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Love Offering to the Stein

Gordon White's definitive guide to a magical place.

By Dorothy Bartoszewski 15 Sep 2008 | TheTyee.ca

Dorothy Bartoszewski is a Vancouver writer. See her previous pieces for The Tyee.

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A hiker's classic, updated.
  • Stein Valley Wilderness Guide 2008
  • Gordon White
  • Selcouth Publishing (2008)

It's such a magical place, I hate to share.

Every time I've been there, I've emerged with a profound sense of calm, a sense of being deeply soothed and cleansed. Maybe it's from the rushing river noise that's a constant companion in the lower valley -- a kind of lulling sonic shower. Or maybe it's related to all the First Nations rituals held there.

Whatever the cause, I want the Stein Valley to keep its otherworldly effect. And I worry that the more people know of it, the more its juju will be diluted, or even destroyed, by the seemingly-inevitable candy-wrappers, beer cans and oh-so-witty "Joe wuz here" graffiti that accompanies influxes of people.

Gordon White is obviously a better person than I am -- or maybe he's just more strategic. White first explored the Stein (and got his first hit of the area's addictive spell) in 1984 while working as a park ranger based in Lytton, which is just to the east of the Stein. But instead of keeping hush about his find, White invited the masses, publishing the first edition of his guide to the Stein Valley in 1991.

It was a calculated move: at the time, the valley had been slated for clear-cutting, and local First Nations and activists were fighting for the Stein's preservation. White's book helped popularized the area as a hiking destination, and probably helped secure the area as a park in 1995. The book itself was considered such a valuable resource that, when it went out of print, copies became hot commodities, reportedly going for up to $100 on eBay.

Now White has published an update, much awaited by local outdoor aficionados. The 2008 version of the Stein Valley Wilderness Guidebook is crammed with the knowledge White has accumulated through spending over 400 days in the valley, not to mention endless hours of research.

No path untraveled

The guide is exhaustively thorough. In terms of hiking the Stein, the book offers detailed, current, blow-by-blow route descriptions of major and minor routes, and includes a large, annotated fold-out map. White also has chapters on road access, the area's cultural and natural history, prepping for wilderness travel and information on ski-touring and kayaking in the area, as well as a section on the politics of wilderness protection. Almost every page has a photo or a drawing with a tidbit of flora, fauna or cultural info. There are also explanations, by experts, of everything from the area's famous pictographs to the predation techniques of the valley's ant lion inhabitants.

It's clearly a work of love. But now that the Stein's protected, why keep facilitating mass access for such a special area?

"The area's become really popular," says White (who, by the way, recently began working on the business side of The Tyee). "Somebody was going to do an updated guide, and if it wasn't me, it might be someone that doesn't have the same veneration I have for the place; I really harp on taking a minimal impact approach. I'm sure not doing the book for the money -- I'd make more doing a paper route," the amiable author explains.

Inspiration for eco-activists

White has another, broader goal as well: by getting more people out into the wilderness, and arming them with a deeper understanding of the place they are in, White also hopes to re-ignite the activism that helped save the Stein and other wilderness areas in B.C.

"Provincially, parks funding has been cut by 40 per cent; B.C. now has only one park ranger for every eight parks. And there are other amazing places that are threatened, like the Chilcotin, the Taku, the Skeena, and the Stikine. I really think people need to get reconnected to wilderness, so hopefully we can protect all of what's left of our great wilderness," he says.

White may have written the definitive guide to the Stein, but he's refused to give away all of the area's secrets. He deliberately left out descriptions of sections he considers ecologically sensitive, and included only a few of the culturally significant areas, in deference to local First Nation's preferences.

Fair enough; I bow to White's hopeful vision of wilderness activism inspired by magical wilderness experience. So, do go enjoy the Stein, preferably with White's refreshed guidebook in hand. But please, oh please -- don't mess with the juju.

 [Tyee]