Fun in the Sun

Our following day in Sandspit remained sunny and warm.  We took several walks, eating already ripe salmonberries, and strawberries from alongside the road and the trails.  We are still experiencing intermittent electrical problems, with various things occasionally shutting off with a "low battery" warning, even though all of our indications are that we have good battery banks.  So with the help of Peter on "Some Lucky", we did some troubleshooting and tried a few (hopefully) fixes.  Peter was a licenced Aircraft mechanic at one stage of his life, so was a big help in checking out the battery banks and connections.  At the moment all seems well, so perhaps it just took a bit more tweaking.....we don't want to venture out to the west coast of these islands until all is perfect.  In the afternoon  of Monday 10 June, we walked to the Sandspit airport, where we were able to take our mandatory briefing from Parks Canada before we enter the park areas of Gwaii Haanas.  That was a 4 km. walk...so we took a cab back to the marina.  The two women providing the briefing were quite knowledgeable and we found it a useful talk.  Both of them are Haida women who work for Parks Canada.....the Haida and Parks Canada co-manage the area of Gwaii Haanas, and it is the only area in the world which is protected from the seabed to the mountaintops.  One of the women spent much of her life on a fishing boat in the area, and also had been a Haida Watchman (protector and guide of one of the especially sensitive sites).  By the time we got back to the boat it was happy hour, and then supper-time.
We woke up on Tuesday morning to another beautiful sunny day.  Following a lazy breakfast, we left the dock and proceeded across the 12 miles of water to the village of Queen Charlotte, on Graham Island.  Graham Island is the bigger, northern island of the two main islands here...Sandspit is on the other, southern one - Moresby.  We found a spot on the government dock at Queen Charlotte, and rented a car to investigate this island....as most of our sailing trip will be focused on Moresby and the myriad other islands to the south.

This is the Welcome Woman....a carved Haida woman, found at Charlotte City Info Centre.

 We drove through the village of Skidegate, about 5 miles east, and then followed the road northbound following the shoreline of Hecate Strait for awhile, before turning inland a bit, to the bottom of a large inlet.  Here we passed through the village of Port Clement, and viewed the mud flats at the mouth of the Yakoun River (the tide was out).....but we saw no bears.
Further along the road (and the Yakoun River, which is the largest river in Haida Gwaii), we arrived at the trail to the Golden Spruce.  For those of you who are not familiar with this, it was a large spruce tree which was genetically unique and had a golden colour to it.  The Haida had a special spiritual attachment to it, and it was a very large old-growth tree.  It was cut down some years ago by and anti-logging environmentalist who was trying to make some kind of anti-logging point by cutting it down.  Very confusing....but he has disappeared, so no-one understands the logic.  However....a trail leads to a point across the river from where it once stood - all that remains to be seen is the top of a dead tree....but the walk is very special, with some still-standing old growth trees in a pleasant forested area.

Walking among some big old-growth trees

All that's left of the Golden Spruce

We continued back on the main (okay....the ONLY) highway, northbound through the village of Masset, and up to the north and east end of the island. Ray was driving, and had to keep quite vigilant about the numerous deer along the highway.  But we managed to miss/pass them, and continued northbound to the end of the road.

A Haida Deer

Here we drove out onto North Beach, which is a very flat sand beach running a very long way to Rose Spit on the northeast extremity of the island.  The tide was coming in, and a fog bank was lying close inshore from the cold waters of Dixon Entrance.

North Beach - Alaska is somewhere out there in the fog.

On a clear day it is possible to see Alaska from here....but today was too foggy.  We backtracked a bit to a pebble-strewn beach known as Agate Beach, and walked the beach finding agates (pretty rocks, which, when tumbled get to resemble jewelery stones - I hesitate to call them semi-precious, but they are nice nontheless).  Hopefully I can save some of them for my neighbour, Dixon, who is a geologist, and since they come from Dixon Entrance, may be special for him.

Gathering Agates

The fog, however, was a bit cool....so we drove back toward Masset, through some very gnarly looking trees, surrounded by moss about a foot thick (we were back in the sunshine by now, but this seems to indicate much less clement weather).

Gnarly Trees

This moss is over a foot thick!

There are actually two villages named Masset....old Masset is a native town, and new Masset less so.  There are lots of fine-looking totems in the town, and I hope to find someone who can help explain some the the meanings and significance of these articles.  Masset is also the location for Mile 0 of the Yellowhead Highway which starts here and runs past Edmonton all the way to Brandon Manitoba.  So we had to stop for a beer at the Mile 0 pub.

Totem in Masset

Another totem, Masset

It was then time to head back down the road, stopping to view the famous Balancing Rock....a rock which appears to be balanced on another - and remained so even through the last big earthquake here a year ago (7.7 magnitude).

Ray is helping to hold Balance Rock balanced

We arrived back at our boat fairly late - about 1930 - and found we had to change our propane tanks to cook supper.  So it was after 2100 by the time supper was done and cleared.  We will have the car until noon tomorrow, so hope to visit the Haida Cultural Centre in Skidegate, and get some groceries.  Then we will be off again, and out of wifi and cellular coverage for awhile.  Perhaps we can get a short update before we go.....time will tell.