Exploring Southwestern British Columbia Without a Car

Featured in Resources Column by Diane Redfern: Connecting…Solo Travel News July 02, 2002

The province of British Columbia has become much more accessible with the publication of BC Car-Free: Exploring Southwestern British Columbia Without a Car. This is good news for solo travellers because the price of renting a car is often prohibitive for one person.

With BC Car-Free in hand outdoor enthusiasts can undertake the following activities using foot, peddle or paddle power along with connections via an assortment of buses, trains, ferries, or water-taxis: hiking (41), backpacking (10), ocean kayaking (13), cycle touring (10), river rafting (3), horse-back riding (1), cave exploring (1), canoeing (1), whale-watching (3), birding (5), salmon watching (3), getaways (3).

Author Brian Grover says, I wanted to introduce as many outdoor pursuits as possible so those with an emerging interest could try many things.” Of course, solos need to be selective about venturing into wilderness locales alone. When I asked Grover about this, he replied: “My knee-jerk reaction was to say “No way. The out-of-doors and solo travel do not mix. On closer inspection, however, there is a great deal in BC Car-Free that the solo traveller can undertake safely. I had just never thought about it before. Cool.”

About half the book in fact. For example, of the 41 listed day hikes the majority ramble over park trails in and around the city of Vancouver, with civilization, other hikers, and help, if needed, never far away. Grover suggests that all of the cycling trips are suitable for solos, and he even includes tips on surmounting scary city barriers such as the Lions Gate Bridge. The river rafting, cave exploring, birding, whale and salmon watching excursions in the company of professional guides, or in managed settings.

Getting to some of the happenings may be an adventure in itself, involving fancy connecting manoeuvres on public transport. Ocean-going kayaking and backpacking tips are out-of-league for all but the most intrepid solo; nevertheless Grover lists a couple of each that can be attempted quite safely.

BC Car-Free is well-researched, thorough and easy to follow with 52 maps, and a complete “Getting There” appendix. Great value!

Details: BC Car-Free: Exploring Southwestem British Columbia Without a Car, 2001 by Brian Grover Whisky-Jack Communications Vancouver, C$19.95) Tel. 1-604-685-6285; www.car-free.ca

Common Plantain <<->> Dentalia Shells

Featured in Fresh Tracks Westworld’s Prime Picks2001 Top Travel Books Winter, 2001

Looking for a hot new book to get that traveler — armchair or otherwise — in your life? Look no further than Westworld’s second-annual compilation of the year’s top travel book releases.

For the outdoorsy set: a trio of jump-starting guides…

B.C. Car-Free: Exploring Southwestern British Columbia Without a Car by Brian Grover

Whether you’re just doing your part for the environment or you simply can’t afford it, many people are going without the luxury of automobiles. Here are 94 separate trips, with 52 maps, outlining a host of outdoor activities accessible via public transportation, from hiking to cycle touring to kayaking…

Wedgemount Lake <<->> Wild Rose

“Even if you decide to get there by car you’ll appreciate the detailed information….”

The Common Reader: Common Ground Magazine; September,2001

Now that the bus strike is finally over, here is a wonderful collection of 94 outdoor adventures you can enjoy using public transportation: hikes, river rafting excursions, whale watching, kayaking, horseback riding, canoeing, cave exploring, backpacking and other getaways. Included are 52 maps and 130 photos, as well as 35 sidebar features about west coast plants and animals. Even if you decide to get there by car you’ll appreciate the detailed information on what to see and do within an area that stretches from the West Coast of Vancouver Island and across the Gulf Islands to the Stein Valley and Manning Park.

Chilliwack River Paddle Rafting <<->> Common Plantain

Exploring Southwestern British Columbia Without a Car

Featured in kudos & kvetches:The Vancouver Carier June 01,2001

Good book, bad timing You’ve got to love Brian Grover. The local writer, who’s been car-free for years and proud of it, noticed that outdoor and recreation guide books in B.C. assumed that everyone has a car, and that you will take your vehicle with you to the wilderness. But not Grover, who preaches what he practices in his recently published B.C. Car Free: Exploring Southwestern British Columbia Without A Car. It’s chock full of tips and maps to help you find your way sans polluting vehicle to outdoor locations in the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands, the Sunshine Coast, Stein Valley and Manning Park. Aside from a couple of typographical errors we noticed on our first skim through (it’s “tendency,” not “tendancy”) it looks like a good book, with Grover being conscious at every turn that his readers will not have the benefit of an urban assault vehicle. He covers public transportation, maps, accommodation and travelling either on foot or by bike. The only problem with the book, and this is not Grover’s fault, is the timing. With the Lower Mainland’s bus system out, most of us car-less types are as stuck in our little locale as flies on flypaper. So we think this is another reason to resolve the bus strike (as if we need another): we want to try out Grover’s neat book. Check out www.car-free.ca for updates to his tome.

The Powell Forest Canoe Route <<->> The Westender

“… refreshingly frank, informative, and very quirky.”

by Briana Doyle;  August 2001

The underlying assumption here in western Canada is that everybody has a car,” writes Brian Grover, author of BC Car-Free. “Even in those situations where heading out on one bus and returning by another one makes perfect sense, most guidebook authors will tell their readers to arrange to have a car left at both ends of the trail instead. Clearly some changes to the traditional mind set are in order.”

Although at first glance it appears to be just another guidebook, albeit the only one that puts the needs of the car-free first, BC Car-Free is a strange little book. It is refreshingly frank, informative, and very quirky.

“This book,” writes Grover in the introduction, “is dedicated to and written for those who do not want to sit around complaining about the high cost of gasoline or auto insurance at dinner parties, do not want to spend their Thursday afternoons getting a brake job, who dislike parking fines, speeding tickets and tow trucks with equal acrimony.”

Only 15 of nearly 100 outdoor excursions listed in this book are currently inaccessible without a car because of the Lower Mainland’s transit strike. Most of the trails are accessed by the West Vancouver Blue Bus or charter bus routes, or are on nearby islands. There are car-free routes for hiking trails, cycle touring, ocean kayaking, whale watching, spelunking, camping and more.

Along with the expected trail descriptions and public transportation directions, there are nuggets of herbal lore, history and unabashed opinion. Though occasionally tangential, the many asides have interesting and offbeat wisdom to impart. “By a weird quirk of evolution, beavers are unable to digest the twigs, bark, and bits of wood they typically feast on,” one note in the sidebar reads. “Instead, when a mass of cellulose reaches a beaver’s lower intestine it is digested by a bacteria colony. Nutrients are released, but since the rodent’s lower intestine is incapable of absorbing them, they are expelled in the usual way. The feces are then reconsumed to allow the upper intestine to absorb the nutrients.”

In BC Car-Free, Grover wryly comments on everything from the quality of service at equipment rental stores (“the ironically-named Good Diving & Kayak, though ideally situated, offers the worst and surliest service on the coast”) to the inadequacy of Vancouver’s transit system (“While stuck in the interminable messaging queue [while calling TransLink for scheduling information,] think of it as practice for the real thing, waiting for buses that may never come.”) Grover also covers how to pick up cheap, well-made camping gear (“For many newbies the outdoor lifestyle becomes a consumer experience. They buy all the name brand gear, head out into the outback, despise it, then after a hiatus of several years, sell off their equipment at garage sale prices. Look for these guys.”). Typos and design glitches abound, but somehow this makes the self-published book all the more endearing.

Cheap gear and rodent feces aside, the best thing about BC Car-Free is that it challenges the assumption that you have to have a vehicle to escape the city. In fact, the book argues, for those who say they love the outdoors, minimizing vehicle use should be a priority to lessen their impact on the forests around us. © Brianna Doyle All rights reserved.

Lynn Peak <<->> Mosquito Creek

The great outdoors for those without wheels

“…the first outdoor guidebook for those without wheels…”

By Scott Birke; June 8-14,2001

Recognizing there are lots of locals and tourists in the region who either don’t have a car or don’t want one for whatever reason, West Vancouver author Brian Grover has come up with the first outdoor guidebook for those without wheels: BC Car-Free, Exploring Southwestern British Columbia Without a Car.

B.C. Car-Free, Exploring Southwestern British Columbia Without a Car is available for $19.95 at bookstores all over Southwestern B.C. Starting next issue, watch these pages for excerpts from the guidebook which will feature a different trip to the great outdoors every week.

With detailed information on over 90 different outdoor trips ranging from hiking and camping to sea kayaking in whale watching, Grover’s 340-page book is a wealth of information for the weekend warrior and outdoor enthusiast alike.

“I’ve tried to include everything from overnighters to weekenders to some great outings for blowing off a week or two of your summer holidays,” says Grover. “Nonetheless, I’ve taken extra pains to equip relative novices with the knowledge and confidence to safely witnessed some of the marvels of our west coast world. Knowledge is, of course, the best defense against some of the dangers associated with outdoor recreation.” The book is organized by activity and includes several articles about things you should know while in the outdoors such as what to do if you encounter a bear, or how to avoid getting blisters from your hiking boots.

For each specific trip, Grover adds a detailed map showing readers the area’s facilities such as nearby phones, bus routes, and fishing spots. Where applicable, it also highlights the plant, animal, geological and aboriginal features pertinent to each specific trip or area and also features an appendix on getting to each major location which includes bus and ferry schedules and, in some cases, even prices. Of interest to aspiring photographers, for every photo included in the book, Grover details the camera used as well as the lens, exposure and type of film.

“Lots of urbanites are curious about this thing called the outdoors,” says Grover. “I wanted to introduce as many outdoor pursuits as possible so those with an emerging interest in the out-of-doors could try out many things. I also wanted to provide enough depth so that first-timers could get a real sense of what is involved in sea kayaking for example, or backpacking.”

Born in Maine, but having grown up both in B.C. and Oregon, Grover has worked in everything from forestry and tourism (as a fishing guide) to communications and newsrooms. After returning from living in France and Japan for a few years he also founded Explore Canada Outdoor Adventures, a marketing body designed to promote B.C.’s “renewable recreation resources” to international visitors.

The author, the Brian Grover, and yes, that is a Whisky Jack on his head. Photo by Manami Kimura.

Sea Asparagus <<->> Seymour River Hatchery

June 3, 2001 Review

This is first book review I’ve ever written, and our editor had better not think she’s getting this book back. I’m keeping it. And using it.

BC Car-Free: Exploring Southwestern British Columbia Without a Car, written engagingly by Brian Grover, is an indispensable resource for exploring the wild parts of Canada’s westernmost province via public transport. The subject is near and dear to me, as I’ve done something similar for western Washington, and I’m overjoyed, and a little humbled, to see someone treating the subject so extensively, so thoroughly, and so well.

It’s all here – everything you’ll need to explore the back roads, back country, and wild coastline of southwestern British Columbia. The author gives you crisp, detailed maps with clever little icons representing your recreational options. He offers thorough written descriptions of dozens of possible trips, ranging from day bike trips along island roads to extensive week-long expeditions along some of the most challenging rugged coastline in North America. He gives you a brief overview of how to ride a horse, and then tells you where you can get further instruction and rent one for the day. He gives you bus, train, and ferry schedules, and tells you how much they currently cost.

Grover shows readers how they can backpack, day trip, cycle, river raft, kayak, canoe, explore caves, and so much more. And all of it is accessible by public transport.

He keeps his focus: the book covers Vancouver and the lower mainland around it, Vancouver Island and the islands between there and the mainland, and the Cascade Mountains in the southern end of the province. And then he covers that area thoroughly. Curiously, he includes the San Juan Islands (they were, last I checked, part of the US, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt; perhaps Canada’s planning something…).

He also weaves in historical background on the area, First Nations’ perspectives, and enthralling highlights on local natural history. He gives readers valuable information on giardia, red tide, blisters, and bear attacks. He lists all the contact numbers you could possibly need – phone, web, and street address. His descriptions of substandard accommodations can be brutal, an honest service valued in a guidebook. He even tells you which side of the road you need to be on to catch your bus (believe me, this is an incredibly important detail when you’re in a strange town and the next bus is tomorrow).

The only nitpicky criticism I can possibly make is that the tiny diamond – shaped icons (which refer the reader to nearby maps) on the contents pages are a bit difficult for me to read, but I’ll just copy them over larger and quit whining. Seriously, that’s the only thing even resembling a flaw I could dig up.

Grover has done great work here; I can’t wait to see what he might do with the rest of Canada. Don’t visit southwestern BC without it – even if you bring your car.

Editor’s Note: Dave McBee allowed Your Editor to touch the book but only for three seconds. She couldn’t leverage her leadership to keep the book, so instead she let the dog drink from his coffee cup when he wasn’t looking.

Sea Kayaking <<->> Whale Watching