the deadline to enter the British Columbia Magazine Photo Contest is February 20, 2013!