TLELL, British Columbia — An over-sized flat-screen television doesn’t belong in a log house.
Especially not in this log house, Cacilia Honisch’s bed-and-breakfast inn built deep in the woods on the Queen Charlotte Islands, 50 miles west of the British Columbia coast and 30 miles south of Alaska.
Nearly everything else meets a city visitor’s expectations. Wildflowers bloom near the door. Massive logs rise to support the second story, and strips of fir frame the doors and windows. The kitchen cupboards are spruce, and the table, where Honisch serves breakfast to summer travelers, is knotty pine.
A local artist with a flair for fancy has taken sandpaper to driftwood to shape towel hooks, door handles and the curving backs of the barstools. Even the leaves on the upstairs skylights echo the theme.
An outdoor person, Honisch would rather be hiking in the rainforest or walking her dog on the beach that runs past her house and along the east coast of Graham Island, where most of the Queen Charlotte’s 5,000 residents live. But once in a while, she likes company. “I turn on the news, and sometimes a movie,” she says, conceding that long winter days can be gray and rainy. “I like to keep track of what’s going on in the world.” The world, of course, is what most visitors to this mystic realm — the jewel in the crown of British Columbia — are hoping to leave behind.
Usually, they’re successful. “We’d like more tourists,” says Carolyn Hesseltine, manager of the Visitor Info Centre in Queen Charlotte City, pointing out the maps and guides she keeps on hand. “But not many people know about us.” At 53 degrees north, you wonder about the weather. But the climate, tempered by ocean currents, is surprisingly mild, with annual rainfall of about 51 inches. Winter snow melts quickly, and summer days are sunny and warm, with occasional showers.
Like most people, we’d never heard of the islands — called Haida Gwaii by the native Haida people — until a friend mentioned kayaking around Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve, on the southern half of Moresby, southernmost of the two largest islands. The reserve, established in 1988, protects the Haida Nation’s ancestral homeland, inhabited for 10,000 years and the site of archaeological remains, abandoned villages and weathered totem poles.
More than that, the Haida Gwaii are Canada’s Galapagos, a wilderness paradise home to a number of unique plant and animal sub-species. Because some of the islands were never glaciated, they evolved in isolation. Though some species are now threatened, wildlife sightings are everyday occurrences. If you’re keeping a checklist, look for orcas, gray whales, minke whales, humpbacks, seals, sea lions, bears, eagles and a dozen species of sea birds.
Though Graham Island is small, you need a car to get around. There are a few roads, but a single paved highway runs north and south, from Queen Charlotte City on the south shore, past the towns of Skidegate (SKID-i-git), Tlell (tuh-LELL) and Port Clements, to Masset and Old Masset on the north shore.
Most Haida, who belong to two different clans, live in Skidegate and Old Masset. The rest of the population — wildlife biologists, adventure outfitters, loners, descendants of early settlers, loggers, farmers, artists and in recent years, urbanites fleeing the cities — are scattered around the island.
“We moved here to raise our kids,” said Michelle Butler, a Heritage Presenter with the Parks Canada Orientation Center, at the Sandspit Airport.
“We don’t have to lock our doors. The kids can ride their bikes by themselves. It’s a privilege to be here.” She showed us a map of hiking trails, starting from Yakoun Lake, and the Harbor at Queen Charlotte City, where you can take a harbor cruise or hire a fishing charter for salmon or halibut.
We spent our first couple of nights in Queen Charlotte City, at Dorothy and Mike’s B&B, not far from the Canoe Shed in Skidegate. Here, Haida carver Andy Wilson showed us the six new totem poles that were carved and erected here in 2001, and the traditional canoes that he makes and decorates (the shed has now been moved to a new location close by). While we watched, he painted one of the cedar boxes used to return the bones of “repatriated ancestors” from some half-dozen North American museums.
The Haida Gwaii Museum, though small, owns a unique and professionally exhibited collection of art, artifacts and Haida history. It also has a natural history exhibit showing flora and fauna. The curator, Nika Collison, gave a wonderful tour; if she’s on site, ask for her.
The next few nights we stayed at Cacilia’s, in Tlell, an artists’ colony on the east coast. This is the place to visit local studios for hand-made ceramics, wood carving, jewelry and paintings. We also drove to Port Clements and joined a walk in the rainforest organized by Weyerhauser, which owns logging leases on huge tracts of forest.
Some residents here think it’s high time logging companies found a new product and moved on. Nonetheless, tour guide Suki Davis, tall, blond and pretty, gives the smartest and funniest introduction imaginable to forest life, from slugs to cedar bark. She also let us in on her “best kayaking secret,” the Yaku River Inlet at Masset Estuary. “There are only two places in the world,” she told us. “On island and off island.” In Masset, we hiked into the Delkatla Sanctuary to see the birds, then stopped in Old Masset at Haida carver Christian White’s workshop. It took Christian, age 41, and his brother six months to carve and paint the enormous totem pole that stands in front of his house, and 200 men hauling on ropes to raise it. “That pole celebrates my father’s becoming Chief Edenshaw,” he said.
In olden times, the Haida used natural dyes to make their paint. But because his generation grew up knowing little of their culture, they’ve had to learn on their own. “Now we use more colors and acrylic and oil-base paint,” he said. “To us, almost everything is new.” You shouldn’t leave without visiting Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve, the centerpiece of the Haidas’ cultural revival. Until 1774, when the first Europeans anchored offshore, these “First Nations” people were mighty hunters, who built cedar houses, carved war canoes from giant logs and enslaved their neighbors. But they were no match for European diseases.
Within a century, only a few hundred Haida remained. Today, Haida volunteers — the “watchmen” — live at village sites during the summer and lead guided tours. To enter the park you must present your pass, issued after you attend a short orientation ($10 per person); ask at the Visitor Info Centre. Since the park’s accessible only by water, we booked a day trip with Moresby Explorers ($125 per person).
The next morning they picked us up in their shuttle van for the drive to their dock, where they store the zodiacs, wet suits, rain gear and life preservers. We felt as over-stuffed as Santa Claus, but appreciated the layers when Darren Bouwman, our guide, cranked the outboard motor up to top speed.
The water sparkled and the sun shone as we sped over clear water and past rocky inlets toward Louise Island, stopping twice for shore walks and a picnic lunch on the beach. Finally we anchored off Skedans, on a grassy isthmus between two coves.
Here Haida “watchman” Joan Moody, who teaches Haida language and culture to grades 7-12, greeted us with a warm smile and led us through the site. In the mid-1700s, 250 people lived here, she said, in at least 27 timber houses with as many totem poles, some so worn they looked like fallen logs. Here and there she pointed out a mortuary pole, a pole topped by a large cedar box intended to hold the owner’s bones. “I have my carver all picked out,” she told us, beaming. “And I’m making plans for a big potlatch for everyone I know.” To minimize the impact of tramping feet, only 12 visitors are allowed onshore at any one time. But like the islands themselves, Moody would never refuse hospitality to visitors. “I let people come up and sit here in the sun, at the cabin,” she said. “We want everyone to feel welcome.”
INCIDENTAL INTELLIGENCE
GETTING THERE: By airplane, fly on Air Canada to Vancouver, British Columbia, and on to Sandspit. By car, drive to Prince Rupert, on the BC mainland coast, and catch the ferry, the “Queen of Prince Rupert.” The trip to Skidegate Landing takes six hours.
The ferry takes cars and walk-on passengers; 50 cabins are available. During summer, it sails daily on alternate mornings and evenings. For reservations and a schedule call (888) 223-3779. A rental car is recommended. Call Budget Car and Truck Rentals at (800) 577-3228, or Rustic Car Rentals at (877) 559-4641.
STAYING THERE: DOROTHY AND MIKE’S GUEST HOUSE, in Queen Charlotte City, is a cozy place, just the spot to start your trip. The house, on the hill overlooking the harbor, is centrally located, not far from the airport.
Double rooms start at $65 (Canadian dollars); some have shared bath. Suites start at $80. Call (240) 559-8439, or write to 3125 2nd Avenue, PO Box 595, Queen Charlotte City, BC, Canada V0T 1S0. E-mail doromike@qcislands.net, or visit www.qcislands.net/doromike.
CACILIA’S BED & BREAKFAST, on Highway 16 in Tlell, 29 miles north of Queen Charlotte City, is a two-story log cabin in the woods beside the beach.
Rooms with shared bath start at $60 (Canadian dollars) for two, rooms with private bath start at $80. (250) 557-4664, or e-mail ceebysea@qcislands.net.
SIGHTSEEING: Look for two local travel guides titled “Guide to the Queen Charlotte Islands” and “Guide to the Haida Gwaii.” Both have maps, history, suggested activities, hiking trails, lodging and restaurants.
To book a day or overnight trip with Moresby Explorers call (800) 806-7633, or visit www.moresbyexplorers.com. For land tours contact Northwest Recreation Services at (866) 626-3949, or visit www.northwestrecreation.com.
OTHER INFORMATION: For information and reservations call (800) HELLO-BC. For the Queen Charlotte Visitor Info Centre call (250) 559-8316, e-mail requests to info@qcinfo.com, or visit www.qcinfo.com. For inns and bed-and-breakfasts, visit the Haida Gwaii Tourism Association’s Web site at www.qcislands.net. For Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve visit http://parkscan.harbour.com/gwaii.
