It seemed like it was the same thing week after week.
“I found every Monday morning when I woke up, put the radio on, you always heard about North Shore Rescue being out all weekend because they’ve been on the mountain trying to help someone because they haven’t been prepared,” says North Vancouver’s Julie Flynn.
An avid trail runner, hiker and outdoor adventurer herself, Flynn addressed the unfortunate reality of ill-prepared hikers in the North Shore mountains and used it as inspiration for a long-brewing passion project with a heartfelt message.
“I’ve always wanted to write a fairy tale. I didn’t really know what subject,” says Flynn. “I started to think, well, I’m a trail runner and I love the mountains and I thought I’d write a story about our mountains, and what we do, and then I started to get into all the stuff that we need when we go out in the mountains of B.C.”
Flynn released her first book, Finn and the Magic Backpack, earlier this summer. Described by Flynn as a modern day children’s fairy tale, the illustrated 30-page story follows the exploits of Finn, a young boy who dreams of becoming an adventurer, as he traverses a fantastical version of the North Shore mountains and its wilderness.
“His grandmother sends him a backpack and in the backpack has the 10 Essentials (for hiking and camping),” says Flynn. “He thinks this is his opportunity to go on his own adventure to visit granny in the land of Deep Cove to say thank-you for the gift. That’s the start of the story.”
The backpack is also magical, Flynn notes.
The young adventurer starts his journey from “a village by the sea,” loosely based on Horseshoe Bay, according to Flynn, and sets out on what is essentially the Baden Powell trail.
“Even though the illustrator did a map, it’s not an exact map for people to follow, it’s more like a fantasy map,” says Flynn. “That’s what I had in mind, he follows the BP and he goes to the land of Deep Cove to visit granny and along the way he gets to use all his essentials.”
The 10 Essentials can include food and water, extra clothing, a flashlight, matches or a lighter, a shelter or tarp, first aid kit, a GPS system, and some way of communicating like a cellphone or satellite phone. “And I also put in there a map and compass because it’s always good to have in a backpack,” notes Flynn.
Avid North Shore hikers and trail explorers will surely recognize when a pair of well-known giant old growth cedar trees on Mount Bishop, in the Seymour area, called The General and The General’s Wife, make an appearance during Finn’s adventure.
“I’ve added those in because I envisioned each illustration scene in my head when I was writing each scene and I wanted two trees and Finn being in between the trees, and I wanted them to talk so I added them into the book,” says Flynn. “I think my favourite scene is losing the way, so that’s when he meets the two trees. I really enjoyed writing that scene and putting the ideas down of what I wanted the picture to look like.”
Flynn moved from England to North Vancouver 17 years ago. Finn and the Magic Backpack is her first writing project, borne out of her love of trail running, the outdoors and fantasy, she notes.
The addition of the book’s overall theme concerning the 10 Essentials and having fun – and being safe – while exploring was a way to give the book some gravity and help impart a message of preparedness to a community she adores. Describing one scene where Finn has to face off against a sentient version of the wilderness’s darkness, she says the young hero gets out of the situation by using a handy beam of light.
“He’s out longer than he expects and darkness comes in the shape of a face and then he puts the headlight on and it disappears,” she says.
Flynn notes that Finn and the Magic Backpack is currently available online at Amazon and at local retailer End of the Line General Store. She hopes adults and children alike will be entranced by the book’s stunning visuals, illustrated with care by Jazmin Welch, and tales of adventure and preparedness on the North Shore mountains.
“In this stage in my life I wanted to do something for myself, like something I would want to read when I was a kid, and do something for the community where we live.”
