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.
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.
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.
