Capturing the Art of Nature
Bowen Island
I was here to scout the island to find a nice spot to operate in a radio contest later this month. During our travels I was able to do some photography of the scenery and quite enjoy the sights of the island.
Category
Serendipitous Discoveries
2013
Click on image to view gallery
Whis was my first trip to Bowen Island and I wasn’t sure what to expect. From all the reports I have heard from people with cabins on the island I was expecting a minimally developed lightly inhabited area. Instead I found a busy community with much of the usable land occupied by homes, cabins, farms and commercial ventures. I did sense that the isolated aspect of the island led to a slower more casual lifestyle with a distinct rustic feel but with exclusive under-tones hidden just below the surface.
I toured the island with Ralph Webb who traveled with me to Nairn Falls a few weeks ago. We left the house at 8am and arrived in time for the 10am ferry. The short crossing was pleasant in the warm sunshine and the breeze from the movement made it quite pleasant to stand at the front of the ferry watching the trip across. We were met on the island by a work associate of Ralph’s – Dean and his wife – they live on the island operating a small farm selling various specialty items including honey from a number of hives that they recently expanded.
Dean took us to the first location – a lovely picnic area next to Snug Cove where we had just arrived via the ferry. The park area over-looks the ferry terminal and one could walk to it from the park. It was actually an almost ideal location for our event. While there we took the opportunity to follow a short hiking trail to the top of Dorman Point where we enjoyed a lovely eastern view looking back on Horseshoe bay and UBC. We then returned to the picnic area and checked it out more carefully before returning to the car for a drive across the island to the golf course on the SE corner. Here we ate lunch and thought through the direction of the small bays around here. In the end we felt they faced the wrong direction and that the first picnic area would be better.
We next drove to the NE corner of the island where a local Amateur lived – Tom - and we ascended his very steep and windy driveway up a cliff face to his home. He has a spectacular view across to the sea-to-sky highway and Horseshoe Bay. He also has some very large antennas stretched between trees high up the cliff face giving him some excellent reception. He offered the help of the few active amateurs on the island for our event. After a short visit admiring his view we returned to Snug Cove for our return trip on the ferry. It was a nice but short visit and I will need to return to have more time exploring the natural aspects of the island.