We Raised a Totem Pole!

Dorothea got up at 6 am to go crabbing at low tide.  But no luck.  Apparently the season doesn't really begin till July (it was late June).

It so happened there was a Totem Pole raising happening today just down the road and everyone was invited, including tourists.

We drove down, but soon came to a giant line of parked cars, and had to walk the remaining 2 km.

We arrived just in time for the last speech.  The pole was hoisted into place,

You can see that many of the Haida wore their traditional cedar hats.  Then the carvers danced around the pole.

Then everyone took their places on the four ropes

and we all raised the pole.  We were actually on one of the two rear ropes that were used to steady the pole and later to straighten it out.

Mission accomplished!

Afterward we were all fed a meal of salmon and calm fritters.

On our walk back to our car it started pouring rain.  A nice young man and his daughter gave us a ride. He mentioned he was a carver himself.

Turns out it was this guy:

http://jaalen.net

All the Beach You Can Eat

The next day we started off with a hike to the Pesuta Wreck, through, you guessed it, more tall spruce forest. 

 There were lots of spotted coralroot orchids, 

and we picked a feast of oyster mushrooms.

The trail comes out and follows along the Tlell River.  Here we saw 3 otters and some mergansers.  

If you look hard you can see the Pesuta wreck in the distance.  It's the black speck in the centre of the photo

We walked for 2 hours before we turned around, still a long way from the wreck.

Then we drove to Masset and east towards Tow Hill to our cabin on North Beach.

It's built in the typical Haida Gwaii style (cedar shakes, off the grid, woodstove, water from rain barrels).

Frogmore Cabin

Interior view

View of my bedroom

Cute outhouse, with a sink with running (rainwater) water

They provide crab traps, hip waders and nets for catching crabs, and shovels for clamdigging, thus the name -all the beach you can eat.

Self-Evacuees

Since Monday Williams Lake has been on an Evacuation Alert, meaning we could be ordered to leave at any time, after a weather forecast of heavy winds for Wednesday that never materialized.

We self-evacuated on Tuesday, mostly because we couldn't stand hanging around in the smoke.  Leo couldn't run and it really wasn't pleasant to do anything outdoors.  So we mostly stayed in the house, and for a break went to coffee at Tim Hortons to breathe the air-conditioned air and see what everyone else was up to.

The drive north was uneventful.  We couldn't see any evidence of fire except for the low-lying smoke, though the radio told us the air quality was rated at 37 on a scale of 1 to 10!

We are now parked in my mother's driveway in Smithers.  There's a roadblock south of Quesnel preventing any southward travel on Hwy 97 back into Williams Lake, but we think we could sneak back in on the back roads if we wanted.

For now we are enjoying the cool rainy Smithers climate.

Parked in the driveway (but sleeping in the house)

Haida Gwaii

I went on a 2 week vacation with my two sisters to Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) in June.

We drove from Smithers to Rupert on Sunday to catch the overnight ferry. 

Our first stop was Exchamsiks Provincial Park.  We used to camp here when we were kids.  Beautiful northern BC rainforest with giant spruce trees.

We had dinner in Prince Rupert and boarded the ferry at 8 p.m.

We sailed at 10:30 at night.  We'd booked a 4-berth cabin, it was bright and roomy.  I woke in the night to roiling seas, but quickly fell back asleep again.

At 5 am we were roused by an announcement that we'd arrived at Skidegate Landing and at 6:30 am we were heading to the Queen Charlotte Municipal campsite for our first beach walk of the day.  And within 1/2 an hour of arriving in Haida Gwaii Dorothea had got a rubber boot stuck in the mud and fell flat on her face.

After a rinse off at the campsite tap we headed into town for breakfast at the Oceanview Restaurant, and then drove toward Tlell, stopping off at Skidegate and various beaches on the way.

We set up camp at Misty Meadows campsite in Naikoon Provincial Park near Tlell.  Then we went for a walk in the forest along the Tlell River.

More big spruce

Bird of the Day:  Semi-palmated plover seen in the dunes at Misty Meadow beach.

False Promise

We had an hour or two of of clearer air before smoke from the Chilcotin drifted in from the west. Now we're all socked in again.

Air Quality Update

Same view 7 hours later.  Visibility is much improved.  Smoke is blowing away from town, which is a good sign.

Wildfires

View from our house

Williams Lake is surrounded by fires.  Residents in the rural areas around town have been evacuated, and there is an evacuation alert for those living on the south lakeside, but none for those of us in town.

For a while roads were closed in all directions, but now Highway 20 West is open, Hwy 97 down to 100 Mile House (you can get to Kamloops via the Little Fort Road), and north to Prince George.

This morning there are new evacuation orders/alerts for Alexis Creek west to the Fraser River.

Nothing but hot dry weather forecast for the foreseeable future. Possible lightning/showers this afternoon though none developed locally yesterday.

It's hot and smoky in town, and we can't open our windows to let the cool air in at night because of the air quality.

Though we haven't had an evacuation alert, we have been packing our trailer up so we can leave quickly should we have to.  But so far the fires are moving away from town.

We drove south to 150 Mile House last night for a look see.  The fire has mostly stayed to the north of the highway, though it's jumped the highway from the Sugar Cane Reserve to the 150.  Most houses have survived, but it looks like one house on the reserve has burnt down.

Too Busy

Too busy having fun to blog about my Haida Gwai trip.

Bad selfie on the Cariboo River

Since I got back from Haida Gwaii it's been non-stop activities:

Stampede Parade, Canada Day concert in the park, pancake breakfasts, barbeques, paddling events.

We took our friend Margaret Ann's intrepid parents down the Horsefly River on our inflatables on Sunday.  There were tons of tubers on the river, I think some of them found the high water levels rather challenging, but there were only two abandoned tube on the banks.

At Fast Eddy, Horsefly River

On Monday we paddled the Cariboo River.

Glen, Cathy and Mark in the raft

The weather was great and the water was pretty high, the waves rollicking.  Perfect activity for this hot spell.

The hoodoos after falling into the river several years ago are starting to form again.