As the West Coast Trail is closed for
the season I thought BC Family Day long weekend in February would be
an ideal time for me to visit the frontcountry unit of Pacific Rim
National Park Reserve. I had a meeting with the Parks Canada research
coordinator to attend, and my fiance and I decided to make a weekend
of it.
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| Ucluelet Harbout |
Ironically considering its title, the
'Wild' Pacific Trail is likely one of the most 'civilized' hikes on
the west coast. It currently consists of two section, both within the
municipality of Ucluelet, and apparently more sections may be added
in the future. It is not a Parks Canada maintained trail (perhaps
this is why it is so well-maintained!), as Ucluelet is adjacent to
but not within Pacific Rim National Park Reserve.
It was a cold and blustery February
day, so we only hiked part of it as my partner is a fair-weather
hiker. We walked the 2.6km loop by Amphitrite Lighthouse. It was so
odd to see an automatic lighthouse, which I know is becoming the
norm, when I was used to the lighthouses of the west coast trail,
which are homes as well as coastguard beacons. It's hard to imagine a
time when the lighthouse at Amphritrite was as remote as Pachena or
Caramanah Light, but around the turn of the century I suppose it was.
Near the lighthouse there was an interpretive sign which showed an
old photo of the original Amphritrite Light. Constructed of wood, it
apparently blew down not long after its initial construction in a
winter storm!
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| Amphitrite Light |
As we walked it began to snow,
complementing the frozen tide pools. The setting was dramatic, and
nearby were hotels and luxurious vacation homes. Their views were
certainly more spectacular than those of most Bamfield or Port
Renfrew homes, which were constructed more for shelter than scenic
potential. This simple walk reminded me of why some people expected
the scenery of the West Coast Trail without the grunt work that went
along with it. If people were basing their expectations of the West
Coast Trail on the Wild Coast Trail, where the scenery was wild but
the trail was tame, then I could see how some first-time WCT hikers
easily got in over the heads.
The difference between the frontcountry
and the backcountry trails are more extreme in the Pacific Rim region
than most parks. In most parks, from my experience, backcountry
overnight hikes begin as extensions of day hikes. Thus a day-hike is
not necessarily easy, and the transition from a well-maintained
frontcountry trail to a rougher backcountry one is gradual. However,
Pacific Rim was designed differently from some of the older parks in
the Rockies with which I'm more familiar. It was conceived of from
the get-go as three different units. The West Coast Trail Unit and
the Broken Group Islands Unit were set aside as terrestrial and
marine backcountry areas, respectively. Long Beach Unit, making up
the coastal area between the towns of Ucluelet and Tofino was
designed as and continues to be a frontcountry unit. What this means
is that there is a separation from those who travel to the west coast
to partake in backcountry activities and frontcountry activities.
While this may be good for park management, whose job it often is to
manage tourists more than any other wildlife, what does it mean for
the experience of visitors?
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| K'wistas Visitor Centre on Wickannish Beach |
When I visited the K'wistas Visitor
Centre at Wickannish Beach, the main information centre for both the
Long Beach Unit and Pacific Rim Park Reserve as a whole, I was struck
with the irony of this backcountry/frontcountry separation. The newly
redone information centre was filled with excellent displays about
the terrain, history, and First Nations Traditional Ecological
Knowledge (TEK) of the Pacific Rim National Park. Displays were
informative, were often triligual (written in Nuu-chah-nuulth as well
as English and French), and acknowledged the complex relationship
First Nations people had and continue to have with the ecosystems
within their territory. From the displays at K'wistas, one would
think that Pacific Rim was a flagship example of the co-management of
the a park between traditional owners and government.
There was plenty of information about
the ecology and history and traditional ownership of the West Coast
Trail at the information centre at Long Beach. However, because of
the geographic separation of these units, it is unlikely that anyone
hiking the West Coast Trail will visit Long Beach on the same visit
to Pacific Rim where they hike the WCT. Yet I would argue, it is
often West Coast Trail hikers, who spend a full week traversing and
interacting with the places of Pacific Rim, who have the keenest
interest in the type of knowledge displayed at K'wistas. WCT hikers,
who have a physical, phenomenological experience of the places of
Pacific Rim, have less access to information about the places they
travel across than the day visitors at Long Beach.
Part of this is because Parks Canada
information on the trail is focused on getting hikers through the WCT
safely, perhaps at the expense of more esoteric knowledge of the
terrain. However, it is ironic that those who most fully invest in
learning about a landscape by physically traversing have less access
to information (at least, officially sanctioned knowledge) about the
ecology, history, and traditional owners of the park.
Which brings me back to the Wild
Pacific Trail in Ucluelet. Scenic, informative, but wild? Beware of
names. 'Wild'-ness is a marketable designation, and does not necessarily connote the lack of human presence or environmental manipulation that popular culture ideally associates with it.
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| Surfers! |
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| Tofino condos....something you'd never see in Bamfield |
