[Paddlewise] Trip Report, Haida Gwaii

I promised the people who helped me plan this trip that I would submit a
report.  Here it is.

The Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, Canada, are the ancestral
home of the Haida, the group who made some of the most spectacular
totem poles in the world.  They call the island Haida Gwaii.  The
southern end of the island chain is the Gwaii Haanas National Park.

With two other people, I spent fourteen days paddling in the park.  Our
trip lasted from August 22nd through September 6th, the extra days being
used to get into and out of the area.

It is quite easy to get there from my home in Chicago.  I flew to
Vancouver and from there flew to Sandspit, the airport that serves the
Queen Charlottes.  We stayed overnight in a bed and breakfast and left
the next day.  One can paddle from Sandspit into the park, but is would
take two days or so in good weather.  We elected to pay for a boat
shuttle.

We were dropped off at the south end of Wanderer Island.  We spent the
rest of the afternoon setting up camp and assembling the Feathercraft
double and single (Expedition model).  As was true almost every day of
the trip, the rain came and went a bunch of times, this day never raining
for more than ten minutes straight.  The next morning our welcoming
committee showed up: four sea otters playing in front of us, a seal
swimming around, and the ubiquitous deer.  A nice beginning to a
wonderful trip.

The next night we camped on the middle of the three Swan islands.  A gale
pinned us down so we had to spend two nights there.  We probably could
have safely paddled through the islands (there are 138 islands in the
park), using them as shelter, but so early in the trip there was no
reason to take any risks.  The island was bear free but had a large
family of bold raccoons, so we were happy to have hung our food. When the
weather cleared we got one of the three sunny days that we were to have
on the trip. 

We paddled on south, eventually reaching Rose Harbour two days later.  On
the way we spent a half hour watching a lone Humpback whale feeding just
off Benjamin Point.  Rose Harbour has the only private homes left in the
park.  One of the residents, Gvtz Hanisch, runs a guest house and guided
trips.  We hired him to take us to Sgaan Gwaii, also called Ninstints, a
World Heritage site that has a large collection of totem poles standing
in their original positions.  House ruins and other evidence of a
thriving Haida community are also there.  It is on Anthony Island only
about eight miles from our camp, but the weather changes so fast that we
felt it would be a more enjoyable experience if we chartered the Zodiac. 
Gvtz is incredibly knowledgeable about the history of the area, both
natural and human and we were glad we went with him.  He is a true
character of good character.  He took us past a sea lion haul-out where
we saw seals and puffins as well as a huge male Stellars Sea Lion and his
harem.  

Each of the historic sites in the park has a watchman program were
Haida people stay at the site to control access and provide information. 
Only a dozen people are allowed at a site at a time in order to make the
experience an appropriate one and to reduce the impact on the sites.  The
watchmen, many of whom are women, are really helpful.  Even if their site
isnt visited, they give weather and other information on the marine
radio and are ones last resort in emergencies.

Sgaan Gwaii was a religious experience.  All the poles, most of which are
grave posts which held the bones of the leader of the house, stand in
front of ruined longhouses.  The ruins of the houses are amazing: grown
over with moss and fallen down but still majestic and filled with
powerful spirits.  These were no small cottages, some of them are over a
hundred feet long.  Standing quietly by them in the bright sunshine gave
me the feeling that the people who lived here must have loved the place.

When we got back to Rose Harbour we toured the little village.  It was
once British Columbias largest whaling station.  Bones, baleen and a lot
of the technology that was used to process whales are still in the
shallow water in front of the homes.  Very grim.

>From there we paddled back north, seeing the Humpback in the same area as
before, except this time it swam right at us.  We didnt even know it was
near us because it surfaced without blowing.  We heard the water rippling
off its dorsal fin as it dove under about fifty feet away.  

In both directions we went through Burnaby Narrows, catching it at low
tide only on the way north.  This is one of the richest areas of sea life
in the world, because the nutrient-rich waters flow through an area a
half mile long and only about 150 feet wide at low tide.  The varieties
of starfish, crabs, fish, sea urchins, snails and clams were truly a
wonder to see.

The next major stop was the hot springs island of Gandll Kin.  Camping is
not allowed on the island but the nearby islands are full of nice sites. 
We spent two nights there, enjoying a chance to soak in the three hot
springs, each with a different view of the water and each a different
temperature.  Showering wasnt a bad thing, either!  On the afternoon of
our second day I was the only person in the pools.  Off-season delight!

Leaving the hot springs area we ran into heavy misty rain.  We had to
navigate by compass to get from Gandll Kin to the intermediate waypoint
of the Bischoff Islands.  Fortunately, we estimated the wind drift
correctly and ended up exactly where we wanted to be.  From there we
followed coastlines for the rest of our journey, no more open crossings.

We finished at Taanu, the most magical of the historic sites, in my
opinion.  More than 25 house sites are there, all under the soft blanket
of moss that covers everything in the open here.  Taanu contains the
grave of Bill Reid, a pioneer of the Haida art renaissance.   It was at
our camp across from Taanu that we were picked up and shuttled back to
Sandspit by way of the historic village of Skedans.  Here is another
large collection of poles and house sites.  I was fortunate enough to
meet one of the watchmen from here (a woman, actually) at the Field
Museum in Chicago a month later.  She was part of a delegation of Haida
who were at the museum to accept the bones of 150 Haida that had been
housed in the museum collections since the early 1900s and now were being
given back for burial in Haida Gwaii.  The ceremony really gave a
magnificent close to the whole Gwaii Haanas experience for me.

If youre considering paddling in Gwaii Haanas, here is some info: The
weather is mild but really wet.  The rain never deterred us from doing
anything, but it is a constant consideration.  Most days were not rainy,
most evenings and nights were.  I never had to pack my tent wet, but that
was a miracle.  Without a large tarp for eating and lounging under, the
trip would have been much different.  The wildlife is incredible,
especially birds.  We saw oystercatchers, heron, cranes, gulls, ducks,
lots of eagles, hawks, wrens, woodpeckers, shore birds in abundance,
loons, auklets, guillemots, puffins, murres, and grebes, to name some. 
Sea otters are around and river otters are common.  Little deer are
everywhere and so tame that we sometimes had to shoo them away from our
gear.  And sea life is too numerous to list.  Low tide is a delight of
creatures on the rocks.  The Queen Charlottes are called the Galapagos
of Canada because of their isolation and unique subspecies of so many
animals. We never saw a bear, but their tracks and scat are all over. 
Since there is so much for the bears to eat, they dont seem to see
people food as a big deal.  No one was using bear barrels, but everyone
was told to hang food between trees, which we did without fail.

Paddling is easy because of all the islands.  Open crossings can be saved
for good weather.  The wind can be amazing, but we only had three days
where it was a factor.  Tides are almost always a factor and have to be
considered in every part of trip planning.  Late summer was a good time
to be there.  Our shuttle guide, Doug of Moresby Explorers (the only
people who shuttle kayaks into the park.  They also rent kayaks and act
as tour guides.) said that he estimated there to be about 150 people in
the whole park when we got there.  We only ran into other groups a few
times and never had to share a camp area.  Marine radios can reach
someone just about everywhere, so help is not usually far way.  The
watchmen monitor marine channels as well.

Many of the islands have fresh water streams.  It is a rain forest, so
getting water was never a big problem.  We kept our Dromedary bags
filled, whenever we wanted a paddling break or to stop for lunch we would
filter water into the bags.  Camp sites are random, but favorites are
obviously used a lot.

Parks Canada requires an orientation, held at the Sandspit airport, and
fees, to overnight in the park.  The orientation gives you most of the
information you need to have a good, fun, safe trip except their
illustration of how to hang food to be safe from bears is ridiculous. 
Each person is given a register number and a passport book with info
and a place to have the watchmen stamp your book when the historic sites
are visited.  

Ive paddled through the Grand Canyon three times, Ive paddled in
Greenland three times, Ive paddled Isle Royale, Lake Powell, rivers in
Costa Rica, Georgian Bay and lots of other places.  This was one of the
best trips I have ever been on.  The ease of travel, the relatively
benign weather, the history that lives on there, the natural beauty of
the mountains, the wildlife, all make Gwaii Haanas a place I want go to
again.

Jim Tibensky
***************************************************************************
PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed
here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire
responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author.
Submissions:     PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net
Subscriptions:   PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net
Website:         http://www.paddlewise.net/
***************************************************************************