Strathcona Park Lodge: A Saga 

Photos courtesy of me, Maya, Karlos, Luke, Preston and Mr. Taylor

By Annie Wagner ‘27

WARNING: Reader discretion is advised. The information below may make your stomach churn!

Every year, a fresh crop of Grade 10 students sets off in late September to spend 5 days at Strathcona Park Lodge on Vancouver Island. Some excitedly anticipate this trip, while others dread it, but no matter how you might feel about it, it’s a rite of passage for all WPGA students.

My friends and I coordinated our activity choices and wound up in the same group: Buttle Lake Canoeing. The other options were rock climbing, hiking, canoeing with portage, or a combination of the trips. 

On September 23rd, 2024, we said goodbye to our families and boarded the big yellow school bus. As the bus drove away, we watched WPGA fade into the distance. In only 4 short days we would be back again, but at that moment it felt like an eternity. 

After hours of driving, we reached the ferry and boarded it. We were free! 80 students poured out of the buses and thundered up the stairs, racing to get in line for breakfast. The fact that it was almost 11:00, and that they had already eaten breakfast, did not stop my classmates from ordering a sumptuous White Spot breakfast of bacon, eggs, sausage, and toast. Later we all ventured onto the deck to look at the water, but found it much too cold and decided to go back inside.

Once we reached Vancouver Island, at least 3 more hours of driving lay ahead. A thick, damp fog lay over the roads, and visibility was near zero, foreshadowing the weather to come. This made for a very spooky and nerve-wracking bus ride, but card games and jokes made it go by faster. 

Thanks to the skill of our bus driver, we arrived at the lodge safe and sound and carried our bags to the cabins. My group’s rooms were in the basement, which meant that we had a patio, but also meant that we could hear everything that was going on upstairs:, from loud conversations to what sounded like a dance party, complete with shouts and thundering footsteps. 

After settling in we went to the dining hall and ate dinner, which consisted of spaghetti and salad (but no meatballs, much to the dismay of nearly everyone).

With dinner eaten, my group made their way down to the beach to meet with our guides, named Kass and Andy, two kind, funny and somewhat eccentric people. We made goals for our trip and discussed the plan for the following morning. We would load all of our food, belongings, and supplies into the canoes and depart for unknown shores. 

Despite the anticipation of the journey that was to come, and the strange sounds coming from the upper floors, I slept well; that is until I was woken up at 6:30 am by the sound of screaming goats, courtesy of our trusty leader, Mr. Taylor. 

At breakfast, everyone ate as much as possible. The offerings of berries, toast, scrambled eggs, poppyseed muffins, and yogurt were quite delectable;, so I couldn’t blame them. After breakfast, we carried our cumbersome bags down to the beach and started loading the canoes. 

Since I had rubber boots on, I offered to stand in the water and hold the canoe steady while it was being packed. As soon as I felt the icy water of the lake flood into my boots, I realized that I had erred in my judgement. I climbed back on shore and dumped my soggy boot out. A bottle’s worth of water came gushing out.

Luckily, my sacrifice was not all for naught, as our boat was packed quickly and we set off. Our entire group filled up 3 large canoes, with a teacher/guide in each boat, 3 or 4 students, and plenty of gear. It was hard at first to paddle in sync, but once we figured it out, it was smooth sailing to our lunch destination, which was 4 km away.

Our lunch spot!

When we disembarked to eat lunch, we were introduced to “the toilet” —- an outhouse complete with toilet paper and hand sanitizer that we had brought with us. This concept terrified many people. Some braved the stench and ominous presence, but others were too scared and deigned instead to relieve themselves in some far off bush. We had already encountered our first terror.

Next, we discovered that the protein for lunch would be none other than TOFU. This may not seem terrifying to you, but shrink-wrapped, camping tofu was simply too much for some of the more weaker-stomached members of my group. One member declared that he’d rather eat a squirrel than eat tofu. Luckily for the squirrels, this never came to pass. 

After lunch, we set off towards our first campsite, another 8 km away. The sun was shining and it was warm, and we sang songs like ‘Let It Go” to keep our spirits up. Soon enough, we reached the rocky banks of our campsite and unloaded the boats, rewarding ourselves with a chocolate chip cookie the size of a small dinner plate. Once our snack was done, it was time to set up the tarp and start dinner. I decided to help cook dinner, and I was in charge of using the camping stove and cooking the vegetables and rice noodles. I was happy to do the job; I was used to cooking at home and the task felt familiar. In the meantime, Andy showed the other members of our group how to tie knots and set up the tarp that we would be sleeping under. It was suspended between 4 trees and higher in the middle than on the outside, so that the rain would flow off of the tarp.

The tarp!

 Dinner was ready soon after the tarp was set up. Once we had shared what we learned from the day and were kindly served by a ‘hairnetted’ (mosquito netted) friend, everyone chowed down.

Once the dishes were washed, we played a quick game of camouflage and then roasted marshmallows. Before long, it was dark and time to go to bed. We went to work, inflating their mattresses and unrolling their sleeping bags. Everyone squeezed in under the tarp; it wasn’t very big, and I was on the outside of the group, but I was still protected by the tarp. The darkness, looming trees, and mouse that I had seen earlier made me uneasy about sleeping on the outskirts. My fear was further intensified when the guides told us that the numerous tree stumps that we had passed on the lake had been known to come alive and turn into giant spiders when the sun went down. 

Nevertheless, sleep found me eventually. I was awoken in the middle of the night the sound of raindrops falling on the tarp. For me, it was quite lovely, as it provided a bit of white noise to drown out the mysterious sounds of the forest and the rustling of my group members. Unfortunately for my friend that slept partially outside of the tarp, the rain was not as nice for him: his sleeping bag and mat were soaked through,and the person next to him was wet as well. 

The morning came with the sound of screaming donkeys to wake us up, and we packed everything up again: our belongings, the tarp, the stove, etc. We ate a quick breakfast and did the dreaded “tasty gulp” – where you mix the leftover bits of food stuck to your bowl with some water and drink it all up (shudder). 

 Once the canoes were packed, we set off to our next destination, an additional 14 kms away. We stopped a couple of times on the way to stretch our legs and finish off the second round of giant cookies. The wind began to pick up, and we abandoned paddling altogether. The guides taught us how to fashion a sail by tying a tarp to two paddles! It worked almost a little too well- we sailed past our campsite and had to turn around. 

Our sail!

Unloading the canoes was not as fun this time around. The river was ice cold, and everyone got their feet wet. Our campsite was also quite far, at least 200 metres away from where we docked. 

Once we arrived and unpacked, it was the same drill as the day before: set up the tarp and start making lunch, which consisted of burritos complete with, once again, tofu. Our guide had set up the tarp for us the night before, but we had to do it by ourselves the second time. It took a lot of retying knots to finally get it right. We ate lunch and played a small game. It was time to make dinner again. I manned the stove for a second time, cooking chickpeas and rice this time. We ate dinner and it tasted delicious after our long day. After that, we made a campfire and cooked bannock over it, telling stories until it was time to go to bed.

We woke up in the morning to the sound of screaming lions (can lions scream?) and packed everything up. The temperature had dropped majorly overnight, and it was starting to rain, so everyone was cold and tired, with wet socks and not enough layers. We ate a quick breakfast and paddled 2 km to our pick up spot. 

Our pick up spot!

Seeing as we had extra time before the van would arrive, we went for a nice nature walk, where I saw my first ever ruffed grouse! The bird was just as spectacular as I imagined it would be: an adorable chicken of the forest. 

For lunch, we dined on crackers with fake peanut butter and apples, and some sort of substance that didn’t look or taste like cheese but was supposedly cheese. Despite being a peanut butter connoisseur, I found the fake peanut butter tasty and smothered it on my crackers. Other members of my group did not see it that way, so I got the whole jar to myself. 

Finally, after being drenched for hours, we loaded into the warm van and relaxed. We had done it! It was time to go back to the lodge and head home the next day. 

At 5:36 pm on Friday, September 27th, the school buses rolled into the WPGA parking lot. We were back! Going to Strathcona Park Lodge was such a memorable adventure, and my group really bonded over the tofu, the rain, and the terrifying outhouses. As I stepped off of the bus, I felt almost sad that it was over, but was nevertheless happy to be home.