Island of Clear Appeal

Propped against a cedar tree atop Mt. Maxwell, I’m watching five bald eagles circle the updrafts from their fishing grounds on Burgoyne Bay nearly 2,000 feet below. Pastures of grazing sheep and fields of hay roll southward toward the harbor at the end of the valley. The Victoria-bound ferry is just pulling out and beyond it, dozens of emerald islands dot the blue water.

Near me, a young couple walks up and leans cozily against a safety railing, basking in the view. Ooooh,” the woman says, “I could handle living here!”

Yes, I think, catching her emotion, I feel just the same way. Nevermind that Maria and I have called this island home for several years now, Salt Spring has the sort of magic that touches us all. In fact, it is the kind of April spring day when residents see the island in a fresh way--through visitors’ eyes as it were-- and remember why they live here.

Between Canada’s mainland and Vancouver Island, just 20 miles northwest of Washington State’s San Juans, Salt Spring is the largest and most accessible of British Columbia’s Gulf Islands. Thanks to the warm Japan Current, the coddling proximity of island neighbors, and the Olympic Mountain rain shadow, the island enjoys the best weather in Canada, a microclimate fondly called the Banana Belt.

Interesting things happen when you cross the U.S. border, some of them well-known. Miles turn into kilometers, mugs of beer turn into pints of ale, the accent turns decidedly British, and the people turn excruciatingly polite. (“Yes, we’re so polite here,” says our neighbor, Hazel, with a lovely Scottish accent. “It’s sickening, isn’t it?”) And now, with the currency exchange as it is, the U.S. dollar expands like a magic towel in water ($1 U.S. buys $1.35 Canadian). This factor helped put Canada into the World Tourism Organization’s “top 10” list of world tourist destinations in 1997.

Last year 200,000 visitors arrived. Though most came by ferry or floatplane, Al Pacino prefers helicopters. He regularly flies in and out of his favorite BOB that way. Rumor has it he’s building a house here. Robin Williams bought one earlier this year. Most visitors who don’t bring a car rent one, although Starship Capt. Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) prefers to tour the back roads on a rented scooter. Presumably he gets beamed down to Salt Spring, but it isn’t necessary.

With daily floatplanes from Vancouver and Seattle into Ganges Harbor on the island’s east side, getting here from the Southland has never been easier or quicker. In fact, a weekend getaway to Salt Spring could be seriously considered. Catch the early flight from Seattle (1015 a.m. landing) and you’ll be here in time for the Saturday morning Market in the Park.

Long Canada’s most famous artist haven (home to wildlife painter Robert Bateman, among others), Salt Spring--18 miles long; population 10,000--also is becoming one of its most popular tourist destinations. People from all over the world are drawn by the island’s idyllic countryside, its dramatic maritime scenery and refreshing rural pace. There’s a multitude of studios and galleries, abundant outdoor activities and accommodations with character (mainly B&Bs; or cabins and cottages ).

There’s no better way to explore and meet the creative and endearingly idiosyncratic islanders than by doing the self-guided “sheep tour.” Follow the map (available everywhere) and look for the blue and white sheep logos on signs marking more than 30 home studios--of potters, painters, sculptors, photographers and weavers--that are hidden among the hills and bluffs, farms and forests.

At blue sheep sign No. 10 (Tufted Puffin Gallery), I turn onto the gravel drive leading to David Jackson’s island studio of Scott Point, the peninsula that forms the lower jaw of Long Harbor. There’s a little duck pond under the trees. In front of the studio, a gargoyle sips water at the garden fountain.

Inside, a man wearing a baseball cap is speckling nicks in the wall. I figure he’s hired help. But when I read the artist’s name off one of the sculptures --”David Jackson”--with a kind of “wow” at the end, the man speaks right up, like an ump calling a strike, “That’s me!”

Jackson has lived and worked here for almost 10 years. He shows me a work-in-progress an eagle’s head, fully formed, thrusting itself from the confines of a gnarled juniper stump. “I always start with the head,” David explains. “When I get that the piece comes alive. Then it finds its own form.” His fingers trace the curve of the juniper grain. “Can you see the power in that neck? It gets that power from the wood.”

Besides the unfinished eagle (already sold, $5,900), he has other wildlife sculptures in both wood and stone. Vintage Robert Bateman prints ($4,400) adorn the walls (‘Probably the best wildlife painter in the world,” Jackson says). One whole wall is filled with duck decoys ($185-$720), the kind that gained Jackson his first wide acceptance in the art world.

The island studio tour has an uncanny 1 way of making talented artists seem like your next-door neighbors. Jackson isn’t our neighbor but acts like it--even though his wood and stone creatures, once purchased, become instant heirlooms. Prince Phillip has one; so has Glenn Close. David flips through a photo album on his desk. “This piece here went to Santa Barbara, and that one to Austin, Texas . . . this is in Australia now.”

He actually is the guy next door to Inge Kerster. She and her husband have their summer home here, their winter home in Indian Wells, Calif., but that may change, Kerster says.

“I think we’re going to stay here now most of the time. People here. are so friendly. And it’s quiet. Until you get out of it, you don’t realize what a roar the traffic is. After a while on the island, when you go back, it’s unbearable.”

And maybe she misses the wildlife. The island’s black-tail deer, in particular. “We’ve got names for them,” she laughs. “They come around and eat anything--carrots, potatoes, roses. One came right through the front door the other day and took the tops off the roses in my living room!”

The blue sheep signs have led me into the hills above Fulford Harbor. After much winding through the forest a dirt road deposits me in front of a--well, in front of a two-story sharply peaked birdhouse. In the back, a salacious house sits on the bluff with a forever view across the island to the sea.

According to the map this is Mike Hunsberger’s studio. “Handcrafted birdhouses, feeders and mailboxes. 100% recycled, beachcomber, salvaged or scrounged.”

“Don’t worry about the dog,” Hunsberger says. “Come on in.”

Inside, there are racks of driftwood, a band saw, an expansive worktable and a retail display of handcrafted birdhouses ($22-$220). They’re fashioned into storefronts, bait shops, outhouses. The bigger ones come with their own driftwood stands.

Although it’s his first season with the studio tour (“three weeks now”), it’s his fifth year in the birdhouse business. About the same length of time he’s been living on Salt Spring.

He used to be a house renovator in Vancouver, Hunsberger says, but the city was getting too crowded. “We really wanted to move to Salt Spring, but there wasn’t enough renovating work here to make a living. Then on vacation in Washington State we saw these birdhouses for sale. Tacky ones for $50. I told my wife I could do better than that.

“We gathered driftwood that same day, and I made the first birdhouse as soon as I got back to the city. Then I made 14 more as samples, took them to a trade show, and came back with $7,500 in orders. I said to my wife, ‘This is our ticket to Salt Spring!”

“I’ve still got that first one.” Hunsberger hammers a nail. “This is No. 10,301.”

He now supplies about 400 stores across the U.S. and Canada. Even Homer, Alaska. All of his birdhouses are from free drift wood found on the beaches. Mike takes down a gracefully weathered piece of cedar that hasn’t been worked yet. “This is a $90 piece of driftwood,” he says with a smile. “Picked it up at Ruckle Park.”

The Ruckle family owns the oldest farm, not only on the island, but in all of British Columbia. It occupies a good chunk of land on Beaver Point, up above Fulford Harbor on Salt Spring’s southeast corner. Every spring, during lambing and planting season, islanders and early-season visitors gather for Family Day, a free open-house on the farm and surrounding parklands. There’s a lamb-petting pen for the kids, weaving and blacksmithing demonstrations, a horse-drawn plowing competition . . . and long lines at the barbecue grill (proceeds benefit the local Lions Club).

Gwen Ruckle narrates a slide show of long-ago farm scenes in the old barn. She lives in a graceful Victorian house across the field. The original family home, built by Henry Ruckle in 1877, still proudly stands (among other heritage structures) near the apple orchard behind the barn.

The petting pen only has the older lambs. The brand-new ones are with their mothers in a shady fenced pasture all their own. As I stand near the wood gate, a farmhand brings over a still-wet little black lamb, carefully holding it close to the ground so its nervous mother won’t lose sight of it. Once the two are inside with the rest of the ewes and lambs, he pulls the gate closed. “She’s No. 83, so far,” he says, whistling for his sheep dog.

Much of the original farmstead, including four miles of shoreline, has been made into a 1,200-acre provincial park with first-come, first-served campsites. I take a hiking trail from the lambing pen out to stunningly beautiful Beaver Point. A couple of campers Have set up tents at the edge of the clover meadows. As the tide is out, I investigate colorful life in the tidal pools. But what I’m really checking out is the driftwood.

Although Henry Ruckle was one of Salt Spring’s early pioneers, he was not the first. The first were Americans who arrived 20 years earlier, in 1857--nine slaves who had purchased their freedom and were looking to make a fresh start in a new land. A schooner from Victoria dropped them off in what is now called Vesuvius Bay on Salt Spring’s northwest shore. The island was totally uninhabited. Native people used the beaches only for seasonal fishing and hunting.

The early settlers also included Hawaiians. William Naukana, born in 1813, was the first Hawaiian to arrive. After years exploring in the north with the Hudson Bay Co., he eventually settled on Salt Spring, bringing other Hawaiians with: him. Naukana’s descendants still live here today. Hawaiian graves can be seen in the little cemetery at Fulford’s St. Paul’s Church, built in 1885. The island’s first church, it is still in use.

By 1900, Salt Spring had 80 farms and its first travelers’ inn. All this was not long ago. Many of the family names in the history books can be found today in the phone book. The pioneer spirit is still here too. With all its artiness, Salt Spring has not allowed itself to become gentrified. Lots of working farms produce the lamb and pork and organic vegetables found in local restaurants. In Ganges Village, rubber boots and pick-up trucks are just as common as deck shoes and Volvos.

Friday afternoon, Maria and I slip our kayaks into the water near Ganges Marina. Paddling about in a harbor would be uninteresting in most places. Here, it is not. A few minute’s paddle gets you into a chain. Of rocky, forested islets.

Half a dozen other kayakers are setting off from the docks on a guided sunset tour. ( If kayaking is not your style, try the comfortable sightseeing cruise from Ganges aboard the Swan Spirit.)

We circle the first few islets--I’m looking for $90 pieces of driftwood--exchange glances with a couple of cute harbor seals, and then paddle back. At Moby’s Marine Pub we have our usual lamb burgers and Piper’s Pale Ale, a local microbrew.

Had we wanted more noble fare in a ( much ) more formal setting, Hastings House, on its own 25-acre waterfront estate, would be the place. The award-winning kitchen offers five-course fixed-price menus that change daily. There’s a formal dining room or the bistro-like Snug, adjacent to the wine cellar. Dinners, which might be lobster steamed in chardonnay or honey-glazed pheasant breast, are $48; wine and service extra.

Tourist season’s already here. If the cherry and plum blossoms don’t clue you in, parking in the village on Saturdays will. Between April and October, the Saturday Market in Centennial Park turns sleepy Ganges into something like what a real “town” must feel like. Only it’s not a town--no traffic signal.

Farmers and gardeners, artists and artisans have set up their booths and table displays around the grassy park. A band strikes up a tune in the waterfront gazebo. In the farmer section we look over flowers, vegetables, fresh herbs, sauces . . . and settle on a jar of blackberry preserves.

Cutting over to the Boat Basin ( my favorite, where the working boats stay), we take the path out to Grace Point. The little bluff drops to a tiny beach.

“Aaah, yes,” I think, suddenly having that first-time feeling all over again. “This is what it’s all about.” Hardly seems five years now since packing up and heading north on the San Diego Freeway.

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GUIDEBOOK

Around the Island

Getting there: From L.A. to Seattle, nonstop service on Alaska and United; fares begin at $196 round trip. From L.A. to Vancouver, nonstop service on American Canadian international, Alaska, United and. Air Canada; fares begin at about $210.

From- Seattle, Kenmore ‘Air ([8001 543-9595) has daily direct floatplane flights (May 8-Sept. 27) to Ganges on Salt Spring; $100 one way. From Vancouver, Harbour ‘Air Seaplanes ( [800] 665-0212) and Seair Seaplanes ([604] 273-8900) have year-round daily flights into Ganges; about $45 one way.

Where to stay: Salt Spring has 120 B&Bs; (starting at $50), plus small hotels, resorts and one hostel.

Hastings House, 160 Upper Ganges Road, Salt Spring Island, B.C. V8K2S2; telephone (800) 661-9255, fax (250) 537-5333. 10 guest suites with fireplaces; $200-$370.

Anne’s Oceanfront Hideaway, 168 Simson Road, Salt Spring, B.C. V8K1E2; tel. (888) 474-2663, fax (250) 537-0861. Luxurious, adult-oriented; $75-$160.

Harbour House Hotel, 121 Upper Ganges Road, Salt Spring, B.C. V8K2S2; tel. (250) 537-5571, fax (250) 537-4618. Ocean-view rooms across from marina; $60-$75.

For more information: Visitor lnformation Center, 121 Lower Ganges Road, Salt Spring, BC V8K2T1. tel. (250) 637-5252, fax (250) 537-4276.

Canadian Tourism Commission 550 S. Hope St., Los Angeles, CA 90071; tel. (213) 346-2700.

This new column about women’s travel will appear weekly. Spano, who joined the Travel staff recently, is a seasoned traveler who has freelanced widely. She will also write destination stories for Travel.