With the Sea Cavalcade in the works for next weekend, Gibsons is likely to see an uptick in tourists. Many of them will visit West Howe Sound as well – in fact, they have to. Almost everyone who comes to the Coast gets off the ferry there. There are reasons for visitors to hang around the area.
One of the reasons is a mystery, which I’ll get to at the end of this column.
West Howe Sound, all 381 square kilometres of it, is mostly forest. An average of about five people lives in each square kilometre. Consequently, the West Howe Sound residents who are most impacted by tourism are Bruno, Bambi, and the like. Three of my favourite West Howe Sound destinations – Soames Hill, Langdale Falls and the Rainy River – are in the forest.
More than four kilometres of trails wander up Soames Hill, a 240-metre-high, tree-covered mound that can be seen from the ferry just before it arrives in Langdale. The main trail winds up a 434-step staircase to the summit.
From viewpoints at the top, visitors get an expansive view of Howe Sound and Bowen, Keats and Vancouver Island beyond. You can access the trails at the end of Bridgeman Road or Esperanza Road, or from a connecting trail in Shirley Macey Park.
Langdale Falls is trickier to find. The path to the falls tangles through Sprockids bike park, and there are many other trails on the way. To stay on the correct route, it’s best to have a good trail map.
It takes about 45 minutes to reach the falls, and much of the hike is steep. The final stretch requires a tight grip on a climbing rope. But when you get beneath the plummeting waters, it’s well worth the effort.
The attraction at Rainy River is a metal walkway above the river, near a dam. The force of the thundering water is enough to generate electrical power.
The river is a short drive past the northern end of the Port Mellon Highway. You need to check in with the guard at the Howe Sound Pulp and Paper kiosk before your hike. The guard can give you directions to the nearby trail.
About a kilometre south of the mill entrance along the highway is a little-known beach at the end of Dunham Road. The McNair Creek Kwíl’a’m launch site is part of the Sea to Sky Marine Trail. The muddy beach (not great for swimming) is one of the few spots on the Sunshine Coast where it’s easy to launch a kayak.
Other destinations in West Howe Sound include Shirley Macey’s children’s water park, mountain bike trails at Sprockids, and just a few commercial businesses. These include a tasting brewery with a hop field, a par-3 golf course, and a line of open-air shopping booths at the ferry terminal. These are expected to give way to a more formal, enclosed shopping area, as B.C. Ferries moves toward rezoning and improvements over the next few years.
And now the mystery: my husband calls it the Tree of Lost Soles. Other West Howe Sounders call it the shoe tree. It’s a metre-thick cedar along the Port Mellon Highway about two-thirds of a kilometre north of YMCA Road. You can find the tree at the edge of a shallow siding at the top of the hill going north.
About a dozen types of shoes, including running shoes, boots and sandals, are nailed to the trunk. There’s also a baseball cap.
I asked my West Howe Sound Facebook friends about the origin of the tree, and no one came up with an answer. I asked Dale Peterson, a noted historian who conducts walking tours of Gibsons Landing. He had no answer.
Neither did Ian Winn, SCRD director for Area F who operates a B&B with his wife in Williamson Landing, just north of the tree. If the operator of the largest visitor accommodation close to the tree doesn’t know its story, who might?
I’m betting there’s a reader who does. If any of you know why there are shoes on the tree, and who put them there and when, please let me know and I will explain the mystery in a future column. There are lost soles waiting. Please email [email protected].
In the meantime, I hope you can make it to the Sea Cavalcade parade in Gibsons on Saturday, July 29. The West Howe Sound Community Association will be hosting a float that will carry a community composter. The contraption is animal proof. Too bad, Bruno and Bambi.
