Family Circle Route

BY SEAN BYRNE

The Powell Forest Canoe Route has been on our ‘Powell River Bucket List’ for years, so when our summer travel plans were cancelled due to the pandemic it seemed like the perfect opportunity.

In a way, it’s kinda funny – after months of socially distancing, our choice vacation was to head into the backcountry where we’d scarcely see another person for six days!

We had about two weeks to organize and plan, and we wanted to do it on a shoestring, so we borrowed as much gear as we could from friends. We bought a dehydrator and dried meals such as spaghetti, curries, rice and beans, fruit leather, and tofu jerky (well-worth the investment), and used blow – up mats for sleeping (which doubled as floaties for swimming during the day).

FROM THE FRONT LINES TO THE BACKCOUNTRY: Parents Ellen and Sean Byrne both work in Powell River health facilities, and have been on the job through the COVID-19 pandemic. In August, they spent six days paddling the Powell Forest Canoe Route – a circle from Lois Lake to Powell Lake – with their children ages 12, 9 and 5.

At first the idea of lugging all of our supplies and camping gear through the forest, loading and unloading it multiple times per day, with three kids, aged 5, 9 and 12, and a dog in tow, seemed daunting. We imagined them complaining about being tired and bored, and fighting with each other as they went through withdrawals from electronics and sugar.

However, from the first moment we hit the water on Lois Lake, something amazing happened. Instead of complaining of being bored, they began to take an interest in nature around them. Instead of fighting over the re-mote control, they took turns paddling and taking videos with the waterproof camera. Instead of putting each other down, they encouraged each other (to jump off a cliff at Dodd lake, for example). This was the most surprising and wonderful thing about the trip for us as parents.

SIBLINGS WITHOUT RIVALRY: The Byrne family reconnected by boat. You can too. Information and advice about the Canoe Route is available at the Powell River Visitor Information Centre on Joyce Avenue, and also online at sunshinecoastcanada.com/things-to-do/hidden-gems/powell-forest-canoe-route/.

The only explanation we have for this phenomenon is that without the usual distractions and pressures of daily life, there was nothing to fight over.

Always having a new goal in our sights (the next portage, campsite, etc) kept things exciting and motivated us to keep going. When we came to some water, we swam. When we were hungry, we stopped for a snack. When anyone felt tired, we rested or took turns carrying the gear.

Although we did run into a couple other groups, we only shared a campsite one out of five nights, and felt alone for most of the time.

This was great because our children could be as loud and wild as they pleased – and there were no neighbours to worry about!

In the evenings we kept ourselves amused by telling silly stories, playing uno, carving sticks, roasting food over the campfire, reading a book together, and creating ‘hotels’ for inchworms and other insects. At the end of each day, as we lay snuggled together in our tent, I always found myself smiling, despite how sore my shoulders were, or how hard the ground felt, because I knew that we had already achieved what we set out to do - connect on a deeper level with each other.

So now, as the summer comes to a close, and a new school year is on the horizon, it’s inevitable that our hard earned sun-tans will soon begin to fade.

We hope, however, that our memories of navigating around snags harbouring osprey nests, singing songs as we walked through old growth forests, and watching the stars come out over mountain peaks, won’t.

“We imagined them complaining about being tired and bored, and fighting with each other as they went through withdrawals from electronics and sugar. However, from the first moment we hit the water on Lois Lake, something amazing happened.”