It was the winter of 2014/2015 when I retired and we found ourselves moving to Sayward. My family has had a long history in the community. My oldest sister and her husband lived here in the ’60s, he was the head chef at the Mac and Blo camp on the shores of Kelsey Bay, Sayward and their children grew up here. Several of my brothers began their logging careers in the camp. In 72, I was hired by a logging company owned by the Bendickson’s on Hardwicke Island. The island is just across the straight from Kelsey Bay.
Sayward is located where the Sayward Valley joins the ocean on North Vancouver Island in British Columbia. It is accessed by a 12 km paved road off the Island Highway. It is under one hour from Campbell River in the south and about 2 hours from Port Hardy to the north. The Bay can also be reached by boat via Johnstone Strait.
As with all communities on northern Vancouver Island, Sayward was only easily accessible by water in the past. It was not until after World War II that a gravel road connecting Sayward and Kelsey Bay with Campbell River was built. In 1979 the road was extended to the north island from Sayward Valley.
Sayward was at one time the southern terminus for the B.C. Ferries Inside Passage route, then in 1978, when Highway 19 was extended north to Port Hardy, the terminal was moved to Port Hardy.
Sayward is now a put-in point for sport fishing and tourism. You can access a wonderful area of islands and inlets, a great place to put in a kayak, and a great place to start a wilderness adventure you will never forget.
Fall and winter are good times to visit the Salmon River estuary to view winter waterfowl. Spring is also a delightful time due to the prolific nesting around the estuary. At one time the Salmon River estuary was home to the island’s largest wintering population of Trumpeter Swans, not many here now though. The village maintains the path along the estuary to make your viewing experience even more special.
The Salmon River Estuary is made up of approx. 500 acres of inter-tidal marshes and mudflats, with the river meandering through them. Spruce & hemlock forests dominate the estuary’s upland areas and open wet grasslands, along the waterways.
Coho, Chinook, Pink, and Chum salmon travel through the Salmon River Estuary on their way to their spawning areas. Cutthroat, and Dolly Varden trout can be found here. Some steelhead can be found here and can weigh on the high side of 10 kilos!
Year-round access to sheltered, open waters, filled with insects & vegetation, has made this estuary a very important winter destination for thousands of waterfowl & shorebirds. During winter, birds can be seen in the thousands, including large numbers of trumpeter swans, green-winged teals, golden-eye ducks, widgeons, mallards, great blue herons, bald eagles, red-tailed hawks, and numerous shorebird species.
Cougars and black bears can be seen on the south side of the estuary, along with rare sightings of wolves and grizzly bears. The plentiful estuary grass supports a healthy population of deer and elk.
Just offshore from the estuary, Orcas and Grey Whales pass by regularly. Earlier this year, we had the pleasure of watching a Gray Whale swim past the estuary! I have seen false killer whales many times here as well.
Kelsey Bay Harbour is the only small craft harbour located between Campbell River and Port McNeil. It offers a loading ramp, a derrick, a breakwater system, and a boat launch ramp is located at the end of the old BC Ferries’ parking lot.
The Salmon River is a popular river for exhilarating river rafting and canoeing in the Sayward community, and the lakes and rivers in the area offer a range of canoeing and kayaking routes. When I was a young man, my friends and I, in January, would put our canoes in at the bridge at Big Tree Creek and spend 4 days canoeing down the Salmon River, enjoying some incredible sights like elk and bears as well as some awesome fishing. It was cold, with snow and sleet, but the river would be running high and this is what we were after, love running the winter rapids.
The Sayward Forest Canoe Route covers almost 50 km of lakes east of Sayward and is an incredible journey. Allow three to four days to complete the circuit, which begins on Campbell Lake. When I worked for recreation in Forestry one of the great projects I was involved with was building the original Sayward Valley Canoe Route. It was a winter project and the trails were mostly built using canoes to access them. It was a canoe route after all. There is not much left of the original trail that we built, but it does show up here and there.
We had 2 teams of 4 and we spent 2 months building the original trail. Cutting these trails out of the forest was pretty tough work, the trails had to be big enough to allow people to move their canoes and gear through from one lake to the next safely. We did a pretty good job, but since then it has been upgraded, I have walked sections of it and am quite impressed.
Wisdom has it that the best approach to the route is to journey in a counterclockwise direction, putting in at the boat launch on Mohun Lake in Morton Lake Provincial Park. The well-marked route continues through 10 lakes before returning to the park. Road access to most of the lakes within the canoe route means that paddlers can pick and choose from a variety of put-in and take-out points.
The nearest large provincial park to Sayward is Schoen Lake Provincial Park, considered by some to be the most beautiful camping area and lake on Vancouver Island, offering wilderness hiking, canoeing, fishing, and spectacular mountain scenery. This campground will take your breath away. The mountains in the area are some of the most spectacular on the island.
I had always wanted to live here in Sayward and now was the time to just do it. We leased a home in the town site, packed our house and rented a big moving truck. The move went well, all my adult kids moved with us, so the house we leased was big. Had three of our kids, my youngest boys hunny Katrina and their 2 kids also moved in with us. It was one big happy family.
My new website, gohiking was now completed, did I just say that? in reality, it is never complete, with new stuff added daily, but the rebuild and transition from askbud to gohiking was finished. My boys and I were out photographing many more areas and by the time the rebuild was complete, I had a collection of almost 2000 new pages to be added, and this is always growing. It is an ongoing project. Now that I am retired, I can get more done.
We have many good friends here now and love the ease of living in the country, we learned that we needed to have a generator ready as many winter storms bring power outages on a steady basis. It’s part of living here.
On the morning of December 20, 2018, my wife Georgina and I headed out of Sayward to do some Christmas shopping in Campbell River. There was a wind warning out but the wind was light and we even saw a bit of sun on our way to Campbell River. We did our shopping and headed home, the wind picked up a bit around Roberts Lake and we could see that a few trees had come down, and there were branches on the road. All in all though, it was pretty calm out compared to what the weather channel had warned could be coming.
Then we turned onto Sayward Road around 5 pm and there was a police roadblock stopping all cars from going any further. The parking lot at the Sayward junction was full of cars, even the school bus loaded with kids was waiting. I talked to Kim Graham who is the head of our RCMP attachment and she informed me that multiple trees had been blown onto the road, taking power poles and hydro wires down with them. I asked her if she knew if the logging road into town was blocked and she told me all town roads were blocked. BC Hydro crews were working to open the road and we all had to just sit and wait it out.
As we waited we could see people going in and out of the co-op gas station with popcorn and coffee, the co-op was giving this out for free. The Crossroads restaurant and pub were also providing coffee and they were giving free pizza to the kids on the school bus as well. Gives one a good feeling to see our little community helping out like this. Much respect on my part for these businesses.
We had our fill of coffee and popcorn while we waited and after about an hour we decided to check out the logging road, there were many trees down but someone had cut a way through the worst and we could drive over the rest of them, it was slow going but we made it to the intersection of the logging road and Sayward Rd. We turned onto Sayward Rd but only made it about 100 meters before we ran into a huge pile of trees on the road that was tangled up wire power lines. We turned around and headed back onto the logging road to reach town. This road had been cut out as well and we were able to reach home. When we got into the house, the kids told us that it was terrifying during the storm, they thought the roof would be torn off and that it sounded like a freight train was running through the house. It had felt like the windows would blow in. The power was out but the wind had eased off quite a bit. The kids had the storm lanterns going, I set up our camping stove, cooked up a stir fry, and made some coffee. After we ate, we all headed off to bed early.
I got up just before daylight and headed off to get some photos. The damage that was done was incredible, Sayward road looked like a right away that had just been felled, and trees were piled up 3 to 4 meters high and in groups of up to 30 trees per pile. There were many trees on homes and outbuildings, but the damage to these properties was minimal considering the number of trees that had fallen. There were many poles, transformers and wires on the ground. After checking out all the damage, I realized that power would not be restored anytime soon. So off to town, we went to rent a generator so that we would not lose our food in the freezer and fridge. Power was not restored for 4 days.
The village of Sayward was on top of things during this time, they opened the community centre for longer hours. The centre had auxiliary power. Free showers and the use of the kitchen facilities were open to all who needed to wash or cook food. There were free snacks and coffee as well. This was the most damaging storm in BC Hydro’s history. It hit the whole island.
After the creation of gohiking, I began to get requests for a variety of outdoor adventures. Most requests were still for photography trips but others wanted to see waterfalls or hike a mountain trail. Still, others wanted to experience hidden caves or visit various communities on the island, historical places like Winter Harbour, Zeballos or Bamfield. We bought a 7-seat van and with my wife entertaining them, we would take up to 5 people and go on all kinds of adventures. The tourists loved it and I got to see places I had not been to yet, so fun was had by all. We began to guide people from all over the world.
One time, a family of six, who hailed from France hired me to show them the north island. The dad had a limited ability to communicate in broken English, mom and kids could speak no English. It is amazing how you can learn other ways to communicate. The kids used smiles and sound effects other than language to speak with me. Mom simply used smiles. We spent the whole day together and covered a lot of miles. At the end of the day, I got big hugs from all of them, maybe they couldn’t say thank you in words, but the hugs told me how much fun they had. It makes a guide feel good.
My favourite guiding jobs are those that involve hiking, I love to hike. We are so lucky to live in an area where hiking trails cross the island, there are easy to extreme trails, so you can have your pick. I have spent my life not just hiking the trails but have played an active role in trail building. I was part of quite a few trail creations and loved every minute of it.
One year while with the forest service, and a young man, I was asked to put a crew together of 8 guys, plus us two foremen. Our mission was to construct the trails between the lakes that were going to be part of the Sayward Forest Canoe Route. This was an epic endeavour. We worked out of canoes. We started on one end of the proposed route and would canoe to the end of a lake, then we would follow a suggested route that was laid out with ribbons and put in a trail wide enough to move a canoe along. With 10 guys building trail, we would move along pretty fast. With that said, it took us 3 months to complete the trails as we had multiple bridges that had to be put in, rest areas and easy launch areas at each portage.
Other trails on the island have always drawn me in to see the country. Some are just awesome and easy, trails like the one between Botany Bay and Botanical Beach. This is an incredible walk through a forest of windswept and twisted trees, it’s a beautiful place, a place of wonder. For 7 years researchers and students journeyed here to study at the seaside Marine Station. To get here, they would travel from Victoria to Port Renfrew by steamer, then traverse some very steep, muddy, and narrow trails to the station. There was talk about building a better road to the bay, but it never got built, this all but sealed the fate of the station, it was closed in 1907.
When you are hiking in the area, if you look closely, you can still see remnants of the buildings sticking out of the West Coast rainforest. There is a lot of history here, but you need to look closely, as the West Coast rainforest is claiming the land back once more. The area became a provincial park in 1989.
The beaches at both Botany Bay and Botanical Beach are full of a wide variety of sea life. Both plant and animal life is in abundance, and each has adapted to contend with the variable conditions found here.
Black bears and cougars can also be present at any time. Black bears can become used to feeding on garbage, so to avoid teaching bears about trash, please pack out what you pack in. Cougars normally avoid people and are rarely seen, but please leave pets at home if possible and watch over young children.
British Columbia’s toughest and most beautiful trail is the West Coast Trail, situated in the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve on the west coast of the island. Considered by some to be the toughest trail in North America, the trail traverses 75 km of wind-worn and storm-tossed coastal shoreline, you will see giant cedars, huge hemlock and unending spruce forests, cliffs, beaches, sandstone ledges, and suspension bridges spanning rivers and streams. This is Vancouver Island wilderness, wild and wet even in the summer. Hikers who attempt this trail must be fit and well-equipped for the backcountry.
Then there is the 47 km Juan de Fuca Marine Trail in Juan de Fuca Provincial Park boasts scenery similar to the West Coast Trail, but with vehicle-accessible points at several spots along the trail, making it a favourite for beginners and day hikers. The trail begins at China Beach and ends at Botanical Beach. It’s a pretty awesome hike. China Beach is a very beautiful beach, a great place to go for a weekend walk. China Beach also has a great campground that is located in the west coast rain forests that grow so lush on our coast. The trail down to the beach is quite pleasant with some incredible views, not too difficult to walk and the beach at the end is awe-inspiring, to say the least. There are 78 drive-in campsites available at this campground.
Some facilities are wheelchair accessible; pit toilets and water taps are located throughout the campground. China Beach itself is a great place to picnic and beach comb. Remember that black bears and cougars may be present. It would be a good idea to leave pets at home and keep your children in your sight. Lately, we have seen some wolves showing up along the trails of the west coast, more north of here, you should keep pets on a leash at all times. Take a wander to the western end of the beach during the wet season and you will see a waterfall that will take your breath away. You can walk along the shore to the second beach or if you are camping, you can reach it by taking a wonderful trail through the forest to reach it. The waterfall is pretty awesome during the wet season.
In the spring and fall, you might get to see a grey whale as they migrate along the coast. So keep your eyes open and your camera ready. The best times to see whales are in March and April, as they migrate past the island on their way north to the feeding grounds.
There are many other mountain trails on the coast and some very historical trails like the Woss grease trail, First people used this trail to take grease for trade to the west coast areas. This trail runs from Woss to Tahsis, it is hundreds of years old if not older. You can also hike many trails in Strathcona Park. So put on your boots, grab your pack and camera and head out into the backcountry to see what the coast has to offer. Another trail that has just been completed is the Vancouver Island Trail, which runs from Victoria to the top of the island.
After we moved to Sayward, a friend of mine was starting a new magazine called the Compass, it was going to be an aboriginal-based mag. She called me out of the blue to ask if I was willing to write a story for the inaugural edition. I thought to myself, why not?
So I agreed and then asked her what the deadline was, and she replied that was tomorrow. I told her she should have called me sooner, but I wrote it that night and got it off to her the next day. She then asked if I would write for the mag, and she would give me a column and let me name it. I agreed. Off the beaten path was created. Little did I know that this was the start of a multi-year adventure in writing/publishing.
At first, Kealy had an editor working for her who would edit our stories, this was fine until he would take it upon himself to rewrite my stories, when I would see them in the mag, they were sometimes completely different and this was quite disappointing. I made a condition of my continued work that my stories could only be edited for grammar and spelling, the story must stay in my own words. They agreed and I stayed on. Over the first year, a few of the other writers left, and after each, Kealy would ask me to pick up their columns. Soon I was writing 8 columns.
Then our distributor quit. I took over distribution and helped in a limited way with sales of advertising space. At this time, we were covering from the north island down to Courtenay. I would personally deliver the mags to all the hotels and motels, gas stations, restaurants, lodges and anywhere else I could get them into.
I extended our coverage as far as Parksville in the south and Port Alberni to the west. I made many friends along the way, I am a people person and enjoyed chatting with all. They always had a smile for me as I made deliveries. Smiles are much appreciated and would make me feel welcome.
A few years in, I started to see a pamphlet detailing North Island Trails. I thought it was a great little book. Then they wrote my publisher demanding that the magazine stop using the name of my column. According to them they had originally published the guide way back in 2016 and claimed it as theirs. After letting them know that we have used the name in every issue since 2015 and produced a copy of the first mag in 2015 with the column in it. I never heard any more from them.
Kealy at the time, was also working for the North Island Metis and would always ask me to work with them. One of my favourite things I would be involved with was working with children. They would set up a huge tipi where I would sit and tell stories to classrooms of kids, I enjoyed this and watching children laugh with my stories was awesome.
She would also hire me to do various types of forest walks with both elders and youths. I would teach about the ecology of the forest and how it all works together. I would sometimes take groups out who wanted to learn about plants and mushrooms or perhaps about natural medicines. My wife Georgina always joined me and she would help the elders navigate the trails and share her knowledge as well. It was always a fun time, sometimes the groups would get pretty big. My wife was also the photographer for these outings.
Around this time Kealy took on the job of creating a First Nations-based radio station and asked me if I would consider taking on the publisher’s position for the magazine. I took on the role and over the next while, I learned a lot about the publishing world. I was flying by the seat of my pants but all in all, things went well. It was quite the adventure though. I must thank Kealy for giving me this opportunity. It was fun.
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