People of the Wild: Rumon Carter & Jennie Sprigings

I recently went looking for a profile Destination BC wrote on Jennie and I back in May 2015. The original URL threw a 404, but the Internet Archive Wayback Machine had it archived, so in the interest of not losing the post to the vagaries of the internet I’ve copy/pasted it here. It was fun to re-read, to return back to those early explorations of that time, the first couple of our years together. Oh the distance we’ve traveled since then, measured in myriad ways…

People of the Wild is a blog series profiling residents of British Columbia who have one thing in common: their love for exploring the BC wild. This week we’re featuring Rumon Carter and Jennie Sprigings, an energetic couple based in Victoria who have fully embraced a lifestyle of discovery on Vancouver Island. Their love for multisport nature adventures is geared towards internal growth and reflection as much as it is a thrill seeking activity. For this couple, the planning and the journey are as important as the destination. They are passionate about community, storytelling, and strengthening connections to land and people through shared wilderness experiences.

Why do you call BC home?

Rumon: I’ve been living in BC all but the first eight months of my life, beginning in Port Alberni on Vancouver Island. Later, I went to high school and finished my first degree in the Interior. I moved back to the Island in ’99 after finishing my wildlife biology degree and doing some research on the oilsands in Northern Alberta. I made that move back to go to law school at UVic, and stayed to pursue the practice of law and policy for the BC government for a few years. In 2011 I left government to launch a creative and consulting agency, feeling at that time that my best place in shaping policy and practice was to be found grounded in the outdoors. Among other things, that agency now works with clients and partners to help people find, share, and keep wild the places that mean the most to them. So home now is with Jennie and her two girls here in Victoria, where as we sit here speaking with you, we’re looking out at the Salish Sea from our home near Clover Point.

Jennie: And I actually moved to the Island in 2001 but I am from the Prairies… I remember the first time I came to Victoria, to visit a girlfriend who had moved there, and I was absolutely blown away by the beauty. I guess for me now, although I do identify as a Prairie girl and I do love the Rockies, the Island very much is home now for my girls and I. For the past seven years I’ve been mainly focused on them while they’re at home with me but now they’re slowly moving to school, I have some entrepreneurial experience that I’m going back to with Rumon. We’re now collaborating on some social enterprise development and putting effort towards building a platform focused on the Island. So I’m really excited about that.

Hiking through Vancouver Island’s rainforest

What is it that makes you both proud to call BC home?

R: I think that a sense of pride, whether it’s in place or personal characteristics, can only reasonably be grounded in the things that we do or the things that we’ve done rather than the things that we are inherently. So while it’d be easy and true to say that I’m proud of BC’s wild places and their incredible diversity, and certainly it’s true that I’m proud to share those places and their stories with friends and visitors, I’m most proud of the decisions that have been made and the actions that have been taken by people, BC’s visionaries and leaders, past and present, that make BC stand out on the world stage. So I’m thinking for example here of our world-class network of provincial parks. I love them and I’m in awe of the beauty they contain, but what makes me proud is the fact that we created them and that people continue to explore, value, and protect them.

J: I would definitely agree with that. I also find, when I was thinking about this question, I think pride is an interesting and sometimes loaded word. For me it suggests that you make contributions to something that’s made, so for me I would tend towards saying I feel privileged to call BC home. I feel the way that its natural beauty and easy access to wild places, along with the quality of life for sure and the quality of people, that make BC feel like home to me. And I feel so lucky to live here.

How does BC’s nature and wilderness inspire you?

J: This is multipart. I find, for me, it inspires me with its vastness — the fact that there’s so much diversity and just so much to explore in our natural places, the fact that each of our wild experiences inspires me to go to the next. There’s just…there’s so much more to uncover and you get these little snippets and you realize that you’re just the tip of the iceberg so to speak.

But also for me, BC’s nature also inspires me inwardly to explore a deeper and truer sense of self. I find that by disconnecting from the clutter of our lives, something that time in wilderness allows me to do, I can connect again with what’s simple. And the expansiveness that I feel when I’m out in the wilderness allows me to reflect and introspect.

Feeling that connection and that part of nature definitely inspires me and both motivates me to share the stories and advocate for its stewardship. I think the more people that see these places and build relationships with them they will be more motivated to protect them. And that certainly informs my desire to be a storyteller.

R: Given all the things that wilderness has and continues to give me, it really inspires me to share these things with others. And whether that is through stories about these places that we visit, how we connect with them through movement and exploration and adventure, or through directly sharing experiences outside with friends. And taking them…there’s just such a richness in taking friends to places that they’ve never seen and seeing their eyes grow wide and light up. And then to hear them reflecting their stories back to you is one of the most — we talked about inspiration earlier and that’s inspiring — but it’s one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve ever had is that sharing. And so, like Jennie, it inspires me to advocate for the conservation and stewardship of these places and these experiences so that we can continue to have them ourselves as adults. But also we do a lot of this sharing with other families so Jennie’s girls and our friends’ kids will have the same kinds of opportunities and all the things that wilderness has given us.

Sharing something a bit more personal, in particular BC’s wilderness inspires me to be healthy and to pursue the fitness necessary to do the things that Jennie and I and the girls do outside. Particularly trying to keep up with Jennie as we explore our Island’s mountainous summits! I’ve had a number of health challenges — including two heart surgeries — over the years, and it’s been through a driving desire to still be able to get outside adventuring, to move through those physical hurdles as well as the emotional challenges that have come along with them, that I stay motivated. Wilderness is a place of emotional balance and rejuvenation and recreation — so it repays that motivation in all those different ways.

Describe your perfect day in BC.

J: This is so hard — I said to Rumon when contemplating this question: Can I have access to a plane? Can I start in Yoho and end on the Island? Because I could definitely do that. We were like, what is something we can actually picture ourselves doing?

But I think, regardless, when I picture a perfect day, it would start with a tent pitched somewhere by the water…and this is my day so I would wake up to the smell of coffee because Rumon’s gotten up first and made it. I may manage to mumble good morning, but I tend to like to bury myself a little deeper in my minus 20C sleeping bag (that I admit I use even in the summer). We’d drink our coffee by the lakeshore looking over a map and planning our day. We’re both total map freaks. So then we’d load up the canoe and head out. When I visualize this, the lake surface is like glass, and that smooth glide of the boat over the still water with Rumon and I paddling in sync is definitely a favourite feeling.

Powell Forest Canoe Route, Sunshine Coast, BC

But at the end of the paddling section on past trips, on several occasions we have put on our trail runners and started climbing. We both like to move light and fast if possible, if it’s without the kids. And so we like to be in the thick of it, problem solving, route finding, lots of snacks, and then punching through the coastal forest into the alpine and seeing a new area for the first time. Wildflowers, vistas, the sense, for me anyways, the sense of having just discovered a secret place, that to me is thrill seeking. Other people might define thrill seeking differently but that’s it for me. Opening the door to a hut and taking off muddy, wet clothes and being just exhausted and cold and hungry. That’s my happy place. We love a dirtbag dinner of Ichiban noodles followed by chocolate, a game of cribbage where my competitive streak definitely comes out, and then a deep long sleep. That to me is a perfect day.

R: That sounds just about right for me so I’ll take two of those back to back.

Powell Forest Canoe Route, Sunshine Coast, BC

What place or experience would you recommend a new visitor to BC not miss this summer?

R: We’re actually in the midst of planning a trip to the Nootka Sound. We’re going to paddle from probably Tahsis — we’re trying to decide whether it’s from the Tahsis side or the Gold River side, but I think probably Tahsis — and paddle from Tahsis to Nootka Island. And then we’re going to run out and back on the Nootka Island Trail, stopping at some of the cabins along the way overnight. You’ve probably gleaned already that we got attached to this idea of moving light and fast and exploring huts by running, because you can get into places light and fast running that would otherwise take days with a heavy pack.

Tin Hat Hut, Sunshine Coast Trail, BC

So that’s a bias but nonetheless, if I was going to make a suggestion to a visitor that they visit one place I think that a trip to Nootka is the one not to miss. And that’s because it’s a trip into the heart of the province’s history. And also a trip into one of the most beautiful parts of the world that I’ve ever seen. And I think that there’s an amazing broad experience to it. Unless you’re flying in, which many people do, but I’d suggest that if you do that you miss some of the best parts of the experience, frankly. Start on the east coast of Vancouver Island. You drive west across the Island along Highway 28, which by the way, we’re talking mostly about wilderness experiences, but as a guy who rides a motorbike, I will mention that outside of the Alps, Highway 28 from Campbell River to Gold River is one of the funnest paved roads I’ve ever come across. It’s actually pretty famous in motorbike circles. People make pilgrimages to ride that highway. It’s awesome.

J: Rumon is alone on this one.

R: Yeah there’s no backseat on my motorbike. So we’ll see if I ever make it back there now that we’re together, but it’s an amazing highway to drive. If you’re traveling through that highway, you’re traveling through the mountainous heart of BC’s first provincial park, Strathcona and its history. You travel along the massive Campbell and Buttle Lakes. You travel past the jaw-droppingly beautiful Elk River watershed, which is ringed by some of the Island’s most iconic peaks and an area of the Island alpine that so many people don’t know about.

What would you say is BC’s best-kept secret?

J: This might be hedging, but I think the best-kept secrets of any landscape are the ones you’re willing to go in search of. So spending more time with Rumon and his passion for this island, it’s certainly become contagious. I’ve actually been here for many years, for 15 years, but honestly I have to say I felt a sense of shame for how little I’d seen of the Island. I’d seen a lot of BC but not particularly the Island. And I’m finding that the more I know this landscape, the secret coves, the crags, the unique biogeography, the more I have a sense of my own place. And that’s what I want for my girls. We live by the sea and I want them to know the stories of this place and for them to be raised as coastal women, and to explore equally the ocean and the island alpine and the secrets of this place. That definitely is strong for me, and I think for Rumon as well.

R: It is. It’s become a passion, and certainly place-finding and place-making for us is incredibly important. And it has been as individuals but certainly now, becoming a family, it becomes that much more important. And this is our place where we are and I mean that in the most constructive sense of ownership possible, a sense of ownership that is stewardship.

So to go back to your question about BC’s best-kept secret…maybe it sounds foolish how I’m going to answer, because everybody knows about Vancouver Island. It’s famous for its beauty and natural wonders, but I actually think that Vancouver Island remains the province’s best-kept secret. And the reason I say that is that travelers typically hear about the usual suspects. They’re all wonderful and true and should be visited but what people hear about less, travelers and locals alike, is the Island’s attributes that are truly unique.

King’s Peak, Vancouver Island

J: He’s just been waiting for someone to ask him that!

R: Yeah, I kind of like it here.

Any last words of advice to someone thinking about visiting BC?

J: Ignore anyone who whinges about the ferry, and come to the Island! I’d say pick your mode of exploration, whether by foot or canoe or mountain bike, whatever, you name it, and then from there narrow down the longest wilderness trip you can do and just get after it. Visit your nearest town to get supplies from the locals who know that particular region and get to know that particular region and its people and then go and just immerse. I think that wherever you are, the Island, the Kootenays, the Rockies, the North, each of these places in BC have the best of BC within them. So I think you’ll get to know BC best by starting with one particular region and going from there.

R: There’s a coherence to the people of BC. So there’s that connection region-to-region and I guess similarly, echoing Gord Pincock’s answer from his profile in this series, pick a spot in this vast and diverse province and immerse in it. BC is too big to ‘do’ in a single trip so don’t even bother with that superficial overview, instead go to a place and get to know it. Take your time. And then, after you’ve done that, come back to BC over and over every year and get to know it river-by-river, range-by-range, region-by-region. And then of course, we’ll say that when you’re on Vancouver Island, make sure you stop in and say hi to us and we promise we’ll point you in the right direction.