Bowen Islanders are fortunate to live in a place that for visitors is a fantastic vacation destination. Better still is the fact that with a little creativity and access a boat of just about any kind, a whole world opens up. Howe Sound can become more than the water that separates us from the mainland or the place we can spot the occasional marine mammal splashing around, it can become a prime summer vacation spot.
Donna Kreuzer says that since purchasing a small motorboat two years ago, her family has explored just about every island in Howe Sound except Anvil.
“Having a boat has actually opened our family up to the idea of camping which is something we weren’t particularly interested in before. Somehow this just feels more adventurous and exciting,” says Kreuzer. “It has also change my perspective on Howe Sound completely. Everything here suddenly feels so accessible – what would take a full day if you were travelling by car and ferries can become an easy trip in a couple of hours.”
One of the most unique adventures the Kreuzer-Jones family has taken, says Donna, has been to McNab Creek.
“Someone told us that when the tide is out there’s a sandy beach, so we decided to check it out. And really, I don’t think there’s sand like that anywhere else in Howe Sound. The kids absolutely loved just running in the sand with their bare feet. We also dug down to find crabs and shell fish that bury themselves when the tide goes out, and you can also just throw a fishing line in, right there.”
Kreuzer also had the opportunity to join her twelve-year old son, Jackson, on a two-day kayaking trip through Howe Sound with the Outside 45 class at BICS. The group paddled from Snug Cove to Halkett Bay Marine Provincial Park (north of Hood Point) and set up camp. The next day, they paddled up the coast of Gambier and across to the seal and bird colony of Pam Rocks.
Jackson says he was particularly impressed by the sea-life he saw on the trip, the purple starfish along the coast of Gambier, and of course the sea lions.
Karla Everitt led this trip, and has led many others through Howe Sound. She says that one of the things that is so fantastic about the area is its accessibility for beginner kayakers.
“Other places, like the Gulf Islands for example, when you head out on the water you have to marry the tide charts and the currents. If you don’t, it won’t matter how hard you paddle, you just won’t be going anywhere. Howe Sound is shaped like a horseshoe, and for some reason we are just less affected by those forces. The main thing you have to worry about is the wind, but there is always a way to navigate around that.”
She says that paddling the Gambier coast is a particularly amazing experience because, unlike Bowen, much of the shoreline is a sheer rock face.
“You can paddle right up next to the shore, and that’s where you’re going to see the most sea-life.”
Pam Rocks, she says, is magical.
“The sea lions are one thing but the birds are amazing as well. The oystercatchers, with their bright orange beaks look like they belong in the Galapagos islands, and the surf scoters move in packs of hundreds,” Everitt says, adding, “When I take school groups there, I always tell the kids they have to be dead quiet because the place has this amazing energy and you need silence to feel that, and also, if you’re making too much noise you’ll scare off the sea-lions.”
On that note Donna Kreuzer recalls her experience with the Outside 45 group at Pam Rocks:
The kids were told to paddle quietly and slowly around the rocks but they are kids, so their idea of quiet and slow pretty much sent every seal into water. However, my kayak partner and I DID paddle quietly and slowly and were barely halfway around the rocks when the kids were already heading back. As we came around the rocks to join them, we saw at least 15 seal heads in the water watching the kids paddle off – it was awesome! Of course, as soon as they spotted us, under the water they went…
Pam Rocks is also close enough to Bowen that it is accessible as a day-trip by kayak from Snug Cove.
Everitt says that one of her favorite Howe Sound adventures (as a date, or with the girls) is to Smitty’s Oyster Bar in Gibsons.
“Leaving from the west side of Bowen it takes less than two hours to get there. This season, the wind usually dies down by about 4pm so that makes the paddling easier. You head through the Pasley Islands and then cut over the west side of Keats, then just head straight for the main dock in Gibsons, Smitty’s is right there. Smitty’s is an old shipyard that’s been re-done, and it is very hip. It would fit right in to Gastown, so I love pulling up there in a kayak sort of incognito, and having a night of oysters and drinks…”
Bowen Islander Stephen Foster is the Howe Sound campaign leader for the David Suzuki Foundation, and in this work, he found tourism to be the biggest industry in the region in terms of money spent. Despite this, he says, Howe Sound is not typically considered a destination point in and of itself.
“It is most often positioned as a transition point – to Squamish to the North, to the Sunshine Coast to the West. The typical way we connect with each other in the Sound is through BC Ferries, and that can be challenging so, while we here on Bowen can practically throw a ball over to Gambier, how much we know about one another is pretty limited.”
In the past year, Foster has led a team of students from BCIT’s Sustainable Business Leadership Program in a study on improving Howe Sound as a destination through tourism and recreation. The study will be released this fall.
Foster offers two options for adventures in Howe Sound.
“Because it’s new, I would say everyone should take a trip up the Sea to Sky Gondola, there is so much to explore once you get up to the top. And as far as boat rides go, the trip between Horseshoe Bay and Langdale is about as good as you can get, if you have visitors, it is a great way to show off where we live.”
