Recreation
Spring, summer, fall or winter—there’s always something interesting to do in northern BC.
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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Carrying Cultures
When we are forced to carry a heavy load at foot pace, we view the world differently. Dave Quinn makes a compelling case for the carrying cultures of the world, and for us here in the North to take advantage of our remaining road-free landscapes.
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A Simple Boat Repair
Sometimes the “quick fix” takes a whole lot longer than we’d hoped it would. Patrick Williston spills blood, tears, and laughter as he works on his family’s sailboat.
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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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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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The Barn
The first time climbing the ladder is transcendental. Crossing from one world into another. Photo essay by Marty Clemens.
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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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Haida Gwaii: The Board Game
Incorporating Haida cultural history, Nang K’uulas develops a new strategy game
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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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Beginnings
Check out Northword's latest publication, a collection of northern stories and amazing images.
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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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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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Simbiyez Wilson
Her name means “child of the stars.” And Witsuwit’en singer-songwriter Simbiyez Wilson seems to be living up to the name.
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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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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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Mind (over) Mountains
"Everyone deserves to enjoy the mountains." Talon Gillis inspires with his photo essay.
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The Skeena River
The Skeena is the second-longest river, after the Fraser, to flow entirely within the boundaries of British Columbia and supports salmon and steelhead runs that are arguably the finest in the world.
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The Hopper: A fly for hot days, grass meadows and lazy rivers
Northern BC’s summers are often too short; however, August and September can bring some of the most interesting and fun kinds of fly-fishing: stalking the banks of low-water rivers for big, fat rainbows with large grasshopper patterns.
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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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Gone but not forgotten:Port Edward’s defunct canneries offer everything from history to beachcombing
A freight train rumbles past not 50 feet from our red-hued cottage, a throwback to an age when rail was the only way into this once-remote outpost on the northwest coast.
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McDonell Lake Trail
The McDonell Lake Trail is an old horse-packing route that historically began at the lake, opposite Copper River Ranch.
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Opal ridge: No semi-precious stones, but still a hidden gem
The valley of Silvern Creek cuts deliciously into the heart of a mountain knot just west of Smithers
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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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Find your Groove: Make music festivals your summer vacation destination
This summer, we challenge you to plan a musical road trip to somewhere new
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Mobile Eateries Drive Home Local Food Movement
When you tuck in behind the wheel on your next journey along a northern BC highway, there’s a pretty good chance you will already have your favourite pit stops planned out.
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Sunny Slopes and Garden Growth: Approaching your crops from a new angle
On a moderate, southwest-facing slope near Terrace, the remnants of a 100-year-old orchard grow as ragged witness to the agricultural era in the lower Skeena Valley.
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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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“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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Suskwa Crossing: A bridge made of telegraph wire
If you go down to the Suskwa River where it passes through a tight canyon some four and a half kilometres above its confluence with the Bulkley, you will discover the remains of a very old bridge, an airy span built from nothing but telegraph wire and wood.
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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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Have Sticks, Will Travel: Exploring the North on skis
My breath hangs in frozen bursts and dissipates behind me
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Silverking Basin: Winter cabin in the mountains
One of the most popular summer hikes near Smithers is the Silverking Basin.
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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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The Collections Renewal Project: Bringing the past to light
I’ve poked around in museum backrooms throughout BC’s Northwest; wearing those white gloves while sifting through old papers in archives and artifact storage rooms.
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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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Relax by Rail Travels through the North by train and ferry
I recently travelled by rail from Prince George to Prince Rupert, a journey that should have taken 12 hours.
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Seaton Ridge trail: A high lookout upon many ranges
As you drive into Moricetown from the south you can’t help but notice the prominent peak that seems to stand just behind the town.
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In Search of the Strange: a tour of the odder side of northern BC
Once upon a time there was a young, ordinary man, in search of the extraordinary experience his life had thus far kept hidden.
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Smokin’ Good Fish: Many ways to smoke a salmon
A slight breeze rustles the aspen leaves, and on it drifts the distinct scent of a northern summer. It could be a campfire or a Bar-B-Q, but when the days are long and when the salmon are running, the smell of smoke carries with it the flavour of curing fish and the promise of good eating throughout the winter.
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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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Moonlight Mountain: A place for telling seasons
The alpine ridge that I was introduced to as “Moonlight Mountain” is a spur of the larger Kispiox Mountain, an arm flung out first north and then northwest to enclose the headwaters of one of the tributaries of Moonlit Creek.
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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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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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Golf the North: Coastal, mountain and flatland putting — all part of the northern experience
No one ever thought I would take up golf, least of all me.
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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 Ancient Forest—A walk through BC’S hidden treasure
The Ancient Forest is located 113 km east of Prince George off Highway 16, in one of the upper Fraser River Valley’s few remaining antique stands of western red cedar.
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Driving BC’s Radio-assisted Logging Roads
If you’re new to the North and you’ve come from a place that’s less wild and rugged, you may be unsure about driving radio-assisted logging roads.
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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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Growth in aboriginal tourism means cultural opportunities for visitors
Anyone who considers Canada a dull and uncultured country clearly hasn’t experienced the rich heritage of northern BC, where hundreds of First Nations communities provide the region with a history rooted several millennia into the earth and traditions that significantly pre-date European arrival on the continent.
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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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Playing Games: Touring northern BC with the Canada Games
I’ve never been one for competitive sport. It could be that I’m a bit too lazy, or maybe I’m just inherently not competitive.
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Atop the Telkwa Alps
I remember someone in the last 10 years proposing that the hills rising to the east of Tyhee Lake be re-named the “Telkwa Alps.”
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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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Cranbrook Hill Greenway: Prince George’s greener transportation corridor
Greenways—a vegetation belt intended to maintain foliage while encouraging pedestrian use—are increasingly common in urban areas.
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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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Artists put creative talent toward social justice
A crowd files through the narrow entrance to the Old Church in Smithers, one by one unpeeling layers of sweaters and coats that protected them from the cold.
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Winterizing northern gardens: Pull ’em out, turn ’em over, tuck ’em in.
“Farmer’s Almanac says it’s going to be a cold winter.”
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Brian’s fly pattern for landing steelhead
To many fly fishers, steelheads are the ultimate quarry.
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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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Wheelin’ in the North
Road trips are great, but there’s really no better way to see a new place than from the seat of a bike.
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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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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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On the Fly: The Bulkley River: Clear water, dry flies and big fish
When steelhead fly-fishers talk about rivers that are on their bucket lists, many come to mind; however, few rivers in the world are more revered for their dry-fly fishing opportunities than central BC’s Bulkley River.
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Naydeena Mountain stunning views from “standing up alone”
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!
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A buffet of summer music
Heading to a music festival often means embracing all styles and genres of music.
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Floating on air: paragliding in the Bulkley Valley
I’m hanging out with a few keen paragliders at a launch site below Malkow Lookout, just outside Smithers.
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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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Tumbler Ridge: Canada’s newest geopark?
Tumbler Ridge was founded over 30 years ago on a single resource: coal.
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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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Fish on! Rolling in the deep off BC’s northwest coast.
It’s 5 a.m. and people are everywhere, scuttling onto boats like tiny crabs searching for shelter.
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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
READ MORE➦Winter 2018-19: Slow
Slow repairs, slow pace, slow recovery, and much more.
