Clay and Wattles

The predominant moral issue of the 21st century, almost surely, will be climate change, comparable to Nazism faced by Churchill in the 20th century and slavery faced by Lincoln in the 19th century. Our fossil fuel addiction, if unabated, threatens our children and grandchildren, and most species on the planet.

-Dr. James Hansen

Salt from paddling

I do not remember if I mentioned how it was on our final day of paddling turned out or not…so here is another post.

It’s like I do not want this trip to end.  And really, if you came here with me, you would know why.  You would want to stay in it, with it.  Yes I am on land and have been so for what feels like a long while.

Do I miss being in the kayak?  Yes, I do.  I was looking out at the sea in front of my parents’ house just this evening and it was so very calm, I wished I had my kayak all in one piece again, instead of in a bunch of little pieces, so I could go out and paddle around.

I have not been exercising much these days.  Instead I have been getting rides with my family a lot.  My little sister does not live very close to our parents, it is only a half hour drive, but it’s too far to walk.  Today I got a ride to my hair appointment!  I felt kind of sheepish for this, but my father insisted.  I was late (I slept in – did I mention the air is very fresh here? And when here beside the ocean I find myself getting very sleepy) so he drove me there!  Eek.

I did buy a single folding bicycle while here and I plan to ride it to go visiting the Naaniis and the Chinnies here (these are grandmothers and grandfathers).  I just haven’t done so as yet due to extreme rain.  This rain is great because it has been dry and hot for 3 weeks.  There was a small fire in Rennell Sound, and people got afraid there would be more fires due to careless campers, or anyone with a match, or a cigarette.

Well-back to the last day we paddled; it looked rough and I was too scared to get in the kayak and paddle away.  So I waited until Kevin said we had to go or else our kayak would crash away on the rocks that were out there where our kayak was waiting all fully loaded waiting for me to get into it.

We did what we could, but Kevin got swamped with tonnes of water as we attempted to get out of there as fast as possible.  The waves were huge!  I was terrified as usual.  Kevin was laughing his head off as he got so completely soaked all over from a huge wave, or two, or three…

We got out on the ocean, Kevin pumped the water out for what seemed like forever (there was a lot of water in his section)!

The ocean wasn’t as bad as I anticipated.  In fact it was fairly calm compared to the previous 3 days.  Whew.  We still had to be careful, the wind was blowing strong enough to have to concentrate on keeping ourselves forward, and I am not sure if Kevin was concerned, but I know I was worried the wind would pick up at any time and we’d have the same struggles we had earlier.  Thankfully, we didn’t.

Kelp, huge kelp

I guess I really should have reread what I wrote before to ensure this post is different from what I wrote before, but I wanted to add more photos, and maybe I’ll end up doing that once I post this and see I’ve already said all these things.

We left after 1 pm, and we paddled until 9:15 pm.  Kevin stopped at Dawson Cove and said we could camp there for the night, or we could paddle for two more hours and get to Moresby Camp, which is the finish line!  I said, “We’re going to Moresby Camp!”  So off we went.
I don’t think I stopped to rest once in that remaining time.  I was determined we weren’t going to be paddling anymore the next day.  I just put my head down and paddled.  The horseflies were extremely bad, so I had my bug jacket on, and I could barely see anything through it.  It looked like it was dusk the whole time, so once when I thought I was safe, I peeked out and was surprised to see bright daylight out!

We got in, and Kevin started unpacking our kayak, and I started bringing the stuff up to land, off the beach.  We had a lot of gear.  We still had a lot of food, despite the sea trying to take it away from us twice!

There were two guys who came from somewhere in Canada to fish.  They were camped right where we were unloading our stuff.  They asked me as I was packing some gear to drop in one of the piles, “So will you go kayaking again, or is this it for you?”  When I answered that I took this same trip last year with two of our kids, for 200 km, they said, “Yep, you’d do this again all right!”  Just a few minutes before I was joking before that little does my husband know it, but as soon as all the gear is out of the kayak I was going to burn it!  I didn’t really mean it, that kayak looked after me for 12 days, and it went through a lot to do it.  I was just plumb tired out.

We had a lot of work to do before we could get settled into bed and sleep.  Kevin unpacked everything out of our kayak, I mean everything.  It was light enough for me to help him lift it once it was emptied, so this was part of the reason.  I managed to easily help him lift and carry it high onto the ground away from the ocean, and so we could just get our gear to our camp site.  Kevin went to look for a suitable site for us to rest for the night, while I waited.  Once found, we started moving stuff over to it.  As I was lifting stuff, I realized I could make more than one trip.  Kevin ended up carrying our kayak from way over where we first put it, by himself.  This was not a short walk!  I meant to help him, but he finished bringing stuff over before me, so he did it on his own!

I put up the tent, but ended up having to move it because the so-called soft spot turned out to have huge rocks hiding carefully in the grass.  Way too lumpy!  We were on the RV pad, and you might know this means gravel, lots of hard gravel.  That was all right, we have very good sleeping mats.  But really it’s still a bit uncomfortable.  Oh well, it was only one night.

Self portrait-Roberta

Kevin took the kayak and turned it upside down so it could drain and start drying out so he could take it apart in the morning and then pack it into the two huge duffel bags meant just for that reason.  He also tied up a long line between the trees (they were spaced so far apart I wasn’t sure this would work, but Kevin made it work).  He hung up all of our gear that could be hung to dry out.  It was still very warm, the sun was setting, the bugs started coming out in full force!  Hundreds, no- thousands of mosquitoes were out.  They weren’t too bad, but to be safe, I kept my bug jacket on.  The interesting thing, is they all went to bed once it got dark!  For real!  Now why doesn’t this happen in Yellowknife and surrounding areas?  Hmmmm…

All the gear was hung up, I put on my rain gear, because I could tell I was also soaked from also getting swamped in the sea earlier in the day.  The sun had gone down and now I was freezing.  But I was moving a lot, trying to get the gear we needed for sleeping for our tents beside our tent, and trying to get the food gear and cooking gear together so we could eat.

German friend from Bavaria-mother and son

Kevin cooked us supper, something I was certain would be too much for me, but I ate it all without any problem.  We only had small snacks for much of the day, especially later in the day, so I think I must have been starving.  We had hot chocolate, which helped get me warm again.  Kevin gave me an energy bar because he was still hungry, I kept mine for the morning as I usually wake quite early and then I feel very hungry as I have to wait until Kevin wakes and makes us food.  Quite the Haida princess, hey?  I do wake pretty early, too early to wake him up (it’s not that he’s lazing about sleeping all day long).

We then walked down to the ocean to wash our dishes, being careful to make sure everything was near us the whole time as it was pitch-black now.  And the tide was coming in quickly, it tried taking stuff away…but we caught it in time.

We also sorted through all of our bags and weeded out all of the garbage and tossed it out into the huge garbage bin saved specially for this purpose.

Limestone Islands, calm before storm

We visited the real outhouses, which are very nice and quite lovely actually.  We looked at the stars, which were so bright and so very beautiful!  Kevin pointed out the different constellations, and I pretended I knew what I was looking at.  I just enjoyed looking at the sky and seeing Venus so immense and so bright, it looked like a smaller sun far, far away, or maybe it was more like a miniature moon?  No matter what it looked like it was big enough to cast its reflection on the ocean.  The ocean by now was very, very calm.

It was difficult to see very far while walking around.  I have no night vision!  Kevin, however, seems to have the eyes of a cat.  He doesn’t need a flashlight and can navigate extremely easily in the darkness.  So I walked behind him, trying not to trip in the many potholes that were on the dirt road.

I was worried about seeming like a chicken, asking Kevin to accompany me (before sleeping) to the outhouse.  He said to me, “No. You of all people have no reason to be concerned anyone is ever going to call you a scaredy-cat, or make fun of you for being afraid, because you are very brave. Look at what you did! All the cycling, paddling and camping out nearly every night. Not everyone would be willing to do what you did, but you did it!”  I felt like crying tears of happiness, and I probably let some squeak out, but really I know I was too tired to cry.  And it was time to just go to bed and sleep and dream of all the amazing things we saw, and the stuff we did, and the people we met…it will be something I will think of for a very long time.

My body felt exhausted completely, inside, outside.  My muscles hurt, ached so much from all the abuse I put it through with the extended paddling days, and just the intenseness of the severe paddling to keep ourselves forward, inching towards land for hours and hours and hours.  I could feel gratitude inside of myself for making it to the end.  I was thankful for surviving, for not copping out on Kevin and actually doing my share of paddling and cycling.

The next day we woke very early together because the sun came up in full force!  It shone down so brightly and hard onto our tent, heating everything up to the point where we couldn’t stand it and had to run out of the tent to cool down.

We turned our stuff over on the line.   Kevin got us our breakfast, and I was dawdling around packing and repacking my stuff.  While Kevin was taking the kayak apart and packing into the duffel bags.  I was supposed to wash the dishes so they could dry and pack them away, and eventually I did get to it.

We walked down to the creek at Kevin’s suggestion so we could have a wash.  The water wasn’t very cold, and we cleaned ourselves off very well.  The horseflies (bull dogs in the North is what they’re called) were extremely bad down there!  I tried my best to ignore them, and I did okay, even while getting bitten.  But I was clean.  I forgot to rinse off my very salt-stained shirt, so I looked like a slob all day.  Oh well.

Crazy David, a nutty cousin and Me on Hot Spring Island

Kevin went to the area where Moresby Explorers (the outfitters) have an area where they keep their gear, kayaks in a big shed.  He asked if we could get a ride with them later (as they were getting ready to take a large group of tourists out for the day) or if they could call someone to come and pick us up.  They guy said he was dropping some kayakers off in Gwaii Haanas so he’d have room for us when he was done at about 5 pm.  While we waited all day, packing up the gear, getting it all ready, the day was getting hotter and hotter and hotter.  We were sweating like crazy, but we had to get this stuff all packed away into reasonable bags in order for us to fit into the van.

Once we were done, we would occasionally go to vehicles driving by to ask if they were driving into Sandspit, to the ferry, to Skidegate, or to Charlotte so we could get a ride.

We had no luck.  Some who were going that direction were all full up.  So we waited.  It wasn’t all that bad, once the gear was packed away, we sat in the shade, we read books, we wrote notes.  We took photos.  We contemplated going in for a swim to cool down, but I didn’t want to do that, I knew the tide was in, and the creek would be more salty than fresh water, and I wasn’t keen on being salty anymore.

We ate some snacks.  I bummed some water off a group of campers who were clearly leaving camp.  It was a kids’ summer program camp.  I was thankful for the water as we were in need of it, it being so completely hot and being us being very thirsty.  There was a small discussion about not using the creek water for drinking because there used to be a mine in the area, also it was down from a fish hatchery.

We got our ride, but they were very late, and they still had to unload a lot of their own gear, bring up their zodiacs (two of them) and unload their kayaks and put them onto the trailers, or store them away.  There were a lot of tourists there, many just milling around.  Kevin just jumped in to help to make sure they had as many hands to make it go faster so we could leave.  Some of the tourists were really helping, lifting kayaks (like Kevin was, and I eventually did) and then packing the life jackets and the rain gear away for safe storage.

Foxgloves

They came by our stuff and loaded it onto the trailer.  The road out to Moresby Camp is a logging road, which means it’s a dirt road, unmarked, and active.  During the time we were leaving it wasn’t active, but it was still very dusty.  Our bags were extremely dusty, and Kevin got very dirty lifting all the stuff out and then packing into onto the back of a truck of new friends we made who were from Germany, from Bavaria, from the Black Forest.  They live in Prince George I believe.  They were catching the ferry from Skidegate and into Prince Rupert.  They had been on a tour with Moresby Explorers to some villages that day.   They drove us all the way to our friends, Christopher and Bonnie’s house!  It was here we were warmly welcomed with a salmon and halibut feast!  Oh what a feast it was!  We were most grateful for all the food, it was so very tasty.  What luck we had!

1,000 year old tree at Windy Bay, R's fingers

They were so happy to see us.  And we had fun visiting, then taking a proper shower and dressing in clean clothes after our laundry was all done.

Now I have had some time to rest and reflect on this incredible journey.  Would I do it again?  Yes.  A chini (we say chin-nigh in Skidegate, and chinnie-sounds like: chin-nee in Masset) suggested we go to paddle in the northern part of Haida Gwaii.  It was then I remembered my chinnie used to love going to a place called Kiusta (Kee-oos-sta) when I was a kid.  He died when I was still young.  He knew my chinnie and he agreed.  So maybe our next trip of paddling will be up here on Graham Island, around Langara Island.

Kevin at Sgun Gwaii

We will post about it then if that happens, or if something different happens.

I am thankful for your comments, either here on our blog, or on our face book pages.  For now I wish you all safe travels wherever you go, and however you travel.  Take good care!

Our first time out

I am finally somewhere I can write a real post, without time limits.  I am at my sister’s house in Port Clements on Haida Gwaii.  We have been here 2 nights and today we are going to Masset, my hometown -and where my parents live. Kevin is going home very soon, but we decided I am staying here and waiting for a 40th anniversary celebration of the first totem pole raised in my village in 100 years.  I admit I was there when it went up.  I was 3 years old, and it was incredible to me back then.  There were more people in my village than I had ever seen. But that’s another story.  I want to write about our kayaking trip.

I am still amazed that we made it!  The last 3 days of our trip were so very hard I didn’t know if we could get through.  In fact because I am so melodramatic, I was sure we would die!  Thankfully Kevin is an experienced kayaker, and he never lost his head.

We had to call around to make arrangements to get dropped off in Gwaii Haanas (this translates to ‘Beautiful Islands’) an enormous and gorgeous park.  If we had more time, and a more energetic (and a more healthy) Roberta, maybe we could have paddled from Moresby Camp (like we did last year) down to the ancient villages and back again. The thing is, there is no development in the park (it’s a wild place, so breathtakingly beautiful you would not believe it) so we must bring all our own food into the area.  We must also bring all of the garbage we create while there.

We got Moresby Explorers to get us down to Rose Harbour, or more precisely Raspberry Cove.  It took an hour to drive from the Sandspit ferry to Moresby Camp.  We stopped to watch a mother bear and 3 little cubs eating berries.  I assume there were 3 of them, because the guy taking us down there knew there was a mother and 3 cubs in the area.  We saw 2 of them, but it was very heavy bush. Moresby Explorers also rents out kayaks, and offers guided tours on zodiacs to all the village sites.  They also drop off kayakers anywhere in Gwaii Haanas.

We went out on a zodiac from Moresby Camp to Raspberry Cove.  It was very windy and very rough out.  We spent a lot of time flying through the air and landing with a tremendous crash for 4 hours, nearly non-stop.  I say nearly because after an hour we dropped a scientist off on Talunkwan Island.  That was our only real break.  We were holding on as tightly as we could the entire time, all muscles tensed, occasionally reaching to move our gear (or someone else’s) back onto the zodiac.  None of it ever went into the water, but it was heading in that direction. After 4 hours of traveling in extreme conditions my back was out.  I mean I was in so much pain it was difficult to move around easily.  I was like that for about 3 days.  Kevin ended up badly sunburned (it was raining off and on as we traveled, but once in awhile the sun would come out and shine down on us).  He felt quite ill, but regardless, we started our paddling journey. As soon as we landed on the beach at Raspberry Cove, a couple of very nice people, Marik and Carol greeted us with hot Earl Grey tea, honey and lemon!  We were very cold and this helped warm us up.  They told us they had been camping there for 3 days as the weather was very windy and rainy.  Around the headlands in this area, the currents can be quite dangerous.

We also met Sheldon and Sheila who had just completed their kayaking trip in Gwaii Haanas.  It sounded like they were fast paddlers, making it to every village in 4 days (or maybe I misheard them, but they did sound very, very fast).  They kayaked to Sgung Gwaii (looks like Sgang Gwaay, but sounds like Sgung Gw-eye) in two hours.  It took us about 4 hours.

Kevin had to assemble our kayak on the beach, and that took about an hour or a bit more.  Then we had to carry it to the water, and he had to pack it up and then we began our trip.  I wasn’t so sure about heading out in the heavy winds and the rain, but I could tell he was anxious to begin, so off we went.  We paddled one hour only, and found a camping spot.  It was approximately 3 kms.  It felt like more than that.  We were on Ross Island.

I insisted that Kevin not cook, as everything was wet, it was too windy, and that we just have snacks for supper. The next day he was feeling unwell, but he never told me how badly he was, so we paddled to Fanny Cove on the second day.  Both of these days were very rainy and very windy.  It was hard going and it was very cold.  Kevin told me my main job was to keep warm at all times.  I was to really make sure I did not get cold, if I did, I had to figure out ways to make myself warm, by getting my jacket out, or all of them (I had two jackets, and a rain jacket) and put them on. He did not want me to get hypothermia-and ending our trip early because I wasn’t properly dressed.  In case you do not know, I lose heat quickly and I am always cold.  When it’s damp, like it was these first few days it feels much worse.  I stayed warm.

The day after this day we made it to Sgung Gwaii, but we missed the cove where everyone is supposed to land and tie up their kayaks, small boats, etc., and we paddled around the east side of the island, where we nearly circled the whole island completely!  It made for a long day. We made it into the correct place and before we landed we asked permission to come ashore (we have a radio for this purpose-this radio also gives regular weather reports of all the areas of where we were paddling).  Only 12 people are allowed in the village sites at one time.  This helps to protect the sites.  Sgung Gwaii is a World Heritage site because it has 20 ancient totem poles still standing. We had to wait about two hours before going on a tour of the village because there was a German film crew on site shooting the village, the Watchmen house and the grounds.

The guardians are called Watchmen, after the Watchmen who are carved at the top of our totem poles, who watch over our villages to warn us when danger is coming.  The people who look after the villages today are both men and women of all ages.  They are specially trained in many areas as they are situated in remote areas for a month at a time (it can also be longer, due to weather conditions).  They maintain the village sites, clean up after visitors (tourists), and gather firewood, listen to their radios, which remain on all the time, in case they have to go out and rescue someone.  They are busy!

The Watchmen at Sgung Gwaii were: Girl, Alessandra, James, Troy. They have 4 Watchmen at this site due to the extreme traffic of visitors. Some tours offered by Watchmen take about 3 hours, as they share the history of the villages, who lived there, which chiefs were chiefs of the entire village, or if the chief was a house chief.  Our tour was not that long.  And we had to look from a distance to protect the totem poles, the house posts that had fallen, anything in the area from further disintegration.

Ancient totems in Ancient Village

It was very late afternoon by the time we got to see the village.  And I wasn’t sure about staying very long because we still had to paddle back and find a camp site for the night.  It took us a long time to get there, and the weather was clearing up, but I didn’t know how long this would last.  Maybe we should have stayed longer, but I wanted to get back in the water and paddle to our camp, wherever it might be. It was low tide, and our kayak was well established on ground, and since it was very heavy with our gear, it was hard to lift the whole thing, so we went for a short hike to the cave. The Watchmen told us they thought the cave would be used for shelter when our people first arrived, until they built their houses.  An interesting note-but Sgung Gwaii has only been above the ocean for 2,000 years. Some Watchmen from other villages wondered if these caves were the resting places of the shamans, or the medicine men/medicine women.  No one know for sure.

I have kept notes on this trip,  but I’m not following them closely.  We saw some amazing things while paddling towards Sgung Gwaii. We saw humpback whales feeding in the area.  We saw deer, the second morning at Fanny Cove we saw a mother deer and her fawn on the beach.  The deer here like going to the beach to eat the seaweed and the kelp.  We also saw: puffins, rhinoceros auklets, pigeon guillemots, eagles, ravens (ravens are enormous here-likely due the rich, plentiful food), crows, gulls (there are a few different kinds, and I never thought they were lovely, but they are). While at Sgung Gwaii we saw a 300 year old huckleberry bush, wish I took a photo, but I didn’t.

I took a pic of some skunk cabbage here, it was a huge plant.  My people used this for various reasons, including an impromptu hat. There are several mortuary poles in Sgung Gwaii.  These honour the memory of a chief, or a high ranking person.  Their family crests are carved onto the frontal boards, most of which are no longer there.  Sgung Gwaii is a Raven and an Eagle village.  For those of you who do not know, these two names are the names of our clans, or our very, very large family groups.  All Haida belong to one of these two main clans.  We also have sub-clans, but this is too complicated to list here.

Remains of an ancient cedar house in Sgang Gwaii

Chief Koya, (which means ‘Precious,’ our guide said it means ‘Raven,’ and if he were called ‘Huuya’ yes it does mean ‘Raven’).  He was the first chief of the village, but a series of tragedies struck him, and he lost his mind.  His wife was killed in front of him.  He was made ashamed in front of his entire village.  The village then moved to support Chief Nan Sdins, or more known as Ninstints-the Nan Sdins if the correct pronunciation.

We paddled back to Raspberry Cove after Sgung Gwaii, and I worried about the strong currents if the wind were to keep up as it had been doing.  There was some headwind as we paddled into our camping spot, and I really didn’t want to fight that all day the next day.  This is the dangerous area, and I was worried about it. I listened to the mosquitoes outside waiting for me, there were hundreds and hundreds of them.

Carol and Marik

We paddled to Ramsey Island where we found our friends camping-Carol and Marik.  They invited us to join them for the night.  It was a rocky beach, and the rocks were immense.  It was also a high tide, so we had to carry, or in Haida English, pack our kayak a long way to keep it from sailing away.

Kevin and Roberta in one of the hot springs!

We made it to Hot Spring Island!  We radioed in and asked permission to come ashore.  They said it would be a two hour wait before we could go in as they were at capacity already.  That was okay. Kevin encouraged me to go on ahead to say hello to the Watchmen here.  I was always shy at first…so silly.  He said, “You’re the Haida, you lead the way,” as I inched forward each time.

in the Hot Spring

I knocked on the door and all I could hear from two Watchmen was, “ROBERTA!”  David and Irene happily shouted out my name!  They grabbed me and hugged me hard.  It was quite a welcome.  They invited us in for tea, we had hot chocolate.  I think we were needing the extra sugar.  It wasn’t a long paddle from our campsite, but we had some rough days.  The other two Watchmen were young people Kayla and Tyler.

I neglected to write about how one night we camped in Ikeda Cove and the tide was the highest tide that night, while we slept.  It took one of our food barrels away from us!  We looked all along the beach, and Kevin found it half full of water.  He dumped it out, and I started drying the food we could still eat.  He took all the soaked food and dumped it (you can dump food back into the ocean, it’s biodegradable).  When I was finished drying that food from that barrel-we had two food barrels-they are small enough for us to carry, but strong enough to keep the bears from getting into them, Kevin opened the other food barrel only to discover that one was full of water, too! So we dumped the water out and I started drying everything in it, dumping food out that was destroyed.  I looked worried we wouldn’t have enough to complete our trip.  Kevin is very optimistic.  He said, “Maybe it’s the ocean’s way of saying we packed too much food.”

We were on Hotspring Island, which is not a village site at all.  In fact I believe my people didn’t live there at all ever.  They might journey to this place to soak in the springs, but that was all.

Shy Watchmen...hope they don't kill me...

We  had a nice visit, laughing, joking, telling stories, drinking hot chocolate.  We were about to have lunch when it was announced we could go and soak in the springs.  We had to shower first to clean ourselves off.  The showers are sourced from the hot springs themselves, and the water makes your skin and hair feel very soft. We wore our bathing suits into the springs.  It was a rainy day, so the springs felt just right.  Last year this was our final stop with two of our kids before we headed back to Moresby Camp, and it was a hot, hot day, and the springs were way too hot to soak in for long.  The hottest spring felt like we were soaking in a soup broth, so we got out quickly.  This year it felt okay. We soaked for 2 hours. We were invited back to join the Watchmen for supper!  They were eating beef stew (I was hoping it was deer meat), so they showed me a can of tomato soup instead.  I also made some sunflower seed butter sandwiches. We came back the next day and visited early, early morning, were thinking of going in for a soak again, but I only showered.  So nice to take a shower.

On the morning we left Ramsey Island for Hotspring Island, I walked down to the beach for a short walk.  As I walked onto the beach, thousands of little crabs scrambled under rocks (remember I said the rocks were very big?) for shelter from me.  I felt like a giantess moving across the land, I felt, well, gigantic!  I realize these days I am not very big at all…and I am okay with that.  Kayla, who is 15 years old, told me she tells people, “I’m not small, I’m fun-sized!”  So there you go.  I’m fun-sized, though I wonder if I’m small enough to be that?  I know many friends who are much smaller.  I tell them I hang out with them so I can feel statuesque!

The day before landing on Ramsey Island, we paddled to Kat Island, and a quiet cove.  We had paddled a long, long day, it was dark when we landed.  I did not tell Kevin I am terrified of paddling in the dark, so instead I freaked out.  We had just gone through Burnaby Narrows and it was magnificent!  The water is so very shallow, and so clear you can see to the bottom.  We saw sea stars, bat stars, sunflower stars, a huge moonsnail (it was alive and so big we wondered how it fit inside the shell, learning later it doesn’t actually live inside it).

What are all these stars I mention?  They’re often called starfish.  They aren’t fish at all.  And they are brightly coloured. We saw a lot of these strange circular things that looked like parts of old dinnerware.  Kevin learned they are the egg collars of the moonsnails.  There were so many of them we wondered why we didn’t see more moonsnails? We saw crabs, and very, very large, empty clam shells.  Now we know they are being eaten by the moonsnails, who drill a little hole in them (it’s a perfect hole) and then they suck the meat out of the clam shells. It was so beautiful there.  And the current was quite strong.

It was a calm early evening, and without paddling at all, we were pushed through the Narrows very quickly.  We sailed through backwards, though that didn’t matter, we could easily see everything.  Before we knew it, we were out of there!  We thought of paddling back to the entrance of the Narrows and looking for the camping spot Kevin knew was close by, but I have become one who does not like to go backwards and we pushed on ahead.  By the time we got to the spot we were going to camp there were several kayakers already camped there.  They had about 6 kayaks and one canoe and several tents set up everywhere.  I was so mad because it was already late and there was nothing else nearby.  We ended up paddling at night, in the dark by the time we got to Kat Island.

The next day I admitted to Kevin I was extremely frightened of the dark water.  There is so much to my fear, it’s difficult to explain here, but let me tell you, it has to do with my upbringing.  Not necessarily what my parents taught me, but what I learned while growing up with my people.  The stories that still exist from ancient times and the sea, and what can happen to people if not careful.  I cannot even think of it, nor can I mention it. While on Kat Island we saw a mother raccoon and her two babies.  She was very crabby and nasty sounding.  There is no rabies on Haida Gwaii, I think she was just an overprotective mother.  Her babies were especially cute, while she walked them across the beach at low tide and the beach kept squirting at them.  The squirts came from clams called geoducks (sounds like gooey ducks).  These clams are big, with huge siphons (maybe you can google them to get a visual? I didn’t take pictures of them, I don’t know why).

It was so neat on Kat Island, because there were a lot of geoducks, and I remember looking into the shallow water at sea stars, bat stars, purple, red, pink, green ones, sunflower stars, moonsnail collars, and other things…anyway I could hear something behind me.  I wasn’t afraid, as I thought it was more of the raccoons.  There was also a single raccoon wandering around.  This one was more friendly, but it kept its distance, glad it did not associate us humans with food. This sound was so weird, finally I had to turn and look and see what it was.  The entire beach was squirting water all at the same time, again and again.  It was like a Monty Python skit, the whole beach spraying water at once!  The sound was a squishing sound, kind of repulsive, but neat at the same time.

The day before this day we watched and listened to a humpback whale breathing, and surfacing near us.  If my memory serves me correctly, this whale first surfaced very close to us, close enough for us to see it’s blow hole exhale a loud expulsion of air.  It did not scare us. We were just excited to see it so close to us!  We watched it move further and further from us.  It’s a baleen whale, so it eats phytoplankton, and because it is so enormous I am sure it must have to eat all day long.  I cannot imagine being that big and only getting to eat tiny, microscopic food.

That same day we passed a small ‘island’ called All Alone Stone and came across a seal lying on a rock.  We unknowingly blocked it’s escape route, and it was terrified.  We could see it’s nostrils flaring, and it’s eyes looking very scared.  I didn’t take a photo, though I wish now that I had!  It was gorgeous, a brown spotted coat.  I was talking to it as we moved away from it, letting it know we are not trying to hurt it, that we are only here passing by.  I called it by its Haida name – ‘Hoht.’

There were two seals there, but the other dove and swam away so fast we didn’t really see it at all. While were on Hotspring we shared our sad tale of lost food.  It was funny to us now and we did let them know we had enough to last us.  They knew we didn’t have fresh food, and they had a lot, so they gave us some fresh fruit and some potatoes.  That was a real treat!

We spent a long time visiting, and reading the Haida dictionary, learning new Haida words.  This dialect is Skidegate, which is a bit different from my dialect-Masset.  It doesn’t matter to me.  It’s my language. After Hotspring Island visit, we easily paddled to Windy Bay, only paddling a half an hour and then we put up our sail and we sailed the rest of the way to Windy Bay, which is on Lyell Island.

We noticed early on we were taking on water and had to pump it out.  We made an emergency stop on a very rocky, very rough island, and a tiny beach.  Kevin really pumped the water out of the back where the water was, we had a quick snack, pee break.  I found two feathers there, one raven and one eagle.

Did I forgot to mention while we have two clans, we must marry into opposite sides?  An Eagle marries a Raven, and men and women belong to both clans?  Well, even though Kevin is not Haida, he is considered Eagle clan.  I am Raven clan. Finding these feathers made me feel less afraid.  You might notice I get scared a lot!  I took it as a sign that we would be all right.

We sailed into Windy Bay.  This is a camp for the protesters on Lyell Island in the early 1980s.  They were protesting the logging of the last of our ancient forests.  These trees are 900 – one thousand years old, and immense giants in this area.  Many of my people, young, old stood, blocking the loggers from going into the area we wanted protected from entering.

My people wore traditional regalia, that is our button robes, cedar hats, face paint (only some families are allowed to wear face paint, according to ancestral tradition).  They sang songs for strength.  One song became the Lyell Island song, the protest song everyone knows today when they hear it. A lot of attention was drawn to our fight, enough for Bruce Coburn to make an entire album of songs, music to support us.  I believe the tape (this was before cds) made money to support this fight.  I think there were others of prominence who stepped forward to lend support to protect these ancient forests. My people won!  It’s a protected area, and this is why we have Gwaii Haanas today.

As we got closer we radioed in permission to land,

and got it.  When we were very close I sang the Lyell Island song as loudly as I could.  I sang it three times with all of my heart.  If it weren’t for my people who stood on the line back then, if it weren’t for others, this site might not be here for us to enjoy today.  My heart was happy.  My spirit light.

Watchmen Al Vandal greeted us.  He said he’s not a Haida, but Polish (and some more ancestry of European origins, but I don’t remember).  I said he could have fooled me, he looks Haida!  He said his wife, Gladys is the Haida, and she heard me singing and asked, “What? Are they Haida?” They were there with their gra

ndson Josh.

We were invited to spend the night in the longhouse.  All boaters, kayakers are allowed to do this.  We let Al know we were taking on water, and we were cold.  So he lit the fire in the woodstove in the longhouse. Kevin started taking all the gear and food out of the kayak.  I helped by carrying the stuff up onto the grass.  When that was done, I took the food to the longhouse and emptied it of our food out of the barrels, and set it out all over one of the tables to dry out.  The house was all warm and toasty inside. I went down and brought all of gear inside, everything was soaked because it was sitting submerged for so long in our kayak.  So I took everything out and hung it all up to dry. Kevin managed to cook on the woodstove instead of taking our cooking stove out, finding small bits of firewood for fuel, and then cooking.  It’s a small stove and it doesn’t need gas to keep it going.

Al and Gladys invited us in to visit them when we were don

e.  I suggested they might go to bed early so we better get over there to their small house.  I went over alone while Kevin cooked.  Did I mention Kevin does all the cooking while we take these trips?  I get cooking amnesia on these trips.  I do most of the cooking when we’re at home.

I talked Gladys’ ear off.  Poor thing!  She was weaving a hat, and she wove two hats while she was there.  She was excited about getting onto a sailboat to go home in.  The captain asked her to weave while she was on board.  We met some from the sailboat later on who told us they learned how to weave a bracelet, a frog and a cedar rose from Gladys.

The captain of the sailboat is Bill, and Sandy is the cook.  It was nice to visit with them at Tanu village and later on at Moresby Camp. It was a nice paddle right before Tanu, but it was about 8 pm when we asked permission to land.  I sang the gambling song to the Watchmen I could see leaving the shore.  I learned they had some jellyfish on their clothes and they had to get it off asap as they’re toxic.  They were rushing to get into new clothes.

Roberta, Sean, and Helen at Tanu

I didn’t say it was hard paddling around the point where we move closer towards Tanu.  It was windy, headwinds. We stopped in to visit Sean and Helen, the Watchmen here.  They offered us hot tea with sugar and milk.  It was so good.  I felt cold from being soaked.  It wasn’t a rough day, but we’re surrounded with water, so it’s inevitable that we would be wet.

Today was the second day we didn’t see any whales.  Before this we saw whales everyday.  It was eerily quiet, with few sea birds as well, for the whole day. We paddled late into Kunga Island, a long beach.  We learned to empty the kayak completely and remove items as much as possible in order for me to be able to lift it.

It was cold as it was getting dark fast.  Kevin set up the tent quickly, and then I got our gear into the tent, and then our air mats.  I then went down to where Kevin was making our supper.  It was late when we ate, but the food was so good.  We figure we’re burning 5,000 calories a day from all of our hard paddling everyday.  It also keeps me very warm at night.  It has been hot during the day. We were invited back to have coffee in the morning with Helen and Sean.  We didn’t get there again until 11 am.  And by then Sean had a tour group out with him.  Helen visited with us, while we talked about all kinds of stuff.  Helen was called out to more visitors to the beach for another tour.  A sailboat arrived and the visitors on the beach waited for them to arrive so they could tour together. Sean arrived later and had a visit with us, too.  It was too busy to visit them together, but it was nice to visit them. After we left Tanu we paddled 6 hours in the kayak.  6 hours without breaks.  It was very rough the whole way as we paddled our way to Limestone Islands to find a camping spot.

Leaving Tanu

There was nowhere to land, and even if there were, it was too dangerous to go anywhere close to a shore.  No pee breaks.  It was very, very rough, strong headwinds, very big swells.  The winds were blowing Northeast. It felt like we were getting nowhere for several hours.  We barely had any food all day, and it was a small snack for breakfast.  We were hungry all day long.  I fell into a trance to make it through the day.  My arms moving automatically, stroke after stroke after stroke…on and on until we made it.  I kept wishing to be somewhere else, but here I was, with Kevin in the kayak paddling for what seemed like forever. This is getting to be a very long post and I had better stop to get lunch, and to eat with my family. It’s been beautiful here everyday.

Quick post to confirm that we’ve arrived back in Queen Charlotte City after kayaking in Gwaii Haanas Park for two weeks.  We had a fantastic trip with very good weather and plenty of humpback whales and hummingbirds to keep us company.

Pictures and details soon.

We arrived on Haida Gwaii last night, Wednesday, July 15th.  We had a beautiful trip on the long ferry ride over from Prince Rupert to Skidegate.  We departed at approximately 1 pm, and we arrived just after 7 pm.  We went shopping in the morning and got some groceries to bring for our kayaking trip (you can’t get everything on Haida Gwaii, or so we thought-there is a health food store that’s amazing, it had everything we needed).  We bought extra food to eat during the day.  Ferry food tends to be fast food, and I cannot eat that, and I just don’t like it…guess I’m a food snob. 

We had an amazing day, both napping and being awake and eating and getting excited about being on Haida Gwaii!  We were especially giddy as we approached the dock and were waiting for the doors to open! 

I didn’t let my cousin Christopher and his partner Bonnie know we were planning on staying with them, or when we were getting here…that was my job, and I just kept forgetting to call them…so we showed up at their door in our taxi with the most amount of luggage anyone has seen!  Most of this luggage is our bicycle and our folding kayak (which is in two big duffle bags).  The Haida word for this type of behaviour is hunch-ee-ga (nervy).  Like I’ve got some nerve doing that!

We were trying to make arrangements for a Haida tour operator to drop us off in Rose Harbour, or as close to Sgun Gwaii/Ninstints as possible.  No luck there, so we just found a list and started calling people.  We found a tour operator who has room on their boat tomorrow morning at 7 am, on the Sandspit side, or on the Moresby side of Haida Gwaii.  We might just get up early and get there, or we might leave by the smaller ferry to get across tonight and camp over there so we can be there promptly.  Kevin is sure we can get up and get there on the first crossing, so we’ll likely do that.

It’s been so amazing just being here again.  We keep saying that over and over again.  I love the ocean, and the beaches..my people!

We had an incredible lunch today at Queen B’s, Bonnie’s cafe, complete with dessert and Royal Early Gray tea for me…mmmmm….

Yep, it’s all about eating for me! 

Neither of us will be near any computers, there is no world wide web in Gwaii Haanas, so we won’t get to update until two weeks pass at least.

It’s too bad, there are so many things happening here.  Tonight is the launch of a cd box set of ancient Haida Songs at the museum in Skidegate.  We’re in Queen Charlotte City, but it’s close enough for us to ride our tandem bicycle to.  Tomorrow night is the opening of a display of weavers and weaving as well…we’ll miss that, but the display might still be up when we get back and out of our kayak.

Take care all!

We’re in Prince Rupert today.  We had a very good day yesterday: over 90 kms into the wind.  It was pretty flat following the Skeena River from Terrace, but that wind was gusting in our faces the whole way.  There is a reason why every other cyclist does this route from West to East instead of East to West like us!

In the last couple of days we’ve finally started to get into a groove.  Our endurance has increased and we can cycle all day up and down hills without feeling much pain.  Too bad we are at the end of the cycling portion of the journey!  Actually, we might ride another couple of hundred kms on Graham Island after we return from kayaking in Gwaii Haanas if we have time and energy.

It has been super hot these past few days. Riding has made it tough, but despite this, it’s been a lot of fun.
I’m still sore, but Kevin says it will take the second week before the pain stops and I just feel okay. I especially have saddle sores…I mean a sore butt!

So many things have happened since we last posted, but I know I’ll forget to mention it all.

We were riding all day in the rain, we were soaked, the gear was soaked. So we stopped at a motel in Fraser Lake.

We got a ride from there to Smithers by Jared. He was so nice and so helpful. It was wonderful getting back on the road. We were running out of time, and had to skip ahead and then continue riding from there.

We had a nice stay in Smithers at a beautiful campground. In town the next day we had to get a sleeping mat (Kevin’s mat had a lot of little tiny holes in it, the result being he was sleeping on the ground before morning).

We rode to Moricetown, where we had the best food at the Little Frog Cafe and Bistro. It’s a nice stop beside Highway 16, where the Carrier fish with spears. The river was too high for fishing.

The Cafe had the best veggie kebobs, the best bannock, the best veggies, the best mashed potatoes! I really hoped to have room for dessert…potlatch cake, but no room! The cook this day was Millie Alec and her husband Victor was our waiter. The owner is named Theresa Tait Day. We met her son, Gordon.  There was also a very quiet boy there playing a game…but I never did get his name. I highly recommend you to stop here and eat, there was so much on their menu…I wish to go back there again. We’ll post photos of our stops somewhere on here at some point. 

We continued riding to New Hazelton. We talked to women at the gas station where they suggested a motel, but it was full. Cassidy, the manager volunteered her sister’s backyard! So off we went to stay in Britteny’s and Derek’s backyard.

The next day we had breakfast, made by Cassidy. Mmmmm, pancakes and scrambled eggs!

Cassidy and Britteny cycled across Canada from Prince Rupert to St. John’s last year. They raised money for BC Children’s hospital.

They said many, many people were so very nice to them when they took their trip last year, they wanted to do the same for us. So we will also pass this on, when it’s our turn.

We then cycled to Coyote Creek…suggestion made by an aboriginal man named Graham. It was great, but there were several trucks and campers already there, we camped up closer to the road. There were tonnes of bugs there, especially black flies. But of course millions of mosquitoes. I kid you not. We raced out of there, packed up our stuff super quick and rode down the road away from it. We didn’t stop for breakfast, but we snacked on stuff beside the road further down.

On we went. Our rear tire blew. Kevin walked across the road to repair it, then it blew again. Off we rode.

Shortly after this, a road worker stopped (forgot his name immediately, sorry-Clarence seems right) and brought us some fresh spring dried salmon! It looked like a treasure in his bag, there was so much of it. We thanked him and gobbled right away! What a treat. I wish I had taken his photo, but my camera ran out of charge.

Last night we camped in a provincial park called Kleanza Creek. It was nice, busy with RVs, campers, and several little dogs that barked late, and started barking early this morning. It was very pretty there, and relatively bug free!

We were exhausted. We walked down to get water from the pump and while there, we also walked down to the creek, where Kevin jumped in to cool off. I dipped my toes in, eek! Too cold for me!

We both slept well. Now we’re in Terrace and we’re off to have some yummy lunch at a place called Hot House, an East Indian, or South Asian restaurant.

Have a lovely day, I know we will!

We’re in Terrace today. We stayed the night in Fraser Lake, then got a lift to Smithers because we didn’t want to run out of time for the fun part of the ride closer to the coast. We’ve camped every night and ridden about 60 kms each day. We were hoping to find a hotel tonight, but we must move on and there aren’t any beyond Terrace within our range. Perhaps when we get closer to Prince Rupert we’ll find on for the last night on the road.

Looking forward to kayaking in Gwaii Hanaas in a few days.

Well our trip did not start out great.  We got off the bus in Prince George. We live in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, so we did take the bus from there-it leaves at midnight.   

Kevin set up our bicycle, and we shopped for food, got a hot meal, went to to the Coast Mountain store, and started our trip.  We were still in Prince George, but our gears weren’t working properly.  We had to pull over and fix them.  Notice the Royal ‘We?’  I sat around and read my book while Kevin worked on them. 

They got fixed and off we went!

Exciting!  Hard!  We’re both out of shape for a long cycling trip.  We did not make it to Vanderhoof as hoped for.  So we stopped and camped by the side of the road (Crown Land).  Talk about tonnes of bugs!  Mosquitoes galore!  Black Flies! 

And really, I thought there were no bugs once we passed the Northwest Territories border!  We look like one big bug bite!

The second night we had a long ride to Vanderhoof, so exhausted by the end of the day.  But we made it.

I wasn’t sure we were going to, however.  We had to stop for a long time at the side of the road.  The funny thing that happened (because there was no proper rest stop in this area, we just pulled over and climbed into the huge ditch to sit and take it easy).  We found fresh strawberries! 

Oh yeah, the funny thing that happened…a police office pulled over because the ditch is so deep, he didn’t see us sitting there.  He thought we were in an accident.  So he stopped to check on us. 

We made it to Vanderhoof.  I was so happy to be there because we stayed in a Motel.  It was because our air mattresses had holes in them somewhere and Kevin had to repair them.  We also needed a shower, and to wash our clothes.  It was so nice to take a long soak.  And to sleep in a bed. 

Our bike gears weren’t working again when we started on our trip on this day.  We had a quick, but yummy breakfast at Tim Horton’s.  Kevin has declared he’s a real Canadian because he LOVES Tim Horton’s!  He had a delicious latte (I had a sip, it had real caffeine in it, and if I drink real coffee, it makes me crazy), a jelly doughnut, a bagel and a fritter.  I had a bagel.  It doesn’t take much to fill up my belly. 

When we were done, we biked into the Co-op parking lot, where Kevin started working on the gears, and I went shopping for some snacks and food for our trip.  We just needed a few things.  It took a long time before Kevin could get the gears working, after going to the hardware store.  But he did it!  We had some help.  A young boy came by and asked him a lot of questions, he even came into the store to find me to let me know my husband wanted to see me.  And Collee/Colly helped us immensely when a tiny screw fell off the bike.  After I searched for it all over, she asked, “Did you try looking on the other side of the front wheel?”  I reached around it, saw what I thought was garbage, but it was the screw!  I was so happy I took her picture, and I took her picture with her mom, Donna.  Sorry if I spelled your name wrong Collee.  You were a great help.  (Collee is on the right, Donna is on the left).

Yesterday evening it started to rain.  It rained very hard all night.  It was nice once the camp was set up.  We camped in Beaumont Provincial Park.  Kevin did all of the work.  He’s been doing most everything.  He’s encouraging me to rest when I need it, usually every time we stop so I can make it to the end of this trip! 

I didn’t mention I had a serious illness earlier this year, and I’m still recovering.  I’m quite well, and I look fine, but my insides are 100% yet.  My pancreas shut down in January.  It’s showing signs of working, and I’m hoping it just keeps on doing just that…and I believe it will.

Beaumont Camp was beautiful and quiet.  It was very nice inside our tent listening to the rain coming down.  We were cozy warm…yes I had on a wool shirt, a light jacket and my small parka!  I didn’t get cold once, though, so it helped a lot. 

It is now our 4th day…and I was hoping it would get easier to ride by now, but I’m sore in a different way.  Muscles in my legs I wasn’t aware of are sore.  It was so hard when we first started, but eventually it got easier.  Though I should mention we have only been riding for an hour…

Now we’re thinking of taking the train, if it will allow us on with our gear and stuff.  We have a goal of getting to Haida Gwaii (aka the Queen Charlotte Islands, BC-where I was born and raised) for the kayaking portion of our trip.  We want to get back to Gwaii Haanas, into the World Heritage Site, and the ancient villages of my people.  We hope to make it to Sgun Gwaii the most southern Haida village, and the one with the most ancient totem poles-20.  These poles were raised over a hundred years ago. 

Last summer we took 2 of our kids (we have 3) to this same area by kayak.  We kayaked 200 km and we made it from Moresby Camp (on south Moresby, on Haida Gwaii) to Hot Spring Island (still on south Moresby).  It was quite a trip!  I loved it, had moments of fear, and anger…but really it was the best thing that happened last year.

I’m not sure when we’ll get to another computer again, but I’ll try to keep you updated on our next portion of our trip.

Well, we are on the road. We survived the thirty hour bus ride to Prince George, barely. You can usually stretch out and sleep on the almost empty bus from Yellowknife to Hay River, but this time they sent a tiny van with a trailer instead of the usual coach — we were a little cramped.

Once we arrived, we sent our kayak bags on to Prince Rupert as freight so that we can meet them there. We assembled our bike, bought a few groceries, and headed out in the middle of the afternoon.

One thing I never knew about Prince George (or never noticed) is that to get out of town, you have to go straight up a hill.  We managed it, but it was tough going because the gear shifter on the bike was malfunctioning.  We did lots of pushing as well as riding and finally made it. 

One of the highlights of the day was when we walked right past a bear who was trying to cross the highway, but not having much luck with the heavy weekend traffic.  We didn’t even notice the bear until we were already past it, so we had a chance for a good look backwards.

We travelled about 30 kms the first day and found a place to camp beside the road.  Our campsite was a little rough, but it was loaded with ripe wild strawberries, so we couldn’t complain.  We were tired and went right to sleep without cooking anything.

Day Two of the bike ride, we were still plagued by problems with our gears.  They just weren’t working properly, “slipping” in and out of the lower and middle range and just generally making it hard to build up any momentum.  Riding a tandem requires a fair bit of coordination for the two riders, so anything that disrupts your cadence causes problems.  Still, we travelled sixty-five kms that day to Vanderhoof, where we stayed in a motel for the night.  I needed to work on fixing my air mattress, which (though I checked it) had sprung a leak the night before — and there is nothing I hate more than waking up laying on the ground!

The next morning, we rode down a big hill into the main part of the town and stopped at Tim Horton’s for breakfast.  We usually never eat fast food or sweets, but you really sugar, fat, and carbs when you are biking all day.  On the way out of the parking lot, the gear cable snapped, so we limped over to the Co-op across the street, where Roberta picked up a few groceries while I worked on the bike.  A few hours later, we were back on the road (I always carry spare cables — be prepared!).

We pedalled on through some beautiful and hilly country, but still had trouble with the gears.  We stopped at a pretty spot next to a field, where I dismantled the shifter again and through trial and error, finally got them working properly once and for all.  Part of the shifter is stripped inside, but at least now we can use the full range of gears without that annoying slipping sensation.

We stopped in Fort Fraser for some greasy food and awesome homemade apple pie as the rain started to come down.  By the time we left, it was raining heavily and we decided to stop at Beaumont Provincial Park, a few kms down the highway, for the night.  We only travelled 40 kms that day, but that seems to be a reasonable daily goal for us with this bike and the heavy trailer, especially if we want to have time to make camp and stop to look at birds and butterflies.

Beaumont was very nice, but it poured rain all night and hasn’t stopped since.  We stayed fairly dry and comfortable, but we’re looking at our options for drying out.  We’ve pedalled here to the Fraser Lake Public Library (about 20 kms) and are going to figure out whether to push on and camp in the bush or stay here and dry out first.  We might even hop on the bus or train for the next leg, because we’d rather skip some of this section than when we get closer to the coast.

Anyhow, things are going fine.  We’re sore, but starting to toughen up!