Widgeon Creek Paddling Trip

June 8, 2025June 4, 2025 / Maria / 1 Comment

I’ve written about Widgeon Creek in the past when I visited as a day trip with my kayak, but this year I made an overnight trip to stay at the campsite! I only paddled the creek for the first time last year, but it’s quickly becoming one of my favourite paddling locations in the lower mainland. It makes for a great day trip or overnight objective. The campsite is large and hiking to the waterfall is a great side mission!

But let’s start from the top. I did this trip with my Girl Guide unit, and I specifically call it a paddling trip because they all travelled there in canoes! I intended to canoe too, but one girl got sick at the last minute, so I ended up taking my kayak since we had an odd number of people. This was my first time doing a trip like this with the girls and we’re lucky to have a very experienced canoeist Guider in the unit to lead the trip.

While I love my kayak, canoeing does seem a bit more quintessentially Canadian and I was happy to finally learn some canoeing skills. We did two training sessions on Deer Lake before this trip so that the girls could get used to the paddling strokes. Widgeon Creek isn’t a hard objective, but it does require crossing the fast moving Pitt River, and it was important for everyone to feel comfortable and confident paddling. I found canoeing to be a bit harder that kayaking because of the coordination required with your partner. There are more paddling strokes (at least, that’s how it felt) and I initially found in confusing which stroke to use to correctly change direction. But eventually it clicked and I had fun learning a new skill!

If you want to visit Widgeon Creek yourself, you can park at Pitt Lake. The first part of the trip is crossing the Pitt River, after which it’s a 4.5km paddle up the creek to Widgeon Campsite. You can bring your own boat, or once they open for the season, rent right at Pitt Lake. Fortunately, we were able to borrow enough boats for our group, so we were could go a little before rentals opened for the season. We only had a small group of girl guides, but they were enthusiastic and very good spirited!

We started our paddle early in the morning to avoid the wind and arrived at the campsite in time to set up our tents and eat lunch. The paddle takes ~90 minutes and we made one stop at a pullout along the way for a snack. It rained on us pretty consistently, but no one complained and I noticed that the campsite was considerably less busy than on a sunny day. We were the first to arrive and we were only joined by one other group later in the day.

The campsite is fairly large and has lots of bear caches and picnic tables. I imagine it gets busy in the summer, but there are quite a few tent pads and space to spread out. We started by setting up a tarped area to hang out in so that we wouldn’t continue to get wet from the rain. Fortunately, the rain died off after lunch and we opted to hike 6km round trip to Widgeon Falls. It’s a nice trail through the forest that took us around 2 hours, with a snack break to enjoy the view at the falls. Be careful when it’s wet though, the rocks near the waterfall can get very slippery, so we exercised a lot of caution looking for a place to sit have our snack.

There’s no campfires allowed any time of year at Widgeon Creek, so we returned to the campsite to make dinner and play some games instead. In the morning, we got lucky with nicer weather and we were able to pack down the tents in dry weather. We had a nice paddle back to Pitt Lake, but the wind always comes up in the afternoon and it did pick up just before we crossed the Pitt River at 11:30am. The Pitt River can have a fast moving current, especially in the Spring, around freshet, so we planned accordingly by paddling along the edge of the river, upstream of where we wanted to cross, and then crossing to the boat launch. The current did knock us back a little bit while crossing, but everyone made it without too much issue.

Timing is an important consideration for visiting Widgeon. The creek and the Pitt River are tidally influenced, so they can be a bit high in the spring, but get very low in late summer. I’ve heard that sometimes the creek gets so low you have to walk your boat in places. But it is a very manageable location to visit if you plan around the tides. I’ve been 3 times now and always had a great time! Most of the paddling is located in Widgeon Marsh Regional Park, but the campsite itself is in Pinecone Burke Provincial Park. There’s no permits required to camp there and it is free to visit. It’s a great paddling trip close to Vancouver. We had a great time visiting as an overnight trip!

Mount Seymour Snow Camping

February 5, 2025January 27, 2025 / Maria / 1 Comment

This post will be a bit different from my usual snow camping trip, but there’s so many ways to enjoy the outdoors and I like highlighting all of them! It is on my bucket list to one day snow camp on Pump Peak, but if you’re nervous about the exposure (and avalanche terrain) and want to get out with a group, there’s an excellent alternative just below the base of the ski resort!

This trip was done with my Trex unit, which is a special branch of Girl Guides of Canada that is focused on outdoor adventure for teenagers. It’s not part of the core guiding program, which is for all ages (Kindergarten to grade 12), and is more well rounded and focuses on art, STEM, physical and mental well-being, and activism, in addition to camping skills. Trex is for teens (including girls, trans-girls and non-binary individuals) who want to go to the next level with their outdoor skills.

This winter we reserved the Mount Seymour Group Site to practice snow camping! The site is located next to the P1 Parking Lot and is closed to the public unless you have a booking. It’s a very economical option for non-profit groups, but a little more expensive for others (but still very reasonable). The site has a warming hut with 6 picnic tables and a large field to camp in. Unfortunately, our camp was at the end of a week of particularly warm weather, so there was very little snow on the ground. We weren’t able to practice making snow shelters, but it was still a good opportunity for Trex to camp outside in below zero conditions in a safe environment.

We were able to hang out and eat all our meals in the shelter, which has a wood stove. So it was easy to keep warm before bed. As a precautionary measure, one of the guiders (in this case me) slept in the hut all night to keep the fire going in case of emergency, but all members did great overnight and everyone slept in their tents for the full night!

Given the proximity to Seymour, we were able to take advantage of the nearby recreation activities. We walked up the road to the ski resort base and spent some time playing in the snow along the trails. We didn’t do a full hike, but nearby options include snowshoeing Dog Mountain or Brockton Point, or exploring within the Mount Seymour trails. We got some wet snow in the morning, followed by sunny breaks in the afternoon and an absolutely gorgeous morning on our second day.

There’s not too much else to share about the site. Like I said, you do need a booking to stay there. A day pass is required in the winter to visit Mount Seymour, but you can just use your permit for the group site to get up the mountain. It’s only a minute walk from the parking lot at P1 to the site and there is an outhouse. There’s also a tap, but it’s turned off in the winter, so make sure you bring all the water you need with you. We used snow melt for washing dishes, but didn’t want to drink it since there hadn’t been any fresh snow in at least a week.

The only downside is that people will continually walk through your site despite 3 signs instructing them not to and informing of a fine. Please don’t do this, especially when youth groups are using the site. I was there with minors, and while I know you just want to take a photo with the pretty snow on the trees, I have a responsibility for their care and can’t have randoms walking around the site where they sleep, taking photos. The site was closed for 2 years during COVID, so people seem to think it’s just fair game now.

Overall, we had a great time. We’ve also stayed at the Lone Duck group site in Manning Park. I would say the Lone Duck site is nicer (it’s more private, gets more snow, and it’s right on the lake), but the real benefit of Mount Seymour is how close it is to the city. A great option if you’re looking for a safe way to try snow camping!

Tofino Surfing Trip

July 17, 2024July 16, 2024 / Maria / 2 Comments

I’ve had the opportunity to do some pretty cool things with my girl guides over the years, and this was definitely one of the more unique experiences!

Last year we did a water series that involved kayaking, whitewater rafting, and canoeing. The only activity on our brainstorm that we didn’t do was surfing, mostly because it was too expensive to make a trip to the island on top of all the other activities. This year, we decided to prioritize the surfing trip and dedicated 4 days over the May Long weekend to travel to Tofino.

I’d never heard of Tofino before moving to BC, but I remember after moving here that Tofino seemed to hold this mythical status for people who grew up in BC. It’s a small town located on the west coast of Vancouver Island. It’s most well known for its premier surfing beaches; but it’s also home to Pacific Rim National Park and fun activities such as hiking, whale watching, kayaking, and hot springs.

I’ve been to Tofino several times, but I’ve never surfed, so this was a new experience for me. To be honest, I’ve always found surfing to be a bit intimidating. I don’t like getting salt water in my eyes and mouth (inevitable when surfing), so I always avoided it. I was happy to do it for the unit, but it’s not something I would have opted to do on my own. Which is one of the reasons why I’m so lucky to get to spend time with 15 adventurous teenagers every year, because I had a fantastic time surfing!

We left New Westminster bright and early on Saturday morning of the May Long weekend to catch our ferry from Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo. It’s a 3-hour drive from Nanaimo to Tofino, so we made our first stop at Little Qualicum Falls to eat a packed lunch. It was raining on and off all morning, but Qualicum Falls has a nice picnic shelter and the rain held off long enough for us to do some exploring around the park to see the waterfalls.

After that, we drove across the rest of the island to reach the coast. The weather was incredibly variable and there were several downpours along the way, but as soon as we reached the coast, all the clouds disappeared and it was a gorgeous, blue sky, sunny day. We were extremely lucky to be able to book the group campsite at Green Point campground in Pacific Rim, which was just large enough for our group of 18.

After getting set up, we took a walk down to Long Beach before dinner, which is aptly named for its 16 kilometres of uninterrupted coastline. I’ve visited Long Beach several times, but I’d never been to this part of the beach. It’s a golden sand beach, with big waves, and on this occasion, a lot of wind. So it was definitely on the cold side, but we all loved running across the beach and exploring the area.

On Sunday, we had our first surf lesson. We did 2 lessons with Surf Sister School and I would highly recommend. As a female led organization, we loved having female surf guides to show us the ropes. On our first day, we met at Cox Bay Beach. We spent the first part of the day on land, learning how to safely get on our boards and pick our waves. Once everyone was comfortable with the instruction, we got in the water.

Surfing isn’t easy, but it was more fun than I anticipated. There was a steady stream of beginner waves rolling into the shore and we all practiced getting on our board. Standing up was almost impossible for me, but it was fun riding the waves on my belly and knees. Of course, once you get going, you become pretty determined to stand! I didn’t have any luck standing on Day 1, but several of the trex members were able to surf and it was fun to watch.

We returned to the campground for lunch and then planned for an afternoon exploring in the National Park. We visited the Kwisitis Visitor Centre on Wickaninnish Beach, which I’d highly recommend. They have tons of great info about the region and natural environment. From there, we did a short hike to South Beach, which is a small cobble beach. We had some excitement on the way when we spotted a bear! It was a great sighting because he was far enough away that us and the bear felt comfortable, and we were able to just watch it for a while.

South Beach turned out to be one of the group’s favourite parts of the entire trip. We didn’t do much there besides relax in the sun and do some beachcombing, but everyone really enjoyed taking it easy after a vigorous morning of surfing! We had dinner back at the campsite and then drove to Chesterman Beach for a sunset campfire. Tofino has really cracked down on beach campfires in the past few years, so you’re not allowed to have open beach fires anymore. Fires are only allowed at Mackenzie Beach and Chesterman Beach and must be in a contained fire pit. We brought a fire pit with us so that we followed all the rules.

On Monday, we had our second surf lesson, this time at Chesterman Beach. Our second lesson was mostly in the water and focused more on improving our skills. The general consensus from Trex was that they didn’t like Chesterman Beach quite as much as Cox Bay. The waves were bigger and less consistent, so I think it’s more popular for better surfers. But personally, I had a more successful day! I wouldn’t say that I actually managed to surf, but I did manage to stand twice, so it was nice to feel like I made a bit of progress! Considering that I didn’t want to surf, I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I would definitely surf again, and recommend it to those visiting the area. If you have time for 2 lessons, I think it’s more satisfying because you get to surf more on the second day.

One of the girls was celebrating her 13th birthday on the trip, so we had the most delicious birthday pie for lunch and then went into town for the afternoon. The girl guides had the opportunity to explore Tofino town on their own and I spent most of my time at the bookstore, Mermaid Tales, which is one of my favourites!

We finished the trip with a visit to Tacofino for dinner. We showed up only 15 minutes before closing (oops!!), but the staff were so wonderful in taking our 18 person order. We had some pretty good camp food on the trip, but the tacos were probably my favourite! We had a campfire to end the evening and everyone reflected on their favourite parts of the camp.

We still had a big final day ahead. It started to rain overnight and we had to pack up everything wet, which is never fun. But we’re really thankful that it didn’t rain during the rest of the trip, so it was a small price to pay! We had a pee break at the Taylor River rest stop on the way back, which has the most gorgeous green river running through. I’ll have to return in the future for a swim!

Our final stop on the trip was to the Old Country Market (better known as Goats on the Roof) in Coombs. The goats briefly came out on the roof for a photo op and we did some exploring around the market for lunch. We picked up some doughnuts from Billy G’s Doughnut Shop to enjoy on the ferry ride home.

I had such a fantastic time on this trip and I hope the girl guides did too! We received funding from West Coast Area’s Muriel Murray Fund and from Disney’s VoluntEars Program (through a parent employee) to do this trip. We’re so lucky to have access to funds to subsidize trips like these for teenagers. Several of the trex members are aging out this year after completing the entire Girl Guide Program from Sparks to Rangers. It is really transformative for girls to be able to go on trips like this, interact with female role models, and build up their skills. So thanks to everyone who’s ever bought girl guide cookies from me or a girl guide!