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Content By Isabel Nanton - used with permission.
(Special to the Vancouver Sun)
Port Alberni
Originally published in
The Vancouver Sun
Tuesday, September 16, 2003
While enduring a bracing early-morning shower under the cascade of North America’s highest freefalling waterfall, I suddenly realize I have company. Bobbing up and down, continually flashing its eyelids, repeatedly singing a sharp”zeet” sound—I have been joined by the rapper of the bird world. The dippers, also known as a water ouzel, is a chunk slate-coloured solitary bird shaped like a large thrush, with a stubby tail, pale legs and white eyelids. When not diving into the icy waters of rushing mountain streams in search of food, dippers like to bob cheerfully up and down, delivering their message while standing on river rocks.
In this case, the message is specific and I get it. Since dippers build their bulky balls of moss nests in behind waterfall cascades, chances are I’m on this particular dipper’s territory, so I towel off and head back to camp. Although dippers and a solitary mink fishing in the river were the only wildlife we spotted on a recent hike into 444 metre Della Falls (1,456.6 feet) in southern Strathcona Park on Vancouver Island, the variety of terrain through which we travelled, coupled with the experience of upscale guided, catered camping, meant the journey lived up to its billing.
Della Falls has been on our hiking horizons for years, tantalizing us with its height (three times as high as Niagara) and relative inaccessibility. But, since leisure time is always at a premium and with the need to travel up Great Central Lake north of mid-island Port Alberni to trail head, we felt we needed at least a long weekend to get there and back and not feel too rushed.
On a hunt for the solution to our time crunch, we reached the Pacific Rim Tourism Association who keyed us into Batstar Adventure Tours, based in Port Alberni, who are pioneering guided hikes into Della Falls. Although better known for their kayaking trips of the Broken Group and Johnstone Strait, Batstar also offers guided hiking trips of places like Mount Arrowsmith in the Alberni Valley and, another of our goals, a day’s kayaking on Sproat Lake, with the chance to get up and personal with the Martin Mars water bombers.
Blake Johnson, owner of Batstar and one of his head guides, Jeff Krueger, accompanied us into Della Falls. Della was named after the wife of area pioneer Joe Drinkwater, whose name graces the river which flows out of the falls and into Great Central Lake. From the onset, any visit to the Alberni Valley indicates that this area is all about the water.
Alberni Inlet connects the town to the Pacific Ocean, while legendary fishing rivers like the Stamp and Somass are mere minutes from downtown. Forty million salmon, lamprey and other fish pass up or down the Stamp River corridor a year—for adults upstream migration ends at their spawning habitats in and around the Upper Stamp and Great Central Lake.
Our hike started with a 50-minute boat trip the 37-km length of Great Central whose waters, local Alberni resident Ben Potter told us, are “so pure they have to be fertilized for young fish.” He also told us that with 75 inches (190cm) of rain falling annually in the valley “you can’t stop trees growing.” Indeed, in TFL 44, one of Vancouver Island’s most important tree farm licences, the second-growth studded slopes of Great Central appear to be a testament to sustainability. Ochre Arbutus trees also spill down the lakeside cliffs into whose contours tuck idyllic beach coves where canoeists and kayakers camp.
On arrival at the boat dock trailhead for Della, Krueger helped us adjust the straps of our “gender-specific” backpacks to ensure even weight distribution. He also showed my partner how to secure his hiking boot laces in an innovative way to prevent pressure on a “hot spot” on the foot that occasionally flares up, marring enjoyment of major hikes. We then set off along an old logging road for the seven-hour walk into Della, crossing bridges over small creeks, the as the trail started to climb (elevation gain is 500 metres), along a single track.
All along the way wildflowers were blooming, and we considered every cascading brook and river as a prelude to the main event of Della. Lunch and a swim at Margaret Creek included sweet red onion in a fresh Greek salad concocted streamside by Krueger, courtesy of his father’s farm in Ashcroft. As we climbed, we crossed more cascades of water, spraying out in zen-like images, framed by lush ferns and boulders. In common with other hikers we enjoyed a contemplative meditation at each crossing before arriving at a rigid steel bridge modeled after an old Burma bridge, spanning a raging chasm—a piece of design which would not have looked out of place in a cutting-edge contemporary art gallery.
We encountered the first camp sites about 13 km into the hike, but pressed on the final two km since we wanted to vase ourselves within earshot of the sixth highest falls in the world. En route we quizzed some departing Californian hikers as to how they’d enjoyed their hike into the falls we Canadians claim as North America’s highest. (Sometimes waterfall enthusiasts combine the two cascades of Yosemite to claim one waterfall of 780 metres, but on this trip no one was quibbling.) They rated the hike an eight out of 10 due to the occasional mosquito, which apparently don’t pester hikers in their home terrain of the High Sierras.
On our first evening, after a gourmet meal prepared by Krueger of fresh Alberni sockeye fillets with blueberry sauce, pearl barley and carrots, talk turned to hockey. Originally from Edmonton, Johnson lived in that city during the Oiler’s heyday, so was able to share many a yarn about his favourite hockey team. This chat, followed by the soothing lullaby of Della’s cascades as we snuggled later into our tent in the lee of a giant hemlock, made for a sound night’s sleep.
Most hikers to Della, ourselves included, spend day two taking a picnic up in daypacks and hiking 400 metres up to Love Lake, to attain stupendous views across the Drinkwater Valley to Della Falls and the lake out of which it flows. In common with many Canadian mountain lakes, Love Lake is full of that suspended glacial till that turns still waters an icy sapphire blue. We ate our gourmet couscous salad lunch overlooking these cool waters and the toe of a small glacier snaking down into the lake on the opposite shore.
On day 3, we hiked out of Della, and travelled by motorboat along Great Central Lake, docking near the colony of houseboats that have sprung up near the Ark Resort.
If you go…
Batstar Adventure Tours
4785 Beaver Creek Road
Port Alberni, BC, Canada
V9Y 7C7
Tel: (250) 724-2050
Toll Free: 1.877.449-1230
Web Site:
http://www.batstar.com |
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