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‘14
Co ver Photo
issue no. 53
Somewhere over the rainbow, canoes paddle the Lower Stikine. Photo: Dave Quinn
Fea tures 8 10 12 14 18
Fish On!
Rolling in the deep off BC’s northwest coast By Emily Bulmer
Super Spuds
Heritage potatoes return to the North By Norma Kerby
Dandelions
An underrated northern delicacy By Michele Genest
The Lower Stikine
Pays a compliment to Yosemite By Dave Quinn
20 38
24 26 41
Sticks, Stumps, and Twigs
The DIY lumberyard of the North By Norma Kerby
Floating on Air
Paragliding in the Bulkley Valley By Matt J Simmons
A Buffet of Summer Music
Our annual northern music festival lineup By Matt J Simmons
Naydeena Mountain Map and trail guide By Morgan Hite
Tumbler Ridge
Canada’s newest geopark? By Amanda Follett
Depa rtm en ts 7
22
In Other Words
Editorial and cartoon from the seasoned and the silly
On the Fly
Fishing in northern BC with Brian Smith
37 42
Top Culture
Explore the rural route to northern culture with UNBC’s Rob Budde
The Barometer
A seasonal reading of the Northwest by Char Toews
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contents
s t o r y p a g e 10
Jun e / July
Joanne Campbell
PUBLISHER/ADVERTISING SALES MANAGER
contributors
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Amanda Follett Hosgood EDITOR
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Emily Bulmer is a longtime Smithereen who enjoys subjecting herself to unscientific experiments in living. She occasionally records her findings and reports positive results most of the time.
in daily and weekly newspapers, national magazines, and loves a good regional. She writes a regular column for Northword from her home in Terrace.
Hans Saefkow is an awardwinning editorial cartoonist, illustrator and set designer. If you see this man, do not approach him, feed him, or listen to his idle chatter. It is simply best not to encourage him.
Morgan Hite is a map-maker and writer who lives —and breathes—in Smithers with his wife and two sons, a cat, and a dog.
Rob Budde teaches creative writing and critical theory at the University of Northern British Columbia. He has published seven books (poetry, novels, interviews, and prose poems). His most recent book is Finding Ft. George from Caitlin Press.
Amanda Follett Hosgood
Norma Kerby is a Terrace-based writer and environmental consultant. She is fascinated by adaptations of plants, people and other animals to northern living. Her favourite reading materials are tracks in the forest after a fresh snowfall.
NORTHWORD MAGAZINE Northword Magazine the only independent, regional magazine that covers northern BC from border to sea. Our goal is to connect northern communities and promote northern culture; we put a vibrant, human face on northern life with great articles and stunning images. Northword Magazine—BC’s top read, for a reason.
DISTRIBUTION | 10,000 copies are distributed four times a year for FREE, to over 300 locations in 33 communities across northern BC, reaching close to 40,000 readers. For a complete list of distribution locations, log on to www.northword.ca, and click on “subscribe/find a copy.” SUBSCRIPTIONS
$30 per year within Canada, $40 in the U.S., and $50 everywhere else. Go to www.northword.ca and click on “subscribe.” Ad deadline for August/September 2014 issue: July 11, 2014.
DISTRIBUTION: Bell II • Burns Lake • Chetwynd Dawson Creek • Fort St. John • Dease Lake • Dunster Ft. St. James • Fraser Lake • Granisle • Hazelton (Old Town) • Houston • Jasper • Kispiox • Kitimat • Masset McBride • Mackenzie • Moricetown • New Hazelton Old Massett • Port Clements • Prince George Prince Rupert • Queen Charlotte City • Quesnel Sandspit • Skidegate • Smithers • South Hazelton Stewart • Telegraph Creek • Telkwa • Terrace • Tlell Topley • Valemount • Vanderhoof • Wells
6 | JUNE/JULY 14 |
Charlynn Toews has published
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is a Smithers-based writer and communicator who has been trying to make it back to Tumbler Ridge since she first visited in 2010.
Facundo Gastiazoro is a freelance designer who focuses on logos, posters, layout and illustrations. Originally from Buenos Aires, Facundo is currently living in Smithers. His illustrations appear in every issue of Northword Magazine. Dave Quinn uses boots, backpacks, kayaks, canoes, skis and a keyboard to explore the interface between society and wilderness. Dave is a Wycliffe, BC-based dad by day and Outdoor Guy on CBC’s Radio West by night. Brian Smith is a writer and photographer who has fly-fished BC’s waters for over 45 years. He recently published his second book, Seasons of a Fly Fisher, and lives with his wife Lois in Prince George.
Michele Genest cooks and writes in Whitehorse, Yukon. Her latest book, The Boreal Feast, A Culinary Journey Through the North (Lost Moose), was released in June 2014.
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Legalities and limitations Copyright © 2014. All rights reserved. No part of Northword Magazine, in print or electronic form, may be reproduced or incorporated into any information retrieval systems without written permission of the publisher. Information about events, products or services provided is not necessarily complete. The publisher is not responsible in whole or in part for any errors or omissions. The views expressed herein are those of the writers and advertisers, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the publisher, staff or management. Northword assumes no liability for improper or negligent business practices by advertisers, nor for any claims or representations contained anywhere in this magazine. Northword reserves the right to cancel or refuse advertising at the publisher’s discretion. In no event shall unsolicited material subject this publication to any claim or fees. Northword welcomes submissions but accepts no responsibility for unsolicited materials. Copyright in letter and other materials sent to the publisher and accepted for publication remains with the author, but the publisher and its licensees may freely reproduce them in print, electronic and other forms. Please refer to www.northword.ca for contribution guidelines.
editorial
In Other Words
Ants in your pants
by Joa n n e C a mpb el l ed i torial@no rt hwo rd. c a
Work the garden: Those who know me know that I am not even going to pretend to know what to suggest here. All I know is it involves dirt, bugs and probably bunnies—in my pretend garden, anyway. Go outside and play: You have your bug spray and your bear spray and your sun spray and, come the weekend, nothing will get in your way of getting to that good outdoor fun: not work or chores or the garden… well, the garden might pose an obstacle. So delegate. Get a garden sitter. Or make a very large salad to go. Entertain visitors: If they’re from out-of-town, and by that I mean from the city, be sure to match their interests to what’s available. Take my sister, Louise, for example: after her last visit, she threatened to push me off a mountain. My city sister, who introduced
hans s aefkow
Welcome to Junely, when we at Northword get all al fresco and touristy. We’re always happy to toot our region’s horn, it’s just that at this time of year it’s an imperative; we can’t help it. We point our faces out the window, sunshine touches our cheeks and bam! Ants in our pants. Not literally of course, although last summer was a different story: the number of ants, gnats, wasps, caterpillars, spiders and/or moths (depending where you live) was ridiculous. No, these ants in the pants get stirred up every year around this time in response to climate change: it goes from cool to hot. Spring to summer. Indoors to outdoors. Boredom to joy. It’s not just us Northword types. Admit it: you’re affected by this, too. What do you do when you just can’t sit still? Work is torture, Monday is an eternity away from Friday, 9 is a millennium away from 5, and every rainy day pushes the beach to the other side of the galaxy. When the sun comes out, we become solar-powered Energizer bunnies, hopping around outdoors like it was speed-dating season. Bunnies with ants in our pants, that’s what we are. What is to be done (after work is finished, of course)? Our options include, but are not limited to, 1) work the garden, 2) go outside and play and 3) entertain visitors.
me to sushi before it was trendy and had never hiked a day in her life, was, shall we say, surprised when I sprung our weekend plans on her—a group hike-camp up the boulder field on the back side of Hudson Bay Mountain. After much to-doing, we all got off to a late start, which resulted in our setting up camp in the dark, and sharing cheese and oranges while being teased by water running away in the distance. A lineup of mosquitos, silhouetted by the full moon, cued up for dinner along the edge of our tent door. After a night of pretending to sleep curled up in our respective boulder holes, we woke to discover we had camped in a dry creek bed. After we relocated next to the stream, we (not Louise) left for a day hike to explore higher elevations. I recall
looking back at her as she sat, wrapped up in her sleeping bag atop a giant square boulder, watching us with glittering eyes. I confess, I did exaggerate when I said she threatened to push me off the mountain. What she actually said was, “It’s a good thing you didn’t go near the edge, ’cause I would have pushed you off.” She’s coming for another visit this weekend, just 20 years later. I wonder what we’ll do for fun this time. Odds are, it won’t involve ants or bunnies or boulders. Wine, definitely. Maybe I can get her into a kayak… I probably shouldn’t press my luck. What will it be for you this summer my fellow bug-bugged batch of bunnies? Whatever it may be, bound joyfully into the sun and don’t look back— the long stretch of summer awaits. N
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Gai l Ten dal l h ol ds a D u n gen es s cr ab, on e of th ree s peci es th at can be cau gh t off th e coas t of P r i n ce R u per t.
FISH ON!
Rolling in the deep off BC’s northwest coast
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by Emi ly B u l m e r advent uremily@ya h oo. c a
It’s 5 a.m. and people are everywhere, scuttling onto boats like tiny crabs searching for shelter. I see our guide, Fred Hutchings, waving at us. “Got your licences?” he calls. Four groggy-eyed women, somewhat sleep deprived from the hostel the night before, wave back. We are embarking on an annual trip to the Prince Rupert waters.
“Alright, let’s get out on the water—the bite’s on!” Today, the water is calm and the fog is thick, but the tides are just right, and the real keeners have already left. We toss our backpacks (warm layers, sunscreen, rain gear, lunches, cameras—check!) over the rail and clamour onto the boat. Hutchings looks at his watch and GPS and opens the throttle, speeding us along an unknown trajectory through the fog. He shouts the plan over the noise of the motor: “It’s a 10-mile run just to get outside the harbour, then another 10-mile run across open waters to where we’ll try for salmon. It will take about an hour to get out there. If the salmon aren’t biting you can go bottom fishing for rock fish, red snapper, the lings...” I’m not too worried. Though there are no guarantees, there’s always something to catch and see on a day out on the water. I am a little worried about getting seasick, however. I search around for something to fix my sights on, but the fog is as sticky as a limpet, so instead I sip on my ginger tea, adjust my anti-nausea acupressure wristbands and double check my pocket for Gravol. We hear other boats nearby as Hutchings throttles down. From the banter on the radio, we know the fish are biting: “Yeah we got some beauties— some nice silvers and a Tyee,” reports another skipper. The loose clomp of gumboots fills our
ears as we clear the deck and get ready to put the gear in the water. “OK ladies, I can’t do this alone—you all have to learn how to work together to get a fish in.” Hutchings smiles as he baits the hooks. With over 20 years fish guiding experience, he’s in his element. A few more last-minute instructions and we’re ready to go: “You never set the hook when you are fishing out here—be quick and start winding to keep the slack out of the line...” He can’t finish his instructions before Lois yells, “Fish on! Fish on!” We all hoot and holler as she winds as fast as she can. “Keep a bend in the end of the rod! Grab the net!” he shouts, getting right to the point. “Hey! Fish on over here!” Gail is in the running now, too. “Oh no, I lost it! NOOO!!” “FISH ON!!!!” The drama of coho fishing has ramped up to full volume in less than five minutes, and we’re all busy keeping the bend in the rod, the slack out of the line and tips up, as we also try to keep our lines from crossing, interfering with the motor and out of the way of the person landing the fish. It is tricky, though, and there are a few tangles and fish lost in the mayhem. Hutchings flashes from the wheel to the deck and back again, keeping us on course, baiting the hooks and netting fish, seeming to have his tentacles in everything all at once. In less than an hour, we lose as many fish as we land, and get our limit (four each) of shiny, silver coho.
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The fog has burned off and we can see the bright green cedar covering Melville Island. “Look— wolves!” I point out as two sleek creatures run along the shore, their grey fur matted and dripping. Although it is only 7:30 a.m., I feel as though I’ve had a full day. Hutchings reports our catch to the other boats, and with big smiles we pack up our gear and head farther into open water. If fishing for coho is a sprint, then fishing for halibut is the marathon. We set our gear—down, down, down into the deep—and wait. Halibut limits have gone down in recent years and a 70-pound halibut is currently the largest fish you can keep. With not much to do other than jig the line and shoot the breeze, we relive our coho catch with gusto: “I can’t believe you lost that one—did you see how big it was?” “Yeah, but it just went crazy on me at the end there—what was I supposed to do? It was Godzilla!” It is easy to see how fish tales happen—the excitement, competition and camaraderie blend together, creating long-exaggerated yarns, taking more than 15 minutes to describe something that only took three minutes to unfold. We have some bites and some battles, between us pulling up an octopus, skate, ratfish and a dogfish—not exactly what we’re after, but we remain hopeful. “FISH ON!!” There’s a bite on my line and it is big. With big cheers of encouragement, I wind as fast as I can, hauling back hard on the line. Wind, haul back, wind, haul back and, bracing my foot on the side of the boat, I give it all I’m worth. My arms shaking, adrenaline pumping, I pull the thrashing, fighting piece of plywood up to the side of the boat. In a flurry of action, Hutchings hauls the halibut in the boat and has it hogtied before you can say “rodeo clown.” Fishing The wind starts blowing up
and we turn back to the harbour. N e a r i n g Metlakatla, we see a pod of orcas and watch them breach and blow spray into the wind. We cross our fingers, hoping the crab traps we set earlier in the day have not been stolen or raided, a rising problem in the sport-fishing community. There are three species of crab you can catch locally, Hutchings explains: Dungeness, red rock crab and tanner crab, and you can only keep males greater than 6.5 inches across the back. We pull the traps in and see that we have some keepers. “Anyone can catch a fish,” Hutchings says. “When you book a trip, check to make sure the vessel is Department of Transportation certified, and if you want the gold standard of fish guiding, ask the guide if they are a Certified Tidal Angling Guide (CTAG). There are upwards of 100 charter boats out of Prince Rupert and you want to make sure your skipper has the skills and qualifications.” He adds that it’s also a good idea to find out legal limits for fish and requirements for transport. Fish can be processed— cleaned, cut and vacuum-packed— at Dolly’s Fish Market or Rupert Meats. Hutchings’ final piece of fishing advice is to book your trip early. What a day—slamming coho action, a halibut prizefight, wolves, orcas and full crab pots, all within 10 hours. Happy that I passed the “green around the gills” stage without incident, I can save my Gravol for the next excursion. As we pack our coolers of fish into the car, we shoot dates for next year guide back and forth. By hook or by gaff, we’ll be back. Hutchings
OK ladies, I can’t do this alone— you all have to learn how to work together to get a fish in. Fred
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SUPER SPUDS
Heritage potatoes come in a variety of shapes, colours a n d s i ze s .
rb y no rm a ke
Heritage potatoes return to the North by Nor ma Kerby
One of the most unusual and mysterious heritage super spuds in northern BC is the Haida potato.
nkerby@t elus.net
No one was eating the mashed potatoes. It was a perfect supper: roast, gravy, golden squash—except for the potatoes. There they sat, steaming in the serving bowl, their blue colour complementing the red of the cranberry jelly. “Potatoes should be white,” one of my disgruntled children muttered. It took me a while to convince my family that potatoes can come in different hues and flavours. Most North Americans, raised on white, starchy potatoes, are reluctant to consider eating one of the hundreds of heirloom varieties available globally. They are missing a great food adventure. If they are gardeners, they may also be missing the opportunity to grow plants that are prolific producers and adapted to our northern climate. The potato, domesticated for at least 8,000 years, originated on the cool uplands slopes of the South American Andes. A member of the nightshade family (Solanaceae) and related to tomatoes, the common potato (Solanum tuberosum) was imported to Europe by the Spanish Conquistadors during the early 1500s. The potato is the world’s third most consumed food crop after rice and wheat. From this one species arose hundreds of potato varieties, grown in a wide variety of climates and soil types and used for an even broader selection of fresh and processed food products. How could one species have so much genetic variation? According to CIP, the International Potato Center based in Lima, Peru, Andean farmers traditionally grew at least 4,300 varieties of S. tuberosum at different elevations and under different conditions throughout the mountains. Over thousands of years of domestication, potatoes were selected for a wide range of taste, texture, shape and colour. As potatoes are able to flower and produce viable seeds, those imported to Europe grew into genetically variable offspring. Enterprising farmers noted the differences and selected potato varieties with desirable characteristics. In less than 500 years after the common potato left the Andes, the outcome of agricultural selection was an amazing array of potato varieties, each adapted to the growing conditions of a specific location and possessing a 10 | JUNE/JULY 14 |
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particular colour, taste, hardiness, maturity time and ability to be stored. Potato tubers are clones of their parent plants. Saving tubers to plant the next year guaranteed that identical potatoes could be grown again. Once a variety was selected, it could be propagated and shared amongst neighbouring farmers. When European immigrants moved to northern BC, they brought with them their favourite potato varieties, whose ancestors had originated in the New World hundreds of years before. Other varieties arrived through commercial sellers, such as the T. Eaton Company and the Dominion Seed House. It was from this smorgasbord of cultivars that our regional heritage potatoes were derived. A few of these variants are still cultivated in northern gardens, but most heirloom potato varieties are being revived through seed companies specializing in organic and heritage potatoes. By checking historic documents and antique seed catalogues, one can gain a good understanding as to which of these heirloom varieties were successful in northern BC. Prior to World War II, farmers classified their potato cultivars in three ways: days to maturity, texture and skin colour. As potatoes were often the primary food source for homesteaders, maturity time was very important. Common varieties included early season potatoes (such as Early Six Weeks, Early Ohio and Early Rose), mid-season potatoes (Irish Cobbler) and late season varieties (Russet Burbank and Delaware). Heirloom potatoes were also divided into two main texture categories: floury or starchy potatoes, such as the Russet Burbank potato, and waxy or dense potatoes, such as the various Fingerling potatoes. Waxy potato varieties store well and, in a stew, maintain their shape. They also tend to be good winter keepers. A starchy potato can be mashed and fluffed with ease. Historically, floury potatoes were not only used for human consumption, they were also cooked for livestock feed, especially for swine. Colour was also important in classifying potato varieties. In an era where white-fleshed potatoes were the fashion, most northern potatoes were either red with white flesh (such as the popular Early Rose) or brown-yellow skinned with white flesh (mostly mid-season to late potatoes such as the Irish Cobbler and
Russet Burbank). Yellow and purple-fleshed potatoes were a rarity in northern BC before the 1960s. Greened potatoes are not a variety. Greening is a reaction of potatoes to sunlight. These potatoes should not be eaten due to toxic chemicals produced in response to light exposure. In the 1950s and 1960s, a new wave of European traditional potato varieties moved into northern BC as immigrants arrived from overseas. Among the varieties was the German butter (or butterball) potato, a dense, waxy, yellow potato. Brought into northern BC by German farmers, it has proved to be a super spud and perennial favourite due to its high productivity, excellent taste and winter keeping properties. Around the same time, the rotund purple-skinned, white-fleshed Portuguese potato arrived in the North, along with the elongated, purple Russian Blue potato and yellow Banana Fingerling potato. The ’50s were also a time of rapid plant development by both the Federal Department of Agriculture and plant breeders in Canada and the United States. Released into Canada in 1951, the yellow-skinned, white-fleshed Kennebec potato became popular for commercial production. Red Norland, Gold Coin and Cariboo potatoes were other popular 1950s and 1960s varieties. Today’s popular yellow-fleshed Yukon Gold is not a heritage potato. It was developed in the 1960s and 1970s at the University of Guelph and released to the public in 1980.
One of the most unusual and mysterious heritage super spuds in northern BC is the Haida potato. A prolific producer, happy to grow in the damp, cool conditions of the north coast, the Haida potato does not look like any other heritage potato grown in northern BC. Plants of Haida Gwaii author Nancy Turner describes the Haida potato as having arrived on Haida Gwaii from Haida communities in Alaska, where it originally may have come from Hawaii. The date of the Haida potato’s origin is unknown but, as described by European sailors, the Haida were selling large quantities of potatoes to traders in the early 1800s. The Haida potato is a long, knobbly potato, often joined in clusters with a light yellowish skin and white flesh. It is still grown on Haida Gwaii and is spreading among gardeners throughout northern BC. Why is preservation of heritage potato varieties of importance to northerners? Other than the amount of healthy, tasty food that can be produced from a potato patch, one needs only to think of the Irish Lumper potato. An amazingly productive potato, it became the primary food staple for Ireland until a fungal disease in 1845 levelled the crop. The outcome was a major famine, leading to many deaths and the emigration of thousands from Ireland. Saving a diversity of potato varieties is an important piece in the effort towards preserving our genetic food plant heritage.
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TRADING POTATOES When exchanging potatoes, remember these are not seed potatoes that are certified to be disease-free and may be carrying brown scab, fungal dry rot or fungal blight. Check the potatoes carefully for boils, soft spots and scabby surfaces, and ask if the donor’s potato patch has diseases. An alternative is to plant your new heritage variety in an isolated location away from your main garden to determine if the tubers are infected.
Feel good. Do yoga.
PLANTING POTATOES Most heritage and modern potato varieties in Canada are adapted to a cool, but not cold, climate and potato plants can be badly damaged by frost. Some gardeners plant potatoes in the fall, but these tubers must be below frost line or covered thickly with straw or mulch. For spring planting, old-timers waited until two weeks before the normal timing of the last major frost. On the coast or in coastal valleys, planting time was the first to third week in May. In the interior, many homesteaders did not plant potatoes until the end of May or beginning of June. Plant potatoes 30 cm apart into mounded rows 30 to 50 cm high, allowing for thick mats of organic mulch, such as grass clippings or leaves, between the rows. Mulch holds both moisture and nutrients in the soil and prevents soil damage during heavy rainfalls. If you plant potatoes into flat ground, once the sprouts are about 10 cm high, soil should be hilled around them to encourage development of tubers and aid harvesting in the fall. Slightly acidic (pH 5 to 6) soil is essential for growing healthy potatoes and will help control scab in the soil. To decrease diseases, plant potatoes in a different section of the garden each year and avoid areas that have been used for tomatoes the previous year, as they share similar diseases. Do not put fresh or composted manure directly on to growing potatoes, as it can burn the sprouts and raise the soil’s pH, encouraging scab growth.
CANADIAN SUPPLIERS OF ORGANIC HEIRLOOM POTATO VARIETIES Eagle Creek Seed Potatoes: www.seedpotatoes.ca Territorial Seed Company: www.territorialseed.com West Coast Seeds: www.westcoastseeds.com Veseys Seeds: www.veseys.com
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!
Dandelions An underrated northern delicacy
by Michele Ge ne s t mgenest @nor t hwe st e l . n e t
The dandelion is a plant that gives and gives, from the moment its green spiky leaves first appear in early spring, right up until fall when the seed head has blown and the leaves have become tough and leathery. Even then a rogue flower sometimes appears in a damp meadow or a shady corner of the yard. In fact, some might say the dandelion is excessively prolific—especially those who love an unblemished lawn. A neighbour around the corner despises the dandelion so much that she paved her lawn and turned it into a parking lot. Though underappreciated in North America, the dandelion is much admired in Europe and Asia. Its health-giving properties are legend: the leaves are packed with vitamins K and A and contain substantial amounts of C and B6, as well as thiamine, riboflavin, calcium and iron. They are also high in fibre. Current research suggests
Before you pull out the weed-whacker this summer, give that dandelion root extract may even be helpful in the treatdandelions a chance. ment of leukemia.
The whole dandelion plant can be eaten; roots are best harvested in spring and fall, crowns and greens before the plant flowers, and flowers as soon as they, well, flower. Young greens don’t need blanching, although older greens might as the bitter flavour (so loved in many cultures) becomes more pronounced.
Sign of spring I first learned about dandelions when I lived in Greece in the early ’80s. Greek for dandelion is pikralida, meaning “bitter” and referring to the plant’s bracing bite. We picked them on the rocky shore or under prickly bushes in October after the first rains, and served them boiled hard, drained
and doused in olive oil and lemon. This is still one of my favourite ways to eat dandelion greens. In the Yukon, spring dandelions are the first edible green to appear, telling us the long winter is over and soon we’ll be harvesting other greens and herbs. The faithful dandelion will be with us until the snow falls again. One of the interesting things about foraging is that we often get advice about when to pick a wild ingredient, but not always how. I learned by trial and error, for example, that well-established dandelion roots can be a tangled mass with dirt and vegetation packed within, making cleaning difficult and the yield small. I tend to avoid the older, bushier plants when harvesting roots. As well, the interior of a dandelion root can become woody, like that of an old carrot. The woody part
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is a dull, ivory colour, whereas the newer part looks white and juicy. This is what you want. For roasted dandelion root, wash roots, peel them and cut away any woody bits, then cut into chunks and grind in a food processor until the roots resemble coarse sand. Spread ground roots on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and roast at 200 F (95 C) until browned and aromatic, about two hours. Cool and store in glass jars. Leave as is for making coffee or tea, or grind down further into powder for use as a seasoning for crème brulée or other sweet concoctions. To pick dandelion greens, choose your spot well: avoid roadsides, cut lines, lawns or parks that might have been sprayed with pesticides, and ask for permission to pick on private property. The easiest way to extract them from the ground is to grasp the leaves where they meet in a crown near the root, pull slightly and cut just underneath the crown, keeping the plant in one piece. Sometimes several plants are packed tightly together; then you’ll need to dig with your fingers to discover where each crown emerges from the root. Sometimes you can free a number of plants with one cut. Once cooked, the leaves collapse against the stems, whose texture is like al dente spaghetti. In Greece, we loved this. We simply twirled the stringy greens around our forks. But for bruschetta it’s best to chop the greens either before or after they’re cooked. Crown jewels I used to throw dandelion crowns away, then I read John McPhee’s classic New Yorker account of a fall foraging expedition with Euell Gibbons in the Appalachian Mountains along the Susquehanna River. For the first few days they ate only what they could gather from the wild. Dandelion crowns were a frequent menu item, and Gibbons and McPhee considered them a delicacy, even moreso later in the trip when they started adding things like salt and fat back into their diet. Dandelion crowns require a lot of cleaning and sorting, which adds to their appeal when they are finally cooked and on the table: you’ve worked for that treat. I find them reminiscent of artichoke hearts, but more subtle. Sometimes there are a few tightly curled buds in the crowns, adding another dimension of flavour. I should add that my husband, Hector, is underwhelmed by dandelions. Fair enough; wild greens don’t appeal to everyone. But before you pull out the weed-whacker this summer, give dandelions a chance, and try cooking them in small batches. They could become your new best friend.
Dandelion & Chèvre Bruschetta
1 lb (455 gr) dandelion leaves 1/3 cup (80 mL) pine nuts 4 cloves garlic 1 Tbsp (15 mL) olive oil 1 baguette, sliced into 24 thin slices 1 Tbsp (15 mL) olive oil 4½ oz (130 gr) chèvre 1 Tbsp (15 mL) fireweed honey (or substitute other wildflower honey)
Clean the root end of each plant with a knife, removing all black or brown until the base shows white. Cut the leaves off about one inch above the crown, leaving the crown intact. Put crowns to soak in cold water and reserve to make grilled dandelion crowns (see recipe, page …) Wash leaves several times, lifting them into a strainer and emptying the water from the bowl each time; continue until there’s no dirt residue left in the bowl. Shake leaves dry, chop coarsely and reserve. (If you’ve bought dandelion leaves from the market, they’re usually detached from the crown and fairly clean, needing just a rinse and a shake dry.) Toast pine nuts in a dry cast iron plan over mediumlow heat until golden. Peel garlic and slice thinly lengthwise. Heat olive oil in the same pan over low to medium-low heat; sauté garlic slices until crisp and just beginning to brown (five or six minutes), remove from heat and drain on paper towel. In the same oil, sauté dandelion greens until wilted, about five minutes. Toast baguette slices under the broiler, about one minute per side. Brush one side with spruce tip oil and spread with chèvre. Pile dandelion greens over chèvre, arranging three to four garlic slices on top. Sprinkle with pine nuts and drizzle with honey. Serve at once. Makes 24 bruschetta
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Grilled Dandelion Crowns 30-40 dandelion crowns Olive oil Salt and pepper One lemon, quartered Trim dandelion crowns and wash them several times. Pat dry in a tea towel. Toss with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill on the barbecue on a piece of tinfoil or in a grilling basket over medium heat until wilted, about seven minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature with a squeeze of lemon over top. Makes eight servings of three to four crowns each.
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da ve quinn dave qui nn
N at u r a list Joh n M uir called the lo wer Stik ine, “a Yos em i te 1 0 0 m i l es l o n g . ” We t hink t h is pays a g rand co m plim ent to Yos em i te.
L ocal l egen d tel l s of a va s t i c e w a l l t h a t o n c e b l o c ke d t h e St i ki n e v a l l e y, f o rc i n g t h e r i v e r t h ro u g h a g a p i n g i c e t u n n e l .
The Lower Stikine pays a compliment to Yosemite by Dave Qu i n n d aveq@wildsig ht . c a
“When you first see the lower Stikine, it’ll make you want to puke,” exclaimed a canoe guide friend when I told him our plans to spend 10 days paddling 240 kilometres of the lower Stikine River from Telegraph Creek to Wrangell, Alaska. “The river just rips by, all these huge boilers and whirlpools. You’ll be wondering what you’ve gotten yourself into. My advice is, don’t paddle or you’ll get to the end too soon.” With this strange warning, we packed our gear—paddles included—and headed north to canoe the lower Stikine. The Stikine is born on the Spatsizi Plateau before squirting violently through the officially unnavigable (though it is occasionally run by expert kayakers) 100-kilometre Grand Canyon of the Stikine near Dease Lake. It is a river like no other. Controversial mine proposals, oil and gas explora14 | JUNE/JULY 14 |
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tion threats and international Salmon Wars all add chapters to its rich story. In addition to its role as a major route to the interior gold rushes in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the river is a focal point in the interior Tahltan and the coastal Tlinglit First Nations’ world. Somehow, through all this, the Stikine has retained its wildness. From the bottom of the canyon at Telegraph Creek to its communion with the Pacific at Wrangell, the river drops nearly 1.5 metres per kilometre— making it the fastest navigable, free-flowing river in North America. As we pack canoe barrels and dry bags in Telegraph Creek, the size and strength of the Stikine stuns us. Nobody is puking, but we’ve all got Day 1 butterflies. Here, the Stikine is a 100-metre-wide channel of silt-laden water that churns by at more than 20 kilometres per hour. The power of this seemingly impossible volume of water both intimidates even experienced boaters and
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Fadi ng p i ctograms and w el l - tend ed sal mo n nets hung f rom l ong p i ne p o l es document the past and p resent Fi rst N ati ons p resence on the l o w er Sti ki ne.
( a bo v e ) O n t he S t ikin e , e very sand and g ravel ba n k t el l s a t a le : w olve s, g rizzlies, black bears and m o o s e ha ve a ll p a ssed here.
(m iddle r i gh t) T h e l o w e r S t ikine offers big , bo iling waters as wel l as t ime s t o m eander under the no rther n s u n .
(bo tto m r i gh t) T h i s l arge , ic e b e rg-c ho k ed lak e m ak e visito rs wan t to b u s t o u t t h e c he ss b o ard and stay a while in the war m , w hit e sand beside g ro unded icebergs .
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has helped fend off repeated attempts to tame it. In 1879, legendary naturalist John Muir visited the lower Stikine, calling it, “a Yosemite 100 miles long” whose “views change with bewildering rapidity.” As we bail out the water from Buck’s Riffle (actually, more like Buck’s Huge Wave Traint) and work our way downstream, we leave the drier pine forests of the interior behind and enter into the granite and glaciers of the Coast Mountains. Muir’s words, we think, are a great compliment to Yosemite. The river becomes a boiling, coffee-
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R a ft up a nd sta y a while :
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St o w i n g t h e p a d d l e s a n d d a n g l i n g t h e f e e t o ff e r s s t u n n i n g 3 6 0 - d e g re e views as the canoe s p i n s a l a zy d a n c e .
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with-cream-coloured ribbon several hundred metres across. We heed my friend’s advice and stow our paddles, feet dangling over the gunwales in the icy water. Our canoes spin a lazy dance, showcasing a 360-degree panorama of peaks, as the Stikine’s cargo of mountain-moving silt hisses on the hulls of our canoes. Every sand and gravel bank we visit tells the tale of this valley’s wildness. Wolves, grizzlies, black bears and moose have all scribbled their stories
here. In the confused waters of the 100-metredeep Little Canyon—a notorious challenge both to the sternwheelers that ferried 19th century optimists inland to the Cassiar and Klondike gold rushes and to modern canoeists alike—we spot what looks like a bear swimming through the boils and whirlpools. Suddenly we realize that here, 170 kilometres from the sea, we are seeing our first seal. Like its scenery, the Stikine has a rich and storied past. An artery of trade and travel for
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millennia, local legend tells of a vast ice wall that once blocked the valley, under which the entire Stikine flowed through a gaping ice tunnel. To test whether their canoes could safely pass, travelling groups of the indigenous Tahltan would send an old woman through in a canoe. If she emerged unscathed, the tunnel would offer safe passage downstream to trade with, or raid, the Tlinglit villages on the coast. Today a remnant of this ice wall lies in a pool of its own melt-water—a large iceberg-choked lake
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A t A la ska ’s S t i k ineL e Con t e W ild e r ness, r i v er me e t s t id e water a n d t he re su lt ing f o g me a n s fin d ing t h e w ay by co mp a ss from t he m o uth o f t h e St ikine t o Wra ng ell.
separated from the river by a thin, treed moraine. Resisting the downstream pull of the river, we portage to this hidden lake and pass a Suessian day playing chess and reading in the warm, white sand beside grounded icebergs. Fading pictograms and well-tended salmon nets hung from long pine poles document the past and present First Nations presence on the lower Stikine. All five wild salmon species return each year to the Stikine to spawn, a sustaining food source that has, in recent decades, become
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a source of international conflict. Alaskan, Canadian and First Nations salmon fishers have all angled for, and argued over, the eagle’s share of the catch. Although the so-called Salmon Wars ended with the 1999 Pacific Salmon Treaty, it is an uneasy truce, and tensions are still palpable on both sides of the border, each net blaming the other for declining salmon stocks. Along the lower Stikine in late summer, the carcasses of spent salmon line every tributary, mocking our efforts to catch even a single one. We
feast regularly on fire-grilled Dolly Varden, caught easily near the mouths of the Sitkine’s many tributaries, but it is only the charity of a commercial fisherman that finally fills our bellies with salmon. The salmon squabble was nearly rendered moot, twice. First, in the late 1970s, BC Hydro proposed Site Z, a plan akin to a Zombie Apocalypse that would have seen five immense dams along the Grand Canyon of the Stikine and the Stikine’s ... continued on Page 36
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Tumbler Ridge
aman da follett
Canada’s newest geopark?
C h arle s He lm ( le ft ) and so n Daniel visit B erg eron Fal l s , on e of at l eas t 3 6 w ater fal l s i n th e Tu m bl er R i d g e a re a . T h e f a lls c a n on ly be accessed by bo at o r a 1 0 -k i l om etre h i k e.
by Ama nd a Fol let t a f o lle t t @ b u lk le y. n e t
Tumbler Ridge was founded over 30 years ago on a single resource: coal. Today, mining continues to support the local economy, but the community is investing in other valuable resources: thundering waterfalls, one-of-a-kind fossils, canyons, caves and incredible landscapes. BC’s youngest town, which is located in the northern Rockies near the Alberta border, has applied to be a UNESCO Geopark. If successful, it would become the second in North America (after Stonehammer Geopark in New Brunswick.) Geopark status is the perfect fit for this mining community, as it mixes industry with tourism and sustainability. “Everything is geology related, ultimately,” Charles Helm—arguably another of the town’s greatest resource—says about Tumbler Ridge. The local physician arrived from South Africa 22 years ago and, despite the community’s economic ups and downs, says he sees no reason to leave. He has become one of Tumbler Ridge’s greatest advocates. The town began with a promising 5,000 residents in 1981. When one of its mines closed in 2000, it shrunk to about 1,500 people. In 2011, its population had rebounded to about 2,700 local residents, although the recent announcement that two mines in the area will suspend operations, costing 700 jobs, will undoubtedly impact the community. Going for geopark The idea to apply for geopark status came from local paleontologist partners— in both career and life—Rich McCrea and Lisa Buckley, who were invited by UNESCO to help assess a World Heritage Site in Turkmenistan. They realized Tumbler Ridge had everything it needed for a geopark. “We learned that we quite possibly had the ingredients here,” Helm says. “We said, gee, we already have a product and it seems to fit this Global Geopark designation.” The Global Geoparks Network was established in 1998, with a geopark defined as an area with geological heritage of international significance. There are roughly 100 worldwide, mostly in Europe and Asia. Its purpose is to promote awareness around earth sciences, such as sustainability, climate change, natural disasters and other issues facing the planet. 18 | JUNE/JULY 14 |
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a ma nda fo lle tt
To be included in the network, a community needs to have a geotourismbased management plan, methods for conserving and enhancing geological heritage and a joint proposal submitted by public authorities, local communities and private interests. And therein lies one of the most appealing aspects of geopark status: unlike a park or protected area, it allows for mixed-use, welcoming the industry that founded Tumbler Ridge. “With a geopark, you celebrate the role of industry and the history of the role it’s played,” Helm says. “You celebrate what the rocks have done for us and what we have done to the rocks.” Tumbler Ridge owes a great deal to its mining roots. Local industry works with the community to implement hiking trails and supports its growing paleontology tourism by reporting finds to local experts at the Peace Region Palaeontology Research Centre. “We dispel lots of the myths that industry, recreation and environmental protection can co-exist,” Helm says. “We work really well with industry in terms of hiking destinations.” He describes geoparks as “very much a bottom-up thing … as opposed to a government-run, top-down phenomenon.” Geoparks are typically a grassroots, community-driven designation and the Tumbler Ridge Aspiring Geopark Committee has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Peace River Regional District, District of Tumbler Ridge, Northern BC Tourism, Wolverine Nordic and Mountain Society and Tumbler Ridge Museum Foundation, among others. From fossils to ’falls The first dinosaur discovery—the one that propelled Tumbler Ridge into the paleontological spotlight—was made by Helm’s then eight-year-old son Daniel in 2001, during the town’s last economic downturn. Daniel and a friend were tubing on Flatbed Creek when they came across what appeared to be dinosaur tracks. He contacted Rich McCrea, then with the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, who confirmed them as prehistoric footprints. The following summer, McCrea made a trip to Tumbler Ridge and today he and wife Lisa Buckley still live there. In 2003, the couple started the Peace Region Palaeontology Research Centre and later the Dinosaur Discovery
K i n u s eo Fal l s , a s h or t dr i v e o r b o a t r i d e f ro m Tu m b l e r R i d g e i s h i g h e r th an N i agar a Fal l s an d on e o f 3 6 kn o w n w a t e r f a l l s i n t h e re g i o n . “ B etw een th e di n os au r s , th e t o p o g r a p h y w i t h a l l t h e w a t e r f a l l s , i t ’s real l y an i n teres ti n g pl ace, ” s a y s Su s a n C l a r ke , re g i o n a l m e d i a re l a t i o n s ... continued on Page 20 repres en tati v e for th e N or th e r n B C To u r i s m As s o c i a t i o n .
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Gallery, which sees several thousand visitors each year. Tumbler Ridge is also famous for its towering waterfalls. The self-proclaimed Waterfall Capital of the North, Tumbler Ridge sits within hiking or driving distance of 36 waterfalls, with more being discovered all the time. “Between the dinosaurs, the topography with all the waterfalls, it’s really an interesting place,” says Susan Clarke, regional media relations representative for the Northern BC Tourism Association. “(Geopark status) pulls all those interesting features of the area into one designation.” The community has three hotels, a bed and breakfast and two campgrounds. In winter, there are ski trails, ice climbing and snowmobiling, although, Clarke adds, “For most people, spring, summer, fall is the best season.” With more than 100 kilometres of trails, some suitable for mountain biking, visitors could spend some time seeing all there is to see. Hiking trails lead to 43 geosites, including waterfalls, rock formations, alpine meadows, lakes, canyons, mountain summits and caves. Also attracting visitors to the area is the annual Emperor’s Challenge, a half-marathon race with nearly 700 metres elevation gain on its route over Babcock Mountain. It saw 16 competitors when it began 15 years ago. This year’s race, which takes place Aug. 8, capped participation at 1,000—when
With a geopark, you celebrate the role of industry and the history of the role it’s played.
registration opened in early April, it It’s hoped that any attention was full by the following afternoon. given to Tumbler Ridge’s tourism Three years ago, Tumbler Ridge industry will ease the recent won the BC Walking Challenge— loss of jobs and help keep the not just for its size category, but for community afloat during boomthe entire province. Its winnings, and-bust cycles. Although therre is $60,000, went toward the creation significantly less work in tourism of a boardwalk trail at a bird than mining, wind energy projects Charles Helm watching site. As well, the Tumbler promise an increase in jobs and Ridge Golf and Country Club’s the prospects of a geopark are recently renovated restaurant also encouraging, Helm says. offers gorgeous views of Mount Bergeron. “Anywhere else in the world where geopark “It is such a beautiful place in the lower, more status has been granted, there has been an gentle Rocky Mountains,” Clarke adds. upswing in the numbers,” Helm says. “Something like our tourism product and the geopark, these Diversifying economy things do help us weather the storm of the downThe application for the 7,722-square-kilometre turn.” geopark surrounding Tumbler Ridge was pulled Tumbler Ridge’s geopark committee has together within a few months last year and produced a trilogy of coffee table books about submitted, upon recommendation by a visiting the region’s scenery, fossils and human history, Canadian National Committee for Geoparks, to the which can be purchased for $25 at the Tumbler Global Geopark Network. The community recently Ridge Museum. For more information on received word that an international delegation with the Tumbler Ridge Aspiring Geopark, visit experts from Spain and China will visit Tumbler www.trmf.ca/geopark. Ridge in early June, with a decision expected by N September at the sixth International Conference on Global Geoparks in New Brunswick. “We’ll be going there and we’ll be sending a delegation there and making a presentation on our product,” Helm says.
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bria n s mith
Dragon Lake an angler’s low-elevation, early-season dream
column
On the Fly
Kev i n C r aw ford h ol ds a 2 8 -i n ch beau ty pu l l ed fro m D r agon L ak e i n t h e fal l of 2 0 1 3 .
by B r i a n S mith fl yfi s hing nut 47 @g mai l . c om
For central-interior fly-fishers, April ice-off at Dragon Lake is the surest remedy to shake cabin fevers and winter blues that have been festering since freeze-up last November. All it takes is a strong pull from a Dragon rainbow trout; all our long northern winter days and nights are forgiven and a new fishing year is upon us. Dragon Lake, sitting in a lowelevation trough on Highway 97 South within the city limits of Quesnel, is easily accessible by pavement for all manner of vehicles. This makes Dragon a good choice for family outings as well as a productive early spring destination for many of BC’s expert fly-fishers who eagerly await the opening of our high-elevation lakes, which generally become icefree several weeks later than Dragon. Dragon is a 225-hectare lake about six km long and rimmed by permanent residences, but don’t let the lack of solitude fool you—there are plenty of trout to go around and many of them are in the trophy-class size range of two to five kilograms. The lake has a self-sustaining brood hatchery, is stocked yearly with about 30,000 trout, and because of the high-nutrient content of Dragon’s water the fish will pack on up to one kilogram and 15 to 20 cm in length per year. There are several car-top or boat-and-trailer launch spots at Dragon. On the northeast shore, a public launch ramp and parking lot is the best
spot to drop large watercraft. Another privately owned launch is situated on the southeast end of the lake, which charges a $5 per person fee for access and launching your boat, payable at the farmhouse across the street from the campsite. Finally, at the north end of Dragon, launching and camping is available at Legion Beach or Robert’s Roost, the latter likely the finest camping accommodation you’ll find anywhere in the region. Dragon is considered a catchand-release lake because of its reputation for strong-tasting trout, but they are superbly conditioned fish. The lake is one large, weedy shoal with a mean depth of about five metres, ringed with many points and bays—spots where fly-fishers will congregate to work shallow shelves and drop-offs to match the prolific insect hatches that occur most days. During early spring, best patterns are chironomids, blood worms, leeches and mayflies; then comes the caddis and damselfly emergences of mid-May, followed by dragonflies that appear in early June and a formidable water boatman flight that occurs for several weeks in late September. Shrimp patterns are basic meat and potatoes for the trout year-round. The dominant insect colour for all times of the year is olive green; your patterns should reflect this characteristic. N Good fishing!
Robert’s Roost (is) likely the finest camping accommodation you’ll find anywhere in the region.
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Northern BC is a smorgasbord of wood for all types of needs and emergencies.
way through the shallow, brown water. Sitting on a log to do up my boots, the thought occurred to me that, if we had been crossing Granville Street in Vancouver on one of the south coast’s rare snowfalls, there wouldn’t be any dead spruce branches to break off and use to avoid falling. In fact, in the city, sticks and logs and even rocks are not to be had in a sea of pavement. In northern BC, wood is good for more than just making lumber or burning for heat. Surrounded by trees, many of us view the forests and water edges as supermarkets of useful materials. Need a trellis to grow your garden peas? Long supple young alders or willows from under the power line make sturdy tripods. Is your fence suffering from droop after a large moose did not quite make its majestic leap over the top? Durable cedar poles to brace up the wires will do until the fence can be mended. Did you lose your walking cane? The closest bank beaver’s lodge will have pre-cut, pre-barked birch sticks to rival any speed walker’s poles. Each tree and shrub species in northern BC has wood with specific qualities that First Nations recognized and utilized. European fur traders and early settlers followed the wisdom of the First Nations and adopted wood best suited for the various needs of living in a northerly climate. Oral traditions amongst northern BC residents have maintained this knowledge. From fish clubs made of western yew to a wood stove handle carved from a birch branch, northerners appreciate the values of each type of wood. If you were building a log cabin a hundred years ago, which type of tree you used depended upon where you lived and the climate’s wetness. Decades after he died, a certain Englishman in the Terrace area was still infamous for having built his cabin out of pine. I can remember my father quietly pointing out the ruins of that cabin next to the old Lakelse Lake road. Speaking in hushed tones, he explained how, in our damp climate with an Olympic rate of decay, you used
norma kerby
rot-resistant cedar for everything—cabins, fence posts, woodsheds and steps. Never pine. Pine was also considered a pariah for smoking fish due to its pitchy taste. According to the locals, red alder, maple and paper birch are the best. They give good, clean smoke and a slow burn. Hemlock, spruce and cedar burn too quickly and leave an aftertaste. Nobody ever uses cottonwood to smoke fish, although many of the old timers packed a small tin of dry, punky cottonwood as fire starter. Smoke houses are also constructed of wood in the North. Most smoke shacks consist of loosely constructed sheds made from cedar or spruce planks. Building for utility, they lean and sag in a hundred directions, smoke puffing out from the cracks between the boards. My grandfather had a huge hollow hemlock stump from the early crosscut-saw days for his smoke house. Looking like an elf’s giant mushroom cabana, each fall it was filled with alder smoke and split, salted fish hung on narrow maple branches. Stumps are useful for more than smoke houses. We northerners appear to have a love affair with stumps—stumps as tables, stumps covered by flower planters, summer cabin stumps with wash basins perched on them, even stump ranches, where stumps substitute for fence posts, gates and sometimes fields. And then there are the trophy stumps. From riverbanks, lakes and seashores, we drag stumps and butt ends of logs home to decorate our gardens, driveways and sundecks. More unique and entertaining than garden gnomes and pink plastic flamingos, these stumps age into moss- and lichen-covered toad habitat that blends back into the bushes. In each region, the wood from our trees is valued for different reasons. On the wet north coast, cedar is the queen of wood due to its straight grain and ability to win the ongoing chemical war with wood-rotting fungi. In the drier and colder parts of the northern interior, lodgepole pine, as
n orma kerby
D r i ftw ood prov i des en dl es s oppor tu n i ti es for do-i t-y ou r s el f proj ects — ev er y th i n g from w al k i n g s ti ck s to br aci n g to s eati n g.
Woods for all seasons Our major tree species are a cornucopia of useful wood.
its name suggests, was widely used during fur trading and pioneer times to build cabins due to its long, straight poles. Another important species in the drier northern climate is paper birch, with its strong, flexible wood used to make many household items, including furniture, tool handles and snowshoe frames. Some of the most interesting wood in northern BC, though, is from the less obvious species. Red osier dogwood is a shrub found in damper sites. Sometimes called red willow, its long, straight spring stems are woven to make baskets, chairs and other furniture and containers. In contrast, the very flexible branches of slide alder can literally be tied into knots. This is incorporated into items that require strength and flexibility, such as sled braces. Hazelnut is an even more unusual species. Found in the Hazelton area, and occasionally in old village sites along the lower Skeena River, it is a vigorous shrub whose bendable branches were twisted by the Gitxsan to make a durable cord. All three shrub species are still used by farmers, ranchers and other wood lovers as bush “rope” in emergencies and as flexible catch-all stems by rural gardeners. One of the prettiest woods in the North is red alder. Exposed to the air, it turns to a deep orange-red. A tough and even-grained hardwood, it once was used in BC’s commercial furniture industry. Largely ignored now, it is prized by First Nations as an excellent species for carving masks and bowls. I use long, straight logs of red alder that have died from being shaded out in the forest. They make excellent poles to hold down tarps and garden cloth from storm winds. Northern BC is a smorgasbord of wood for all types of needs and emergencies. If you were sitting on a bench on Granville Street and reached underneath, you might not want to grab on to what is there. If you sit on the log at the end of Beitush Road, with the tide low and the Tlell River running in shallow ripples over the rocks, reach under the log and there still might be three knobby spruce sticks there, just the right lengths for a safe journey to the other side.
Amongst
them
redcedar
are
western
(Thuja
western
yew
plicata),
(Taxus
brevi-
folia), Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) and black cottonwood (Populus
subsp.
trichocarpa)
on the coast. In the Interior, white
spruce
Engelmann
(Picea
glauca),
spruce
(Picea
engelmannii), trembling aspen (Populus
tremuloides)
and
lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia) include some of the best sources of utility wood for household uses. Red alder (Alnus rubra) and paper birch (Betula
papyrifera)
deciduous
trees
are
with
two excel-
lent wood for making handles, bowls and furniture. Shrubs that have wood with unique qualities in terms of fibre strength and durability include Douglas maple (Acer glabrum), red osier dogwood (Cornus stolonifera), Sitka (slide) alder (Alnus crispa subssp. sinuata) and beaked hazelnut (Cornus cornuta var. californica).
N
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A I R N O : G N I T A FLO e B u l k l e y Va l l e y h t n i g n i d i l Parag
by Mat t J S i m mo ns th ewrit er@mat t jsim m on s. c om
I’m hanging out with a few keen paragliders at a launch site below Malkow Lookout, just outside Smithers. The spring sun warms us as we wait for the right conditions and discuss air. Air doesn’t make a sound, but we hear it constantly: rustling leaves, stirring long grass, creaking in the eaves of an old cabin. On its unending travels, air traces erratic paths that are hard to understand, even harder to know and impossible to predict. Yet, that’s exactly what paragliders try to do. They need to know which way the air is moving: where it’s going, where it’s coming from and what it might do at any moment. Paragliders think about thermals (columns of warm rising air) and about katabatic winds (air flowing down from mountains). They talk in terms like “glass off,” a weather condition that occurs at the end of the day where warm air stored in the earth is released, creating smooth flying conditions that are like the aerial version of canoeing on a perfectly still lake. In today’s conditions, you can feel the air’s unpredictability: it’s cold as it pours down from the clouds over the Babine Mountains behind us; then it’s warm as it rolls slowly up from the valley below. I picture the air as a living, changing map spread out across the sky. Think of synaesthesia—a phenomenon whereby a person might experience a link between senses such as seeing colours when they hear sounds. The art of reading all these changing air patterns is like trying to induce synaesthesia. “Smells like cottonwoods,” says Dave Jones, clad in a one-piece flight suit and helmet, strapped into the harness that attaches him with multi-coloured lines to the nylon wing that lays dormant on the hill. We’ve been waiting and watching windsocks for about an hour. Then everything happens suddenly. Air lifts the socks up and they’re pointing directly towards us. Jones tugs the lines and the wing arches quickly into the air with a rustling sound. With it above him like a giant kite, he turns around to face the void, leaps forward and up, up, up he goes. A view from above Anyone who’s looked up in Smithers on a sunny day with lifting thermals has likely spotted colourful paragliders soaring over town like exotic butterflies. Everyone has flying dreams, but these guys live those dreams. There’s a 24 | JUNE/JULY 14 |
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shared expression on the faces of Jones and paraglider pals Will MacKenzie and Mark Parminter that says it all: slight grin, sparkle in the eyes, sense of barely-controlled excitement. “I get so many kids come over to me,” Jones laughs. “Whenever I land in town, they come running.” Paragliding has appeal, but many who originally express interest later back off. It’s a sport with inherent dangers, and that initial impulse is rethought when they learn more. Plus, there are only about eight or so dedicated paragliders in the Bulkley Valley, so beginners have to find their own way. “Learning in Smithers, you’re kind of on your own,” MacKenzie says. “We don’t have any instructors here, so you have to make the call yourself,” Jones adds. That’s not to say this core group of passionate paragliders won’t show a beginner the ropes. But at the end of the day, they explain, anyone flying here has to make risk assessments alone. The art of flight Paragliding is like a cross between hang gliding and parachuting. The wing looks similar to a parachute, but it’s designed to be more aerodynamic and— this is important—to go up and across, as well as down. It’s made of cells, pockets that allow air to flow in and inflate the wing. Modern wings have come a long way from the 1990s, MacKenzie says, when they only had a few cells. Today’s wings have between 35 and 60. Dozens of lines (they look like strings, but are made of a high-strength, lightweight material) connect the wing to the harness, which becomes a seat once the pilot is in the air. Pilots also carry electronic instruments such as a GPS, radios and a variometer, which measures air pressure similar to a barometer, telling the pilot when surrounding air is heading up or down. All this fits into a backpack and can be hiked up to a launch site. Or, as MacKenzie and Parminter attest, chucked onto a plane and taken with you on a trip. The pair recently travelled to Roldanillo, Colombia for a paragliding competition. Why go so far? “Well, there’s no flying here in January!” MacKenzie laughs. ... continued on Page 36
su bm itt ed
A l be r t a-b a se d m u l t i-sp ort at h l e t e W ill G ad d ha s t w i ce broke n t h e w orld distance rec o rd for p a r ag lid ing.
the
su bm itt ed
at the aspen
the restaurant & lounge
While a typical Bulkley Valley paragliding flight lasts up to two hours, there are places where all-day flying is possible. In 1998, Canmore, Alberta-based multi-sport athlete Will Gadd set the world record for long-distance flight on a paraglider at 290 km. After being outdone, Gadd went back up in 2002 and set the record 423 km (it was again beat). Both flights took place in the southern US. Northword contributor Matt J. Simmons caught up with Gadd to ask him about all things paragliding. NW: How do you describe paragliding in just a few words? WG: Total freedom. The ability to silently soar through the sky is unique to our generation of humans; none have had it before, and it is amazing! NW: Why do you do it? WG: I love the feeling of flight, of the air, and figuring out a very complex environment. Flying is the most challenging sport I do. NW: What drives you to do long distance flights? WG: Just to fly so far using only the power of the sun heating the ground and creating thermals. I’m driven by being the best I can be, of learning about the sky, and then flying intuitively through it. … Long distance flying is the purest expression of flight and freedom I’ve found. NW: Will you try to beat the record again? WG: I think I will try for the world record distance again, not so much because someone beat my record but because I think I can go farther, and learning how to do it will be a cool experience. NW: What’s the next big thing for paragliding? WG: Flying across mountain ranges for many days is a lot of fun. Two years ago I took a bus from my home in Canmore across the Rockies to Vernon and flew home, camping up high at night and having some great adventures. NW: What’s next for you? WG: Africa! Flying and climbing there. N
at the Aspen Inn & Suites
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My F a vo u r i t e Tr a g e d y p l a ys K i s p i o x Mu s i c Festival, 2013.
A Buffet of
T h e s c e n e a t S w e e t w a t er 905 in R o lla, B C is rustic, w i th pl en ty of d r ama i n t he skie s.
arianne lo rang er- saind on/capt u rin g mu sic.ca
arianne lo rang er- saind on/capt u rin g mu sic.ca
Summer Music
Th e au ror a boreal i s com es out t o d a n c e a t t h e 2 0 1 3 M i d s u m m e r M u s i c Fes ti v al i n S m i th er s .
by Mat t J S i m mo ns thewrit er@mat t jsim m on s. c om
Heading to a music festival often means embracing all styles and genres of music. Of course, many festival-goers are selective about which performances they check out, but when you’re on festival grounds, whether in the Kipiox Valley or up at Murray Ridge Ski Area in Fort St. James, you can’t really escape the sounds of the bands you didn’t come to see. Music trickles through everywhere you go. The sound of a singer-songwriter strumming a banjo and crooning a country ballad drifts past as you eat a sandwich; an improvised vocal loop catches your ear as you have a conversation with an old friend; a distant campfire jam session lulls you to sleep inside your tent. Exposure to all this music is like attending a multi-cultural food event. Maybe you’d never tried dolmades before—after the event, you can’t get enough. Same goes for hearing that special rhythm, that soulful voice, or that bluegrass tune that changes your whole perspective on a genre. Your musical horizons have just been stretched further than ever. With this handy guide to northern BC’s annual festivals, you can set your course to hit those horizons and go beyond. 26 | JUNE/JULY 14 |
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June 13-15: Sweetwater 905, Rolla sweetwater905.com Every year, Emilie and Larry Mattson’s ranch in Rolla, BC is transformed into what the festival website describes as a “melting pot of musicians, filmmakers, farmers, and folks from all walks of life.” From the dedication of a few comes the entertainment of many. Sweetwater 905 is truly a grassroots kind of festival and every year it gets a bit bigger. This year, they’re welcoming a plenitude of artists, including storyteller and spoken-word performer Ivan Coyote and former Montreal busker Scott Dunbar. Featured performer: B.A. Johnston Humour doesn’t always work in music. But B.A. Johnston, self-described as “Canada’s favourite failed song and dance man,” has an understated way of making cynical humour work with his weird, quirky tunes. His style falls somewhere between the cracks of genre, like a chocolate-covered raisin lost in the couch cushions. To give you an idea of what we’re talking about, he has a song on his 2013 album called As I Am in Tim Hortons, I Realize I Hate Tim Hortons. He also sings about cat-sitting and collecting GST cheques. ... continued on Page 28
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Chinook Lodge Massett, Haida Gwaii
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arian n e loran ger-sain don / captu rin gmu sic.ca ari anne lo ranger-s ai ndon/cap t uri ng m usi c .c a
Th e P a ck A . D . pl ay s S m i th er s ’ Mi ds u m m er Mu s i c Fes ti v al , J u l y 4 -6 .
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s ubm it ted
O sc a r L o pez performs o n t he m a i n s tage at the 2 0 1 3 Mi ds u m mer Mu s i c F e s ti val .
Th e au di en ce w atch es D y l an R y s s t ad an d t h e R a i n D ogs at Mi ds u m m er M u s i c F e s t i v a l ’s 3 0 th an n i v er s ar y ev en t i n 2 0 1 3 .
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July 4-6: Midsummer Music Festival, Smithers smithersmusicfest.com Last year, Midsummer celebrated its 30th anniversary. This year, the Smithers festival is ramping up for a high-energy event that celebrates music of every genre. New this year is an electronic stage, featuring a variety of acts including DJs, electro-bands and more. On the main stage, among many others, Alex Cuba will be performing.
This is music that’s easy to dig—it’s smooth, melodic, musical, chill. Perfect tunes for kicking back on the grass and letting the sun do its thing.
Featured performer: The Pack A.D. Becky Black and Maya Miller are a two-piece band from Vancouver. Becky plays guitar and sings, sometimes with a low guttural voice that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up and take notice; Maya is an unstoppable drummer who knows how to make use of cymbals and has no fear of thrashing out a beat that drives straight into your feet and makes your body shake. Together, they are a force to be reckoned with. Their latest album, Do Not Engage, managed to keep the number one spot on campus and community radio charts for 10 weeks straight. CBC is picking them up, too, playing tracks off the album and hailing them as one of the best live acts on the scene today. ... continued on Page 30
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me away from Hom e Your Ho
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&Guesthouse
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arian n e loran ger-sain don / captu ri n gmu si c. ca arianne loranger- sai ndon/ capt uri ng m usi c .c a
A parade at ArtsWells festival in Wells, BC displays the event’s artistic nature.
H i g h S o ci et y p la ys t h e m ain stag e at Kispio x Music Fes ti v al , 2 0 1 3 .
... continued from Page 28
July 11-13: Atlin Arts & Music, Atlin atlinfestival.ca Atlin is a small town. But for some reason, inexplicable to many, its festival is huge. The dedicated organizing group has a knack of pulling in big names and putting on an epic festival. This year is no exception. A cool feature of Atlin’s annual gathering is film. Each year, attendees can check out a variety of music documentaries. Last year’s selections included a movie about soul singer Charles Bradley and a classic show of a Stompin’ Tom Connors concert. Featured performer: Gord Downie, The Sadies, and The Conquering Sun No, you didn’t read that wrong. Gord Downie from the Tragically Hip has teamed up with indie country-rock band The Sadies to put out a record. It’s good. Exactly what you might expect: the tunes both rock and are reflective and introspective. Downie’s characteristic growl meshes perfectly with the skilled instrumentation of The Sadies.
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July 25-27: Kispiox Valley Music Festival, Hazelton www.kvmf.ca Twenty years ago, a small group of volunteers received some money and advice from the Bulkley Valley Folk Music Society in Smithers. Armed with both, they launched a festival that has grown exponentially ever since. The Kispiox Valley Music Festival attracts people from all over northern BC and beyond. The setting is beautiful. The scene is mellow and friendly. The weekend is guaranteed to be fun. To celebrate its 20th, KVMF is inviting back a number of alumni artists and regional performers including Rachelle Van Zanten, King Crow and the Ladies From Hell, and the Racket. Featured performer: Tower of Dudes They call themselves a “cowpunk” band. Tower of Dudes is based in Victoria, but formed in the Czech Republic in 2007. With accordions, banjos, mandolins and drums, this is a group that knows its way around different genres. Their music embodies the essence of expatriate life and free-spirited gypsy ethics. They have a huge arsenal of high-energy original songs that are going to turn the dance floor into a crazed, seething mass. Aug. 1-4: ArtsWells, Wells artswells.com With over 100 musical performances on 12 stages, ArtsWells has artistic expression everywhere you look. This festival near historic Barkerville isn’t just about music. There’s theatre, film, spoken-word, dance, visual art and more. This year, it’s expanding to include a new large-capacity outdoor tent that will keep the music going until midnight. Wells truly embraces all genres; past years included hip hop, electronic, pop, jazz, folk, soul, world beat, rock and too many others to list. Featured performer: Adam Shaikh This Kootenays-based artist embraces a variety of musical styles and methods of performance, including live instrumentation, looping, synthesizers and other electronic instruments. His world-beat tunes earned him nominations for both a Juno and an Emmy. His tunes are modern, hip, urban and yet somehow come off sounding traditional. He dabbles in genres like Indian ragas, Cuban jazz and Jamaican dub, all with a modern twist. This is music guaranteed to make you groove. ... continued on Page 32
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LINKING BC’S NORTHWEST WITH THE YUKON & ALASKA
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ari an n e l oran ger-sai n don / captu rin gmu sic.ca
D av e B i d i n i o f t h e B i d i n i b a n d p l a y s H a i d a G w a i i ’s E d g e o f t h e Wo r l d fe s t i v a l i n T l e l l , Au g . 8 - 1 0 .
Mi hir a n g i pl ays E dge of t he World’s m a i n st a ge i n Tl el l , Haida Gwa ii.
D r. Bub b le s creates a f antasy la nd for children at Edg e o f the Wo rld, T lell.
... continued from Page 30
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Aug. 2-3: Grizfest, Tumbler Ridge grizfest.com Because of its location, Tumbler Ridge is a town you visit for a reason—even though it’s not hard to get to, it is off the beaten path. But the town attracts visitors with its scenic setting, cultural history and palaeontology—there’s some pretty skookum dinosaur stuff to check out. Every year on the first weekend in August, Tumbler Ridge hosts a fun little festival aimed to entertain attendees of all ages. Grizfest always includes an opportunity for local bands to play on stage with a Battle of the Bands competition. Featured performer: Trooper “We’re here for a good time, not a long time, so have a good time, the sun can’t shine every day.” Need we say more? Aug. 8-10: Edge of the World, Tlell, Haida Gwaii edgefestival.com Life on BC’s north coast archipelago is decidedly different from the rest of the
heather pollock/dave bidini
province. It’s hard to pin down exactly what it is, but anyone who’s spent time over there understands that it just is different—in a good way. Edge of the World attendees talk about the festival in similar, vague terms. If you go over to Tlell for this festival, you’ll likely experience a strange shift when you step off the ferry and then you’ll experience another one when you step onto the festival grounds. Sounds appealing. So does this year’s line up, which includes Said the Whale (Juno-award winning indie rock), Delhi to Dublin (critically acclaimed world beat) and Dirty Radio (electro/RnB). Featured performer: Dave Bidini For 28 years, Dave Bidini was a member of iconic Canadian band The Rheostatics. Prolific songwriter and author, Bidini is something of a Canadian icon himself. He plays guitar, bass, drums and sings. He’s played hockey with the Tragically Hip, writes a column for the National Post and is a muchfollowed personality on Twitter. He’s been playing with Bidiniband since the Rheostatics disbanded in 2007 and has received critical acclaim and awards for almost everything he’s ever done. There is no question that whatever this guy does on stage in Haida Gwaii will be memorable. ... continued on Page 34
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NORTHERN BRITISH COLUMBIA
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festivals • fishing • family camping • fine accommodations • fun events!
Visit
Terrace, BC 2014 SUMMER EVENTS!
Scene Through My Eyes
SUMMER ARTS FESTIVAL • June 27 to July 6 www.artsterrace.ca 6TH ANNUAL SALMONRUN AT KITSUMKALUM • June 29 www.salmonrunwild.ca RIVERBOAT DAYS • Friday Aug. 1 to Sunday Aug. 10 www.riverboatdays.ca SKEENA VALLEY FALL FAIR • Sept 6 www.skeenavalleyfallfair.com FARMER’S MARKET every Saturday morning at George Little Park from May-October GEORGE LITTLE HOUSE FLEA MARKET every Sunday morning at George Little House from May-October
www.VisitTerrace.com
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For information on travel opportunities in Northern British Columbia visit w w w.no rthwo rd .ca northernbctourism.com
| JUNE/JULY 14 | 33
arianne l orang er- saind on/ capturi ngmus i c.ca
ari an n e l oran ger-sain don / captu rin gmu sic.ca
To g e t h er, Robs on Valle y M usic Fe s t i v a l h os ts Sh ara Gust a fson a n d S e t h MacDon al d ma k e music a l gro up S amso n’s Del i la h. H e re , t he y p e r f o r m at th e fes ti val.
R o cki n ’ in t he ra in: R o bso n Valley Music F es t i v al in D unst e r, B C. ... continued from Page 32
Aug. 15-17: Robson Valley Music Festival, Dunster robsonvalleymusicfestivalbc.com Ah, Dunster. What better place to immerse yourself in musical expression of every kind than the town nestled in the Robson Valley? Held every year on a property owned by Shara Gustafson and Seth MacDonald, the Robson festival is yet another of northern BC’s secrets: intimate, family-friendly and featuring amazing artists from around the world.
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Featured performer: Shawn Stephenson Imagine a single acoustic guitar sounding like four or five guys jamming. That’s Shawn Stephenson. The Kootenays-based musician ran a stage at ArtsWells with his wife, Carla, for years and now runs a tiny festival, aptly called Tiny Lights, in Ymir. For his music, Shawn uses looping electronics to create a live performance that makes you furrow your brow trying to figure out how he’s making it all work… but then, after a few minutes, you relax and just enjoy. This is music that’s easy to dig—it’s smooth, melodic, musical, chill. Perfect tunes for kicking back on the grass and letting the sun do its thing. Aug. 22-24: Music on the Mountain, Fort St. James momfestival.com Family seems to be the unwritten theme of the MoM festival—and not just because of the acronym. There’s a sense that everything up at Murray Ridge is instilled with the spirit of extended family, community. There is plenty for kids to see and do, including workshops, puppetry and performances. There’s art and dance, food, and camaraderie. But of course, MoM isn’t a festival just for children—last year’s line up included a burlesque troupe—but it has this warm fuzzy feeling surrounding it. Or maybe that’s just all the hearts they have on their website… Featured performer: Scott Dunbar This guy seems to be making the circuit, as many artists do. With so many potential festivals to play in northern BC, why not make it a rollicking musical road trip? To sum up what he’s all about, and what to expect, just search for a YouTube video of him covering Michael Jackson’s classic Billie Jean with a suitcase kick drum and an accordion. Music-loving residents of northern BC sometimes have to make a little extra effort for their passion. If you’re looking to groove south of Highway 16, the tiny town of Horsefly not far from Williams Lake hosts Arts on the Fly, July 11-12. If you like all things bluegrass, check out this cool little town and funky festival.
NORTHERN BRITISH COLUMBIA
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Best Homemade Pizza Burger Bar & Homemade Fries NEW TakeOut menu!
8 ,3 Smithers
Your Ommm away from home.
Specializing in Homemade & Local Ingredients
4 Ave 250.8
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• Licensed • Cappuccino Bar • Organic Maccha Green Tea
NEW LOCATIONS! SMITHERS in Driftwood Mall, 4th & Main St. • TELKWA 1613 Riverside St.
Weekly YOGA classes in Smithers and in Telkwa.
www.full-circle-yoga.ca Phillipa Beck, C.Y.I, Y.Ed.• 250-877-3387
Join us for Italian Night! every Thursday 4 - 8pm Specialty pastas and Okanagan wines.
Why
Mackenzie? Alex Pytlowany
If you are looking for a good-paying job and would like to buy a reasonably-priced house, then Mackenzie is where you want to be. Mackenzie is a welcoming community that has so much to offer – CHECK US OUT!
Diane Smith Economic Development Officer, District of Mackenzie Ph 250.997.3221 | diane@district.mackenzie.bc.ca | www.district.mackenzie.bc.ca
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We feast regularly on fire-grilled Dolly Varden, caught easily near the mouths of the Sitkine’s many tributaries.
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main tributary, the Iskut River. After nearly a decade of opposition, the dam plans were scrapped, and Stikine River Provincial Park was created. As residents of the Columbia Basin, where dam construction halted salmon migration nearly 75 years ago, we still feel the ecological pain of losing this pelagic lifeblood and
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are thankful beyond words that rivers like the Stikine still run free. More recently, Shell Canada proposed a mammoth coalbed methane development in the Sacred Headwaters of the Stikine, Nass and Skeena rivers, a plan scuttled in 2012 after the Tahltan and other interests stood their ground and said “no.” After another side trip to iceberg-choked Shakes Lake, we finally heed the call of the Pacific and give in to the last leg of our journey, entering Alaska’s Stikine-LeConte Wilderness. Here the river meets its match and finally slows as it runs into Pacific tidewater, and with tide comes fog. We feel our way by compass through nomadic sandbars and finally across five kilometres of Pacific swells from the mouth of the Stikine to the barnacle-caked dock at Wrangell, a roughand-ready, deep-fried town full of bumper sticker variations on the right to bear arms. From here, the Stikine seems pristine and permanent: unbreakable. It has persevered through glacial assault, First Nations battles, two gold rushes, the Salmon Wars and BC’s plans to shackle her with hydroelectric projects. However, even BC’s most remote rivers are never far from the crosshairs of industry, and the sights of two industrial giants are set on the Stikine’s resources. In the headwaters of Galore Creek, Teck Cominco and NovaGold have permits to create the world’s largest copper-gold mine. This open-pit copper and gold mining operation would produce 95,000 tonnes of ore a day, hauled out through a 12-km tunnel to be trucked to port in Stewart. With potential startup not until 2018, Nova Gold is currently trying to liquidate its share of the project, and the future of this complex proposal is far from certain. Like paddling too enthusiastically on the fastmoving waters of the wild Stikine, if we rush to industrialize our last wild areas, we may find we come to the end too soon. The lesson of the Stikine, and rivers like it, is the importance of knowing when to stow your paddle.
But the question most people want answered is, “How dangerous is paragliding?” On the whole, it seems paragliding is no more dangerous than kayaking, mountain biking or other adventure sports. Paragliding’s extreme stigma stems from its origins, MacKenzie says: “When it first started to get big, wings weren’t very reliable. Technology has come a long way since then.” Jones agrees. “These things want to fly,” he says. “The cool thing is,” Parminter adds, “the higher you go, the safer you are.” More air beneath you means more time to get your wing under control and, if necessary, throw a reserve parachute. While wind can be unpredictable, how a paraglider reacts to air movements is what really matters. The thing most likely to get you into trouble is the grey matter under your helmet—or lack of it. Sometimes the safest choice is staying on the ground. “Yesterday we hiked up the ski hill,” Parminter says. “We got up there and the sky looked angry. There was a strong wind coming from the wrong direction. So we came back down with our tails between our legs.” It’s this kind of risk assessment—turning back when the conditions aren’t right—that keeps the sport relatively safe. But investing that much time isn’t for everyone. “At the ski hill yesterday,” Parminter explains, “we hiked an hour up, hung around waiting for the weather to be right, then hiked back down— plus driving time. So some days you lose a whole day just trying to fly.” But that doesn’t deter these guys. This passion for flying is what lights up their eyes when you ask them questions about the sport. They’re all happy to talk about it. Just don’t ask them when the winds are right. They won’t be able to hear you from up there. For a quick look at Smithers paragliding, check out a video by local filmmaker Taylor Fox: www.vimeo.com/17199475 N
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CONTACT US FOR ALL YOUR MUSICAL INSTRUMENT NEEDS
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Top Culture Theatre of Dreams by Rob Budde rb u d de@shaw.ca
Jeremy Stewart and I share a similar dreamland. This past/present/future Prince George is a small, independent nation of the imagination that, despite the odds, achieves its full potential of freedom, creativity, charity and peace. Stewart’s dreamland, in part, is imprinted in the pages of his newest (though undoubtedly he will be up to something new by the time this hits print) venture: Dreamland magazine. Issue #1 was launched this spring in Prince George. “Dreamland” refers to a theatre that existed in Prince George nearly a century ago and I imagine it is the hardworking, messy and probably often disheartening reality of that theatre that inspires Stewart. The image on the black and white cover, a reproduction of a facet of Erin Arding’s “PG Blocks” (a concrete poem on clear plastic blocks), is a blend of name (George St.), architecture, tree and (partially obscured) text. Such an image evokes many of the ways we identify with and create a place as our home—both familiar and strange at the same time. The small-print tagline after the title reads, “the car that isn’t there/can’t be towed.” Stewart envelopes the issue with themes of place but also power (those who would tow) and resistance (refusing to have a car so you cannot be towed). In the publisher’s note (versus editor’s note—perhaps a relinquishing of control?), Stewart addresses the “student of place,” writing that, “We’re all here imagining this place together” and asks, “Isn’t it good to do community in this way?” Stewart has changed the cultural life of Prince George in numerous ways—his writing and publishing, his music, his organizing—and he welcomes us to continue to build a new Dreamland for 2014. The magazine is populated by characters from Prince George (Belford, Transken, Budde, Arding, Batting, Haslett, Rempel, Foster) and connected to Prince George via larger literary communities (Kennedy/mcpherson eckhoff, Dachsel, Massey, Denholm, Wugalter, Beach). This balance is a testament to how the imagined Prince George is influenced from a variety of communities (plural) from within, but also by its relationships outside city limits—a flow of energies and thought. Such a collection of literary directions produces the give and take of meaning:
The cover for Dre am l an d m a g a zi n e ’s f i r s t issue touches on the ways we identify with place a n d m a ke i t o u r home.
Even places that are out on a limb have something to say. Everything has a voice unmediated by language. (Belford) The writing does not just build or create walls or colour-coordinate the blinds, it serves multiple functions—some not pretty, not fun, but all necessary: sometimes she must use a poem as if it were a broom or something heavier (Denholm) occupying the marginalized spaces (Arding) etching our names into imagined histories and finding a smoothness that lets us be (Foster) or To create in Prince George, a Paris of the 1920s (Universal Assembly of Circus Dogs). Collectively, like commingled species, writers work it out. Dreamland magazine sets the stage, adjusts the lighting, arranges the Styrofoam coffee sups, and stands at the door with a wide welcome. We rehearse. We find our parts. The curtain rises in Prince George 2014. To request a copy or to inquire about submissions email Jeremy Stewart at jeremy@greenmilkcreativeumbrella.com.
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InteriorNEWS THE
ear! y s i h t d l o s re 100 year in Port
We a
events y r o t a r b le e c any Join us for m he year. t t u o h g u o r h Clements t nd June 29. 8a bration June 2 le e C y a D a d Cana many events. Fun for all at
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Stay with us at Sunset Park RV site and campground located on beautiful Masset Inlet.
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m org a n hite
Naydeena Mountain
stunning views from “standing up alone”
The Nadina Mountain trail is steep and rugged, but the views m a ke t h e e ff o r t worthwhile.
by Morga n H it e morga njh@bulkley.ne t
Nadina Mountain Provincial Park south of Houston is large, hard to access, little-visited, non-motorized and has no facilities—but what a spectacular peak! Unlike other mountains in the area, Naydeena (“standing up alone”) is a 2100-metre dome of quartz monzonite, a granitic rock that is blindingly white on a sunny day. Its curious location makes it is invisible from Highway 16. The peak is valued by the Wet’suwet’en people and is a traditional place to hunt caribou, marmot and mountain goat. Be prepared for a steep, rugged trail with spectacular views above treeline. Take Highway 16 west from Houston to the left turn for Houston Forest Products, which is the start of the Morice River Road. Go straight at kilometre 27 where the Morice West FSR turns off to the right and turn right at kilometre 39 into the Owen Lake Rec Site. There are two dirt roads through the rec site, both leading to a bridge over Owen Creek. Cross this bridge and continue driving six kilometres to the parking sign for the Nadina Mountain trail. The road is fine for lowclearance, two-wheel drive cars to this point. You’re at about 860 metres elevation. Walking, follow the signs for less than a minute to a tree festooned with flagging tape and the
When there are no more trees, note your location and surrounding landmarks carefully. If you ever want to get home, you will need to return here to find the trail down.
trail’s start. For the first 20 minutes, it goes through an old cut block full of bushes and mud holes, then into uncut forest. The trail ascends, steeply at times. You will pass a fork where the Rope Trail goes left; continue straight on the Snow Bowl trail. After about 50 minutes, pass the BC Parks boundary sign. The trail is unmaintained and encumbered in places by deadfall, at times passing through tight forest, weaving creatively through the trees. At other times, it’s not unlike a staircase. First views come after about an hour and 20 minutes, near 1400 m elevation. As the trees grow smaller, watch for flagging tape that continues to indicate the route. When there are no more trees, note your location and surrounding landmarks carefully. If you ever want to get home, you will need to return here to find the trail down. Heather-covered slopes continue steeply
Trail Map sponsored by Valhalla Smithers
www.valhallasmithers.com
upward. Because of the trail’s subtle change in direction just before treeline, the bulk of the mountain now lies up and to your right (southwest). Turn right and continue ascending. You may be lucky enough to find more cairns and ribbon for a while. Heather gives way to grass interspersed with granite boulders. After about 1800 m elevation, even the grass gives out, but the higher you climb the more extensive the views. You can see from the Telkwa Mountains in the north all the way around to Francois Lake, Owen Hat and Ootsa Lake in the south. Morice Mountain is right across (although not as high). Owen Lake makes a snaky S-curve below. Visiting the edge of the big cirque in the north side of the mountain is highly recommended. You may see the Berkey-Howe Union Spire, a rare, freestanding granitic pillar located at the head of the cirque. Two cautions. The trail is dry: take water! Also, not disturbing goats is a priority. They mostly keep to the southwest side of the mountain. N
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Ba rom eter
Secret camping spots revealed
by C h a rlyn n To ews edit or ial@no rt hwo rd. c a
The McLeod Lake store is just north of a most fabulous secret camping spot I will reveal to you now. The McLeod Lake store is one of the best parts of camping at the secret camping spot. I tell you, the McLeod Lake store is all you should ever need. It has charcoal, it has matches, it has candles, it has beans in a can and rum in a bottle. It has wines red and white and tapes scotch and duct; it has stamps and vinegar and crayons. It might also have, I don’t know—towels. I brought enough towels and so this is why I don’t know that. Ten years ago, my little family and I embarked upon a glorious camping trip. The length: summer. All summer. Seven full weeks. We were slowly making our way from Terrace to visit relatives in Manitoba. Not the usual rushed trip in a small car in midwinter, nor even a quicker trip by plane: Hello, eat, hello, eat again, eat and good-bye. Oh, no. This was a leisurely trip.
Every day we decided to stay another day, until, finally, five or so days later, we decided to mosey on up the road.
My sister phoned me on my ultra-modern cellphone and was surprised to hear we were still in BC. “It has been weeks!” she exclaimed. “Yes,” I agreed, readily, “but we like this spot we found, and we are not in a rush.” So, this is that spot: lakeside. But not the lakeside that you have to reserve three months prior or the lakeside that is so dear as to be rare: no! Whole dang thing is lakeside, each with a little sandy beach. Imagine the joy! Want sunset? Yes. Want a little more privacy, more trees between, more shade? Yes. Want at least three spots away from the RV with the speakers outside? No problem. Want a larger sunny beach for a day or two or a week? Totally. How is that not to love?
stunning
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Get into the mountains this year.
We make it accessible, comfortable & safe. Smithers • 250-847-3351 www.BearMountaineering.ca
two sisters
DAILY FRESH MADE SOUPS with local, organic ingredients NEW LUNCH FEATURES all week! ALL-DAY BREAKFASTS ON SATURDAYS! WATCH FOR MORE COMMUNAL-STYLE DINING in our Long Table Series NEXT UP...MMMMEXICAN! 42 | JUNE/JULY 14 |
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3763 4th Ave Smithers 250.877.7708 info@twosisterscafe.ca • www.twosisterscafe.ca
Every day we decided to stay another day, until, finally, five or so days later, we decided to mosey on up the road. It’s called Whiskers Point Provincial Park campground, located 130 km north of Prince George on Highway 97, and you are welcome to take our spot. Our little RV was badly damaged late last summer, and so this camping season we will be doing renovations on our house and some landscaping. It will be a staycation, where we will sit in our backyard of an evening and admire the improved drainage. You may also take our camping spot at Kinaskan Lake Provincial Park, about 100 km south of Dease Lake on Highway 37. It is reminiscent of Whiskers Point, but everything is bigger and wider and wilder. From the campground, located at lake’s edge, campers are treated to sweeping views up the lake’s length with Todagin Mountain to the east and the Klastline Plateau to the west: spectacular scenery. If you canoe across the narrows, you can hike along an old trail and see numerous abandoned cabins along the way. Who lived here, how did they get all their stuff here, why did they leave such a beautiful place? It is mysterious indeed. Here’s another mystery: the provincial park with two—count ’em, two—camping spots. It’s 50 km south of Meziadin Junction and you turn east on Brown Bear Road to make your way to Brown Bear Lake. When the road turns to a trail with bear scat every 10 yards, you’re almost there. It’s called Swan Lake Kispiox River Provincial Park and, yes, you can take our spot there, too. Oh—and wear your whistles. N
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• Ardene • Bea’s Flowerland • Bentley Bag & Luggage • Bootlegger • Chill Out • Cooks Jewellers • Dollarama • Ella • Northern Reflections
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Centrally located on Smithers’ Main Street, the Fireweed Motor Inn is the place to stay! We‘re walking distance to the town’s best restaurants. Or book a kitchenette and fill the fridge with groceries from one of Smithers’ two grocery stores, literally across the street. 1515 Main Street, Smithers, BC Tel: 250.847.2208
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