Wildside (hiking trail)

Cow Bay Beach views from a seaplane

The Ahousaht Wildside Heritage Trail is a hiking trail on Flores Island, British Columbia, Canada in Ahousaht Traditional Territories that connects the town of Ahousat, the village of Marktosis, to several beaches and wild forest and is 11 km (6.8 mi) long one way ending in Cow Bay.[1] The trail features signage at locations important to the Ahousat people; further information about each location of importance is shared in a guidebook published by Elder Stanley Sam.[2]

The trail began as a First Nations women's ecotourism initiative to secure steady jobs and income for the people of the Ahousaht First Nation and was created by manual labour in 1993. The trail office was re-opened in 2010 as a non-profit operation dedicated to job creation within the Ahousat community, as well as ongoing stewardship by Ahousat of lands used by their people for thousands of years.[3][4]

  1. ^ McBeath, Chris (January 7, 2011). Frommer's Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands and San Juan Islands. John Wiley & Sons. p. 160. ISBN 9781118045930. Retrieved August 8, 2012.
  2. ^ Sam, Stanley (1997). Ahousaht Wild Side Heritage Trail Guidebook. Victoria: Western Canada Wilderness Committee. ISBN 1895123402.
  3. ^ "Walk the Wild Side". Walk the Wild Side Ahousaht Heritage Hiking Trail. Retrieved July 25, 2022.
  4. ^ Braun, Bruce (February 25, 2002). Intemperate Rainforest: Nature, Culture, and Power on Canada's West Coast. U of Minnesota Press. pp. 147–149. ISBN 9780816634002. Retrieved August 8, 2012.