British Columbia Magazine

I love hiking in the fall. It’s a season of enhanced sensory pleasures. The crisp air seems scrubbed clean and its gentle nip makes you appreciate a cozy scarf and gloves. In the coastal forest, the beauty of the evergreens is enhanced by the contrasting deciduous flares of yellow, orange, and red.

Knowing that the next change of season will transform my favourite trails yet again encourages me to be more acutely aware of details that soon will disappear under the snow: the beacon of bright red berries in the understorey; the delicate clusters of tiny forest mushrooms; the small footprints of squirrels or the scat of foraging bears.

The ghost of winter-to-come was a notable presence on my recent hike in E.C. Manning Provincial Park. The first snowfall had touched the subalpine, and the white dusting on the fall foliage along the 1.5-kilometre Paintbrush Nature Trail was particularly lovely, as you can see from my snapshots.

Do you have a favourite autumn hike? We’d love to hear about it.

Come January 2009, it will be “Auf Wiedersehen, Germany” and “Hello, British Columbia!” for BC Ferries’ new northern vessel, the Northern Expedition.

The 150-metre ferry was launched September 25 in Flensburg, Germany. She’ll replace the aging Queen of Prince Rupert in time for the 2009 summer season, providing service between Port Hardy and Prince Rupert on the Inside Passage route. The new ship will accommodate 130 vehicles and 600 passengers, and offer 55 modern staterooms, expanded food services and amenities for travellers.

Northern Expedition is the seventh ship to join the BC Ferries fleet since the spring of 2007. Other vessels include the 160-metre, Olympic-themed Coastal Celebration (currently parked at Swartz Bay and slated for to go into service in the near future) and its sister ships, the Coastal Renaissance and Coastal Inspiration. 

I doubt BC Ferries will be putting any of these new ferries onto my daily route from Saltspring Island to Swartz Bay, but that’s just fine.  The Skeena Queen may not have all the bells and whistles of the newest BC Ferries vessels, but she’s still a great old gal, and she gets me where I need to go.

For more information, visit the BC Ferries website. 

If you love dogs and you love British Columbia wineries—and, more specifically, dogs AT wineries—finally, there is a wall calendar just for you.

The 2009 Winery Dogs of BC calendar, compiled by CBC Radio wine columnist Troy Townsin, features pooches of all varieties. There’s Filbert the dachshund from Oliver’s Golden Mile Cellars, Maggie the Labradoodle from Naramata’s Lake Breeze Vineyards, and Bruno, a rottweiler-Labrador cross at Silkscarf Winery in Summerland.

“[W]hen you are out visiting these world class wineries a big part of the experience is the interaction with the people and, of course, the dogs who live and work at each winery,” says Townsin in a release. “In fact because the calendar features dogs who actually live at the wineries it is possible to plan a whole wine tour based solely around the dogs you would like to meet!”

The calendars may be purchased online or at participating wineries. Partial proceeds will be donated to the BCSPCA.

(Or, British Columbia Magazine subscribers can wait for their free 13-month 2009 wall calendars to arrive. While we won’t have any dogs or wineries in the mix, readers can expect wild owls, cougars, and stunning B.C. landscapes among the images we’ve selected to knock your socks off.)

Did you know there are GIGANTIC cedar trees growing in a British Columbia rainforest more than 600 kilometres inland from the West Coast? B.C. is the only place in the world where inland temperate rainforest occurs in abundance. The zone is concentrated in the wettest valleys along the windward slopes of the Rockies and Columbia Mountains (including the Monashees, Selkirks, and Purcells).

Here are a few other surprising facts and figures from our Summer 2008 feature article on “The enchanted Incomappleux forest.”

1,500
Age, in years, of some of the oldest western redcedar trees growing in the Incomappleux River valley, in the Selkirk Mountains southwest of Glacier National Park.

9
Girth, in metres, of some of the largest Incomappleux redcedars—that’s more than three metres in diameter.

13,460
Total area, in square kilometres, of rare inland temperate rainforest in B.C., including the wet and very wet subzones.

100
Approximate distance, in kilometres, from the town of Revelstoke, along highways and logging back roads, to the quaint Mountain Hostel in the Incomappleux Valley.

~~~Update: August 5, 2008 ~~~

This promotion proved to be spectacularly popular, and has completely sold out. Sorry if you missed it!

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If you need a reason to visit Victoria this summer–besides the historic buildings, manicured gardens, and seaside trails–Tourism Victoria has an enticing offer.

Use their reservation system to book at least two nights’ accommodation in Victoria in August, and get your ferry ride for FREE. That’s a return trip to and from Tsawwassen for two adults and one undersized vehicle–a savings of about $70 each way.

“With the price of fuel well above last year’s levels, we understand what many consumers are dealing with and want to be a small part of the solution that will allow them to experience this amazing destination,” commented Tourism Victoria president Robert Gialloreto in a press release.

There’s some fine print, of course–visit Tourism Victoria’s website for all the details–but it seems a solid deal. My only criticism is that the bargain applies only to those travelling with a vehicle. Walk-on passengers opting for a more eco-conscious trip to the capital city are excluded.

“Share the Road.” It’s a phrase we normally associate with cyclists, but as the Victoria Day holiday approaches, it’s important to remember that wildlife use our roadways, too. According to the the Wildlife Collison Prevention Program (WCPP), more than 19,500 animals are killed each year on B.C. roads.  About 76% of these incidents involve deer; moose, elk, coyotes, bears and other wildlife make up the remaining 24% of annual animal fatalities. Before you set off this long weekend, consider the following drive-safe tips:

Watch for the signs - The yellow, diamond-shaped Wildlife Warning Sign warns of a hazard ahead.

Reduce speed -  Reduce speed, regardless of road or weather conditions, whenever your travels take you through a high density wildlife area.

Drive defensively - Actively watch for movement or shining eyes, on and beside the road, especially between dusk and dawn. Moose are especially difficult to see because of their dark coats; their height also places them above most headlights.

Use your vehicle - Wear your seatbeat at all times, and use your horn or flash your lights to frighten animals off the road. Keep your headlights on high beam at night for greater long-range visibility.  

For more tips and information about how to avoid a wildlife vehicle collision, visit the Wildlife Collision Prevention Program website.  

Thanks to Mark Skerbinek of Vancouver for these truly gorgeous photographs from his recent snowshoe trek in Mount Seymour Provincial Park on Vancouver’s North Shore. “It was one of those magical evenings,” he says, “Bitterly cold, but magical.”

Assistant Editor Shanna Baker wrote about Mount Seymour, and a half dozen other destination parks for winter recreation, in our Winter 2007 feature article “Frosty escapes.” You can read the full article here.

“I’ll be home for Christmas, you can count on me. . . .”

Are you one of the many travellers who will be making a winter roadtrip home for the holidays? After you select your seasonal music for the long drive, and stow a winter emergency kit in your trunk, there is one more thing you should do. Fire up your computer and visit DriveBC on the Internet.

The website, maintained by the Ministry of Transportation, provides up-to-date information on highway conditions throughout the province. Search by individual highway number, or click the online map to view regularly refreshed road reports for your planned route.

To see conditions in real time, choose the Highway Cams link to view recent highway photographs. Weather reports are also available.

Once you’re on the road, you can call DriveBC’s free automated telephone hotline for current information: 1-800-550-4997.

Happy holidays, and please drive safely.

For the second year in a row, Vancouver has been named Canada’s leading gay travel destination in a major survey of gay and lesbian travellers.

Those surveyed ranked the West Coast city of 2.2 million fourth overall as a choice of international travel destinations, after London, Puerto Vallarta and Paris, and just ahead of Montreal and Toronto.The 12th annual survey, conducted by Community Marketing, Inc., included more than 7,500 gay and lesbian respondents, mostly from the U.S.

“Vancouver is a destination that gets it,” said Thomas Roth, president of Community Marketing, Inc. in a statement. “The city has been doing it right when it comes to being truly gay-friendly.”