Arctic Adventures

We spent the night at Rose Harbour, a former whaling station and funky private enclave just outside the national park. We stayed in the guest house belonging to a German character named Gutz, shown firing up his wood-powered shower. We ate dinner and breakfast in the blue house belonging to Susan (who did not want her picture taken), who’s lived here for 30 years, grows all the vegetables she serves in her organic garden, and grinds grain as she needs it on a grinder attached to a stationary bicycle. 

When we were at SGang Gwaay, one of the watchmen had just caught three halibut weighing a total of 220 pounds. He sent a large quantity with us to Rose Harbor for our dinner, something he apparently had never done before. Susan prepared it in a wok, served with spring rolls, brown rice and fresh vegetables. Delicious!

This is SGang Gwaay, formerly known as Ninstints, a UNESCO World Heritage site. It has the largest concentration of old standing totem poles anywhere. Our Haida Watchman here was a young man named Doug, an easygoing but earnest guy who said he’d give anything to be able to go back 300 years and see a hundred Haida warriors in one of the great canoes. And he put us at ease with his good humor. (What did the villagers sleep on? Haida beds…)

We learned about crests. Each family had a right to certain crests, perhaps eagle, beaver, killer whale, frog. Using a crest you had no right to could be a provocation for war. Often a family would obtain a new crest through marriage or by “stealing” it from a village on the mainland—perhaps an animal that never lived here, such as a mountain goat. Each family also had the exclusive right to tell certain stories, told in extensive detail by highly trained professionals. Many of the stories had to do with the mythical origins of their particular clan, often told in relation to particular locations on Haida Gwaii. The stories are full of supernatural transformations.

In one photo, Doug is sitting beside the clam line. All the Haida sites had these markers, setting off the trails where we could walk from the protected places where only the Haida Watchmen could go. It was a sign of respect to observe these rules. And it felt like a privilege to be here. This village was almost entirely wiped out in the smallpox epidemic.

We saw two humpback whales surfacing, and once saw a tail as it dove. That was a thrill—just knowing we’re sharing the ocean with these behemoths. And we saw a rocky island covered in Stellar sea lions, which are so delightfully rude to each other, bellowing and shoving each other to gain the best spot—but they never seem to decide to seek a less crowded place to haul out. 

The downside of visiting a rain forest is that it rains a lot. It was cloudy and misty most of the time, and we had periodic rain—though remarkably, never when we were seeing the sights on shore. On the boat, charging through the waves, it was pretty cold.  So we wore long underwear (like I said, a typical summer vacation with my husband….), fleece, rain slickers, gloves and warm hats. (Bundled up in the first photo: Shelley and Diana.) Then we stripped off layers when we went ashore.  Just part of the deal if you’re boating in Gwaii Haanas.

Across the passage at Burnaby Narrows, we watched a beach bear digging for clams. This is a Haida Gwaii subspecies. I’ve never seen such a trim, long-legged bear. Around here it never freezes, so there’s no need to pack on fat and hibernate. And a diet of shellfish apparently keeps the bear trim. I’ll have to remember that.

It amazes me that fish and shellfish thrive abundantly in cold water, far more than in warm tropical waters. That’s counterintuitive. In Burnaby Narrows, the tides push seawater through a channel just 164 feet wide, providing a constant stream of plankton and nutrients to the hundreds of marine species that flourish here. Shellfish are so highly concentrated here that one study found 74 bat stars per square meter, compared to seven on Vancouver Island. We found an incredible variety of shapes and color.