If Lake Cowichan is known for one thing, this is it. You climb into an inflated tube, lean back, and let the Cowichan River carry you right through town. It sounds far too simple to be worth doing, until you've done it. Then you'll be the one telling your friends they have to go. For most of the run, the river moves at roughly walking pace. The water is cool and clear, the trees lean in overhead, and the gravel bars invite you to stretch your legs. Every so often a stretch pi

Here's something that still makes me smile. Lake Cowichan is a town of about three thousand people, and within a few easy blocks of each other you'll find five places to get a coffee and something baked. I'd expect that in a city. In a lakeside town where half the doors are shut on a January Tuesday, it feels like a small miracle. The best part? No two of them are alike. Grab a friend (or go solo, I won't judge) and let me walk you through them. Ed's Coffeehouse 67 South Shor

Most golf courses in Canada have a season. This one has a calendar. March Meadows in Honeymoon Bay is a nine-hole par 36 with both nine and eighteen hole rates. It's tree-lined, relatively flat, and ringed by mountains. But the layout isn't what makes it unusual. What makes it special is that the Cowichan Valley holds the warmest year-round average temperature in Canada, so this course plays through months when most of the country has the clubs tucked away in the garage. Let

The best guide for your Get Away weekend to Lake Cowichan

Before I tell you where to go, I want to tell you who to thank. The trails around Cowichan Lake didn't arrive with the tourism. They were built, and are still looked after, by the Cowichan Lake Trail Blazers Society, a volunteer group that develops, maintains and promotes hiking and biking routes across the region. Every well-cut switchback and cleared windfall out there is somebody's Saturday. Check their website for the full-meal deal on our amazing trails. Keep that in you