At the end of Canada

Now this is the wild west! Throw away any notions of cowboys and six shooters. The west coast of North America is home to a whole new breed of trailblazer. Saloons have been replaced by whole wheat bakeries. Bar brawls have changed to sit-ins. Cowboy hats swapped for ponytails. Tofino, British Columbia exemplifies this image change better than anyone. And with close ties to the city, this was a guaranteed stop on my recent visit back to Canada.

20 years ago, no one had ever heard of the sleepy little fishing village. And why would they? Over 100 km to the nearest “city” of Port Alberni, Tofino was just some tiny spot on a map, with some nice beaches at the end of the Trans-Canada highway. Man, have things changed! Loggers and fishermen were replaced by granola crunching hippies. The hippies have since been replaced cell phone clutching city dwellers with millions of dollars to blow on rarely visited summer homes. The few nature enthusiasts, who could afford to stay, have given birth to a generation of surfers. Tofino has grown growing into quite the surfing Mecca for those crazy enough to brave the icy water temperatures. The spectacular chain of seemingly untouched beaches, including Long Beach national park, allow for some of the most romantic beach strolling in the world. Too bad I was there visiting family. It's a slightly different story in the summer as the village of a couple thousand explodes to 10's of thousands.

The saying getting there is half the fun was most certainly referring to the road to Tofino. After leaving Port Alberni, the road twists and turns through some stunning scenery. When weather permits, the reflections of the mountains in the lakes is unparalleled. Mountain springs make for excellent stopping off point to refresh oneself with a wee dip. And the Old Growth jewel that is Cathedral Grove is the place to get that “jungle” photo. Sure there are signs of the are as clear cut industry. Unimaginable effort has been poured into the effort to change logging practices in the region with mixed results. While improvements still need to be made in order to find a balance between sustainable forestry and preservation of nature. But things are better than they used to be.

The Tofino bus heads up this way twice a day with an extra service on the weekends. But i almost always hitchhike. I frequently make the 2 1/2 drive from Nanaimo in under 4 hours while hitching. Not bad. While it's not what it used to be, Tofino is still a pretty special place in Canada, and one of my favourite in the world.