Hikes tap into nature’s healing properties
Relaxing forest bathing tours in Qualicum Beach help clear the mind and cleanse the soul
QUALICUM BEACH, B.C.— Things are pretty laid back in little Qualicum Beach and not just because this small Vancouver Island town is a hot spot for hippies and retirees. Tourists love this part of the sunshine coast for its pristine swimming conditions (its eastern location shelters it from wild West Coast waves), prime oceanfloor exploration and skimboarding (at low tide, the coast pulls back almost a kilometre).
But you definitely won’t need a swimsuit for Qualicum Beach’s newest bathing experience. “Forest bathing” tours are bringing visitors into the Beach, then into the forest to spend quality time with ancient trees and draw on their healing properties.
The growing eco-trend is based on shinrin-yoku (which translates to “taking in the forest atmosphere”), a global movement with deep roots in Japan. Scientists there claim time spent in the forest can greatly improve mood, reduce stress, lower blood pressure and cortisol (stress hormone) levels, and increase the ability to focus.
Gary and Ronda Murdock started Pacific Rainforest Adventure Tours in 1999 but began offering formal forest bathing tours in the area this fall. They say that while any amount of time in a forest is beneficial, a minimum of 40 minutes per session is recommended to achieve maximum health benefits. Their tours are longer and more immersive experiences, mixing quiet meditation with forest exploration. And while tours can be booked for the famous Cathedral Grove forest (a 20-minute drive away), Gary and Ronda recommend bathing in the quiet, less-touristy Heritage Forest, a five-minute drive from downtown Qualicum Beach.
The session begins at the top of the Heritage Forest path, where Ronda asks us to thank the forest and shake out our limbs to relax and lower our cortisol levels (similar to how an animal shakes its coat when it comes out of the water). Forest bathing encourages silent contemplation, but she says there is still a structure to it, and a big part of her role is to help ground us to the nature around us.
“There are different things you can do to listen more closely (to the forest),” she tells us. “Cup your ear and walk so that you’re actually feeling everything.”
We walk slowly, purposefully and silently along the trail, emptying our minds of thoughts. Every so often, Ronda draws our attention to sounds in the distance — a woodpecker, a human voice — or asks us to analyze the difference between two types of moss.
“Take the forest in with all of the senses,” she says, “What you see, what you hear, what you smell, how it feels on your skin, how the air is a little different.”
Gary, who worked as a forest technician for 35 years, excitedly points out mushrooms, medicinal plants and old-growth trees (250 years or older). We stop to examine the western red cedars and pick off a few leaves to smell and taste, pausing to give thanks. Halfway down the trail, we turn our backs on the cedars.
“The western red cedar tree is considered to have so much power that if you stand underneath the tree with your back to (it), you receive strength,” Ronda tells us.
“Even though we’re in the coastal Douglas fir zone, one of the very significant plants here is the western red cedar tree.”
We each stand under a cedar tree’s canopy, our feet above the roots and our backs inches from the trunks, concentrating on emptying our minds and pulling in strength from the sacred cedars.
This 20.2-hectare Heritage Forest is a rare mix of remnant old-growth with coastal Douglas fir, grand fir, western red cedar, hemlock and Sitka spruce. While the western red cedar is believed to offer strength, Gary explains Douglas firs can actually heal other Douglas firs through interconnected root systems under the soil. When their roots cross each other underground, they fuse together, creating a pipeline where nutrients can pass from tree to tree.
“The Douglas fir is the only tree on Vancouver Island that I know of where (the roots) are joined together throughout the forest,” he says. “When one gets injured, the others it’s tied to supply the nutrients to heal it. You’ll see some living stumps around here.” He points to a Douglas fir nearby. “If you cut that tree off with a chainsaw right now, the tree next to it would heal it over . . . it would be a big round ball and it would keep getting bigger but it would never grow any branches.
“All that healing power from the forest . . . maybe the forest needs us?” he says.
“We certainly need the forest.” Stacey McLeod was hosted by Parksville Qualicum Beach Tourism Association, which didn’t review or approve this story.