Locals know
Tell a visitor Powell River's best-kept secret
If you really want to experience a community, you need to hang out with locals. After all, they know all the best secrets. We asked three locals to tell us what Powell River's best-kept secret is. Here's what they said...
Colin Palmer
Chairman, Powell River Regional District
Lund
"I always take any visitors to the end of Highway 101 in Lund. They just love it! They think it's the greatest thing since sliced cheese and they always have their picture taken there. They are never disappointed. They like the idea that the other end of the road is in Chile."
Nancy de Brouwer
Designer, Massive Graphics
McFall Trail
"I love mountain biking. Powell River has so many biking trails to choose from. Long, hard ones, easy short ones. You can go for hours and you won't see a creature, except for a deer or squirrel, or maybe a cougar or bear!
"But if you don't have that much time, it's easy to pick a trail right in the centre of Powell River. I love the Penticton trails; they are awesome, very technical, narrow, and loamy. I still discover new trails every time I ride there with the Wild Women or my partner.
"My favourite trail is McFall trail, downhill! Coming from the recreation complex, going into the power lines and back into the bush at the yellow fire hydrant. McFall trail downhill is just amazing, very smooth, sometimes steep ridges, so be careful, some nice turns, and jumps (if you want, not me), bridges and it ends at Willingdon Beach, where you will see the ocean."
Rick Thaddeus
Savary Island Real Estate
The Suite & Savary Inn
"One of many locations that delights me on Savary Island is located in the middle of the island, at the south end of the Henderson Road allowance. A narrow trail through some bushes opens out to a stunning panorama of Georgia Strait, and the islands. Below is an unspoiled sandy bay. On the bank is a picnic table where you can sit and enjoy the beauty of it all.
"About 100 feet to the west, an old cabin sits in the sun on a sandy bluff. Currently the location of The Suite & Savary Inn, I have enjoyed this spot through several incarnations.
"In 1994, Christin Geall moved a cabin on to this location, having omitted to level a site for it. It was plunked down haphazardly. I remember 24-year-old, comely Christin, squatting on the 30-degree porch, lamenting, "I cannot entertain at this angle."
"She sold to gallery owners Mary Salvador and Richard Buckland, who continued the hippy/rustic development, adding a tiny "hobbit" cabin, framed with driftwood posts, heated by a tiny woodstove from a fish boat.
"Now Michele Bush has added a few more outbuildings for bed and breakfast guests, who share the amenities of the main cabin. The deck is especially delightful, sunk in the dune on the cliff edge. Michele offers "Manic Cures," pedicures (and manicures) with lemon drop martinis here."
