Mayne attractions

MAYNE ISLAND, B.C. – It was the first day of spring, so naturally we were watching Mayne Island volunteers remove Christmas lights from a big tree in the park.

That’s what you call “island time.” No strict deadlines. No rushing about.

And almost everything is do-it-yourself out here on Mayne, one of the lesser-visited of British Columbia’s Gulf Islands. It’s nine square miles of lazily winding roads with no traffic lights and only about 1,100 year-round residents – a count that triples in summer.

“The whole island runs on volunteers!” volunteer Joanna Weeks told us earlier as she jotted down prices and added up our purchase – two previously owned wine glasses (50 cents each) and a souvenir Seattle World’s Fair teaspoon – at the island’s lovably ragtag Thrift Store.

When open (Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.) the store seemed the center of the island’s offseason social life. Cars lined the road out front. A sign inside noted that all proceeds go to island causes, ranging from a new floor for the Ag Hall, to those aforementioned holiday lights.

Weeks, a longtime resident, lamented that “it’s getting harder and harder because fewer people want to volunteer. We have so many snowbirds!”

But the independent air of these islanders is plain, and that’s part of the draw. That and the quiet beauty of this isolated place, where residents honor an interesting history.

Hiking trails abound. Our expectations were happily met by natural wonders along a half-mile walk to the tip of Campbell Point, part of the multi-island Gulf Islands National Park Reserve, established in 2003.