Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/126959
editor'snote The Wheel Thing IT WAS A STRANGE THING to wish for, standing as I was on the otherworldly landscape of Bolivia's Salar de Uyuni salt flats at sunset. But despite the haunting, isolated beauty around me, all I wanted to really enjoy this surreal, white flatness was a fast, lowered car that I could floor and push to the limit. And be the only one doing so for hundreds of miles. Alas, I had to settle for a brisk evening jog before heading back to my one-star hostel before night fell completely. It was that denial of speed and horsepower that got me excited to read Paul Sinkewicz's cover story "Flat Out" about a racing subculture at Utah's Bonneville Speedway that "has exerted its irresistible gravitational pull on those adventurous of spirit and enthralled with acceleration," he writes on page 33. It's a fitting anchor piece to our Wheels Issue, a celebration of all things internally combusting and liberating. From road-tripping the Alaska Highway through northern B.C. to the Yukon with a multinational and onerous crew, to an ode to the wonders of the urban scooter, this issue is full of keeping the good times rolling. We hope our how-to's, profiles and event listings inspire you to pack your car and take the family to explore our epic province. But it's not all travel and tall tales. Our Hot Topics section explores the growth of car traffic in the Lower Mainland and the perils of leaving this expansion unchecked. The great points in the story will force all of us to look in the mirror and ask some tough questions about how we get around – especially when you read some of the reality checks from this issue's expert. Hey, no one said living in paradise was easy. Tom Gierasimczuk, VP Editorial, Canada Wide Media 8 WESTWORLD p08-09_EdsNt_Mlbg.indd 8 >> mailbag Memories of Gold River I was interested to read the article regarding a roadtrip suggestion that included my hometown of Gold River. Your article triggered many memories, but only gave a very brief intro about a once busy B.C. mill town with an interesting history and very beautiful location. I grew up in Gold River. My parents moved to the original "beach camp" at the junction of the Gold River and Muchalat Inlet in 1962. My father, Dick Kosick, was the resident forester and logging engineer for the Tahsis Company. When the company decided to build a pulp mill at the beach camp site, my father was involved in choosing the new town site where it exists now, by the junction of the Gold and Heber rivers. He moved his young family to the brand new town site in 1965. Gold River was billed as a modern state-of-the-art community with all underground electrical service, a first in Canada at the time. Growing up in Gold River meant lots of outdoor time. We were exposed to all manner of activities. There was lots of hiking in the surrounding forests... always with the warning to watch for cougars and bears, cooling off in local creeks, jumping off the high rock into the river pool at Peppercorn Park, sunbathing at Big Bend (where the Gold and Heber rivers meet), hiking along the Peppercorn trail, fishing in Muchalat Inlet, camping at Muchalat Lake, camp fires at Buttle Lake, rides on the MV Uchuck and visits to Friendly Cove, cross-country skiing on inactive logging roads in the winter, canoeing at Strathcona Park, picnicking at Antler Lake, and skating in the winter on Scout Lake. My dad even climbed Matchlee Mountain one year so he could ski down! I moved away from Gold River in 1981 and my parents left a couple of years later. They had lived and worked there for about 26 years. Sadly my father passed away in November 2010. His old forestry engineering office remains, and is now the Gold River Visitor Information Centre. –Cathy (Kosick) Battocchio Can't Bear These Errors I am not sure how anyone could spend time researching the Kermode bear, write an article for a travel magazine ("Spirited Away," Spring 2013) and not know this basic fact about this specific subspecies of the black bear: "Dr. Kermit Rutland and Craig Newton studied the genetics of white black bears. The white fur of Kermode bears is the result of a double-recessive gene unique to this subspecies. A single nucleotide replacement in the melanocortin-1 (Mc-1r) receptor portion of that gene causes it to produce adenine rather than guanine. When both parents contribute this recessive gene, the result is white fur." I hope that in the future careful editing will prevent this misinformation from being perpetuated. –Jan Theunisz Check Your Facts (and Your Writers) I would assume that I am not the first to write to you about the shockingly sloppy article in the Spring 2013 edition of Westworld ("Spirited Away," Spring 2013). I was raised in the small northern B.C. town of Terrace where the first Kermode bear was sighted. Shame on whomever wrote that article. The Kermode is not an albino bear. It is a sub-species of the black bear and it is not found on just two islands in the world. I would imagine that the summer edition of the magazine will be full of apologies and a proper article about this amazing bear. –Laurie Thain To comment: Email us at westworld@bcaa.com or tomg@canadawide.com. Or write us at Westworld Letters, BCAA, 4567 Canada Way, Burnaby, B.C. V5G 4T1 (fax: 604-268-5565). Letters may be edited for length and clarity. SUMMER 2013 13-04-26 9:57 AM