Trails and Roots in Sunshine Coast

The ferry chains ratle, and with it, memory rises. Chop Suey and her host spend the eighties in British Columbia. Nine years of challenging flows, but deeply satisfying in their sense of curiosity. Today, they head for the ferry to meet friends in Gibsons, and the crossing brings back memories of countless ferry trips along the coast, visiting different islands spotting seals, humpback whales, and orcas.

One October in the late seventies, there’s a three-day sailing trip to Vancouver Island with two close friends. Halfway through, Chop Suey is dropped off at a remote island’s gas station to make her way to Victoria. Cold, exhausted, wet backpack. What follows is a long hitchhike, a bus ride, and finally a taxi. The city, at that time, feels open and untouched by mass tourism. The museum presenting Indigenous art with a sense of respect and presence.

Ferry Trips to Unknown Shores

Today’s journey is easier. The ferry carries Chop Suey and her friend  to the Sunshine Coast for a few days in Gibsons. A small beach town known as the backdrop for productions such as ‘The Beachcombers’, a long-running series centered on coastal logging life and the everyday rhythms of a tight-knit community. In the latest ‘Murder in a Small Town’, the same quiet streets are recast into a place of investigation, layered with tension and small-town secrets.

Film has become part of local life here. Some residents build steady careers in the industry, moving between productions as crew, technicians, or set builders, while others step in as extras, lend their homes or boats as locations.  

Coastal Rain Forest Mystery

For hiking, forests across Canada from east to west are impressive. For Chop Suey there is something distinctly mystical about the coastal rainforest. Here, moss grows thick and spongy, spreading across the forest floor and climbing tree trunks, weaving everything together in deep shades of green. As the forest wakes from winter, wildlife returns to movement—quietly foraging, adjusting, reappearing. Coyotes are a familiar presence, remarkably adaptable, even in these coastal environments.

In this rich landscape, home to some of the oldest trees in British Columbia, there is also tension. Bears are increasingly losing their dens due to logging and the use of glyphosate, a widely used herbicide developed by Monsanto. It reduces plant diversity, removes shade, and alters the forest in ways that can increase wildfire risk. Even old-growth trees are not always spared if they stand in the way of extraction.

Logging roads open up previously undisturbed areas, making it easier for bears to roam but harder to find stable habitat. Added to this are the pressures of climate change, expanding urbanisation, and illegal hunting. Local groups like the Sunshine Coast Bear Alliance work to bridge that gap, helping people understand bear behavior and encouraging more respectful ways of coexisting. It’s knowledge that feels grounding, and something to carry along the trail.

Tyalk up our brand.

This time, Chop Suey has no animal encounters, only heavy rain, the kind that makes the forest impossibly green.

We warm up in a cosy café, eating homemade soup and Canadian-style sandwiches stacked with cheese, tomatoes, and sprouted beans. Browsing amazing shops, trying on cowboy hats and visting trendy vintage shops, where estate finds bring the twenties luxury back to life.

Returning to our friend’s house, newly designed and built in a minimalist style, with lots of wood and glass integrated,.we gather with a warm drink. Later we share wine and freshly caught fish and enjoy home grown salads iin the high-tech kitchen  We catch up on stories, experiences and uncover short and long term plans.