Since the early 1990s, blogs have been used for everything from personal journaling to niche writing. Now, some tech-savvy Powell River residents are using them to showcase their interests—and promote their city.
Kevan Robitaille resides in Powell River five months of the year, during climbing season. He started his blog, Powell River Climbing, as a way to share rock climbing experiences in the area.
“I wanted to have a centralized place with updated information, and there wasn’t a lot of that online,” he said. Posts consist of photographs and news updates about climbing in the region.
Though he only started blogging in February, Robitaille has already had hits from people the world over, including Indonesia, Morocco and many countries in Europe.
Most of his traffic, he said, stems from Facebook. He promotes posts among his climber friends, who then share them with others across the continents.
For Robitaille, the goal of his blog is to “100 per cent promote climbing in Powell River.” His ambition has already helped draw interest to the region. “Just from what I’ve seen via shares on Facebook, it’s definitely helping the buzz,” he said.
Robitaille’s blog gets about 1,000 hits a month. He eventually hopes to be the go-to source for climbers coming to the area. “The stuff online is pretty scattered and some of it’s dated,” said Robitaille. “I just wanted to get a good body of work available.”
Promoting another aspect of Powell River is Rob Tremblay. Vanishing History covers the adventures of Tremblay and others as they search for old historical sites in the area.
So far, Tremblay’s passion has led him to logging camps, railroads and even homesteads. To find them, he goes off clues in old documents, word of mouth and tips emailed in by others.
Tremblay started the website in 2005 as an easier way to share the pictures he took on his excursions. “It just kept getting bigger,” he said. “I got people from all over the world who managed to come across it.”
Tremblay has received messages from people in as diverse places as Russia, Australia and Korea.
Despite this, he insists his main audience is locals past and present. “You have to think about how many people who were born here who have been gone for 30 or 40 years,” he said.
Tremblay also receives emails from vacationers who want to see the things on his website. Due to past experiences where artifacts have been taken, Tremblay said he has to be careful.
“We’ll entice you to know it’s there, but we want you to make the effort,” he explained, “because if you’re willing to make the effort to find it, we know you’re not going to touch it.”
Another advocate for the Powell River outdoors is Margy Lutz. Originally started as a way to advertise her and her husband Wayne’s company, Powell River Books, her blog now chronicles her off-the-grid living.
Wayne and Margy live almost full-time in a float cabin up Powell Lake. Margy’s blog features posts such as how to grow potatoes in a barrel.
Though Margy’s primary motive is to promote her company’s books, her blog promotes Powell River as well. She regularly posts on highlights in the region, such as quad trails and boat trips.
Blog comments show readers love the area’s beauty. “They always say it’s a beautiful part of the country, a gorgeous place,” explained Margy. Some blog readers have even ended up moving here, she added.
Since starting the blog in 2006, Margy has had over 200,000 hits, and now gets about 100 visits a day.
“It’s the opportunity to share a lifestyle that’s still kind of unique to me,” she said. “There’s not a lot of other bloggers writing about off-the-grid living.”
Some bloggers don’t promote Powell River in a direct way. Nicole Narbonne’s blog, The Celiac Farmer, chronicles her adventures in gluten-free cooking on her small farm. Both she and her partner have celiac disease and eat a dairy- and gluten-free diet.
Narbonne started the blog in 2010 to share her gluten-free recipes. “There was few resources out there and it was hard to find recipes,” she explained. Her troubles inspired her to put together a blog people could easily access.
Living in Powell River does influence her blogging, said Narbonne. “There’s a huge food movement here in the city,” she said. “There’s the 50-mile diet, the Powell River Food Security Project and the Skookum Food Provisioners Cooperative.”
Narbonne posts information about food preparation classes she has done with these groups. She also supports growing your own food, and shopping at the Open Air Farmers’ Market.
Much of Narbonne’s readership comes from Powell River, but she also inspires people all over. “What I’ve got is a lot of thanks from people in areas where there’s not as much awareness,” said Narbonne. People across Canada have thanked her for making gluten-free seem accessible and easy.
“In the end,” she said, “most blogs are vanity blogs. I’m not going to change the world. I do it for my own benefit—but I would like to think that it’s helping people.”
Perhaps promoting Powell River, on purpose or inadvertently, through blogging, is a kind of vanity in itself. But with a beautiful city that has so much to offer, who wouldn’t?
