There is something about a trail that draws people to spend time outdoors. A path into the woods and along the oceanfront, a track that winds up a ridge past majestic peaks, or a paved bike path on an old railbed are hard to resist.
Follow me, see where I go, they beckon.
Who could not “feel an urge, as the naturalist John Muir once put it, to ‘throw a loaf of bread and a pound of tea in an old sack and jump over the back fence?’” said writer Bill Bryson. He was describing the “granddaddy of long hikes,” the Appalachian Trail.
The Appalachian Trail grew from a vision by one man who first proposed it in 1921 and another who took over its development in 1930 and remarkably completed the more than 3,200-kilometre-long path mostly with volunteer labour in just seven years.
On Vancouver Island, another keen hiker with a vision has created an organization dedicated to building a 700-kilometre wilderness trail up the “spine” of the Island from Victoria to Cape Scott on the Island’s northern tip.
Gil Parker, a veteran mountaineer and long-distance hiker, came up with the idea more than four years ago. The group he founded — the Vancouver Island Spine Trail Association — is slowly but steadily bringing that vision to fruition. Working largely with volunteers, VISTA operates on a shoestring budget, funded so far by members and grants from B.C. Hydro and the Federation of Mountain Clubs of B.C. We are also working with outdoor clubs such as the Alpine Club of Canada and like-minded groups up and down the Island to make the trail happen. Visit vispine.ca for trail details.
Parker’s idea is worth thinking about as we near International Trails Day on June 1, an annual celebration of trails to promote their development, use and the healthy lifestyle they encourage. VISTA and the Alberni Valley Outdoor Club are putting on a running and hiking event on trails near Port Alberni.
These trails will become part of the VI Spine Trail as it links existing and new trails. On the south Island, a good part of the trail will be on the Trans-Canada Trail.
VISTA is working with the TCT to bridge a key gap in that trail between Langford and Shawnigan Lake. With that gap completed, it will be possible to bike, hike or run over the Malahat, hooking up with the TCT trailhead at Sooke Lake Road south of Shawnigan Lake and on to the Kinsol Trestle and town of Lake Cowichan. Both the Capital Regional District and the Cowichan Valley Regional District plan to complete that section in 2016. VISTA has approached the regional governments to support an earlier opening date.
On the North Island, VISTA commissioned a feasibility study that identified possible routes that would take the trail from north of Strathcona Park to Port Hardy. The existing North Coast Trail already connects to Cape Scott.
Creating a trail the length of the Island involves working with all the regional districts, several First Nations, the province, municipalities and forestry companies such as Timber West and Island Timberlands, which own land on the South Island that the proposed VI Spine Trail will pass through.
The trail will also go through several communities, providing an opportunity for hikers to replenish supplies and experience local hospitality and history. These include several CRD communities, Lake Cowichan, Port Alberni, Cumberland, Port McNeill and Port Hardy.
As those who read his book A Walk In the Woods know, Bryson managed to cover “only” 39.5 per cent of the Appalachian Trail. But, he notes, that was still 1,400 km, no mean feat.
And during that trek, he writes: “I learned to pitch a tent and sleep beneath the stars. For a brief, proud period, I was slender and fit. I gained a profound respect for wilderness and nature and the benign, dark power of woods. I understand now, in a way I never did before, the colossal scale of the world. I found patience and fortitude that I didn’t know I had.”
As we mark International Trails Day, these are lessons worth emulating. At VISTA, we are working to make that happen on Vancouver Island.
Andy Ogle is a board member and Andrew Pape-Salmon is president of the Vancouver Island Spine Trail Association.
