Haida Gwai. Saturday

Haida Gwai  Saturday 

A misty morning saw us heading the 1.5 hours north to Masset. 

Crazy weather in this country. One hour of misty rain then suddenly the skies open to sunshine. Later in the day the weather was misty again. 

Even though Masset was in the sunshine, the town has a permanent cloud of poverty shrouding it. With much of the town being a First Nations reserve, little attention was being focussed on home maintenance or town infrastructure upgrades.  Even though the Haida community center was a well kept building with a totem pole outside, the homes of the residents were in a terrible state of disrepair and neglect. Many houses were vandalized and neglected to the point where they were uninhabitable. Broken windows, torn off siding, partly destroyed exterior walls and derelict roofing were common place. 

However we were hungry by noon and after a time of searching for a restaurant we found a seedy looking small diner, took a deep breath and headed in for lunch. What a surprise. It was busy inside and when we were served, the food was "top shelf" with service to match. A pleasant treat, warrenting a decent tip!

From here it was on to the north most tip of Haida Gwai. Before reaching Tow Hill we passed a very large decommissioned national defence facility that played a roll in defending our West Coast during WWII. It is now reduced to a communications post in our national defence strategy. 

The ride along the gravel road to Tow Hill was almost mystical. 

Large trees covered with 6 to 12 inch moss clothing lined the roadside swampy areas. Bright sunshine filtered through the greenery that formed a Tierra crowning over the road as we drove under it. Occasionally where the swamp retreated, we saw a driveway through the trees, leading to an oceanfront beach. At one point we found a trail-road leading in the direction of the ocean. In the truck we ducked through the lush green tunnel and came out on an enormous expanse of sandy beach with no one in sight for miles. 

Another amazing thing we experienced was, NO MOSQUITOES OR BUGS!!  So far everywhere we have been has been bug free-- amazing since there is water and swamp in many of the locations we have travelled in Haida Gwai. 

The other strange thing we have experienced is how warm it is on this remote northern location. Often we are just in out shirt sleeves or at most with a fleece on. Our temperatures in the last few days have been at least as warm as in Kelowna!  I guess the effects of the Japanese current are more than we thought. They even have a surfing competition here in OCTOBER!! The island only saw frost a couple of days all last winter with only a few days of snow also. 

After spending an hour or so exploring the isolated sandy beach area, we head on to Tow Hill. 

Mist started to creep in on us but did not dampen our spirits or even cool the air much. Here we hiked the sands and watched a few people with kids enjoy the water. There was even a surf board on the beach, but waves were not cooperating for the hopeful surfer. 

A hike up the kilometre long board walk to the top of Tow Hill and another stroll on Agate beach near the oceanfront government campsite wrapped up another wonderful day.  

Once back at our home base it did start to rain--west coast rain. However we were back in our cozy appartment having another great meal prepared by the ladies. 

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