COASTAL BRITISH COLUMBIA
For wilderness retreats or summer anchorages, an especially attractive area is the North Coast of British Columbia - a land of snow capped mountains, dense forests, rushing streams and deep fjords.
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TOM MARSHALLINNOVATOR, BOX 34718, LOS
ANGELES,CALIFORNIA 90034
For wilderness retreats or summer anchorages, an especially
attractive area is the North Coast of British Columbia - a
land of snow capped mountains, dense forests, rushing
streams and deep fjords. Its potential advantages include:
Ocean access: Myrian channels, arms and inlets – many
extending over 50 miles inland-provide more sea coast than
all of continental U.S. Among the almost endless inlets,
bays and islands are places a small boat could hide
indefinitely.
Geographical isolation: Rugged mountain ranges limit
transportation to water, which is slow, and air, which is
expensive. Only two roads and one railroad penetrate the
region.
Sparse population: The whole North Coast region (roughly
from Queen Charlotte Strait to the Alaska panhandle and
inland to the coastal divide)-larger than Ohio-has a
population of less than 40,000. Most of these people are
concentrated around the few cities. Arable land and
commercial timber exist only in small pockets in river
valleys and deltas, precluding large scale settlement.
In July and August of 1967, I explored some of the land and
waterways of this region. My route of travel was by
automobile to Bella Coola, then by kayak to Nascall Bay on
Dean Channel.
Although Bella Coola lies less than 300 miles from
Vancouver, the highway distance is 650 miles. I first drove
inland and north to Williams Lake, then northwest on a
fair-to-middling graded dirt road across the Fraser
Plateau. Separated from the ocean by mountains, this 3,000
foot highland has a climate quite different from the coast.
It's more like the higher plateaus of Colorado and Wyoming
with mild summers, cold winters and little precipitation.
The road to Bella Coola crosses gently rolling land, open
forests of lodgepole pine with some Douglas fir, spruce and
aspen and an occasional creek or lake. Cattle ranching is
the main industry. The few small settlements have a
"frontier" look: Log cabins, unpretentious yards and pole
fences.
After 250 miles of little variation, the land changes
abruptly as the road descends steeply – with several
switchbacks – to the Bella Coola valley. Within a few
miles, one plunges from the cool, open woods of the uplands
into a warmer, humid, dense jungle of giant arbor vitae and
Douglas fir. The road winds down the valley past a few
logging operations and guest lodges. Then, 20 miles from
sale water, the highway becomes paved and wilderness is
replaced by farms and homes that look long-settled.
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