Edge of the Great Bear

  Introduction Twenty years have passed since John Kimantas undertook the Wild Coast project to survey the coast of British Columbia, record landing and camping sites, and publish the results in three volumes. Think about this for a minute. Our coast measures between 27,000 – 29,000 kilometers of mostly rugged shoreline, almost all of it empty of human occupation. Prior to John’s books, scant information existed for paddlers: no google satellite and in some places marine charts based upon dated information that just didn’t always match with the GPS coordinates. John’s effort opened the world’s best sea kayaking area to countless paddlers. His research went on to form the basis of the Marine Trail database, and his map products have guided many a grateful adventurer. Quite reasonably, given the size of the project and the remoteness of the area, John’s guides omitted most of the outer central coast. A few years after the last of the Wild Coast volumes appeared, some folks fr...