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Adventure Travel 2007:
Canada: British Columbia
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British Columbia: Canada's Newest PreserveNational Geographic Adventure picks the 25 best new outfitted trips.
Text by Bonnie Tsui Photograph by Pacific Northwest Expeditions
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Paddling with orcas off the coast of British Columbia's Great Bear Rainforest |
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WHAT'S NEW: Last February about three million acres (1,214,057 hectares) of British Columbia's Great Bear Rainforest became North America's newest protected area—the result of a protracted struggle to save the region's old-growth forests from excess logging. Part of the largest coastal temperate rain forest in the world, the Great Bear extends along 250 miles (402 kilometers) of rugged shoreline, making ship-based, or mother-ship, sea kayaking one of the best ways to access it all.
ON THE GROUND: Local outfitter Pacific Northwest Expeditions has been leading summer paddling trips in the area since 1998. Its 2007 departures will feature keynote guests—scientists and ecologists—who can speak to the changing character of the preserve and the need for saving threatened species such as the white-furred Kermode bear, or spirit bear, a variant of the black bear. You'll cruise between kayaking sites in a retrofitted 95-foot (29-meters) World War II-era wooden ship, the MV Songhee, which has six staterooms, a hot tub on deck, and a chef to fry up your fresh catch of the day.
Vitals
Outfitter: Pacific Northwest Expeditions (www.seakayakbc.com)
Length: Four to six days
Price: $1,700 to $2,360
Difficulty: Moderate
Departs: July through September
Our November 2006 issue features the best new adventure travel trips; an exclusive look inside Iran; a Greenland global warming report; backcountry spas; digital cameras; travel Web sites; weekend getaways; and more.
Subscribe now and save!
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