On Vancouver Island’s Upper Campbell Lake, an emerald jewel just steps from the doors of Strathcona Park Lodge and Outdoor Education Centre, Brian Creer dipped a paddle last June to celebrate five decades of outdoor experiences at the lodge. Now 90, Creer was on hand to guide the evolution of British Columbia’s busiest white- water education centre for many of those years.
Strathcona Park Lodge (SPL) started in 1959 as a traditional wilderness lodge. “Outdoor [adventure] for us was trout fishing and maybe taking a canoe out on the lake,” says Jamie Boulding, current co-Executive Director and son of lodge founders Myrna and Jim Boulding. Hollywood stars and other well-to-do visitors flocked to SPL in the 1960s, lured by the great fishing, rustic charm and remote beauty of neighbouring Strathcona Provincial Park.
THE EVOLUTION OF THE LODGE
The focus evolved in the early 1970s, when Creer—then the most influential whitewater kayaking and canoeing instructor in the province— and a handful of top outdoor teachers joined SPL’s developing outdoor education program. Instructors arriving from Outward Bound influ- enced programs at SPL in these early years, but the Bouldings maintained a unique ethos at the lodge focused on participation, personal growth and, most of all, play.
After 1977, when SPL ran the first semester of the newly founded Canadian Outdoor Leadership Training (COLT) program, many instructors at the outdoor centre were drawn from the ranks of COLT graduates and former SPL students. Since then, the centre has averaged 350 person days per year whitewater paddling. That’s over 10,500 days of whitewater spanning three decades.
Now entering its 51st year, SPL is still one of the busiest commercial whitewater training centres in B.C. The staff remains faithful to the original “if we make it fun, they’ll do it forever” philosophy.
In fact, says Boulding, the only things that have really changed are the equipment and the ever-evolving skills taught. School groups decked out in hockey helmets and rain jackets no longer line up beside 13-foot fibreglass kayaks, ready to tackle river or sea, but the rambling log cabins of the lodge still house new generations of kayakers and Creer—when he gets a chance—still puts paddle to water on Upper Campbell Lake.
This article first appeared in the Early Summer 2010 issue of Rapid Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Rapid’s print and digital editions here.
