Enough politics.

Here's a tale about an interesting island, once owned by the guy who informally
discovered a well know celebrity. When we visited a few months ago, we found
evidence of giants.......

Wallace Island

The Book of Genesis assures us that in the earliest days, "There were giants in
the earth."
In a time of creation, evolving chunks of the molten young planet heaved and
pressed, one against another. Smoking islands bursting up through molten
fissures in the earth's crust confirmed the conflict and chaos miles below.
Churning seas sizzled against the poker-hot crags, generating a fog of
corrosive sulfur. Superheated black tornadoes combed the earth with poison
gases. In a geological eyeblink the planet cooled, the atmosphere stabilized,
and giants dominated the earth. On Wallace Island, we walked where such giants
have lived, and discovered their bones. If an island visitor "reads" carefully,
Wallace will relate an exciting and dramatic tale about a single day when the
earth renewed again- and swept away the time of giants.

Wallace Island is one of the "Secretary" series islands and reefs forming a
generally continuous line down the center of Trincomali channel between Kuper,
Galiano, and Saltspring Islands. The shallow depths between the islands and
reefs present a challenge to navigators, and suggest that all are
manifestations of a single, megalithic, structure. Nearly all of Wallace is a
Provincial Marine Park, with good anchorage in Princess Cove, (entered near
48.56.61 N, 123.33.65 W), as well as Conover Cove, (entered near 48.56.15 N,
123.32.70 W). There are reefs to consider when approaching either cove, so a
properly scaled chart, careful attention to the fathometer, and slowing to an
appropriate speed are essential elements of a successful entrance to Princess
or Conover Coves. Some rocks and structures evident at lower tides are just
barely awash at medium and higher water levels. Either entrance will require a
modicum of basic preparation for safe passage, but hundreds of boats arrive and
depart Wallace during a typical summer month- nearly all without incident.

Conover Cove has a Provincial Parks float, as well as anchoring room for
several boats. There are stern tie rings set into the shoreline. Conover Cove
is located adjacent to the abandoned buildings and discarded artifacts of
recent Wallace Island residents and enterprises, and may be a better choice for
folks content to explore the Wallace Island highlights.

Princess Cove has a small eight sided float float intended only for dinghies,
and room for a couple of dozen anchored boats when stern-tied to rings driven
into the sheer rock walls surrounded the basin. We arrived in Princess Cove
just before high water, set the anchor in 30 feet of water, and rowed a stern
tie line ashore. The south shore of Princess Cove, in the area just beyond the
dinghy dock where we anchored, resembles to work of a primitive cement mason.
Rock climbers would be delighted. The tie eyes were set well above the high
tide waterline, and we barely managed to reach one from the dinghy. Boats
arriving at a lower tide would be unable to use the same eyes, but there may be
some lower ones elsewhere in Princess Cove.

Boaters moored in either cove will need to divert, just slightly, from the
official island trails to see the bones of the giants and the clues to the
cataclysm that destroyed them.

Wallace Island consists of two landmasses, connected at the center. We would
privately and informally refer to the area closer to Saltspring Island as
"Lesser Wallace", and we explored this strip on the afternoon of our arrival.
We rowed to the small dock and climbed the gangway to the island. The extreme
end of Lesser Wallace is series of narrow, steep, chunks of rock that resemble
a series of vertebrae. A few of the sections become isolated islets at higher
tides. The predominate tree species on the western end of Lesser Wallace is the
arbutus, (popularly known as "madrona" in the US). A Provincial Parks sign
immediately ashore has some interesting information about arbutus trees,
including the fact that these trees are part of a distinctively coastal
eco-system. They are seldom found more than 8km (5 miles) from the sea. (That
definitely reminds me of some of he luckier folks I know).

We hiked along Lesser Wallace until we reached the south shore of Conover Cove.
We noticed the foliage changing from more arbutus than conifers to a second
growth conifer forest with only rare examples of the peel barked, rattle leafed
arbutus. The soil is thin on this rocky spine in Trincomali, and the largest
trees eventually become too top-heavy for the roots to secure during
windstorms. We saw many trees, three or four feet in diameter, fallen into the
forest with failed root systems pulled out of the dirt. In time, each of these
trees will build the soil and help provide better footing for generations of
descendants, but for now the winter winds claim the tallest, thickest, and
proudest among them. Optimistic little sprouts sucked sustenance from "nurse
logs" and shot taproots deep into the rotting pulp of broken stumps.

We heard human voices seaside, and we peered over the edge of a cliff to see
two kayakers gliding along the shoreline. The gently surging channel was a
cracked blue and silver mirror, reflecting the sunlight surrounding the
kayakers as a hundred thousand flaming gemstones. The warm air smelled of dried
pine needles and ripe grasses. It was indeed summer in the Gulf Islands.

The strip we call "Lesser Wallace" terminates at the outer shore of Conover
Cove. Boating families brimming with exuberant kids filled the dock at Conover
Cove. We heard the cove before we saw it, and were glad we had elected to
anchor in the more sedate confines of Princess. Even so, there was a time when
our kids were the same age and probably every bit as noisy; it is great to see
families enjoying the water together.

As we returned to the boat, we came followed a trail that led along the
shoreline near the eastern shoals of Princess Cove. A long, rocky point plunged
dramatically into the still, green waters, with soil enough at the upward end
that a kamikaze conifer was testing to see how high it could climb before a
storm overpowered its shallow roots. The structure and texture of the rocky
point reminds one of a hideously enormous log. Could it be a petrified
structure? A careful examination of the point through a 135mm lens confirmed
that it is merely a rocky outcropping that resembles a fallen log. In my
personal notes, I commemorate the false impression by labeling the structure
"Petrified Point."

We rowed back to "Indulgence", debating whether to walk to "Greater Wallace"
the following morning or relocate the boat to Conover. We decided we would
walk, and it was wonderfully fortunate that we did. Had we motored to the other
cove, it is unlikely that we would have stumbled across the bones of the
giants.

Conover Cove is named for David Conover. In the late 1930's, a teenaged Conover
worked summers as a boys' camp counselor on Wallace Island. Conover became so
enamored with the island that he secretly wished he could live there year
'round. In the early 1940's, Conover was employed as a news photographer in
southern California. During an assignment at an aircraft factory he met an
energetic young blonde named Norma Jean Baker. Norma Jean, like millions of
other teenagers, aspired to be a model or an actress. David took several photos
of Miss Baker, and encouraged her in her professional ambition. David lost
touch with Norma Jean after he was drafted, but before long the young woman
pursued her dream and is now remembered throughout the world as Marilyn Monroe.
Conover would be unable to fulfill his personal dream until after the end of
the war.

Newlywed David Conover was living in Los Angeles in the late 1940's when he
heard that the camp on Wallace Island was closed, and the island put up for
sale. The Conovers made arrangements to purchase Wallace Island, and after a
series of misadventures enroute finally arrived at the abandoned summer camp on
(now called) Conover Cove.
The Conovers initially lived in a tent, and later built a cabin near the shore.
The old boys' camp became a private resort with a steady clientele, providing
the Conover family with an income. There is evidence that Conover raised crops
and small animals to supplement the family larder. The Conovers had a baby in
1950, a son who spent his entire youth and childhood on Wallace Island and now
manages resorts elsewhere in Canada. (The adventures of David Conover and his
family are recorded in three books by Conover: "Finding Marilyn", "Once Upon
and Island", and "One Man's Island".)

The Conovers retired to a home on Princess Cove and sold the bulk of the island
to a group of investors. The investors hoped to divide the island into private
parcels, resold for a profit. Only the Conover's parcel on Princess Cove and
one other property were ever actually developed on Wallace, and in the 1980's
the island became a Provincial Marine Park.

Visitors to Wallace Island will find some of the camp/resort buildings and the
Conover family cabin still standing in an exhausted orchard at the head of the
visitors' dock. On our second Wallace Island morning, we hiked across the
isthmus connecting "Greater" and "Lesser" Wallace in search of the
architectural relics. It was on this walk that we listened to the earth tell a
tale of fallen giants.

To reach Conover Cove from Princess, one proceeds along the spiny ridge of
"Lesser Wallace" (eventually reaching a junction in the trail just beyond
"Petrified Point.") Taking the left fork puts one on the trail that crosses the
marshy joint between "Greater" and "Lesser" Wallace, and if one continues on
the trail it will climb a pleasantly wooded hill. At the top of the hill the
path leads across a golden meadow with a hand operated water pump, the hulk of
a Willys Jeep, and the rusting skeleton of an old tractor and harrow (all but
overwhelmed by underbrush). The trail beyond the meadow leads to a concrete
"fallout shelter" (almost certainly from the early 60's), and terminates at the
campground.
If the tide is low, and one cares to find the giants and learn of their
dramatic death on Wallace, proceed along the northern shoreline of Conover Cove
from the marshy isthmus. Much of the cove drains at lower tides. We walked
along wet rock upheavals, and discovered scores of exquisite starfish. "If you
mention these starfish in a story," said Jan, "you should describe them as 'egg
plant purple', because that's exactly what they are." So they were, and so I
have.

I was paying careful attention to the rocks, due to curiosity as well as a
desire to select solid footing. The rocks seemed to run in long, parallel
"furrows", with large holes that can indicate a rock that was superheated and
then quickly cooled. Up near the edge of the waterline, we discovered several
stones that resembled pumice. I had walked halfway across one of the giants
before I realized it, but once I recognized the evidence underfoot the
implications were staggering.

"This rock resembles the texture of wood," I thought, "but it is too broad and
flat…"
No, it was neither too broad nor too flat. I was standing on a mammoth tree
trunk, fallen thousands of years ago. Some slicing force, perhaps a mudflow or
a sliding boulder, had split the log as cleanly as an adz. After being buried
for eons, the log had absorbed the minerals of the soil to become mineral
itself. I paced across the log; seven of my relaxed steps equal seventeen feet.
Assuming this log had been split at its widest diameter, it had been at least
17-feet across! One thinks of California redwoods, or the tourist trap "tunnel
stump" our fathers and grandfathers drove through along Hwy 99 near Arlington,
WA.

How different the topography must have been on the day these giants fell. Trees
only a few feet in diameter cannot find sufficient footing to stand on Wallace
today. In the time of the giants, there must have been a deep, rich, soil in
this area. There is no reason to suspect that this point on the planet even had
to be an island in those days. The climate itself could have been, and likely
was, different than what we now experience.

Beyond the bones of the giant, the signs of chaotic re-creation are abundant.
How the earth must have trembled, the sky darkened, and the seas roared when
the giants were swept away. Climbing between the low and high tide lines, one
crosses a series of petrified logs. Logs were trapped between layers of muddy
stone that once gurgled, burbled, smoked, slid, and hissed to carry away the
forest of yore. We didn't find another 17-foot "giant", but perhaps even when
mastodons and sabre-toothed tigers prowled these latitudes such a specimen was
rare.

A fund established to restore the remaining camp and resort buildings at
Conover Cove. All are currently boarded up, with the exception of the "camp
lodge."
There is a paperback exchange in a corner of the lodge, and a curious tradition
prevails in this building as well. Visiting boaters often scrounge up a piece
of driftwood, engrave it with the name of the vessel or passengers, and hang it
from the rafters in the lodge. A though provoking contrast: a brightly inked,
six-inch scrap of bark denotes the overnight visit of "Nauti-lass, 1999," while
a hundred yards away a very different woodsign tells a quiet, eternal tale
about giants in the earth.