The Nitinat Triangle is one of the island’s great wilderness treasures. Unfortunately, in recent years, this spectacularly beautiful, world class, wilderness canoe route has fallen into neglect and is now dangerous in places. With the exception of Nitinat Lake it’s self, the entire rout falls with in the boundaries of the Pacific Rim National Park but is no longer being maintained on any level by the Parks Canada.
The history of the the Nitinat Triangle dates back to the 1920’s when the BC provincial government first set the Triangle aside as a parks preserve. Later, in 1958, bowing to the demands of the forestry industry, the minister of lands and forests Robert Sommers turned the Nitinat Triangle over to MacMillan Bloedel and the B.C. Forest Products companies. Later that same year, Sommers was convicted in B.C. Supreme Court on four counts of accepting a bribe and one count of conspiracy. In the late sixties and early seventies environmental groups including Spaces For Nature, the Sierra Club of Western Canada and the B.C. Federation of Naturalist fought a long hard battle to preserve the triangle culminating in having Nitinat Triangle preserved in 1971 and the Nitinat Triangle being formally added to the Pacific Rim National Park in the early 1980’s. Today the Nitinat Triangle is being allowed to fall into neglect, principally due to a lack of funding by the Parks Canada who control most of the land with in the Triangle.
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Direction: Access to the region is via gravel logging road leading from the western end of Lake Cowichan. This point is reached by turning off Highway 1 north of Duncan and following either the north or south shore of Lake Cowichan. Follow the Nitinat Main logging road to the head of Nitinat Lake.
Blog Posts: The Nitinat Triangle
Distance: Approximately 38 km (24 mi), 4-5 day
Paddling Distance: ~17 km
Portage Distance: ~21 km
Lakes:
- Nitinat Lake
- Hobiton Lake
- Tsusiat Lake
- (Squalicum Lake)
- (Hitchie Lake)
External Links
- The Nitinat Triangle
- Backroads Map Book VIBC08
- Canoeing & Kayaking: Nitinat Triangle
- Duckworks Magazine – Canoeing the Nitinat Triangle
- Nitinat Triangle: Centuries in the Life of a Great Cedar
- Nitinat to Tsusiat Falls Backcountry Inflatable SUP Tour
- Nitinat Triangle: Centuries in the Life of a Great Cedar
Nitinat Triangle Map