With his grandfather's 10-pound boots on his feet and his great-grandfather's journal in hand, Squamish resident Murray Sovereign re-enacted his ancestor's 1910 journey from Campbell River to Crown Mountain to name the first B.C. provincial park.
And what Sovereign found was more than he ever dreamed a veritable time capsule into the past.
During an expedition to assess Vancouver Island's lands in 1910, then-B.C. Minister of Lands Price Ellison decided to set Strathcona aside as a provincial park. To mark the park's centennial on July 29, his great-grandson re-traced his 100-year-old footsteps so precisely he even found remnants of the expedition's campsite.
Sovereign said he was physically prepared for the trek, but he was surprised by how moved he was.
"The actual hiking and bushwacking was about what I was expecting, steep and heavy bush and really heavy packs and dry and buggy typical coastal bushwacking," he said.
"I wasn't prepared for it to be as emotional as it turned out to be. There were certain things along the way that just triggered a whole cascade of memories and emotions."
Sovereign's return made him realized the people he wanted to share the story with most had already passed away.
"That entire generation are all gone, and those are exactly who I would have loved to be able to come home and phone and tell them all about it, and I can't."
Sovereign grew up listening to stories of his great-grandfather's trip, mainly through the former minister's daughter, Sovereign's great aunt Myra Ellison. Aunt Myra was a spry 20-year-old at the time and took part in the expedition during a summer off from university.
"You can retrace the route of the expedition though central Vancouver Island by looking at all the things named after her Mount Myra, Myra Falls, Myra Valley, Myra Creek, Myra this, Myra that," said Sovereign.
During the centennial excursion the crew camped on the shores of Myra Lake, 100 years to the day from when they named it after Myra, and according to the journal they camped about a 100 yards from where the original excursion camped.
"Basically from lunch time the second day we knew from reading the journal that we were pretty much right in their footsteps," said Sovereign.
"They were talking about taking breaks in the same spots we took our breaks and they were running into difficulties in the same places we were running into difficulties.
"In reading the journal after dinner each night we would read their account of crossing the same terrain we crossed that day and see just how their experience matched ours. You kind of expect the landscape to be the same, but their experience of hiking up that ridge was the same as ours was the same highs in the same spots as us and the same lows in the same spots as us."
With Sovereign wearing his grandfather's 10-pound hiking boots, they reached the summit of Crown Mountain almost within a minute the original ascent was made in 1910.
Sovereign said finding and reading the contents of the summit registry was an intense moment.
Several entries gave thanks to Myra and Price Ellison for their trip and their role in the park's creation.
"That was nice to see," said Sovereign. "They weren't just remembered but actively celebrated there."
Someone had rolled up a picture of Myra Ellison with a note on the back that said: "Thank you Price and Myra for our park we love you."
"After that it took a while for me to say anything. That's when all the memories and emotions and things started coming out."
But Sovereign's most emotional moment was yet to come. When they started scrambling down the ridge, one group stumbled upon Myra and Price Ellison's old campsite, complete with the fire pit and the old spruce tent poles.
After dinner, they led Sovereign to their discovery.
"In the morning I went back up and sat and had my coffee there and I was overwhelmed by the memories flooding through my head," he said. "I could feel their presence and particularly on Crown Mountain, Price and Myra are still very much alive.
"People are so aware of the history, they're not just names on tombstones. As far as they're concerned, Price and Myra are still alive somehow and they're very appreciative of what they did."
Sovereign said he's never felt so proud of his family's accomplishments and it was a truly inspirational experience.
