Hitting the Road: Bear Tracks And Lumberjacks

Off we go folks! My classmate and I are preparing to launch one of the most daring adventures to date: A cross-province road trip! Traversing across this marvelous province of ours, we will visit several key (but quite quirky) locations intertwined in the culture that is Beautiful British Columbia. After our rigorous packing, checking, and double-checking, we hit the road in our brand new sleek grey Lamborghini Reventón. Our first stop from our starting location of Saltspring Island is the remote town of "Bear Tracks And Lumberjacks": Port Alberni, on Vancouver Island. Located in the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District, at exactly 49° 14' 0" N / 124° 48' 0" W, it is near the southern tip of the Island. Approximately 65km from Nanaimo, and 193km from Victoria, it is somewhat distant for those who do not have a reason to visit. Named after Captain Pere d'Alberní, originally as a lumber/sawmill town, and resting in the valley below the grand Mount Arrowsmith, this quaint little town was a venture in itself. With only a meager population of 25,396, this town thrives on the thousands of city folk that migrate south (Island, that is) for the summer. Adding on this region's (Western Mountains/Cordillera) humid, temperate, maritime climate, it is the perfect mix of mild weather and rich culture. Capitalizing on the late summers this area seems to experience, visitors love to enjoy the annual Fall Fair put on by the city, with attractions and rides appealing to all ages! These current draws of entertainment for all ages, a quiet, safe community, and supportive neighbours have been big draws that have acted like pull factors to not only Port Alberni, but many small towns across the Island, and the province. Unfortunately, being a small town does have its drawbacks, and these lack of social services, higher taxes, and loss of jobs act as push factors just as efficiently.

Martin Mars

Interesting Fact: Did you know that Port Alberni has an official sister city? Owing to their similar layouts, city centers, and identical geography (with several rivers, creeks, and ravines branching off from the respective cities), Port Alberni and Abashiri, Japan are official sister cities. There are several other tourist attractions to this town that we visited, my favorite being on Sprout Lake, which is the large body of water right outside Port Alberni named after Gilbert Malcolm Sproat, and is a popular summer retreat. I am speaking, of course, of the Martin Mars Waterbombers. These large, four-engined cargo transport seaplanes were originally built for use in World War II, but now are the largest seaplanes servicing BC as forest-fire-fighting waterbombers. It was truly inspirational to visit their resting place.

As it began to rain, be jumped back into our car (hood up this time), and left the lake to head back into town. Stopping for a photo-shoot in the miserable weather turned out to be the smartest decision yet; we ran into the most interesting character all trip. John Takalamala, a local First-Nations chief, agreed to join us and give us some background knowledge of the town.

Orographic Relief

The first thing our new friend did was apologize for the dismal weather, explaining that since the Island is a maritime climate, it is prone to much precipitation, due to the warm air and enhanced evaporation. This, we found out, was a mix of orographic relief, due to the nearby Mt. Arrowsmith, and convection current precipitation from the nearby ocean. He diagrammed all of this in a climatograph (diagram showing yearly temperature and precipitation), shown here.

As we learned from our new guide, other than tourism, the major industry in this area, and the people we met and talked to sure agreed with this one, is the forestry industry. The town was started on logging and sawmills, and for all of its history has been a sawmill town. Until recently, this was how much of the town made their living. Unfortunately, recent budget cuts and the the economic state have lead to mass closures, and many people out of job. Combined with school closures and hospital cut-backs, this has lead to a miserable attitude in our isolated sawmill town. This has especially been an issue for the Native communities, who have suffered greatly and continue to do so. As our guide finished up our thorough tour of the town, we let him out by the reservation, and said one last goodbye to the quaint, suffering town of Port Alberni. My only regret: that we did not get the chance to explore the vast woodlands of Cathedral Grove, home of the largest trees and best views in the world. Unfortunately, this treasure is also endangered, as loggers and other industrialists want to exploit it. We hopped in our Lambo, hood down (it was gloriously sunny again), and sped off into the distance, relishing our last moments in a small. rather tedious, yet somehow richly heterogeneous and fascinating valley.