May The Forest Be With You

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I have been to the end of the world and returned to tell the tale. Haida Gwaii, formerly known as the Queen Charlotte Islands, does certainly feel like it is at the end of the world, where there is nothing left west of the islands. It is remote, quiet and takes an effort to get there, indeed, Haida Gwaii is a purposeful destination, not somewhere you pass through on the way to somewhere else. It is the end. And in the geologic sense, the Haida Gwaii archipelago is on the very edge of the North American continental shelf, as the abyss of the Pacific basin is only a few kilometers offshore. The last ice age passed by much of the islands, and this means that some species evolved with unique characteristics. The first Haida peoples arrived some 12 000 years ago, and forged a very healthy culture that sustained island life up until European contact. Their rich Haida art is an inspiration, but sadly much of their oral history was lost soon after European contact as much as 90% of the population was wiped out by disease. Their stories remain in art and the poles, but as the wood weathers so too does their culture.

We flew to Sandspit on the southern island of Moresby in a small propellered plane. The plane was only about one half full, but those on the plane were hearty fishers and locals, with three exceptions: Kris and I were mere tourists not sure what to expect and a celebrity, David Suzuki who was visiting his daughter. We landed after the two hour flight and walked off the plane to the bus station sized airport, which only gets two flights a day. We jumped onto the shuttle bus and off we went to our B&B. We had to travel on the small open deck ferry to the northern island of Graham where most of the town development is located. We were still travelling with David Suzuki at this point, but I hadn't said anything to him, I left him alone. He spoke to a couple of friends who had walked onto the shuttle bus to chat. He had been at the Jack Layton funeral the day before and he was dropping names of all the people he had spoken to (Stephen Lewis, Margaret Atwood, Rick Hansen), much like I'm name dropping now. Someone got onto the shuttle and starting talking to him, and tried to sell him on a tour. David Suzuki took off clearly trying to get out of there. On the road again, David Suzuki started to talk to us, and point out some of the highlights along the way. He was dropped off and then the shuttle bus driver took us to our B&B.

We stayed at Mike and Dorothy's Guest House, a nice place with 11 rooms and suites up on the hill looking down upon Queen Charlotte City and the Skidegate Inlet that separates the two main islands. Our view was looking south on Moresby Island. We ate dinner at the Oceanview Restaurant because it was the only place open after 6pm. In fact, several restaurants were closed, for the season, for the week, for renovations etc. We ended up eating at the Oceanview Restaurant every night and one lunch. That first night I had a very delicious cedar plank salmon. There is plenty of fish here on Haida Gwaii. Later in the evening we went down to the harbour and I took some photos of the sunset and calm water. We met four fisherman who were returning after a day of catching salmon and drinking. They offered us a salmon because they simply had more than they needed. We had to decline since we had no where to put it, nor any way to cook it. They offered us beer, which we did accept. If we had been thinking quickly, we should have said yes and given the fish to Dorothy and Mike. We always make better decisions after the event has occurred.

Our first full day on the islands was a day of orientation. Because it is so difficult to get around the island by bus, we rented a car. We drove to the museum. We stayed there for a while and looked at all of the Haida poles, and Haida art. We had a short tour of weaving hosted by a young lady who is beginning the art herself, taught by elders on the islands. They make baskets, hats and other items out of cedar bark and spruce root. The thick rain coast forest has always been here, and it's been an integral part of Haida culture. We left the museum and drove on to Balance Rock, a glacial erratic perched on the beach just north of Skidegate. We returned to Queen Charlotte City and walked about the beach. As it was a new moon the tide was particularly low, so there was a lot of inter-tidal life exposed for us to examine. The geoduck "Gooey Duck", a large clam that borrows deep into the sand with only a siphon exposed, was squirting water at us as we walked about the beach. These squirts were about 30 cm into the air, so my trousers were a little wet and when dried covered in salt. We walked on plenty of kelp, seaweed and other mollusks. This is what Haida Gwaii is all about: trees and sea life.

The next day we took one of two day long tours offered by Moresby Explorers. We woke at 6am and had breakfast in our room - nasty instant oatmeal and tasty toast. Having no transport of our our we had to get to Moresby Island, just a few kilometers away. We took an expensive taxi ride pre-arranged the night before, and then the short ferry ride across the Skidegate Inlet. We met our guide, Erin, just on the other side at 8am. There were nine of us on this first tour, most about my age but the average age was increased dramatically by one individual who was 80 years old. She did remarkably well considered how much work this tour proved to be. Erin drove us in a van 45 minutes south along bumpy and twisting logging roads until we got to the Moresby Camp. Here we were suited up for our zodiac boat ride. We were given clumsy gum boots (traditional wellies), rubber overalls and a large rubber jacket. On top of all this we wore a personal flotation device we commonly call a life jacket. You might think that this would be extremely hot and uncomfortable for a summer day, but as ridiculous as we looked and walked, this proved a life saver as we skimmed along the water in this zodiac boat at 25 to 30 knots, about 50 km/h. We had to wear toques otherwise our ears would have fallen off. The tide was extremely low so the dock was useless. We waddled down to the beach and flopped into the zodiac boat and got our seats. With remarkable acceleration, we zoomed off to Louise Island.

We stopped a few times along the way to look at the sea life: seals, kelp and sea stars. The main highlight of the tour was to Skedans, an abandoned Haida village. There were no houses left standing and only a few poles remained. Haida created four main types of poles: mortuary poles for someone dead, memorial poles for someone lost at sea, house frontal poles and interior poles. Most are made from red cedar and decay readily so there are no poles older than about 120 years. On poles, clans and families, myths and stories and the wildlife all about are represented. Here at Skedans the tour was led by one of the caretakers hired by the Haida band to ensure the site remains as it was. Groups of 10 or less only are permitted at one time, and you must book ahead of time, you cannot just take a boat there by yourself unannounced. We had lunch at Skedans on the beach, a large cooler that Erin had packed onto the zodiac boat. We moved on and circumnavigated Louise Island, but first we stopped at an old growth massive spruce tree. Much of the Queen Charlotte Islands were logged and what we were looking at on this day was second growth forest, but there are places where you can still find the old growth forest. Before we returned to Moresby Camp we slowed down as we passed through the Louise narrows, for a spectacular view of trees and calm water. It was just beautiful here. I imagine it is what Vancouver looked like pre-European contact. Or, if you will, Haida Gwaii is British Columbia on steroids.

The following day started as a repeat of the previous day: we awoke at 6am and ate breakfast, then took an expensive short taxi ride to the ferry. Here Erin picked us up for another tour. There were about ten of us on this trip, and all eager to see the Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve. We didn't actually get into the park the day before, but this tour was about three hours longer, with more time on the zodiac boat. Erin drove us the 45 minutes along the bumpy and twisting logging road again to Moresby Camp where we again suited up in our rubber gear. We got into the zodiac boat and motored off further south to the hotsprings past Lyell Island. It was here on Lyell Island that protests in the 1980's against the massive logging led to the formation of the park reserve of Gwaii Haanas. The logging practices on Lyell Island were considered especially poor and egregious because landslides were common and the land was transformed beyond recognition so quickly. We slowed to see the remnants of the logging roads and the landslides. Along the trip south, we did get into some choppy water of the Hecate Strait so the ride was quite wild in places. There was plenty of salt water spray as we sped through at 25 knots. We got to Hotspring Island about two hours after we left Moresby Camp, and immediately stripped ourselves of the rubber suits and into our bathing suits, and then jumped into the three hot spring pools. These pools have been built to capture the water into pools so people can sit in them, otherwise the hot water would just immediately run into the ocean. The pools are near the edge of the ocean, a spectacular setting, an almost surreal setting because in the hotsprings the water was so comfortable but only meters away the ocean water is cold enough to cause hypothermia if we were to fall in while motoring there in the zodiac boat. The first pool was almost too hot, you would never make a bath that hot. The second two pools were very comfortable. We stayed here on the island for about two hours. Way off in the distance we spotted a whale, but we were not sure what kind of whale, either a humpback or a killer whale as the grey whales had already moved off months earlier. We ate lunch and then returned on the zodiac boat for the two hours return trip north to Moresby Camp.

We were really lucky with the weather on Haida Gwaii. Only the first day when we arrived by plane did it rain, and then only slightly. The first day it was cloudy with a few very small breaks in the clouds, the second day when we went to the hotsprings the sky was completely clear of any clouds. Who would have thought I would go to Haida Gwaii and get a sunburned nose, where it rains 4m per year, about three times as much rain as Vancouver? Everyday we saw several eagles, and on the final day we spotted at least a dozen eagles, countless ravens and seagulls picking over something that had washed up on the beach.

On our last day on Haida Gwaii we went kayaking in the inlet between the two main islands, Graham and Moresby. In fact, we were sheltered even more by staying in Bareskin Bay. There were only four of us including our very patient and capable guide. Once we had control of the kayaks we circumnavigated Robertson Island in the bay. For much of the voyage we followed the wind, but for a brief segment we had to kayak into the wind and across the swells. The kayak seemed like it might tip, but as we paddled on we were actually quite stable and had no real chance of spilling into the water. A few people have built nice houses on Robertson Island, and during low tide they can walk across the mud bay to the mainland; we watched one man walk back with his groceries. Some people watch the traffic report to go to work or go shopping, others watch the tide tables.

Later on the last night, we took the overnight ferry to Prince Rupert. It left at 11pm, although we got to our cabin before 10pm. The trip was uneventful and dark, almost a non-event, except for the rude wake up call about 4:30am as we got to Prince Rupert. We disembarked and then waited for our next ferry to Port Hardy. This 15 hour trip was a highlight of the entire spectacular week in northern British Columbia. We had seats in the Aurora Room, a $35 surplus on top of the already high cost of the ferry ride, yet it was worth it to have the best seats in the entire ship, at the bow in front of large windows. This room required a separate magnetic key to enter to keep the masses out - the class system is alive and well on BC Ferries. The food was good in the buffet, but at those prices it should be. As we sailed south the weather got better and better and as we neared Port Hardy hardly a cloud was in the sky. The captain called out some areas of interest for us to watch along the way. And he spotted wildlife for us also. When whales were seen we all raced to one side of the boat. We saw at least four humpback whales, two porpoises and helicopter logging. That the trip on the ship was 15 hours, it was not in the least bit boring because the scenery along the inside passage was beautiful, stunning and magical.

We got to Port Hardy after 10pm and many of us piled into an old school bus shuttle that took us to our hotels. We stayed at the Orange Tabby B&B. We were greeted by a very talkative host, Susan. The next morning she took us out early to spot bears. She left us at the mouth of a river where bears are usually found. We looked about for bears and saw nothing. Susan said we could walk along the trail and she would return about 45 minutes later and in the mean time we should see a bear fishing. Soon after she left us, we were completely alone in this small gravel parking lot next to the river. We heard some rustling nearby but could see nothing. Just as she was driving off she added that cougars were known to be in the area. That left our senses on extra high alert. We heard the rustling branches nearby, and we backed off a bit. Louder this noise continued and we backed off some more. Moments later a bear walked out of the bushes a mere 10 meters away exactly where we had been standing. He didn't even notice us, but we certainly took notice. Neither of us have any experience of what to do in a bear encounter, and so when Susan did arrive to pick us up she was surprised we hadn't really moved far from where she had left us. I suppose we're considered just a bunch of sissy city folk. Susan and her husband cooked for us a scrumptious breakfast, and then we walked to the Greyhound Bus stop nearby. We had no choice but to take the Greyhound back home, a rather anticlimactic and ignominious mode of transport after such a fabulous experience in Northern British Columbia.

We saw and did it all: dozens of eagles, several whales, seals, mollusks, porpoise, kelp, three sightings of David Suzuki, weathered totem poles, a bear, and trees, trees and more trees; and we traveled by propeller plane, open deck ferry, fancy ferry, zodiac, kayak, car, taxi, school bus, logging road van and Greyhound bus.

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