Nature
Wood Anemone - Paint Swatch Contest Second Place
Jenn Marx is based in Stewart, BC. Her entry to our writing contest snagged her a well-deserved second place.
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Slow
The photographic eye of Talon Gillis is always on point. As an adventurer, Gillis gravitates toward self-propelled travel and his take on “slow” reflects this tendency as well as his love and passion for the landscapes of northern BC. We pair the final photo in this segment with a poem from Paul Glover, Watching Paint Dry.
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To Break, or Not to Break…Trail
As snow falls and the holiday season approaches, do our hearts not turn to thoughts of snowshoeing? Whether you are a neophyte or a seasoned guru, opportunities abound around Smithers.
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The Good Life
The green of lettuce, the yellow of fresh egg yolks, and the red of the soil after processing livestock. Life in the North has long been about self-sufficiency and today young families continue to choose a lifestyle where everything that ends up on the dinner table comes from just out the back door. Sarah Artis dabbles and joins a pair of families trading the 9 to 5 for something a bit more hands on.
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Firelight
This year’s wildfire season was the worst on record. Photographer Michelle Yarham snapped some beautiful, haunting images near Fraser Lake late in the summer as the fires raged and the daytime skies darkened.
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Colour of the Water
Sometimes adventures take a strange turn and, when they do, they etch themselves firmly in your memories—including the colours. Paul Glover takes us on a trip down the Nass, and the proverbial memory lane.
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Colouring the Map
You know when a place is named for a colour? Blue River, Red Bluff, etc. etc. Sometimes the reason why is not as obvious as you’d think. Jo Boxwell checks out a few colourful northern BC locales.
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Onions, Little and Big
Just outside of Babine Mountains Provincial Park, "The Onion" is a "tick-the-box" kind of hike.
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Lost or Found?
We asked six writers and one photographer (Michelle Yarham) to tackle this issue’s theme in whatever way they saw fit. What they came up with is quirky, funny, poignant, reflective, and uniquely northern.
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The Rescuers
Every year, volunteers from across the province save lives, plucking the lost from the backcountry. Contributing editor Amanda Follett Hosgood talks to search-and-rescue groups to gain some insight into the complexities and challenges facing SAR organizations in northern BC.
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Eternal Spaces
These are the graves of sailors and captains. Of fishermen whose blood runs thick with salt. This place tells the story of how they lived. And that is the power of cemeteries.
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Creative Space
Whatever we create, the environment we are in leaves an imprint on our work. Many artists crave isolation during the creative process, but some encourage outsiders to interrupt and even influence the direction of the pieces. Six northern BC artists discuss their creative spaces and what makes them so significant to the work they produce.
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Ptarmigan Mountain
Close to Prince Rupert, Ptarmigan Mountain provides great access to the open alpine.
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Passing Through
Yawning and leg stretching at the visitor centre. The city connects highways and breaks up a train route, but the distances are vast. Some travellers collect brochures and pile them in their car doors. Others invest in small mementos: a printed mug or a wooden Mr. PG. A few leave behind their stories.
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On Ancient Ice
Tatshenshini-Alsek Park is iconic Canadian wilderness. It’s rugged, remote, and truly remarkable. Perched on a confluence of borders—BC, Yukon, and Alaska—the park is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the largest protected natural area in the world.
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Edge of the World
The beginning of a thing is often not recognized as such until long after, or indeed until an ending appears on the horizon. Such was the case in the fall of 1994, when four dirtbags pooled their limited resources and headed north from Vancouver and the Kootenays to undertake a month-long sea-kayak trip in Gwaii Hanaas National Park Reserve.
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The Crawl
Patrick Williston lives in Smithers in a mountainside home with a dark and spidery crawl space. When days are longer, you will find him and his family gunkholing around the Chatham Sea in an old sailboat. This is his first piece of fiction for Northword.
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Beginnings
Check out Northword's latest publication, a collection of northern stories and amazing images.
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A Terror of Tyrannosaurs
The best way to see ancient dinosaur footprints is in the dark. It’s also the best way to feel that tingly sensation on the back of your neck. Jo Boxwell takes us to Tumbler Ridge, where lantern tours of the dino trackways are a mainstay of the growing paleo-tourism industry.
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By Boat
In Haida Gwaii, the dark months of winter mean more time for things like hunting trips. Join photographer Joseph Crawford as he explores abandoned buildings and the subdued coastal landscapes while on a boat-access hunting excursion.
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Avalanches
Travelling in northern BC’s backcountry means taking risks. Why we do we do it? Tania Millen weighs in, as she explores the dark side of risk vs. reward, and nudges us in the right direction for finding balance.
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Nightbirds
Helen Keller proved irrevocably the power of the senses, especially when one operates in isolation from the rest. Spending a night on a remote island, sans headlamp, to witness the spectacle of nesting seabirds is revealing, to say the least. Join writer and biologist Dave Quinn on the North Coast with some very peculiar little birds.
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Skip Mountain
Skip Mountain is a great accessible scramble between Prince Rupert and Terrace.
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On Beaches
As the world’s oceans fill up with plastic, the beaches along BC’s coast are quietly accumulating garbage. Talon Gillis's photos offers us a glimpse into a group of individuals working to protect and restore impacted habitat.
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The Future of LNG
In wake of Petronas decision, northerners agree: It’s time to work together.
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Fishing for Future
Opening day on the Skeena came late this year. Kitsumkalum fish monitors were there working with recreational anglers to gather data. Britta Boudreau takes us to the river, and gives us a glimpse of what’s at stake if the salmon stop swimming, and who is working to protect the resource.
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The Last Salmon Stronghold
Salmon are a way of life in northern BC. This season’s closures of the sockeye and Chinook fisheries on the Skeena River are causing ripples of fear for a future with no fish in the rivers. Dan Mesec investigates the issues, and the potential cultural implications of declining stocks.
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Above/Below
Freediving is a meditative, introspective sport, and here we get a rare glimpse of what that looks like in Haida Gwaii waters. Words by Allison Smith, photos by Joseph Crawford.
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Caribou Conundrum
The Telkwa caribou herd has dwindled down to just over a dozen animals. Here, we explore different perspectives on the issue. First, Emily Bulmer takes us back to her childhood and looks at a Witsuwit'en perspective. Then, Amanda Follett Hosgood gives us a glimpse of what's being done at a government level.
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Mind (over) Mountains
"Everyone deserves to enjoy the mountains." Talon Gillis inspires with his photo essay.
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The Grizzly Business
One of BC’s iconic creatures, the grizzly bear is responsible for a significant portion of our province’s economy. The question is: should we shoot bears with guns or cameras, or both?
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Unseen Labyrinth: Northern BC’s amazing limestone karst topography
The dog slips farther into the hole and it becomes suddenly apparent that we’ve found exactly what we were expecting.
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A Mammoth Discovery: Decades later, fossils still shrouded in mystery
In the summer of 1971, men and machines were working on removing the overburden (mining lingo for “dirt”) on Noranda’s Bell Mine on the Newman Peninsula of Babine Lake when their work revealed a jumble of ancient, oversized bones.
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The Path of the Herbalist
Imagine dried herbs, ground-up roots and powdered barks carefully labelled and arranged in neat wooden boxes, dried berries wrapped in a deer skin pouch or willow bark being boiled in a cast iron pot over an open campfire.
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Great Glaciers: Experience these prehistoric beauties before they’re gone
The glaciers are melting.
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Are We Losing Our Aspens?
It’s a beautiful day in May 2012 and the air is filled with millions of tiny, fluttering moths.
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Boundary Lake: A quiet family getaway north of Prince George
Fly fishing can take you to some of the most beautiful places in our great outdoors
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Postcard Parks: Exploring & camping in northern BC
The days are getting longer. The warmth of the sun is starting to break through the wall of winter. What will you do with the extra hours of light, the warmth, that sense of the world opening itself up to possibility?
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Singing, Winging Signs of Spring: How casual bird watchers are contributing to scientific knowledge
As the snow melts and reveals muddy pathways, neglected dog deposits and last fall’s unfinished yard work, many people just want to get the heck out of town.
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“It’s All About the Caribou” How the Gwaii Haanas Agreement inspired a national park
John “Muffa” Kudlak was born and raised in Paulatuk, NWT, a hamlet of just over 300 residents and one of the most northerly permanent settlements on the Canadian mainland.
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Dragonfly nymph: an insect imitation sure to snag still-water trout
There are three common species of dragonfly nymphs found in BC lakes: the “climbers” or darners, which have long and tapered bodies; the “sprawlers,” who are short and squat in shape; and the “burrowers,” or Gomphus nymphs, which are so similar in size and shape to the sprawlers that a fly tier uses the same pattern to imitate them.
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Winter Cities: Designing communities for whatever way the wind blows
Whoever built my former house did not know or understand the direction of the prevailing wind or how drifts are formed.
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Winter blues and good hobbies
It’s happened to me every year for the past 50: that lonesome feeling I get when my favourite lakes and rivers have worn me out and gone to sleep for the winter.
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Hankin Lookout Cabin Sleeping in the sky Morgan Hite
A boxy, renovated two-story fire lookout sticks up on a knob on the north side of Hankin Peak, with fine views of Rocky Ridge and the Kitseguecla River valley, as well as Ashman Ridge and Paleo Peak to the west.
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Glass Fishing Floats: Vintage treasures from the Westerlies
My aunt almost married a North Coast fisherman. The romance between the pretty young teacher and the tall Norwegian fell casualty to family objections and World War II, but the story, like the jade-coloured glass fishing floats which sat in my grandmother’s kitchen window, did not fade away.
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Camping with Wolves on Porcher Island
“Wolves? Yes, we have them, but they leave us alone and we leave them alone.”
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Cows vs. Frogs: Fort Fraser Ranch promotes amphibian biodiversity
“Here’s something worthwhile. A rancher in the Fort Fraser area wants to monitor for us. He says that they have lots of amphibians and snakes on their ranch—at least five different species.”
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On the Fly: The Blackwater River
The Blackwater, or West Road River, is not only one of our Canadian heritage rivers, but is also a world-class trout fishery.
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Backyard Bears
Our home, just outside of Telkwa, is nestled on the edge of 40 acres of rolling wilderness next to a provincial park. I see the first bears of the spring just as the aspens are leafing out.
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Wolverine Range: Unexplored terrain, unparalleled views and untamed canines
Last August, a helicopter picked up nine hikers, mostly seniors and all members of the Prince George Caledonia Ramblers, from Germansen Landing, 219 km north of Fort St. James.
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Pistol butts and drunken trees: What plants can tell you about your land
A piece of property is like a good novel: full of opportunities and mysteries about its past.
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Hope for the Nechako Sturgeon
When fisheries biologist Cory Williamson tickles the water to simulate feeding, a two-metre dinosaur ghosts out of the shadows and glides across the brood-tank floor.
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Medicinal flower power: More than just a pretty face
Flowers are widely viewed as something decorative to put in the front yard or to help improve pollination for squash by attracting bees.
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Kakwa by Horse: Region offers Banff’s beauty without the multitudes
Squish, slop, squelch. Blech. Three of us and our six horses were traversing a former mining road into Kakwa Provincial Park for a two-week horse pack trip.
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On the Fly: Still-water caddis, anyone?
I think the ultimate challenge and satisfaction for a still-water or lake fly fisher is to bring a large trout to the surface and to capture it with a floating fly.
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The Paradox of Anyox—New hope springs from old mine site
What does it feel like to stand in the middle of a slagheap? To climb around the innards of an old-but-not-forsaken dam? Or to pick your way across a falling-down power plant whose crumbling floors could swallow you with nary a burp?
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On the Fly: The Crooked River
The Crooked River, flowing north from its origins at Summit Lake 30 km from Prince George, is a secondary tributary of the Parsnip River system, which empties into the south end of Williston Lake Reservoir near Mackenzie Junction on Highway 97 North.
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On the fly: The Kitimat River: Fishing by taxicab
Kitimat is named after its original First Nations inhabitants, the Gitamaat, which in Tsimshian means, “People of the falling snow.”
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Tumbler Ridge wins Global Geopark status. What’s next for northern BC’s geological mecca?
Folks in Tumbler Ridge aren’t strangers to uncertainty. Perhaps that’s why a delegation at the sixth International UNESCO Conference on Global Geoparks in Saint John, NB wasn’t going to celebrate until they heard the name they were waiting for: Tumbler Ridge Global Geopark.
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How Raven found his lunch: Stories across cultures of an eternally hungry bird
Corvus corax. We-gyet. Trickster.
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Bats in Winter: Volunteers help monitor sub-zero flying mammals
The wind blowing down the Skeena River is strong and cold. Nelson-based bat expert Cori Lausen carefully adjusts the leads to the 12-volt battery.
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Up the Clore: Shifting landscapes on a projected pipeline route
“Let’s go up the Clore,” one of the boys suggested one evening at yacht club—an informal weekly gathering at Terrace’s Back Eddy Pub.
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Northern landscapes on the big screen: Local filmmakers raise awareness through imagery
In a place where our day-to-day lives are lived between a vast network of grand landscapes, it’s easy to appreciate the North’s natural environment.
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Nass Valley volcano: Tseax crater and Nisga’a Memorial Lava Bed Provincial Park
As a child, I was terrified of volcanoes.
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Mountain garden: Discovering grace in the great northern wilderness
It was another perfect Saturday among the many this summer.
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Cetaceans & citizen science in the North
Phooooouuuuuuughhhhhht. A humpback whale exhales.
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Bug Bonanza: Is climate change impacting northern spiders and insects?
A slight movement on my sleeve catches my attention: A spider—the size of a nickel. Yeow!
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Skilokis Ridge: Stairway to heaven
Skilokis Ridge is a remarkable trail that makes the claim to having you above treeline—on a spur of Blunt Mountain—in 30 minutes.
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Sticks, stumps, and twigs: The DIY lumberyard of the North
“How about this one?” The tide was low and we were looking for solid sticks to brace ourselves as we waded across the Tlell River.
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Dragon Lake an angler’s low-elevation, early-season dream
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.
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The Lower Stikine pays a compliment to Yosemite
“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.
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Building a home for bluebirds to roam
My fascination with bluebirds began in spring 1977.
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The Stellako River: Short but sweet
Touted by Canadian Fly Fisher Magazine as number one on BC’s do-it-yourself fly fishing destinations list, the Stellako River rarely disappoints
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Watching for wildlife: Animal encounters in northern BC
I remember distinctly the first time I saw a wolf outside a wildlife enclosure.
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Warmth under snow— Why rising temperatures could mean harsher climate for some species
Broad, deep tracks in the fresh snow followed the logging road ahead of us. “First snow of winter,” my grandfather would say, “and the grizzly bears head for their dens in the mountains.”
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Spectacular Spatsizi—Vast wilderness with a rich history and uncertain future
Our horses walked slowly into a biting winter wind, making fresh tracks across the sparkling snow.
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Seed-saving——a heritage tradition for the future
Before ordering seeds from a catalogue was common, seed-saving from the backyard and trading with neighbours was a tradition that generations of gardeners followed to keep harvests plentiful.
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Soapberry’s gift: Hardworking shrub gives more than it takes
Plants provide us with so much: fresh air, food, fabric, fuel, beauty… the list goes on.
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Native pollinators: The key to garden abundance
Scream! Swoon! Swat! Squish! It’s the recognizable four-step “get that bee out of my hair” jive.
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Deer! Oh Dear! Gardening among large herbivores
They strike at dawn. Silently, with razor-sharp teeth, they leave a path of total devastation behind them.
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Campania Island:The Beauty of Emptiness
The impermanence of being—the idea that everything that is, is nothing; or that nothing is what is—is central to Zen Buddhism.
READ MORE➦Winter 2018-19: Slow
Slow repairs, slow pace, slow recovery, and much more.
