Queen Charlotte Islands… the conclusion…

heh, We only just got to the campground in the last posting, but I will get us all the way back to Prince George on this one.

We got set up in the Tent Trailer at Agate Beach and just hung around the beach that was just outside our door. It was pretty amazing to look out and see the ocean anytime we wanted.

We had never lived near the ocean so it was pretty special to us. Things like the tides or the variety of seashore life really impressed me. At this particular spot at high tide, the 3’ waves crashed down right below our camp, and at low tide, it was a good 10 minute walk to the water. really cool. Traci and Mom spent a lot of time searching for Agates. I on the other hand seemed to be searching for rocks. I could never tell the difference and was constantly throwing my finds away once they were confirmed ‘sorry, just a rock’

The weather was pretty rainy most of the week, but we expected it and it didn’t dampen our spirits. I guess the storms that can lash this coast are pretty wild.

A couple of annoyances were the tiny little sand flies that would come right through our screens, and there were a few wet spots on our bed that we dealt with as best we could. Hey we were pretty much roughing it here right?

Quick, someone notice the waves getting closer and closer…The days were spent beachcombing, although we could never get out earlier than the professionals as they got REALLY early starts, as they would sell the items they found to make a living here on the island. We stopped off at a place that had a sign on the road.

This is a true rainforest on this Island… Wow was this place creepy. We drove in and it was just a backwoods home with massive piles of beach crap laying everywhere. We wandered around undisturbed for a while until a little teenaged girl came out and followed us around for a bit without saying anything to us. I had spotted a large bone and I asked her what it was. She said it was a Vertebrae from a whale. I asked her if this just washes up on shore. She replied, ‘no the whole whale washed up. Makes sense. But what about that Kitchen sink over there, does the whole kitchen wash up on shore? I had been in search of some Japanese glass floats, but they ended up being a bit underwhelming and I came out empty-handed.

Dad and I decided to go crab fishing. We went into town and picked up a crab trap. When we got back I walked WAY out onto the sand as it was low tide, baited the trap and then just set it on the seafloor.

The beauty of this picture probably is a bit ironic for the people who rode out the storm that beached’er…Later, once the tide came in I took the 8’ Zodiac dad had and made my way out to our marker to pick up the trap and Voila! we had one! dang, should have left it out longer. Oh well, we set the crab free and decided to try a different approach. We drove over to the big rock outcropping called Tow Hill.

We tried to pull this boat out with the truck. Didn’t work.There is a stream that enters the sea there and so we launched out into calm stream water, but before we could blink, we were in some really rough seas. It took us a while to get out far enough as we were bouncing over 4 and 5’ rollers and whitecaps and out little 2.5hp motor was doing all she could against the sea (sounds like a great epic don’t it?). We got out and I chucked the trap over and we headed back as we were a little beat up by then. Disappointments of all disappointments; when we went back out to retrieve the trap and realized the trap had landed upside down and was just a buffet lunch for the crabs as they could walk right back out again. We didn’t try again.

My favourite photo from the trip.

As I said before, we spent a lot of time on the beaches.

We were truly the only ones there most of the time and we just beachcomed and walked and sat looking out at the sea. We drove almost the entire length of the beach along rose spit, where there is 50+km of undisturbed beach. There were these invisible washouts along the beach that we hit with the truck and actually caught airtime once! All our stuff in the back was completely turned over and backwards when we got back to camp. It was an adventure getting off the beach that day as well and we got caught in high tide with no beach to drive on for a while. Dads truck did really well driving along in the surf!

We did go into the town of Masset a couple times to get groceries. This is where all the fresh seafood was, and we really ate seafood well here. We had a crab boil one night, and used the water right out of the ocean for the crabs… it was wonderful. The town of Masset is a Native settlement and had all sorts of native crafts and arts, but most impressively it had a fair number of totem poles. Talk about fantastic stuff!

The week went by altogether too fast and before we knew it, it was time to head back to civilization. Our trip back was long as we never had an overnighter to buffer the distance, we drove straight off the ferry in Prince Rupert and hit the highway, taking turns driving to get home in good time. The truck was about a foot too short inside, but 9 years later, I look very fondly on this trip, and would love to get back up there one day again.