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The Essential Vancouver IsLAND RECREATION GUIDE

Introducing the all-new look at Vancouver Island, fully up-to-date on all trails, including the new North Coast Trail opening this spring at Cape Scott. Supported by detailed maps, the Essential takes you into regions rarely explored:

  • Nahmint Valley, The Upper Adam Valley, San Juan Ridge

Expect details about features of Vancouver Island where other guides don't go:

  • The Kludahk Trail, Kookjai, Artlish Caves

Plus find complete recreation sites, casual camping areas, region-by-region features and different ways to explore the island: whether by paddle or by rope.

A few samples:

Here is one of the maps from the guide for the Cowichan River. The Essential features 78 full colour maps detailing the various regions of Vancouver Island.

It's about the photography as well. Expect about 150 photos showing every region of Vancouver Island.

And lastly, why this book exists...

Here is an excerpt from the introduction:

By John Kimantas

A few years back I was in my office in Ontario looking at a map of Canada trying to find two communities: Truro, Nova Scotia and Nanaimo, British Columbia. I was in line for a promotion and could have ended up at either location. A few weeks later I was strolling to work along Nanaimo's seawall on my way to my new office when I stopped to watch a seal playing in the picture-perfect harbour, with two nearby islands framed by the breathtaking white-capped mainland mountains in a scene of brilliant blue ocean dotted with dozens of boats at anchor. I can't speak for what Truro might have been like, but I felt like I had won a lottery coming here.

A few weeks later I was offered a promotional helicopter ride to the top of Mount Cokely near Mount Arrowsmith. Our group was dropped off with a picnic lunch and a bottle of wine on the mountaintop, with a chance to walk along the alpine bluffs to search for viewpoints. During the helicopter portion of the trip we circled many of the major mountains of Strathcona, and the pilot listed off names of peaks that meant nothing then, but now each have their distinctive personalities and individual appeal in my mind – from benign alpine hiking to difficult climbing ascents.

Sunny summer weekends became a chance to more widely explore the island, and not long after that helicopter trip I was back on the peaks at Mount Arrowsmith, this time the hard way. It felt better arriving by personal effort, because I knew this was the way the island should be explored – in tune with its grace and beauty. A formula was soon established. The longer and more difficult the trip, the greater the feeling of accomplishment, the more enjoyable the experience, and generally the better the scenery once you arrived.

My attention eventually turned to the water, and for several years I explored the BC coast by kayak. For anyone interested in visiting the shores of Vancouver Island, whether by motorized boat or paddle (though my bias to paddles is obvious), consider The Wild Coast series of guidebooks. Three volumes cover the entire British Columbia coast: Volume 1 focuses on the island's north and west coast, Volume 3 on the island's south and east coast, and Volume 2 on the north and central BC coast to the Alaskan border.

This book looks at Vancouver Island from a terrestrial perspective, though water remains an intrinsic part of exploring the island – whether canoeing Great Central Lake to reach magnificent Della Falls or tackling the whitewater of Puntledge River. The book covers most of the inland water features of the island, as well as the coastal communities and ocean areas that can be reached by foot. So expect a bit of overlap into The Wild Coast series, though not into the marine features. For everything beyond the land into the shoreline, consult The Wild Coast.

The format for The Essential Vancouver Island Outdoor Recreation Guide gelled about the time I picked up a road map to try and pinpoint a feature mid-island. I found, to my dismay, that beyond the road to Youbou the map had no roads and no features for the inland of southern Vancouver Island. It was an empty land mass. I imagine a good majority of people who visit and even live on the island have the same impression – that recreation is limited mainly to the established corridors; everywhere else is an obscure, remote, featureless and almost inaccessible wilderness.

The polar opposite also exists. Diehard crag climbers, for instance, have named just about every obscure rock face on the island. Whitewater paddlers have chronicled the bends and rapids on every river, no matter how remote. Mountain bikers have multitudes of trails through entire regions, each lovingly named and rated for its features and difficulties. And hiking trails can be found just about anywhere.

In the end every hill and mountain is a potential ascent. Every river is a potential whitewater route. Every lake is a potential paddle. And every forest has a potential trail. The problem is the quality and access varies considerably.

This begs the question of what sort of information should be in a general-interest wilderness/outdoors guide covering an area of about 31,000 square kilometres. Naturally, this book can't include the technical details of every individual sport. That's the topic for a half-dozen books, not one. Nor is it necessary to list every obscure option when several dozen (and sometimes hundreds) of better options exist.

So this book evolved into a juggling act of what to include and what to leave out. It is essentially a tribute to the land with an outline of the range of adventures available for exploring it – where to camp, what to see and where you may consider exploring, whether by canoe or by foot or by wheel.

Many locations are remote, so a great deal of information is provided to get you to these places. There is a huge difference between a squiggle on a map indicating a logging road and actually finding your way through a maze of unnamed logging spurs. Route maps, text descriptions and GPS waypoints are all offered as ways to get you to your destination quickly and safely.