Mountains have long served as a source of inspiration and expression. For Fred Wah, Canada’s Parliamentary Poet Laureate, the Japanese tradition of utaniki, a poetic journal, has shaped the way he documents his mountain journeys.

On June 30, Wild Nature Tours is offering a chance to share the trail with Fred on an event they’re calling A High(ku) Mountain Walk with Canada’s Poet Laureate. On this walk up Toby Creek and into the wholesomeness of the Purcell Wilderness Conservancy, Fred will guide your way with words and insights. He’ll combine stops for talking, writing and listening. Participants are not obliged to write anything.

Fred Wah grew up in the Kootenay region of southeast British Columbia. Since the early 1960s he has published numerous books of poetry, fiction, and criticism and frequently presents internationally on Canadian poetry and poetics. Diamond Grill, a bio-fiction about a small-town Chinese-Canadian café won the Howard O’Hagan award for short fiction, and his most recent book of poetry, is a door, was awarded the Dorothy Livesay Prize for poetry. He lives in Vancouver and on Kootenay Lake and is the current Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate.

The route we will take up Toby Creek was historically followed by First Nations people, and then by miners in the late 1800s. Earl Grey, the Governor General of Canada in the early 1900s, built a cabin near the start of the trail on Toby Creek in 1909. We will pass by the remains of Earl Grey’s family cabin and the now abandoned Mineral King Mine.  In 1974, the area was protected as the Purcell Wilderness Conservancy.

For more information call 250-341-7235.

http://wildnaturetours.ca
http://www.fredwah.org

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