8-10 July: We had already become familiar with western red cedars from hiking in the San Juan islands and Washington’s North Cascades (as well as from reading Boys in the Boat), but once we got into southern British Columbia, it felt like we had entered the heartland of this stately species. Our campsite in Golden Ears Provincial Park was in a handsome forest of cedars about a foot to a foot and a half in diameter—tall and straight, without much undergrowth in their dense shade. Scattered among these trees, however, were stumps six to eight feet or more in diameter, bearing witness to how truly magnificent the original old growth forest must have been before the arrival of Canadian lumberjacks.
We spent about half a day in the Museum of Anthropology, on the campus of the University of British Columbia. Though the museum covers a variety of cultures, it focuses primarily on the native people of the Northwest Coast (Washington, British Columbia, and southern Alaska). Northwest coast natives included many different tribes and languages. These people are probably best known for their totem poles, carved from large western red cedar trees. Totem poles were developed into a distinctive art form, with colorful and stylized symbols of various animals, both real and legendary. Equally impressive were their baskets, woven in intricate geometric patterns using materials from a wide variety of reeds, roots, bark, and wood. Some were so tightly woven that they were used to hold water, so they had no need to develop pottery. Abundant food resources from both forest and sea in this region made possible a sedentary life without the need for agriculture, enabling the development of such highly refined arts.
At our niece Kathy’s wedding, we had met her husband Bahrad’s parents, Shahob and Giti. They had invited us to visit them if our travels ever took us to Vancouver, so this year we took them up on their offer and spent a delightful evening with them in their North Vancouver home. Originally from pre-revolutionary Iran, they lived in Michigan and then several years in Saskatchewan before moving to B.C. They treated us to a scrumptious home-cooked Persian style dinner and the evening gave us a nice chance to get to know them better.
The next day we explored a couple of short hiking trails near our campground in Golden Ears PP. Walking in the quiet western red cedar forest, with waterfall, mountain, and lake views, was a pleasant change from commuting into Vancouver’s hectic city traffic. On the Lower Falls trail we met a couple originally from Columbia, now settled in B.C., who invited us to their campsite after hiking. We spent a couple of enjoyable hours with them and their friends, originally from India, while sharing Columbian coffee, Indian tea, and Persian cookies (a gift from Giti the night before), discussing all sorts of topics from our varied perspectives.
