Old-growth woods and mighty mountains make this Canada’s ultimate adventure playground. And a journey across the country’s westernmost province reveals wind-lashed beaches, abundant wildlife and world-class food, too

WORDS: SARAH BARRELL, OLIVER BERRY & ZOEY GOTO

IMAGE: GETTY

THE HITCHHIKER’S RAILWAY

Crossing vast tracts of British Columbian wilderness, the Skeena is one of Canada’s most thrilling, and little-known, rail journeys. Words: Oliver Berry

“Ladies and gentlemen, we’ll be making an unscheduled stop here to pick up another passenger,” announces train manager Alain Vermette. “In fact, we need to back up. We just missed his stop.”

Brakes squeal and gears grind as Via Rail Line 6 —better known as ‘the Skeena’ —slows, shifts into reverse and trundles back down the track. A minute later, a burly man in a baseball cap, hunting boots and jeans emerges from the forest, rucksack slung over his shoulder, a cheroot poking out from his grizzled grey beard.

“Afternoon, Alain,” he says, waving a greeting up to the conductor, who’s leaning out of the train window. “Running a little late today, ain’tcha?” The train pulls to a stop —but since there’s no platform, Alain has to hop down onto the track and put down a set of portable steps. I follow him down, and together we help the man haul himself up through the train’s side door. Soon the engine chugs into life and we’re offagain, hurtling onwards into an endless sea of pines.

On the Skeena, request stops have always been part of the service. Completed in 1914 as the western end of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, the train travels through some of British Columbia’s wildest backcountry, including the 24,700sq mile Great Bear Rainforest, the largest temperate forest on Earth. It’s one of Canada’s great wildernesses, a haven for wildlife including moose, elk, eagles and, as its name suggests, black and grizzly bears.

The route begins on the Pacific coast in Prince Rupert, BC, and ends 720 miles further east high in the Rocky Mountains in Jasper, Alberta. Since it’s often the only way to get from one backwoods town to the next, locals use it like a bus service, flagging the train down as it passes three times a week. It’s been classed as an essential service since 1990, but if it was judged on purely economic terms, it would probably have been closed long ago.