During my fledgling years as a new immigrant in Vancouver, the first step that I took towards independence was moving out of my aunt’s house and partially trying it out on my own by living with room mates. I had lived in three different apartments with different sets of people, most of whom have become my good friends.
On my last year at the last apartment I stayed at before eventually moving to my own place (a one-bedroom condominium unit that I purchased in an up-and-coming neighbourhood), I had a nice winter outing with my then-housemate and her friend.
My housemate is an avid traveller (she goes out-of-the-country at least once a year and joins tours that would last from three weeks to two months, exploring a particular region of the world), a fearless explorer (she once went on an extreme-roughing-it-up camping safari in Africa, the kind where you have to bring your own toilet paper rolls and do your business in the middle of the savannah), and an amateur photographer (she would regularly email us photos she took from her trips and would compile printed copies in special albums). She is always on the go, and whenever there is a long weekend or a vacation break, she will most certainly be off to somewhere fun and exciting.
It was around the beginning of December when she proposed this idea of spending a few days during the week between Christmas and New Year in Tofino and Ucluelet on the western tip of Vancouver Island. Most of her family were either out-of-town for the holidays or spending it with their respective in-laws’ families. Her friend, who was also single, was by herself in the city, and I was more or less available. I had planned on spending Christmas and New Year’s Eves with my aunt, uncle, and cousins, but had really no plans in-between. We all badly needed a break from work and my housemate was keen on catching some Pacific storms on the island and capturing them with her camera. I had never been to Tofino and Ucluelet and was interested to visit, so I said, “Yes, why not?”
Situated on the traditional territory of the Tla-o-qui-aht people on Clayoquot Sound, Tofino is known for its quiet inlets, old growth rain forests, beautiful beaches, and rich Indigenous culture reflected in its arts and crafts and its acclaimed food scene. Ucluelet, a laid-back fishing village adjacent to Tofino, is known for its pristine coastline, secluded beaches, and scenic trails. I was excited.
We had agreed to take her car and drive to Horseshoe Bay in North Vancouver. From there, we would board the ferry to cross the Strait of Georgia to Nanaimo on the east side of Vancouver Island and cruise along Highway 19 passing through scenic Nanoose Bay, Parksville, and Qualicum Beach, while enjoying the view of the strait from that side. Then, we would continue on Highway 4 through Port Alberni to reach the western side of the island.
My housemate enthusiastically volunteered to take charge of all logistical arrangements and manage our day-to-day expenses. Since this trip was her idea, her friend and I entrusted all the planning with her. We said we would be fine with whatever accommodations, meals, and itinerary she would come up with. We would just pack our bags, hop on her car, accompany her, and pay our dues after the trip.
A few days after we confirmed our participation in this short adventure trip, my housemate presented us with her carefully laid-out plan. We would leave Vancouver on the 26th, take a short pit stop at McMillan Provincial Park in Port Alberni, and hike through the Cathedral Grove Forest before heading on to Tofino where we will stay at one bed-and-breakfast for two nights and move to another bed-and-breakfast for another two nights.
Our first two days would be spent exploring the town proper and the beaches of Tofino. The last two days would be for hiking through the beautiful trails in Ucluelet. She said that though breakfast was of course included in our accommodations, she suggested we just pack the breakfast food for our lunch and mid-day snacks and instead splurge on the highly-recommended breakfast experience at Wickaninnish Inn’s The Pointe Restaurant, where one can savour heavenly variations of their famous Eggs Benedict with a steaming cup of coffee while basking in some out-of-this-world views. We would also stock up on bread, cold cuts, cheese, crackers, fruits, bite-sized veggie sticks, hummus, granola bars, and nuts to eat on the road, and have some take-along home-cooked food and instant noodles handy for dinner. It all sounded good to us.
Our pre-dawn departure from Vancouver went smoothly and by ten in the morning, we were at The Cathedral Grove Forest. Located in the 301-hectare MacMillan Provincial Park, this magnificent temperate rainforest boasts of enormous 800-year old trees. These giant trees are amongst the oldest and tallest in Canada.
The name “cathedral” is very fitting indeed, for this place inspires awe and wonder, even a sense of the spiritual. As we started our walk, we marveled at the Douglas Firs, the Western Hemlocks, the Grand Firs, and the Western Cedar trees rising up to about 80 meters high in some sections. With beams of sunlight peeking through the canopies and filtering through the branches, the scene created an almost-magical world tinted with every shade of green possible, and produced an effect almost similar to that of stained-glass windows in old churches. The size of these ancient woodland wonders almost dwarfed us, with most of them spanning a width equivalent to that of a car, and are more obvious when one looks at the gigantic fallen trees on the ground.
The paths were easy enough to tread. They were relatively flat and fairly wide, not to mention pretty in all respects. Alternating between dirt trail and wooden boardwalks, the sides of the road were lined with trees whose gnarled tree trunks were draped with soft moss and flanked by a carpet of ferns. Interpretative signs dot the pathway, explaining the history of the forest and providing a background on its life cycle and biodiversity.
As we were there during the off-season period, there was hardly a soul in place. We had the woodlands all to ourselves and the only sounds we could hear were the crisp crunching of dry leaves as we left our footmarks, and the various bird calls and the cacophony of cries from forest critters. We didn’t even talk much to each other during our walk. It was as if the splendour of the forest naturally evoked a recognition of something divine and transcendent and that reverent silence was the most apt response to this almost preternatural moment. We were indeed in a cathedral…a cathedral of nature, that is.
I later learned that this old-growth forest was featured in the “Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi” film and served as the backdrop for some of the Forest Moon scenes on the Ewoks’ home planet of Endor.
We completed the loop in twenty minutes and after taking our mid-morning snack of cheese, crackers, and grapes, we drove on.
Photo Credits:
Flickr Creative Commons/Christina, Flickr Creative Commons/Brian Chow, explorethemap.com
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