Kayaking on the Edge of the World



A kayaking trip to west coast of Haida Gwaii has long been on my bucket list of things to do and before we started actually planning this particular kayak expedition, my good friend Dugald, who is part of this adventure along with his partner Heidi, began discussing the theme for his life this year, and that is, ‘Recognizing the Expiry Date’. I will quote him directly here and as I approach the end of my 5th decade it seems pretty relevant. Dugald puts it t his way; “It seems that everything that I might want to do in my life has an [expiry date]. It might be a worn down body, it might be a shrinking comfort zone, it might be reaching the end of my mortal coil.”

In deciding to paddle the west coast of Graham Island, this ‘theme’ was particularly appropriate. With all of us in or near our 6th decade, were our bodies, minds and paddling skills up to the demands of a 3-week adventure like this. Dugald and Heidi had spent some time on part of this coast 20 years ago, and my last time in Haida Gwaii was over 30 years ago with the Brian Henry, the Big Kahuna of Ocean River Sports, paddling the more sheltered east coast of Moresby Island and even that had it’s challenges.

Haida Gwaii literally means “Islands of the Haida People”, and it is a truly remarkable place, quite different from the rest of coastal BC. Even the First Nations people, the Haida, who lived here, were all one people and different from those found on the rest of the coast. The land, its isolation and the conditions here created that. Haida Gwaii is also called the ‘Misty Isles’ and if you ever decide to go there you will understand why.

The west coast of Haida Gwaii sits on the edge of the world and its weather is notoriously unpredictable, even in the summer months. However, in reality our biggest concern leading up to this trip was the drought that was occurring at the time. We were more concerned with whether or not we would find adequate supplies of fresh water than whether or not we could deal with the rough paddling conditions. As it turned out fresh water was the least of our worries as we counted only 2 days out of 19 on the water without some measurable precipitation. The Misty Isles indeed! Fortunately, years of combined camping experience, good gear, awesome food thanks to Heidi, and a great mindset among us all made the continually wet conditions bearable and maybe even ok.

Preparation

The logistics of a 3-week paddling trip to the west coast of Graham Island are not insignificant. Fortunately our team was up to the task, Heidi took on the food prep and her many years running the Pacific Rim Paddling Company meant we were going to eat extremely well on this trip. 9 lbs. of pork, fresh vegetables for most of the meals, all dehydrated at home. Meals like Falafels, jambalaya with fresh fish or dried pork, fresh fish or machaca (rehydrated dried meat) tacos, pasta with fresh fish or pork, fresh cabbage or carrot salads with each dinner all served with red wine. Deserts of stewed fruit with dumplings, rice pudding, chocolate, then once in a while, rum or spiced rum or brandy to finish it off. Decadent you may think, but food can make the trip, especially one where you can find yourself trapped with each other under a tarp for days. Good food can bring a group together with the shared experience of prepping, cooking, cleanup and of course enjoying a delicious and hearty meal.

Getting There

There are a couple of ways to get to Haida Gwaii with kayaks and gear. One is to drive to Port Hardy and take the BC Ferry to Prince Rupert and then across to Haida Gwaii. Our choice, which is he more economical way, was to take BC Ferries to the mainland, drive for 2 days to Prince Rupert and then take the 7 hour ferry ride to Skidegate on Graham Island.

Our planned departure point of the actual kayaking portion of the trip was to leave from Kiusta at the northwest tip of Graham Island. To reach there, we drove 1 ½ hours north from the ferry terminal in Skidegate to Massett at the northeastern tip of Graham Island. There we were to meet our water taxi and a driver who would take our van and park it at the take out in Rennell Sound.

Here’s where we had a major glitch. Arriving in Massett around 7 pm we found that our charter boat was having transmission problems and wouldn’t be able to take us. This was a conundrum. I should mention that there really aren’t any official water taxi service or charter boats that take kayakers out on this part of the islands, you basically have to make arrangements with a someone with a boat big enough to carry your kayaks and gear. Dugald had originally managed to arrange to charter a fishing boat through a third party, Stan Hansen. We didn’t have time to paddle from here to Kiusta as it would add a few days to the trip we didn’t have and along a coastline we weren’t all that interested in paddling. Slightly stressed we left the docks and drove over to see Stan and see if he had any other options for us. Stan is an amazing fellow, a commercial fisherman, guide and owner of the fishing boat, Haida Princess. As it turned out, he and his wife May (the first female hereditary chief of the Masset people) didn’t have anything to do the next day so they offered to transport us to Kiusta themselves, a four hour trip one way.

We loaded our kayaks and most of our gear on the Haida Princess before heading to a nice rustic cabin we had rented up on North Beach for the night. In the morning we set off for the western edge of Haida Gwaii.

The Kayak Trip

Kiusta is ancient Haida village located on the passage between the northern tip of Graham Island and Langara Island. There is a Haida Watchman’s cabin here maintained by two Haida Watchman who also perform federal fisheries work in the area, (there are a lot of fishing lodges across the channel on Langara). It was a great experience traveling with Stan and May, both incredibly nice, very interesting and knowledgeable people and of course they know everyone out here, including the Haida Watchman, who were gracious enough to allow us to temporarily store our gear in their cabin as it was threatening to rain as we arrived. They also let us use the cabin to cook our dinner while they were off doing fisheries stuff and let us camp on the beach that night, which is generally not permitted in village sites. To top it off they also gave us permission to stay in the Haida cabin around the point in Lepas Bay, which was a godsend as it rained most of the 2 days and night that we were there.

There are still some ruins to be seen at Kiusta, some house posts and fallen roof beams as well a very unique triple mortuary pole of Chief Edenshaw (1839-1920).

The big question before setting out for Lepas Bay in the morning was whether or not all of our gear would fit in the boats. Fortunately our concerns were unfounded. The paddle down Parry Channel in misty rain was easy, but conditions off Cape Knox were pretty lumpy and confused. There was a lot of surf on Lepas Bay created from the 2 to 3 meter swells at the time however, nothing substitutes for local knowledge, and fortunately the Haida Watchman advised us of a sheltered approach to the beach. I love playing in the surf, but surfing a fully loaded 19’ kayak onto an unknown beach in a remote area is something I prefer to avoid if I can.

Once we were settled in the Haida cabin it was time for a little beach combing. Sadly but interesting, is the amazing amount of debris washed up on the west coast beaches of Graham Island as an aftermath of the 2011 Japanese tsunami. Everything from plastic water bottles and fish floats to aluminum wheels complete with inflated tires. Pretty much all of the beaches along this coast are covered with this stuff. On the plus side there were a lot of plastic fish baskets that made for some handy beach furniture. Despite all of this debris and a lot of intense beach combing, we found only one Japanese glass fishing float.

We were forced to wait another half-day for the wind to subside before leaving Lepas Bay and we only had a brief window of a day or so before the next weather system was to blow in. This gave us time to slip around Lauder and Sadler Points into Sialun Bay, a huge bay with enormous sandy beaches and a river cutting through its center. On our way there, rounding Lauder Point we experienced the roughest sea conditions of the trip. A large 3-meter swell was forming up into huge breaking waves on the rocky reefs off shore. Combined with rebound wave action off the point there were some seriously large and confused seas conditions that required constant attention and some serious tightening of the sphincter.

The surf landing at Sialun was unavoidable but fortunately, although a good size, it spilled fairly gently onto the broad sandy beach. Once on shore we gratefully began unloading our kayaks in preparation for the hike up the beach. It was low tide and our campsite was about a ½ km away, 3 trips each to get gear and boats up. That’s 3 km of hiking added to the days paddle.

I have mentioned that the weather is rather unpredictable in Haida Gwaii. We spent the next 3 days on Sialun waiting for the wind and rain to subside However, that gave lots of time for exploring the beaches and doing some reading and relaxing. Finally, on the 4th day, we were able to depart through small surf and head down the coast to a beautiful campsite at the base of Beehive Hill in Peril Bay. This was once a Haida Village and like so many native village sites, you can easily see why they were chosen, tucked away in a cove at end of an expansive beach and protected from the open ocean by Frederick’s Island it is a perfect spot. The conical beehive shaped hill once had a trail leading to its summit providing an emergency refuge from attacks by marauding tribes.

The west coast of Haida Gwaii is incredibly rugged. Its rocky shoreline is punctuated here and there by bays with large sandy beaches. The land in the northern portion of Graham Island is much less mountainous than the southern portion of the island, but there still aren’t a lot of places to get out and campsites are few, so good preparation and constant attention to the weather was crucial.

The next decent campsite was a few miles down that coast at Joseph Creek at the end of Ingraham Bay. There is an extensive beach wrapping around the entire end of the bay cut by Joseph Creek in the northern quarter. Despite the beautiful beach, this camp involved working our way back into the forest and clearing a bit of dead-fall and brush to create a couple of small tent sites. Carrying a small collapsible saw and a small machete was invaluable for times like this.

Our departure from Joseph Creek was once again damp and entailed a few hours of slogging through a 10-15 knot headwind and rough seas around Tian Head on our way to Tian Village. The Tian Islets just off Tian Head were particularly spectacular and rugged looking on a windy and misty day like this and form a sheltering break for Tian Bay. We stopped at the village site for a lunch break and to explore, hoping to see some remnants of the old village. Dugald was here over 20 years ago and remembers some house and pole remains, but sadly, we could find no trace that the once large and thriving village was ever here. Things, especially wood and open spaces, do not last long on this coast. We found a decent campsite on a large gravel beach at Blue Creek on the northeast end of Tian Bay a short distance away.

A relatively short paddle the next day brought us to Breton Bay on the northwest end of Port Louis, just inside Chanal Point. Port Louis is a beautiful island studded bay, and is fairly sheltered, which probably accounts for the fishing lodge tucked away on the southern shore. The fishing boats passing by were the first people we had encountered since leaving Kiusta 9 days previously.

Next stop, Cave Bay at the outer end of Port Chanal, a beautiful, very protected bay tucked in behind a high peninsula. This would serve as a base camp for three nights, which would allow us to explore the area a little more thoroughly and with empty kayaks.

While the inclement weather never really completely let up, we were given some periods of respite with a few hours of sunshine here and there between the squalls that kept coming through. It was times like this that we took the opportunity to dry out our equipment, which resulted in an explosion of gear across the beach.

Heading south across Port Chanal is Empire Anchorage at the mouth of Mercer Creek. We set out on a misty, flat calm morning with low clouds clinging to the mountains. We were hoping to find an old fisheries trail leading up to Mercer Lake, which is supposed to have some giant trees around its shores. Sadly, there has been a large amount of blow down over the years and we could find no sign of the trail, and even if we had it would have been inaccessible.

The next day we were rewarded with some sunshine and headed north, back toward Gillian Point and Gillian Tombolo which is a low flat grassy bar attaching an island to the mainland. This made an excellent spot for lunch and some beach combing. Dropping a hand line on the way back we were able to land a nice sized black rockfish for dinner. We found the fish much more abundant on this coast and generally much larger than anything we have been catching over the past few years off of the much more visited and over-fished Vancouver Island coast.

Cave Bay was the scene of a near disaster for us. While away exploring, a black bear decided to have a look in one of our tents. I guess he didn’t know about zippers, so he tore a huge hole in the fly and inner tent. Fortunately we had a supply of Tenacious Tape and Hurricane tape in our repair kit and were able to patch the tent up remarkably well. Enough to get us through the rest of the trip in any event. Also remarkable was this was one of the first days of the trip when the tent was actually dry enough for the tape to stick…how lucky was that!

We never actually saw any bears on this trip, but there are plenty signs that they are around. We were always careful to hang our food and make sure nothing was left in the tents. On the other hand there are black-tailed deer everywhere, we saw them practically at every camp. Deer were introduced to Haida Gwaii in the 1920’s as a solution to feeding the Haida who were in desperate straits at the time and have definitively have established themselves. Other wild life included seal lions and harbour seals, which we found far more timid that the ones back home on Southern Vancouver Island. We had a few brief sightings of Humpback whales, mostly spouts. Bald Eagles were everywhere and we were fortunate to see a few Peregrine Falcons as well.

Nesto Inlet is the second inlet along this coast where sport-fishing camps have been established. Clients are flown into these locations by floatplane and helicopter. As we paddled through Hippa Passage, we saw a number of lodge boats heading back and forth to the coast. We crossed the passage through some pretty steady rain and found a nice camp well around the point from Nesto. Through the rapidly fluctuating clouds we could see some spectacular mountains rising above the tree line behind our camp. Unlike most of the mountains we are normally familiar with their grey rocky peaks, the mountains here are all covered in low vegetation and moss painting the bare peaks a spectacular emerald green.

Exiting Hippa Passage the next morning, on our first full, bright sunny morning of the trip, we took a slight detour up the west coast of Hippa Island to check out the wreck of the Liberty ship Clarksdale Victory which ran aground on a jagged reef here in 1947 with the loss of 49 of the 53 crew members. There is not a lot left of it today as the intervening years and heavy exposure to the pounding surf of this incredibly rugged point have taken their toll.

Once headed south again, we crossed spectacular Skelu Bay. 500m high mountains spiked with emerald green peaks surround the bay, and the waters on this incredible morning were a spectacular blue. Across the bay just past the Sadler Islands we found a very sheltered horseshoe bay with a large gravel beach and a nice stream tumbling in along one edge. On the way in Heidi hooked a nice lingcod, which would make a delightful addition to the evening meal. This spot warranted a layover for some additional exploration by foot and by boat back up into Skelu Bay for a little beachcombing on some of the small cobble pocket beaches and the large sandy beach that lies at the head of the bay.

The final leg of our trip up Rennell Sound required some care as it is a long run, exposed to the southwest, with virtually no place to land along the steep mountainous shoreline. We paddled over 14 knots in rain, 10-12 knot winds and 1-2 meter seas without a stop. Getting cold, tired and wet we landed through some low surf on an interesting looking beach and were met by a very interesting gnome-like fellow who has made a camp here for the summer and entertains himself by creating some interesting rock formations on the beach.

Meeting Reinhold on the beach

The following day we once again launched in the rain, and paddled the final 8 ½ nautical miles, with a tail wind and following seas, to our takeout and final camp at the Rennell Sound Recreational Site. We were relieved to find our van parked as per our plan with our shuttle driver. Now back in partial civilization, surrounded by motorhomes and camper trailers, the rain finally ended and the sun came out revealing the true splendour of Rennell Sound.

More Pictures

If you are interested in seeing more pictures and some entertaining commentary, check out Dugald’s Picasso album at this link: Graham Island 2015