Off the beaten track
This summer a few adventuresome UVic faculty, staff and students chose the road less travelled

by Joy Poliquin

Bears, rain, sweat and solitude—these things are a far cry from the sunny beaches and exotic destinations many choose for their summer vacations. But for a handful of UVic students, graduates and professors, exploring B.C.’s vast wilderness by foot, wheel and paddle was the ultimate way to spend time off this summer.

Peter Janes, Mary Sanseverino, Mark Weston and Tim Shuff all went on treks through B.C. this summer. And while their reasons were different, they shared one common desire—to experience the outdoors and live simply.

Janes, a fourth-year anthropology student, spent 77 days walking the length of Vancouver Island, beginning at Cape Scott and finishing at Ten Mile Point in Victoria. An accomplished hiker and outdoor leader, Janes says he’s always been dissatisfied with “normal living,” and feels more comfortable in the outdoors. But his trek was about more than being outside.

“I’m trying to get people to think about making changes in their lives to help out some of the environmental problems that are going on,” says Janes, who plans to publish an account of his journey.

A native of Yellowknife, Janes grew up in the outdoors, and continues to live as simply as possible. Not as simply, however, as he did on the trail. “On a typical day I got up at 7 a.m., ate oatmeal and drank tea, which was my biggest comfort,” he says. “Then it was an 8 to 10 hour walking day, then dinner, and I was in bed by 7 or 8 p.m.”

Janes bushwhacked and hiked along old logging roads and through the high mountains of the central island, eventually connecting with the West Coast Trail. Along the way, he picked up metal boxes of supplies he’d previously buried along his route. His only company, for most of the trip, were his own thoughts and wildlife. “I saw a few bears every day,” he says, “but not a single thing to do with a cougar.”

Computer science instructor Mary Sanseverino saw a lot of bears on her trip as well. In fact, her husband accidentally scared one up a tree when he rounded a corner on his bike. Sanseverino left Victoria on June 12 and spent 46 days exploring B.C. by bike. After all that time outdoors, she’s still craving the open road. “We spent seven weeks trying to experience the landscape of our province, and racked up 3,450 kilometres,” she says. “But we barely touched the surface of what B.C. has to offer.”

Sanseverino shared the road with her husband Mike Whitney, and they met computer science graduate student Mark Weston halfway through their journey. Their motivation? To escape city life and get to know the land they live in. “There is so much out there,” says Weston. “You notice so much more, and experience the landscape, when you’re not in a car. And you learn how much you can actually do yourself. I lived so much cheaper and so much better with just a bike and a few supplies.”

Weston and Sanseverino are avid cyclists, commuting to UVic throughout the year using two wheels instead of four. And although they say Victoria is a bike-friendly city, it doesn’t compare to the beauty of wild B.C.

“We camped in one spot,” says Sanseverino, “which I won’t reveal because I want it to remain the treasure that it is, where you could see the coast mountains from the beach. They’re stunning, but the pièce de résistance, is that right in front of you is an orca rubbing beach. Killer whales come and play right in front of you. It doesn’t get much better than that.”

Tim Shuff shares that sentiment. He and Dave Aharonian, former geography graduate students, kayaked from Prince Rupert to Victoria this summer. Shuff described the trip in detail through a series of Times Colonist articles.

Both were experienced kayakers, and Shuff had spent summers working as a canoe trip guide when he was an undergraduate. Two years ago he paddled from Victoria to Desolation Sound alone. But the recent 80-day trip proved to be his most rewarding trip yet.
The hard times made it so much better,” he said over the phone from Ontario, where he’s working as assistant editor of a kayak magazine. “The first month of the trip was just rain all the time, but our determination to keep going made it so rewarding.”

And the rewards were many. When Shuff and Aharonian passed through Fitz Hugh Sound, south of Bella Bella, they encountered a pod of five killer whales breaching 20 feet from their kayaks. “All of a sudden we saw these big dorsal fins surfacing, and they came closer and closer and closer,” he says. “It was astounding.”
They also had some frightening wildlife encounters. During the first half of their trip they saw wolves every day, and had a late night visit from one. “We heard it howling, about 100 feet away, and we just lay there in our tents, completely freaked out. We thought it was calling its pack for backup,” laughs Shuff.

Like the other trekkers, Shuff is already planning a follow-up trip, and hopes to kayak near Chile. Janes is back outside, working as an outdoor guide at Strathcona Park Lodge for the term. Sanseverino is hoping to bike in Italy when she visits there this year, and Weston is looking forward to bike trips throughout Europe.

Their motivation is simple: to get outside and admire what nature can provide. “I grew up in the city and hated it,” says Shuff. “There’s something that drives me to want to be outside, a combination of adventure and the desire to be connected to nature. I feel more alive outdoors.”