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Kootenay Rockies

In the great outdoors

Originally from England, Jayne Seagrave came to Canada and found her true calling in writing

by Kali Love

Surely in high school or university, each one of us has bought and read at least one book that we’ve found boring and have cast it aside when finished with it to gather dust. It was with the thought that books should be cherished and appreciated that Jayne Seagrave decided to write Camping British Columbia: A Complete Guide to Provincial and National Park Campgrounds.

The story behind the words

Seagrave moved to Canada in 1991 with her husband, Andrew Dewberry, to do her PhD in criminology at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C. The couple had no money but they did have a 1976 Ford Pinto, a tent and two sleeping bags. They decided to explore British Columbia and discovered many fantastic campgrounds on their trip, but Seagrave found there was a lack of information regarding campgrounds in the province. Simultaneously, Seagrave finished her PhD and she wrote a book called Introduction to Policing in Canada, which would be used as a textbook for criminology students—in her opinion, it was a very boring book. Seagrave said this was the moment she decided to write a guidebook about campgrounds.

“I thought to myself, ‘Wouldn’t it be nicer to write a book that people actually want to buy,’ ” said Seagrave. “I had been complaining to my husband that there should be a book on camping and he said, ‘Stop (complaining) about it and write it’…Since I had written a book about policing, I knew roughly the form you needed for writing a book and editing. Eventually, I visited about 60 campgrounds and I just put together a book and it sold 5,000 copies within three months of being published. That was Edition 1 and we knew then that it was a successful book.”

Seagrave said the joy of writing about provincial and national parks is that she gets to personally visit the area, and she likes that the parks remain mostly unchanged.

“Nobody changes the size of a river or a lake or a mountain,” said Seagrave. “Updating the camping books is actually quite easy because there is always going to be a ponderosa pine forest that is leading down to the pristine waterside and the Canada geese that are pooping all the time on the beach. The joy of writing a book about camping is that lots of people don’t have access to the Internet when they are touring around in their RVs and that is the joy of having the book, where it doesn’t really replace the Internet.”

To conduct her research, Seagrave and Dewberry went literally all over British Columbia. Among their favourite places are Alice Lake near Squamish, Liard River Hot Springs Provincial Park, Champion Lakes Provincial Park and Meziadin Lake Provincial Park, which is a two-hour drive north of Kitwanga. Seagrave has very fond memories of these trips, especially the trip they made from Vancouver to Whitehorse in an RV.

“We left Vancouver and we got onto the highway from Vanderhoof to the Alaska Highway,” said Seagrave. “There are only three campgrounds on that whole highway, and one of them is Meziadin Lake. My husband swam with a beaver late in the evening. From there it is a lovely drive to Stewart, where you can see grizzly bears fishing for salmon.”

Discovering favourites

Seagrave’s favourite area to visit is the Kootenays, as she said it is generally quieter than a lot of other spots. The family have developed a liking for Champion Lakes Provincial Park, which is not far from the city of Trail.

“Champion Lakes is sort of away from it all,” said Seagrave. “(The city of) Trail is nice to visit and so is Rossland, and it is big enough to have things but it is small enough to feel secluded. And the swimming in the lakes is gorgeous.”

Six published camping guidebooks later, Seagrave has been to about 145 campgrounds in B.C. in an RV or a tent. Living the eclectic lifestyle and maintaining a business in Vancouver, Seagrave, her husband and their two sons—Jack, 10, and Sam, 8—go on trips around B.C. and Alberta whenever they can. Jack and Sam have had the pleasure of going with their parents on many trips—even one overseas vacation to England—but they both prefer to stay in B.C. and camp.

“A couple of years ago I took them for a couple of weeks to England to visit their grandparents,” said Seagrave. “I also took them to Alice Lake—and at the end of their summer I asked them what was their best trip of the summer, and they said ‘Alice Lake.’ I thought, ‘Why did I bother spending all that money on a ticket?’ And I think it is really because of the independence they can have while camping.”

Seagrave and her husband always operate under the notion that discovering new places and creating new trails are important, so they try to choose areas that they haven’t been to. However, they definitely have their favourite spots and frequently return to certain campgrounds.

“My favourite campground of all campgrounds is Liard River Hot Springs Provincial Park,” said Seagrave. “That is because you have three beautiful hot springs—one is really hot, one is not so hot and one is cooler. They were used by First Nations people and the people that were building the Alaska Highway. It is way out of the way and it is just beautiful.”

For the future, Seagrave and Dewberry intend to dance to the beat of their own drum and go wherever they desire. They already have plans for this summer’s camping trips.

“Camping is really a fantastic experience,” said Seagrave. “If the weather is good we will go up to Porto Cove Provincial Park on the Victoria Day long weekend. We always have Alice Lake planned and we will probably do Montague Harbour Marine Provincial Park—and we will probably do the Rockies and the Kootenays again too.”

You can find out more about Jayne Seagrave’s books or order online at www.heritagehouse.ca.

This site is part of the Koocanusa Publication Inc network.