Playing as we go
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- Long House from the logging protest
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- Abandoned otter den
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- Sheldon and his tree
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- Look a Tatoo!
Touring the site. Photo credit – Fynn
Tucked into the lovely Ana Inlet
After our Big Road Trip we were hesitant to put any more miles on the car as we weren’t sure our bank account could handle it. So when we woke up at 8:20 we made the last minute decision to head to the cultural center for the 9am Gwaii Haanas orientation. Yep in 40 minutes we had to get two kids dressed, packed up, dinghy to the dock and into the car then drive the 10 minutes to the Centre. We were pretty pleased with ourselves when we made it with 5 minutes to spare. Slick. Fynn and Bowen and I meandered around the grounds while Kolby listened to the mandatory orientation and purchased our park pass. The building is lovely, designed to mimic traditional long housed and situated right on the beach. If we didn’t have the car we had planned on anchoring the the bay right out front and dinghying in, which would have worked out fine as well. We stopped by the Coop for some small town grocery shopping and then Kolby dropped me and the kids off at the docks to go return the car. So now I have a pile of stuff -groceries, toys, random clothing, carseat etc and one cranky baby, one wandering toddler and a dog. As I go about stuffing the miscellaneous stuff into grocery bags and organizing everything into a dock cart, Bowen kicks up his protest of being in the carseat up a level, so I put him in the Ergo. He appreciates this even less and screams louder. He wants his bed and he wants it NOW. I round up Fynn and Kyber and head to the top of the ramp. It is at this point that I realize the tide is out. Way out. There is no way I am getting that buggy down the ramp. As I start removing the bags a few helpful people materialize and in no time everything is loaded into the dinghy and we are zooming for Asunto. That is what I love about small towns, People genuinely care to help others still. Community not only exists but is cherished. It matters how you treat other around you as you may need their assistance in the future. Since we arrived in QCC we have already had many people go out of their way to help us; the lady running the marina helped us find a car rental and carseats, the lady running the car rental came to pick us up when she heard we had littles and hitchhiking to here wasn’t an option; and now help with my groceries. There is a lot of appeal in raising a family in a small town. With only about 2000 people living on the whole of Haida Gwaii, it just might be a little too small for me. But after spending a few days here in the sunshine it is incredibly tempting.
Queen Charlotte City made my heart sing. It refilled our energy. We were very very happy here.
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- It’s a good life
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- Playtime
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- She’s a climber
We also stopped by the cultural centre to complete the orientation. While Kolby listened to the slideshow, Fynn and I wondered the grounds.
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- Cultural Center
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- Old Haida Village
Bowen needed his 4 month vaccinations and it just so happened he could have an appointment on Wednesday afternoon. This being Monday we thought that timing was ideal so we were locked in for the next 3 days, and the weather was just glorious- and HOT! We rented a car, borrowed a car seat and headed for Masset. As neither kid is really used to being in the car, I always end up sitting in the back with them. Not my favourite spot. I was happy when we made it to Old Masset for lunch at Rosie’s Cafe and a stop to look at some art just down the road. We were looking for a paddle to buy but couldn’t find anything in our price range.
From there we headed for Tow Hill and North Beach. North Beach was magical. We all fell in love with it. The sand was silky smooth and the beach stretch for miles.
We watched surfers learning in the rolling waves and a family of boogie boarders join the fun. Another family was having a BBQ on the sand. It was idyllic.
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- West Coast
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- Beach
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- Babe
Happy Family
We had been mulling over whether or not we were going to Haida Gwaii. It was not that we didn’t want to, we just weren’t sure about the two crossings to get there. However our desire to visit these island overcame our apprehension, and the rig was all fixed up and ready so after only one night in Prince Rupert we were off. 2 nights later we started our crossing of Hecate Straight at 3am. We got a lot more than we bargained for on that ride. The wind built up to 25 knots, which in itself was fine, but the seas were so confused and very steep.They were simply a mess. Hard to the wind Asunto sailed about 15 nm below the entrance to Queen Charlotte City. She was hard over, the port rail frequently awash and white water hitting the dodger. Down below the ride was pretty intense. When we hit the waves too hard I was getting airtime in the forward berth. Some time during the really early morning Fynn woke up calling for me. “Mama why roll-roll?” She asks. “Because we are sailing and there are some big waves” “O-tay”, satisfied with this answer she was soon fast asleep. At one point when I was nursing Bowen we had so much water over the deck that it came under the closed hatch and landed right on top of us. He was not pleased. I dogged the hatch even tighter and it stayed dry after that. For whatever reason Fynn slept in to 10am then she was happy on the couch watching movies till about 1pm. We could do little else. Around then we started into the lee of the Graham Island ad the waves abated it and smoothed out the trip. Eventually we had to motor sail to reclaim our lost 15nm. We anchored down around 3pm and promptly went ashore for ice cream. We had sunshine and we had Haida Gwaii. We were happy.
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- Cedars of the Spicer Island
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- BC West Coast
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- Port Rupert coal terminal
Of course for our last night in Alaska… Fynn and Kolby went swimming. Fynn even jumped in twice! Goodbye Glaciers, it has been awesome.
Full Moon Rising
We still hadn’t been able to get a permit for the bear blind at Anan Bear Sanctuary. Here you can stand in a cabin overlooking the river and watch the bears fish.
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- Largest Pink run in the SE
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- At the cabin
We had been getting a lot of conflicting information amount getting a permit but the one consistent was to just go and see if you could get a permit day of. This is frustrating because it is a 6 hr motor trip to get there. However we decided bears was something we wanted to see, so off we went, permit or not. We hailed the Ranger on the radio station that we were in the area and hoping for a permit for tomorrow. He said to check in mid morning and see what comes up.
We were able to get a permit no problem the next day and enjoyed watching 4 bears fish and two cubs play on the rocks.
Walking the trail
The cubs
We learnt that some bears are better at fishing than others. Additionally they tend to fish with the same technique their entire lives. So a bear will fish in the way and place that he or she first had success when they first learnt to fish. The techniques are also passed down from mothers to cubs. We watched one bear with a white heart shape on his chest catch two fish over the course of an hours (a better fisher could catch 6-7). His method was to stand chest deep in the water and basically wait till a failing fish slapped into his face a which point he would probably catch it.
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- Not the best fisherbear
A mama bear was hanging out in a cave where the river ran and about 5 fish ended up in her little pool over the course of the hour and she would catch them and chow down. Everyone agreed she had the cleverest spot. Although we loved watching the bears it was a lot of miles (66nm) out of the way and we were exhausted when we were done.
We sailed with Yare for three more nights. It hard to part ways as this was both a goodbye to good friends and an acknowledgement of our trip coming to a close. And we have a lot of fun together.
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- Some amazing sunsets on our last few nights
One day as we sailed down the Straight our two boats were perfectly matched for speed. With Yare sailing in our lee we sailed side by side for hours, chatting in the sunshine and laughing as the kids tossed nuts to each other. It was magical.
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- Here they come!
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- Close enough to touch
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- Two very different boats…
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- … but very similar crews!
We said goodbye at Meyers Chuck, Yare made an early departure to start knocking down the miles to get home to Seattle before school started for the boys.
Forest Slide at Meyers Chuck
We have seen many whales in SE Alaska, mostly all have been humpbacks. By far the closest have been these two sleepers on the surface. We also enjoyed their more active neighbours.
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