Kennedy Lake/Clayoquot Arm Day 1

The second in a series: Revisiting 1993 Clayoquot


GETTING THERE:
Drive west on Highway 4 on Vancouver Island BC. Turn right onto West Main a few kilometers before the Ucluelet/Tofino junction on Highway 4. Drive NNW for about 20 minutes until you arrive at Kennedy Lake.

Map courtesy Wild Coast Magazine

Close to a thousand people were arrested for blockading logging in Clayoquot during the summer of 1993. The arrests took place at Kennedy River bridge, a steel and wood bridge spanning the river that flows from Kennedy Lake into the Pacific Ocean. This is the first of two bridges you will come across when driving along West Main to get to Kennedy Lake. Most photos of the 1993 blockade are of this bridge.

There is little evidence left of the 1993 protest today but it is worth taking a short walk down the boat launch on the west side of the bridge. Down by the water from that side, one can view a section of the bridge moorings that was burnt, the result of arson during 1993 when two men attempted to burn down the bridge to stop logging. It didnt work. Someone was on the watch there who smelled diesel, put the fire out, and saw the men speed off in a boat. The two were eventually caught and convicted for arson in this act of eco-terrorism.

Looking right towards onto the lake from the Kennedy River bridge.

Looking left from Kennedy River bridge. Paddlers can follow Kennedy River downstream from here. The river winds through the Kennedy River Bog park and eventually to the ocean. This is a trip for next time.

After crossing the Kennedy River bridge you will come to a fork in the road. The left route is a winding road that eventually reaches the ocean and then snakes along the coast; go right to reach Kennedy Lake. It’s only about a kilometer more from here to reach “Redneck” beach. You will know you are there as you’ll come across a sandy beach on your right and a second bridge that spans the channel between Kennedy Lake and Clayoquot Arm. This bridge has been out of service for many years and large boulders block vehicular traffic.

We took a few minutes to walk out to the bridge as it offers scenic views on both sides. Sections of the bridge have deteriorated a surprising amount since logging stopped in Clayoquot just over ten years ago. Large pieces of the bridge have rotten and fallen away.

We launched out canoe at the beach there, which itself is a beautiful spot to camp. Be warned though – the place has the moniker “Redneck” beach for a reason. Expect traffic and noise if you stay there as the place is well-known hangout for partiers. Jeff Foxworthy would even shy away from the clientele that sometime visit this beach. This newspaper story from a few months back tells of a 30 person brawl that happened there. Campers seeking relatively more quiet will want to stay at "Rainbow" beach, which is a few hundred meters west of "Redneck" and accessible only by foot or boat.

The view onto Kennedy Lake from "Redneck" beach.


Once in the water, hug the left hand shore to access the channel leading into Clayoquot Arm.

This is the view into Clayoquot Arm from the Kennedy Lake bridge.


As you can see, the weather here can be very unpredictable and change from sunny to stormy in minutes. Despite some foreboding clouds, we managed to stay dry on our first day.

Looking back to the Kennedy Lake bridge about a kilometer up the arm.

Depending on your boat type and wind conditions, the entire arm can take around 2-4 hours to paddle. Your camping options on Clayoquot Arm will depend on how early you get there. Although most choose to stay at spots on the left side near the north end of the lake, it looks like the right side also offers spots, although less scenic since most of the interesting geography is on the left side of the lake. Regardless, you will undoubtedly find places everywhere as you paddle along. Keep in mind that most of the sandy camping spots are farther up the lake on the left side. Take a pair of binoculars to make finding a camping site easier from afar.

We were running late and did not get far up the arm on our first day. We managed to find a little sheltered spot and set up camp for the night.


To be continued…

1993 Clayoquot Peace Camp (summer 2009)

The first in a series: Revisiting 1993 Clayoquot

GETTING THERE:
By car, Clayoquot Sound is a 4-5 hour drive north from Victoria British Columbia, along two highways connecting the east to the west coast of Vancouver Island. Drive north through Nanaimo to Qualicum Beach then head west through Port Alberni to the Pacific Ocean and Tofino on Highway 4. Plan to stay overnight camping or in a hotel.

August 21 2009. Our first destination on day one was the “Black Hole.” It’s where the Clayoquot Peace Camp was during the 1993 protests, or the place perhaps more famously known for being where Midnight Oil played an early morning concert to thousands. Peace camp is situated on the south side of the Alberni-Tofino highway in a clear cut area logged in the early 1980s, unsuccessfully reforested, and even burned. Although new trees are growing today, charred logs still litter the ground.

Facing towards the highway from the top of Peace Camp. Image courtesy Ademoor at Wikipedia.com

Peace Camp sounds like a pretty fun place to have been; it’s where that motley group of protesters gathered, lived, and coordinated activities. Gabriola Island resident and Raging Granny Jean McLaren wrote a memoir of her time in the camp called Spirits Rising: The Story of the Clayoquot Peace Camp 1993. It’s a short but interesting read that will give you a sense of what life in an “eco-feminist” camp in the middle of a clearcut was like.

To get to the blockade, protesters had to get up at 3:45 in the morning and be at the Kennedy River Bridge at 5:00 to spear off the logging trucks. They must have taken the West Main logging road, located just west of Peace Camp on the highway, and driven for about 20 minutes to reach the bridge. The roads were likely better in 1993 seeing as the area hasn't had logging since 1997. West Main is also the route to Clayoquot Arm, a place I visit later in another post.

The Peace Camp entrance is hard to find today but its location is marked on the latest version of the Vancouver Island backroad map book. It’s about 4.5 kms east of the junction to Ucluelet and Tofino, after a left turn in the road a few kilometers before you reach the Kennedy Lake beach day sites. Park your vehicle on the highway shoulder and walk to the camp gate.

You can mark the location on Google Earth with the coordinates 49° 1'9.63"N 125°33'10.39"W (Thanks to Stephen Samuel for this info)

Today, Peace Camp, at least as it was, is unrecognizable. The entire area is covered by scrub and small trees upwards of twenty feet high, obscuring the view from both the highway and everywhere inside the clearcut. Even the entrance to the camp, which faces the highway and had a gate to keep out troublemakers, is ditched and can be easy to miss.

What it looked like back in 1993.

Image courtesy Ademoor at Wikipedia.com

Once past the gate, the road running through the camp is very overgrown. You can follow a trail of surveyor’s flags up the road but the scrub is so dense it was difficult going. It is hard to imagine hundreds of people with parked cars and tents in this spot. Anywhere off the road running through the camp is real rough. There must have been some very lumpy tent floors and sore backs that summer.

A few minutes up the trail you will come across a bench someone built on the road running through the camp. If you were there this is where you light 'em if you got 'em.

The road through Peace Camp, August 21 2009. Although flagged with pink tape, the road becomes unpassable due to the dense scrub. I suspect the road was ditched sometime soon after 1993 and the area may have been even replanted since.

Signs of the camp can still be found. Below is a tree trunk showing marks from maybe a shelf or rope.

A reminder of the clearcutting: here is a pile of firewood cut from some of the charred wood that still can be seen on the ground all over the site.


Bears are the main residents of Peace Camp nowadays. Bear dung everywhere.

TIPS:

-Use google earth to find exact location.
-Wear full length pants and good boots to make the trip.
-The path is very overgrown. It will be a lot easier to explore in the spring, before the brush grows high. There's really not a lot to see by August.
-Follow the flags along the road.

Revisiting 1993 Clayoquot

During “the summer of protest,” environmentalists, loggers, and government clashed over the fate of old growth forests in the Clayoquot Sound. Protesters blockaded logging operations by forest company MacMillan Bloedel. Highly publicized mass arrests took place at the Kennedy River bridge, attracting unprecedented international attention to provincial forest policies.

I’ve always had a fascination with the events of 1993 in Clayoquot. For six weeks, a backwoods part of the west coast of Vancouver Island exploded with political activity and social unrest. Now, sixteen years later, the “war in the woods” has long-cooled, but a visit to the area still brings opportunity for exploration, discovery, and history.

The following posts document a visit to Clayoquot’s fresh water regions, old growth forests, and Clayoquot Arm provincial park.

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