Digging into a shell-and-pebble beach flanked by steep slopes of arbutus and other evergreen trees, the first campers to test the region’s newest national park search for buried treasure.
Alysa Lane, 6, finds some: an empty crab shell and some sea glass. And Ben van Bakel, 7, points toward the remnants of a fish-rendering plant and pier as another spot worthy of searching.
“My friend and I found something we think is a shipwreck over there,” he says.
Van Bakel and Lane were among about two dozen home-based learners who tried out the Shingle Bay Campground on the west side of North Pender Island a few days before it officially opened on Saturday. The kids, ages five to 12, gather weekly for activities such as camping trips as part of the Spring Leaves Family Learning Program.
Julie Johnston, who leads the program, said the conversion of the site from private land to public space is welcomed by Pender Island residents.
“I think what’s neat about it is that it’s still here for the community of Pender Island, but now there’s another place for people to come and camp,” she said.
Shell middens and archeological evidence show that Shingle Bay was once used by Coast Salish communities. The Pender Island Fish Products Company operated a fish-reduction plant intermittently between 1927 and 1959, rendering fish remains from neighbouring canneries into oil, fish meal and fertilizer.
Parks Canada purchased the plot from a private landowner for market value in 2012. It was part of an expansion of the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve that also included Maple Bay on Prevost Island, the Saturna Island Extension and the Roesland Extension just down the road from Shingle Bay. The acquisition totalled more than 100 hectares and cost $6.3 million.
At just $4.90 per person per night — and free for kids 12 and under — Shingle Bay is a thrifty family getaway. There are no reservations for the 10 tent pads scattered throughout the former apple orchard beyond the beach, but Parks Canada promotions officer Francine Burnett said that could change in the future.
“We expect the campground to be very busy,” she said of the site, which has a view toward a barnacled islet and toward Mount Maxwell on Salt Spring Island.
“It’s such a beautiful location, and the access is quite handy. It’s less than five kilometres from the Otter Bay ferry terminal, so people could theoretically take their bikes onboard and cycle down to the campground.”
Visitors can also drive into a parking lot and walk 250 metres down to the campsite, or paddle in from nearby islands such as Portland, Salt Spring and Prevost.
Saturday also marked the seasonal opening of other Parks Canada campsites on Saturna, Cabbage, Prevost, Portland, Isle-de-Lis and D’Arcy islands, as well as Pender Island’s Beaumont site.
