Alder Bay Trail offers unique shoreline view

By Gord Henschel, North Island Eagle, May 7 2021

There is a trail down to the ocean at the far end of Alder Bay. The trail was hacked, with monumental effort by my Grandson, Bryce Mancell about 20 years ago when Bryce had a summer job there. 

Until then, there was no way to access this part of the Alder Bay shoreline. Therefore cutting a trail was a major job on a very steep hill, requiring a considerable portion of creativity; incidentally, Bryce is a Mining Engineer today.  

In order to get the view shown in this painting, I had some tricky clambering to do, especially while carrying a paint box and palette. 

Anyway, I did produce the acrylic painting shown here. So where am I going with this story?

I love this painting, probably because it took so much effort to get down to the spot to paint it. 

Also, because to get a view of the ocean from Alder Bay with Alert Bay intruding on the left and the Coast Range in the background, was not possible from the top of the park.  I had not been to Alder Bay all this winter so was unaware that they had done some clearing there. One sunny day, my daughter, Lorece and her husband Dennis did a little jaunt to Alder Bay and told me about the changes, prompting me to check it all out.

Sure enough, all the trees and bushes that had blocked my old trail had been cleared, creating new and spectacular panoramic views of the East end of Alert Bay and the ocean with an array of snow-capped peaks in the distance. 

Artwork by Gordon Henschel

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