British Columbia Magazine

My husband and I love the outdoors. We spend our summer weekends going from one camping ground to the next. Two years ago we discovered canoeing and camping on magnificent Murtle Lake in Wells Gray Provincial Park. In this wilderness paradise, where motorboats are restricted, you can experience complete silence and stillness in nature. Murtle Lake has 57 square kilometers of surface area and one arm extends deep into the rugged Cariboo Mountains, while the other pushes westward and sports sandy beaches and many little islands. Hiking trails to alpine areas and waterfalls provide optional activities. The area is rich with a variety of wild berries to be picked and savoured in season. The mighty Murtle River flows out of this lake and crashes over seven waterfalls and many rapids before it falls over the world famous Helmcken Falls and into the Clearwater River. Access to this area is via a 26-kilometre gravel road and a two-kilometre portage, making it available for any who truly seek the wilderness. In our busy world, Murtle Lake offers a precious sanctuary from which one can return refreshed in mind, body, and spirit. (collapse)

I have been houseboating on Shuswap Lake a few times now and nothing brings friends and family together quite like it! The boats are amazing, and you can drive them just about anywhere you'd like to go on the lake. You can fish off the back deck, go for a hike, have a fire on the beach, and then curl up inside the boat beside the fireplace. My friends and I spend the majority of our time in the hot tub, admiring the beautiful scenery of the area. We always have such a great time, and look forward to it every year. (collapse)

Savary Island takes some effort to get to--a ferry ride to Powell River, then a 45-minute drive to Lund. From Lund, it’s a 12-minute “water taxi” trip to Savary, known as “Hawaii north.”

The trip is worth it. Savary is unlike any other place. The island is only a few kilometres long and perhaps one kilometre wide. They say many millions of years ago a glacier burped, dumping sand and forming the island. The beaches are the best. No power poles here, just super natural B.C.

Once you have visited you’ll be hooked and will want to return. (collapse)

I would like to be able to take a reliable boat with its own living quarters down all the river channels and lakes of British Columbia. I'd stop along the beaches and banks of the rivers and have a barbeque of wild salmon and other game. (collapse)

My top thing to do in B.C. is ski the wonderful slopes of Silver Star Mountain Resort in Vernon all winter long in powder, day after day. (collapse)