Wild Retreat Blog

CWR had a blast at this year’s food and wine festival held in our small neighboring town located 20 miles south of us by boat. It was a trip we had to take. We couldn’t miss out. Tim May brought pulled out all the stops with a stewed apricot-chicken liver terrine with chicken leg confit on a toasted caramelized red onion & arugula cracker. And if that wasn’t enough, he topped it off with a port fig compote.

So many bites of food, and so much BC Wine flowing at the event, it was enough to make your head spin.
The festival helps to promote BC Culinary Tourism and Sustainable Food Sources while enjoying the company of friends and family of the local culinary community.The event generated much needed funds for the Community Children’s Centre playground improvements.

The festival also promotes “education and professionalism in the hospitality industry, promoting culinary and sommelier programs as well as Slow Food, a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization dedicated to recognizing the importance of pleasure connected to food in conjunction with agricultural biodiversity”

This week we had guide training with Rob Burns of’Bold Point Centre- Sustainability Tourism Training’ and water rescue training with Jim Dehart of Destiny River Adventures.

The 3 day course by Rob Burns is something he has been developing for some time now and finally the industry has found a need for it. Sustainability training for guides. His hands on 3 day workshop teaches interpretation, natural history, regional cultural history, and the importance of guides to promote sustainable tourism. Rob states “this program delivery process has developed since the 1950’s mostly in National / Provincial Parks. Since about 2001, with the rise of Ecotourism, private tour companies have identified Interpretation Planning and program delivery as critical to their continued existence.”, and we believe him. I don’t believe I’ve met someone more enthusiastic about sustainability. If you would like to know more about Rob’s Bold Point Program he can be contacted at bpc@connected.bc.ca

Following the intensive sustainability training (some days starting at 8:00 and not finishing until 9:30 at night), our guides had a taste of extreme river safety training with Jim Dehart. It was quite a change from the classroom setting for all of our guides to be in the river all day long. For an all day river trip forget wetsuits, this was drysuit time. And talk about worst fears, imagine being held underwater by your instructor! Its a good thing we all know and like Jim. The purpose of the training was to teach our guides enhanced water safety in the worst possible conditions. Now that is a wilderness classroom experience.

Dominique, our Spa Manager, and Noelle, our Massage Therapist, decided to take a day to explore the Wildside hike on Flores Island today with Dickson, one of our resident guides/jack of all trades. It was a cloudy day, but the they were able to see sea lions, grey whales, eagles, and bears flipping over rocks looking for crabs. Read about the Wildside in the Tofino Times here and take a look at Dominique’s photos in the Wildside May 28th Photo Album.

34lbs and a fighter. Not to mention the three teenagers (13, 16, and 18). Thats a good trip!

Sea Lice is a major problem for our little salmon and is causing a drastic reduction in salmon stocks in Clayoquot Sound. You can see the damage already caused in the Broughton Archipelago. Just look at what the effects were in Oregon and California- fishing is closed!

How is this happening? Why are sea lice such a problem? These are common questions that are continually asked. Check out this video which discusses Salmon Farming and the sea lice problem. There is an excellent article in the new ‘Be WIld in BC’ magazine produced by the BC Wilderness Tourism Association here.

The effect of sea lice on our wild salmon is staggering. And in turn, if we don’t do something about it now, there may not be wild salmon left for our children.

Our head fishing guide Chuck, was able to get out yesterday for the first time this year. He has been waiting for ‘that’ group of guests who really wanted to fish (Chuck isn’t that friendly with horses or hikers). And what a trip! 18 fish in 90 minutes. Chuck was saying’ I’ve never had this many fish on in such a short amount of time’. As soon as a line hit the water there was a fish on. Size matters you say? How about 15 lbs! Not a bad size cod. No reports from fresh water fishing yet, we’ll tell you as soon as we hear.

I keep hearing that people have not seen the Colbert Report so why not post it right on the blog! If you’ve heard about the Outpost camp being just like ‘a cocktail party’. This is where it came from. But for those that don’t believe it, this is a true comment. And although the Colbert Report is tongue in cheek, I have to admit it is also fairly true.