Now that it’s July, we’re firmly into backpacking season, which is by far my favourite time of the year! Usually I spend most of the Spring kayaking, but I wasn’t able to do that much this year because Seth hasn’t been available on the weekends, so instead, I spent most of June exploring some new low elevation backpacking trails that I’d never done before. Keats Island was particularly special because I went there with my Girl Guide unit!

Keats Island is a small island in Howe Sound, located between Bowen Island and the Sunshine Coast. In order to get there, you have to take the ferry from Horseshoe Bay to Langdale, followed by a water taxi to Keats Island. Plumper Cove Marine Park is located on the north side of Keats Island, with a large campground, that we thought sounded like a promising trip for beginner, teenage backpackers. I think the campground is most popularly used by boaters in the summer, but we opted to follow the 2.5km trail from Keats Landing instead.

After a thrilling ride on the ferry and the water taxi, we arrived at the north end of the island. The water taxi leaves from a dock right next to the Langdale ferry, but they only take cash payment or coupons, which can be purchased in Horseshoe Bay. The coupons are discounted, but they can only be purchased in a pack of 10 (convenient for a group like us, but maybe not if you’re traveling solo). It was a beautiful day at the very end of May when we went on our trip.

It’s a short hike, but it’s not flat. Once you get dropped at the dock, you start by hiking uphill along the road, followed by more uphill through the forest. There are a lot of small offshoot trails that I’ve heard can be confusing if you try and follow google maps, but it is very well signed, so follow the signs or a proper trail app like Gaia. The girls were in good spirits, but they did have fairly heavy packs and were happy when we reached the halfway point, because after that the trail was all downhill. There’s not really any views along the trail, but it is at least in the shade.

Overall it took us 1 hour, as a group of 8 people, to reach the campsite. The park is gorgeous and much larger than I was expecting. There’s a large dock where boats can tie up and some people paddle ashore. There’s a large sloping green field heading down towards the beach and a central water pump. There was only one other group of campers when we arrived, so we had premium choice for our campsites and selected the two sites closest to the main beach. I was surprised at how large the campground was, there were 20 campsites and lots of room for overflow, though there is a ranger located on site, so I’m not sure if overflow camping is allowed. A few more people showed up by boat later in the day, but the campground was still less than half full.

I was keen to do a little day hike as there are lots of short trails from the campground, including a trail to a lookout, but the girl guides were not interested in hiking further and we ended up spending the rest of the afternoon enjoying the beach. It was relatively quiet in the afternoon and the girls had fun looking for beach glass at low tide.

If you’re hiking in, rather than boating, there are a few extra things you should consider. There was a bear on the island when we visited and there is no bear cache. I assume most of the marine users store their food on their boats, but we had to do a bear hang. We brought a full pulley system with us to practice, which we put to good use! In addition, there’s no running water source, only the pump. Groundwater is not as good quality as stream water and it had a boil water order in effect, so we ended up filtering and boiling it. It was a good decision because there was quite a lot of grit in the water and filtering alone won’t remove viruses, so we boiled it too, which did require a lot of fuel.

We didn’t do a lot at the campsite, but the weather was so nice and the views so beautiful that no one minded! The girls had a lot of fun hanging out at the beach and since it was early in the season, we were able to have a campfire in the evening. You also need cash to pay the ranger for the campsite, which doesn’t have any reservations, it’s all first-come-first-serve, pay on site. We also got the firewood from the ranger, which is sold for $10 a bundle.

The final highlight of the evening was that once it got dark, we went out on the dock to drag a stick through the water and we were able to see bioluminescence! It wasn’t the strongest bioluminescence I’ve ever seen, but still a very cool experience and it should be a lot stronger later in the summer. We did see a coyote hanging around at dusk, so be cautious if you have a dog with you.

The following day we packed up all our gear to head back to the water taxi. BC Ferries does post a schedule for the water taxi, however, it only runs by request. So make sure you call them in the morning and tell them you want a pick-up, because otherwise they may not come. We returned to Langdale and had some time to kill, so we enjoyed our lunch on the beach before taking the ferry back to Horseshoe Bay. It’s an easy trip and it made for a very enjoyable weekend. I’m keen to go back and camp with my kayak one day!