Pender Island

First, some information about Pender Island. A Captain Richards named Pender Island after Staff Commander (later Captain) Daniel Pender, R.N. who surveyed the coast of British Columbia aboard the Plumper, HMS Hecate, and the Beaver from 1857 to 1870. Although most references to Pender Island are in the singular, there are in fact two islands, North Pender Island and South Pender Island, with a combined area of about thirty-four square kilometres. Together, they are the second most populous of the southern Gulf Islands of British Columbia.

North and South Pender were joined by a neck of land called Indian Portage, but in 1903 they dredged a narrow canal to benefit steamship travel through the Gulf Islands, and the islands became separated until they built a one-lane bridge in 1955. The islands have seven parks and over twenty clearly marked public beach access points. South Pender has fewer roads. Ninety percent of the 2,000 permanent residents of Pender Island live on North Pender, around Magic Lake. The ferry terminal at Otter Bay is also on North Pender. 

I caught the ferry sailing from Galiano Island to Otter Bay. The fare was just under $6. This is a non-bookable route. Fares are paid at the ferry terminal. The places visited on this route vary depending on the time. Make sure you check the schedules before departure. Some ferries from Galiano go directly to Otter Bay in 45 minutes, missing Mayne Island. Other sailings require a transfer at Mayne Island for a journey time of 65 minutes. My journey took 1 hour with a stop at Mayne Island, without requiring a transfer. As I was walking everywhere, I had chosen a hotel who could provide a shuttle service to meet the ferry.

  Outside the entrance drive of the hotel, I found car stops on both sides of Gowlland Point Road. When I visited the island, there was no taxi service. These car stops are a way to encourage hitch-hiking. Close by stood the Church of the Good Shepherd, with its own memorial garden, all set amongst the trees. Entry is via a lych-gate and a wire fence bordered the property to keep out the deer who roam around the land with no natural predators to bother them. 

Heading along the road from the church towards Firehall Number 3, I found a track / fire service access road leading into the forest on the left. This is the trail to Greenburn Lake, part of the Gulf Islands National Park. In about 15 minutes I had reached a small, concrete dam and admired the circle of trees reflected in the lake that stretched in front of me for about half a mile. From the dam, there is a rough trail along the south side of the lake, but I returned to the path I had already walked along, which now hugged the shoreline on the north side. Dragonflies flitted between the water lilies near the shore, and in the deeper water fluffy white clouds were mirrored in the lake. Birds chirped and sang, woodpeckers hammered against trees, and I thought I heard the beat of a hummingbird’s wings nearby. The air smelled fresh, and the sun shone. 

I wanted to reach the viewpoint on Mount Norman on South Pender Island. I had assumed that as Mt Norman was central, there would be many trails to the top. This is not what I found. Most of the land on the slopes of Mt Norman was in private ownership. I found out later the trailhead for Mt Norman is on Ainslie Point Road, just over the bridge between North Pender Island and South Pender Island. From the trailhead, the pathway along an old logging road is easy to follow. I was starting from the other side of Mount Norman, near the Enchanted Forest. I followed one trail in the forest, which ended at a cliff. A waterfall on this trail had dried to a trickle. I continued along the road until I saw another trail sign. This trail had duckboards in places through the packed trees, cutting the corner off a bend in the road. Further along, the Lilias Spalding Heritage Park contained ‘Heritage Trash’ and was a former property on an otherwise Private Road. 

The Castle Road Trail looked promising. The verbiage on the sign warned me it was steep, and the path did wind upwards past trees and rocks, but it ended at a private property boundary line reading ‘End of Trail – Private Property.’ I was not happy to read this. I wished it had been mentioned at the start of the trail, just an indication the trail did not go anywhere would have sufficed – it did not need to say, “This trail ends in disappointment 300 yards ahead in the trees”. Looking around, I saw ‘No Trespassing’ signs hammered into the trees. Mount Norman remained unclimbed for me on that day. It made me wonder how effective the creation of the watchdog Islands Trust in the 1970s had been. They created this trust because of a massive subdivision of land on North Pender Island.