ADVENTURE M
A BETTER
Story and Photos by Paul Manning-Hunter
TORN BETWEEN SAVING THE WORLD AND SAVORING IT, THREE FRIENDS DO BOTH IN THE GREAT BEAR RAINFOREST
Y KAYAK WAS FULL OF WATER.We were over a mile from shore when I made this unsettling observation. Already overloaded with two hundred pounds of food, camping gear and camera equipment, I hadn’t noticed my shrinking freeboard until
now. Through my dry suit, I felt something bob against my thigh. With the waves continuously crashing over my deck, I called to Spencer and Daniel to raft up next to me. Pumping furiously, we bailed the frigid North Pacific only slightly faster than it poured in. Reaching one of Douglas Channel’s scarce beaches, I carefully pulled my boat up on the slippery
rocks to drain the flooded front hatch and cockpit, noticing the foam bulkhead between the two was not properly sealed. Still, I was thankful the worst was over. Then the bag containing our satellite phone and tide charts washed out, full of seawater. With our primary means of communication destroyed (we carried an emergency transmitter for
back-up) and our charts ruined, we had a difficult decision to make: return to the small Haisla com- munity of Kitamaat Village where we had begun our trip just hours before, or continue as planned eight days into the remote coastal wilderness of the Great Bear Rainforest.
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he largest temperate rainforest in the world, the Great Bear covers 70,000 square kilometers along the northern B.C. coast. When we had planned this trip two months before, I realized just how
little I knew about this remarkable wilderness, despite its position at the center of an environmental debate surrounding the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline. If completed, the pipeline will pump oil from the Alberta Tar Sands across Alberta and British Colum- bia to the Pacific Ocean where it can be loaded into tankers and shipped to Asia. Proponents of the project say it is necessary in order to diversify the markets available for Alberta oil, while opponents claim that it will bring toxic crude through sensitive and pristine ecosystems where a leak would have devastating effects. Environmental controversy isn’t new in this region. Neither are grassroots initiatives: the actions
of small groups of people have already foiled bids to clearcut log, trophy grizzly hunt and open net salmon farm in the Great Bear. Eager to discover the area for myself, I also wanted to share our adventure so that others who couldn’t make the trip would be better informed on the Northern Gate- way issue. Packing video equipment, I hoped to document some of North America’s most rare and majestic animals including spirit bears, cougars, grizzlies, dolphins and whales.
:•:•.•:•: F
riends for 20 years, Spencer Taft, Daniel Robb and I grew up within a few blocks of each other. We live much farther apart now, but our shared interest in nature and adventure keeps us close. Taft is pursuing his Masters of Ecology after returning from three months of hitchhiking from
Kosovo to Lithuania. Robb spends his summers as a canoe guide in the Northwest Territories and his winters ski patrolling and guiding in British Columbia. He is one of the few people to complete the 20-day, 320-kilometer ski traverse along the Great Divide between Jasper and Lake Louise. White- water kayaking since age four, I paddle on the Canadian National Whitewater Slalom Team and train in the steep, beautiful rivers that cascade through the Rocky Mountains. It was Robb who first mentioned the Great Bear. He told us that, when he took a recent fishing
trip to the area, the Native community at Hartley Bay was protesting the plan to ship oil from the mainland through 150 kilometers of narrow, twisting and frequently stormy channels. The proposed route included the area where B.C. Ferries’ flagship Queen of the North crashed into Gil Island and
48 ADVENTURE KAYAK | SUMMER/FALL 2013
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