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GAEL ARTHUR TRAVELS TO RUBY LAKE ON THE SUNSHINE COAST OF CANADA'S BRITISH COLUMBIA You can do absolutely nothing, or take on the outdoors with a vengeance. Kayaking, canoeing on the lake, swimming in water that reaches 18C in the summer, hiking or mountain biking, or the more relaxed bird-watching.

Highway 101 – not the California highway that runs north through Sonoma County and south past Gilroy.
It’s on the Sunshine Coast, and can be reached from Horseshoe Bay or by crossing over from Vancouver Island at Comox.

I’m sticking to the southern half of the Sunshine Coast, starting with a pleasant 40-minute ferry ride from Horseshoe Bay, gathering food and hiking recommendations from the locals.

The beautifully engineered bypass from the ferry makes it easy to miss Gibsons. While it is definitely worth a stop,
I press on, heading for the unincorporated. You have to love a place where streets are named Marlene, Joe and Jack. On the more romantically named Redrooffs, the higgledy-piggledy development is like the haphazard shoreline, with multi-million dollar homes adjacent to dilapidated shacks.

I head off on the Lower Road; when the Gumboot Garden Café appears, it’s an easy decision to pull over.

The Gumboot is obviously the established anchor. The other buildings have sprung up more recently, housing galleries, an organic food store, a midwifery and a yoga space.

It’s an order and pay at the counter kind of place, with heavy garlic emanating from the kitchen. All day breakfast, homemade granola, lamb burgers and Thai noodle salad – the menu is conventionally unconventional. The salmon omelette will hold me for the next several hours. “The Gumboot is the living room of Roberts Creek”, one of the locals tells me. Her face lights up as she talks about the restaurant. “Dinners are fabulous, and there’s music most nights.”

As I leave, I check out two nearby galleries, but resist temptations of good solid pottery and lovely wooden bowls.

On the road, there are plenty of artisan signs, but a stop here and a stop there will delay my appointment with nature, so I forge on. Lunch has left me in a soporific mood, and the only way to shake it is to get out and walk a bit.

Provincial parks abound, with opportunities not only for little wanders through the trees, but for serious hikes and, even better, biking. There is a well-developed maze of trails ranked like ski runs, from easy to black diamond. Sigh, another trip.

Detouring along the road to Madeira Park, I come to Pender Harbour, or, as the promoters call it, Venice of the North. It is full of waterways and its inhabitants appear affluent (if the boats and SUVs are any indication), but that is about where the analogy stops. It’s lush, green, and, above all, serene.

Around another series of curves and suddenly, I am there – Ruby Lake Resort, my bed for the night, and, more important, my evening meal.

The proud owners are the Cogrossi family – three generations moved here from Milan in the early nineties and started renovating, spending as much time on the surrounding wetlands as the old fishing lodge.

	Aldo Cogrossi created an environment that encourages wild birds to make their summer home around the lagoon. The result is a peaceful setting for a resort, complete with the bird sanctuary attracting an impressive array of species. I notice a huge black turkey-like bird and am delighted with my first look at a Muscovy duck with all its feathers on.
Photograph by Keith Thirkell	I am told that there are no plans to put duck on the restaurant’s menu – the twinkle in Aldo’s eye tells me that these are people who love food as much as they love the wilderness.

The eclectic décor of the restaurant is more than charming, it is intriguing, with everything from an alabaster eagle (bigger than life size) imported from Italy side by side with First Nations art.

A big fireplace topped with a huge slab of teredo wood warms the cool spring night.

You can tell an Italian restaurant by its minestrone and Aldo does not disappoint – there is no real recipe, as different things from his garden are added as the season progresses.

The smoked salmon farfalle is delicate and tasty; although I am hungry, the portion is too large for me to be tempted by dessert.


The good news is that I get to taste the tira misu the next day at lunch.

The beauty of a resort like Ruby Lake is that you can do absolutely nothing, or take on the outdoors with a vengeance. Kayaking, canoeing on the lake, swimming in water that reaches 18C in the summer, hiking or mountain biking, or the more relaxed bird-watching.

The Skookumchuck Narrows are close, a ten-minute drive, and a pleasant walk of less than an hour through verdant forest.

Timing is important for the real impact – at tide change, more than 200 billion gallons of water rush through the narrows.

INFORMATION

Ruby Lake Resort, 604-883-2269, http;//www.rubylakeresort.com The Fifth Annual Wood Duck Festival will take place on Sunday, May 5, 2004.

To eat:
The Gumboot Garden Café, Roberts Creek, 604-885-4216, http://www.thegumboot.com