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Cathedral grove: yes, I've been there. Thats about all the old growth you'll find on vancouver island, maybe in all of bc: little 0.6 mile loops though a tiny spot of big trees. Someone bucked up and decided to save a pitiful remnant. Is a far cry from a forest. The saddest thing is that these few big trees are packed with tourists in the summer. People want to see them but now only these few remain. Come down to the parks in washington and oregon and you can see big intact old forests, not a bunch of 30-50 year old scrub monoculture.
I went into a sporting store in a little town to ask where we might find old growth. I mean jeese, bc, the primo forest environment and we were having trouble finding anything. This is a store with trophies on the walls, scopes and rifles. The clerk says "oooo yeah, just down the road at the xxx park." No, those trees are 60 years old. "oooo, uh, well maybe on the crown land there will be some". A guy hollers from the back: "There's no more old growth forest - we cut it all down 40 years ago!" This old guy, suspenders and gut comes out from the back office and tells us a story. His brother worked on the contract for the last valley of old growth on vancouver island, up on the northwest tip, early 80s? He visited while they were still setting up the camp, then him and his brother spent the day exploring the valley. Said the average spruce was 11 foot in diameter, they walked the whole valley. He's telling this story and there's like tears in his eyes. Says it was a huge mistake they made to cut everything, now no one has any idea what it used to be like, and its gone forever.
Cambell river: The first time we visited the river was choked with salmon, sons had a great time. We drove through for the next two seasons and no one had caught a thing. Like literally nothing. The runs just didn't come. I didn't go up this year or last, maybe next year will be great. I'd check ahead if I was looking forward to fishing. We had a good time hiking out to try our luck at beautiful remote spots (and caught nothing.)
Yeah, so pretty much I'm not keen about vancouver island. Is depressing for me. If you want to see something great in canada bring your mountain bike up to revelstoke and the chilcotins - but you need to like long climbs.
Or take a boat trip tour around the haida gwaii - that will be amazing. Someday I want to do that (and try not to see the logging.)
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