Dirtbag road trips are about discovery. Discovering where the locals crash for free, or where seasoned vagrants score a cheap shower. Discovering day-old pizza in the backseat from that late night highway diner with the bleary-eyed waitress. Getting lost and discovering paradise off the map. Dirtbag trips aren’t about deprivation; they’re about doing more with less.
Sample Trip: Vancouver Island
Travel: 14+ days
Mileage: 950 kilometers
Highlights: Riding the M.V. Frances Barkley to the sheltered inner waters and 100 ruggedly beautiful islands of the Broken Group in Barkley Sound; Clayoquot Sound’s hot springs, bald eagles and the giant cedars of Meares Island; endless sand beaches, perfect island campsites and rafts of sea otters in Kyuquot Sound; and paddling with orcas in Johnstone Strait.
Stop-offs & Detours: En route to Tofino, stretch your legs and your imagination in the Tolkienesque magnificence of Cathedral Grove. Feel small as you wander quiet boardwalks beneath towering, 800-year-old Douglas fir. After a salty stint on the coast, rinse off beneath snow-capped mountains in Sproat Lake. Lying alongside the Pacific Rim Highway, Sproat Lake Provincial Park has camping, hot showers and a grassy picnic area perfect for drying out crusty paddling gear. Like all B.C. provincial parks, day use is free. Take the ferry from Campbell River to Quadra Island to surf some of Vancouver Island’s best park-and-play tidal rapids. Skookumchuck it ain’t, but you’re likely to have the green wave that forms at Surge Narrows an hour and a half after peak flood all to yourself.
Best Digs: The sprawling network of B.C. Recreation Sites offers some of the finest free and dirt-cheap car camping in the province. Rec sites on Vancouver Island range from oceanfront just off the highway to out-of-the-way fishing holes on punishing logging roads.
Dirtbag Tip: Long drives, pit toilets and back-to-back multi-days leave little opportunity for housekeeping—invest in a roof box.
This article originally appeared in Adventure Kayak Magazine, Spring 2013 as part of a Trips feature. Download our free iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch App or Android App or read it here.
