Trail walking and hiking come with responsibilities to others who will use these trails and to adjacent private landowners. Your responsibilities include: not smoking or starting campfires, properly disposing of garbage (carrying it out with you), obeying private property signs, and leaving nature as it is. If your dog likes to chase birds, deer or sheep, please keep it leashed. Leave your bike at the trailhead.

 

Please keep to the marked trails. Many begin with a trail sign or map. En route, you’ll often find fluorescent orange or pink ribbons or metal markers attached to tree branches/trunks, indicating the trail’s direction. Most trails are well maintained, but by nature’s design, many are criss-crossed with roots and rocks, and bordered with trees. To avoid injury, do not put your full weight on a rock until you’re certain that it’s anchored in place, and use your pole or stick for balance when stepping downhill or onto moss-covered rocks or roots. Grabbing a tree branch or trunk for support before checking that it’s alive and firmly rooted can lead to a bad fall. And keep some distance between you and your hiking companions so that if one person falls, it doesn’t trigger a chain reaction. 

​

You are responsible for your own safety. Do not attempt to hike a trail beyond your physical abilities or skill. Wear and carry appropriate gear for the conditions, such as footwear with good support and traction, a basic First-Aid kit, a cell phone if you have one, and something not seen often enough—a walking pole. If you find a strong wooden stick of an appropriate length at the trailhead, left behind by another hiker, use it, then return it to that spot for the next hiker to use. Take plenty of water, some energy food, binoculars, a camera, sunglasses and a hat. You needn’t worry about encountering a bear or cougar along our trails. Both were eradicated from the Southern Gulf Islands years ago. The exception is Salt Spring, where the occasional cougar or black bear swims across the Sansum Narrows from Vancouver Island. No humans have ever been attacked.

 

You needn’t worry about encountering a bear or cougar along our trails. Both were eradicated from the Southern Gulf Islands years ago. The exception is Salt Spring Island, where the occasional cougar or black bear swims across Sansum Narrows from Vancouver Island. No humans have ever been attacked. 

 

Recommended Resource. Hiking the Gulf Islands of British Columbia: 4th Edition by Charles Kahn (Harbour Publishing).