""No fuddy-duddies, authors Foster and Aitken provide solid information to hiking the West Coast Trail. Spiced with humorous anecdotes that only years of trail slogging could produce. The illustrations by Nelson Dewey are a delight.""--Backpacker Magazine The bestselling "Blisters and Bliss" has been the trekker's guide to the West Coast Trail since 1989. The seventy-five-kilometre trail on Vancouver Island is rated as one of the world's top ten hikes. In this revised eight edition of "Blisters and Bliss," David Foster and Wayne Aitken once again provide a safe and practical guide for the thousands of hikers who trek the West Coast Trail every year. Current, accurate information about trail access, hiking conditions, and trek planning are combined with hundreds of tips for novices and experienced trekkers alike.

Blisters & Bliss: A Trekker's Guide to the West Coast Trail, Eighth Edition

Sports & Outdoors

Foster, David

Hiking & Camping

Heritage Group Dist

Review\n“This is an invaluable guide to over 400 bird species living the three large eco-regions of the Pacific Northwest - coastal rainforest, forested western cordillera, and North America’s northernmost deserts. Colour-code bars and headings help organize the text into groupings by bird family. … This guide is an accessible resource for all ages and useful to all levels of bird observers….” (BC Books for BC Schools 2017 - 2018 2017-11-16)\n“For the majority of serious birders in the West who tend to limit their explorations to one or another state or province, this guide should expand their horizons and encourage more cross-border birding. In sum, this guide is an essential reference for birders west of the continental divide, particularly for intermediate and advanced observers.” (Eugene Hunn Western Birds 2017-11-16)\n“[T]his handy guide provides the relevant information for locating, identifying, and understanding a bit about the life histories of just over four hundred bird species to be found in southern British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon. It’s just the right size for those going afield” (Johannes E. Riutta The Well-Read Naturalist 2017-09-27)\nThe essential bestselling field guide to every bird species found in BC and the Pacific Northwest, now revised and updated. 
“For the majority of serious birders in the West who tend to limit their explorations to one or another state or province, this guide should expand their horizons and encourage more cross-border birding. In sum, this guide is an essential reference for birders west of the continental divide, particularly for intermediate and advanced observers.”—Eugene Hunn, Western Birds: The Quarterly Journal of Western Field Ornithologists 
Discover more than four hundred bird species in Birds of British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest—the quintessential guide for serious birders or those who are ready to take their bird-watching to the next level. In this newly revised and updated edition, join renowned bird experts Richard Cannings, Tom Aversa, and Hal Opperman as they illuminate key identification traits, vocalizations, seasonal status, habitat preferences, and feeding behaviours. Compact full-page accounts include maps and nine hundred photographs by the region’s top bird photographers. With a wide territorial range that covers much of BC through to southern Oregon and the Rocky Mountain crest west beyond the Pacific coast, this is the most complete and comprehensive portable guide of its kind on the market.

Birds of British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest: A Complete Guide

Science & Math

Aversa, Tom

Cannings, Richard

Opperman, Hal

Nature & Ecology

The 30th-anniversary edition of this popular guide is fully updated with all the information you need for a safe and enjoyable trek on the West Coast Trail.The bestselling Blisters and Bliss has been the trekker's guide to the West Coast Trail since 1989. The 75-kilometre trail on Vancouver Island is rated as one of the world's greatest hikes. In this revised ninth edition, David Foster and Wayne Aitken once again provide a practical and easy-to-use resource for the thousands of hikers who visit the West Coast Trail every year. Combining current and accurate trail information with hundreds of safety and planning tips, this is the ideal guide for novices and experienced trekkers alike.

Blisters and Bliss: A Trekker's Guide to the West Coast Trail

About the Author\nRichard Cannings is a renowned naturalist, conservationist, and bird expert. He is the author of numerous books, including Birds of Interior BC and the Rockies, An Enchantment of Birds, and The Rockies: A Natural History, and is co-author of Birds of Southwestern British Columbia, Best Places to Bird in British Columbia, and British Columbia: A Natural History.\nThe essential bestselling field guide to every bird species found in BC and the Pacific Northwest, now revised and updated. 
For the majority of serious birders in the West who tend to limit their explorations to one or another state or province, this guide should expand their horizons and encourage more cross-border birding. In sum, this guide is an essential reference for birders west of the continental divide, particularly for intermediate and advanced observers.Eugene Hunn, Western Birds: The Quarterly Journal of Western Field Ornithologists 
Discover more than four hundred bird species in Birds of British Columbia and the Pacific Northwestthe quintessential guide for serious birders or those who are ready to take their bird-watching to the next level. In this newly revised and updated edition, join renowned bird experts Richard Cannings, Tom Aversa, and Hal Opperman as they illuminate key identification traits, vocalizations, seasonal status, habitat preferences, and feeding behaviours. Compact full-page accounts include maps and nine hundred photographs by the regions top bird photographers. With a wide territorial range that covers much of BC through to southern Oregon and the Rocky Mountain crest west beyond the Pacific coast, this is the most complete and comprehensive portable guide of its kind on the market.

Tall tales of coastal adventures, colourful locals, privileged tourists, and elusive fish abound in this hilariously offbeat sequel to The Codfish Dream. "David Giblin is a marvellous storyteller."--Ian Ferguson, author of The Survival Guide to British Columbia David Giblin's stint as a seasonal salmon fishing guide on Stuart Island provides a seemingly endless supply of hilarious and bizarre stories that reveal as much about the quirkiness of small coastal communities as they do about human nature itself. Now, in his second book of short interconnected stories set in the 1980s, Giblin introduces us to Gilly, the first female fishing guide to grace the tiny island, whose mere presence is enough to shake the foundations of the very insular, all-male guiding community. With the return of delightfully eccentric characters including VOP, Troutbreath, Lucky Peterson, and Wet Lenny, this rollicking maritime adventure will appeal to anyone who ever gutted a fish and lived to tell the tale.

Gilly the Ghillie: More Chronicles of a West Coast Fishing Guide

Humor & Entertainment

David Giblin

Humor

An intriguing look at the accomplishments and contradictions of Joseph William McKay, best known as the founder of Nanaimo, BC, and one of the most successful Métis men to rise through the ranks of the Hudson's Bay Company in the late nineteenth century. When examining the history of British Columbia, one would be hard-pressed to find an Indigenous person who so successfully navigated the echelons of colonial power as did Joseph William McKay (1829-1900). McKay was Métis, born in Quebec, and began his career in Oregon during the dispute over the international boundary in 1845-46. After moving north, he met his mentor James Douglas and, at age twenty-three, was given the job of building the city of Nanaimo from the ground up and establishing its coal mines. McKay made several exploratory trips with Douglas during the Gold Rush, and he surveyed the route for the Overland Telegraph, which ran throughout BC. He rose through the ranks of the Hudson's Bay Company, eventually earning the appointment of Chief Factor, the company's highest rank. This was at a time when few Indigenous employees of HBC were permitted to rise beyond the rank of postmaster. After leaving the company in 1878, McKay began a second career in the Department of Indian Affairs. He was a federal Indian Agent and later the Assistant Commissioner of Indian Affairs for British Columbia. A product of his time who had found personal success working within the colonial system, McKay is a complicated figure when viewed through a twenty-first-century lens. He advocated on behalf of Indigenous Peoples when he tried to prevent the trespass of CPR crews and European settlers on their ancestral land. Between 1886 and 1888, he personally inoculated more than a thousand Indigenous people with the smallpox vaccine. Yet, he also participated in a system that did untold harm to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit people. This fascinating new biography sheds light on an accomplished and complex man.

From Fur Trader to Chief Factor: The Extraordinary Life and Career of Joseph William Mckay

Biographies & Memoirs

Greg N. Fraser

Community & Culture

An inspiring and eye-opening collection of true stories about sixteen women who blazed their own trails in life and contributed in a fundamental way to the history of Vancouver Island and the surrounding islands. In this fascinating follow-up to On Their Own Terms, author Haley Healey chronicles the lives of a whole new crop of resilient, hard-working, rule-breaking, diverse women who lived on and around Vancouver Island. Flourishing and Free introduces readers to Sylvia Stark, who was born into slavery in Missouri and went on to become a homesteader on Salt Spring Island; Mary Ann Croft, the first female lighthouse keeper in all of Canada; Victoria Chung, the first Asian-Canadian person to earn a medical degree, who provided urgent care during the Second World War; Barbara Touchie (Si&#269;quu&#660;u&#411;), who dedicated forty years of her life to revitalizing and sharing the Nuu-chah-nulth language; Minnie Paterson, who completed an epic night hike through a west coast storm to rescue sailors shipwrecked on a tempestuous shoreline known as the "Graveyard of the Pacific"; and many more. Uplifting, empowering, and entertaining, this concise collection of stories will appeal to anyone interested in learning more about the unsung heroines of the West Coast.

Flourishing and Free: More Stories of Trailblazing Women of Vancouver Island

History

Haley Healey

Americas

Haida Gwaii: The Definitive Visitor's Guide

Horwood, Dennis

Room at the Inn: Historic Hotels of British Columbia’s Southern Interior

Mofford, Glen A.

Aitken, Wayne

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