My thighs were burning. I hadn’t run in ages, and here I was trotting on the wet sand of Cox Bay beach in Tofino. Huffing and puffing, I came to a stop in front of Michele, our trainer. “Welcome to the Beauty and the Beach Wellness Retreat at Long Beach Lodge!,” she said, grinning. Fortunately, I wasn’t alone in my lack of breath. We were a group of ten women and one man, getting our fitness on, on the far…
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As our floatplane lifts away from Vancouver, the landscape changes. Gleaming high-rises fall away in favor of towering green pine trees that cover the mountains of Vancouver Island. Small towns dot the valleys, but it’s mostly trees, lakes, and more trees as we fly west towards a small bay north of Tofino. The float plane dips down towards the sparkling Bedwell estuary, located in the remote Clayoquot Sound UNESCO Biosphere reserve. It’s hard to believe that in this challenging and…
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Have you ever stood on the edge of the world? That’s what it feels like standing on Long Beach, Tofino, Vancouver Island, on the (nearly) most westerly point of Canada. Standing on the beach, there is nothing between you and Japan except the cold, vast, churning Pacific Ocean. It’s been a long time since we visited Tofino ourselves, so we were thrilled to interview local Tofino resident and guidebook author John Platenius. John has published the Tofino Guide book, offering great advice for…
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