Fort Telkwa on the Bulkley River

Our campsite is right beside the river and we took advantage of the first sunshine in a week to walk along the river path.  Saw 3 bears and 3 porcupines in our travels today.  

Gitanyow

This is the village of Gitanyow which is located between Terrace and Smithers, just north of Highway 16 on the Stewart Cassier highway.  We were here in 2010 and noticed the interpretive centre then and the wonderful wrought iron doors, alas, it was closed then and closed again today.  The good news is that there has been a new pole raised!  There are at least 16 poles in this village without much fan fare or signage.   But Emily Carr painted here!

Apologies to anyone who is monitoring this blog.  We have had a major problem with cameras and computers...and I am totally fed up.  So suffice to say, we had a marvelous week in Haida Gwaii, and now have been to Prince Rupert, Kitimat, Terrace, Nass Camp and have made it to Smithers.  We have seen 5 bears, 3 porcupines, many deer, even more eagles and 1 humpback whale.  We have attended a pole raising and feast in Queen Charlotte, we have collected agates on Agate Beach near Masset, we have talked with Haida artists and collected driftwood in Rennel Sound.  We have hiked to the top of Tow Hill and around the Anvil Trail and we have many wonderful photos...too bad I can't share them with you.

Whoops, these pictures are in the wrong order...am still relearning the blog ropes.  And to continue my whinging, all of the pictures that I have taken on my little camera are hiding on the chip card and won't download...so all you get to see are the odd picture that I took with my cell phone.  Regardless, this is on the ferry heading out of the Prince Rupert Harbour to Skidegate, on Haida Gwaii.  It was again an early morning start, and a very complex loading of the ferry as there is only a single access to the car deck so all the cars, campers, trailers, boats, semis...had to pirouette around, and back into tiny little spaces, kind of like a tetris game.

This is the lighthouse that we passed on our way from Port Hardy to Prince Rupert. 

The first picture is of the Port Hardy to Prince Rupert Ferry awaiting the boarding.  We had to be there at 05:30 and the boarding took 2.5 hours - quite a bit of planning and juggling as some of the vehicles were getting off at Bella Bella.  As you can see the bow of the ship lifted upwards.

And this is Bella Bella which was much larger than we expected.  There was another much smaller ferry waiting to take some of the vehicles off our ferry on to Bella Coola.

Port Hardy to Prince Rupert

This is the only picture that I have been able to use so far.  As you can see the trip was unbelievably smooth!  Lovely trip through the inside passage.  Had to be at the ferry terminal by 5:30 am, and didn't arrive in Prince Rupert until 11:30pm.  Lots of  islands, forest right down to the water.  Saw one humpback whale and a couple of light houses.   Bella Bella was interesting, and quite a bit larger than we expected.

  

Port Hardy pictures

This is part of our walk along the bay of Port Hardy.  There is one eagle just past Laurie on the left and two on the roof.

This is a view of the fishing boats in Port Hardy and there are 9 eagles just sitting on the sandspit.   

Day 4 Port Hardy

Still having issues with cameras and computers not sharing information...hence no pictures.  But we did have a lovely, sunny day and walked into Port Hardy along the shore line trail - about 6 km round trip.  The tide was waaayyy out and there were many eagles watching for their meals along the way.   We were withing about 30' of one eagle - boy they are magnificent.
Sat in the sun, watched the boats come and go.  Noted that our ferry to Prince Rupert is already at the dock.  This is the first daylight sailing of the season, and we have to board at 5:30 am.  So we are ready to go early tomorrow morning.  Met one couple who had driven here from Prince George only to find out that their reservation for their vehicle is not confirmed (ours is fine we think). 
Had our chinook salmon for dinner...delicious! 

Brown's Bay Day 2 and day 3

So here are the pictures from Brown's Bay RV Park which is situated just north of Ripple Rock.  Laurie remembers the day they blew up Ripple Rock as it was a marine hazard.  In 1957 or 58 it was the largest non atomic man made explosion.  The campsite was awesome as we were perched on a hillside overlooking the bay and marina (which we had to supervise the comings and goings of the smaller boats) and then 3 giant cruise ships sailed past!   There were to be 3 more at night but we didn't see them.  The sun shone, it was warm with a cooling sea breeze.  Perfect.

Today, we drove north to Port Hardy and have found a lovely campsite at Quatse River Regional Park.  The operators have been amazing and provided us with wifi help and then gave us two large chunks of chinook salmon, freshly caught yesterday!  Yum!  We will stay here two nights and explore Port Hardy a little more.  We catch the ferry to Prince Rupert Tuesday morning - have to be at the terminal at 05:00!

Haida Gwaii expedition day 2 Campbell River

Here we are at Brown's Bay RV Resort which is just north of the site of Ripple Rock. 
Unfortunately we are having issues with connecting our photo images to the computer.
So I'll just have to tell you that we had lunch with Elwyn and Joanne and then headed up island a little further to this camp site.  It's lovely, situated on a small cove with a marina and campground.  So far we have seen 3 large cruise ships heading south bound go past, and then barges with containers or logs or smaller equipment heading north. 
Beautiful sunny day, warm even with a sea breeze.

2018 Day 1, heading to Haida Gwaii

June 15th, we are finally on our way.  We managed to catch the intended  10:15 ferry from Tsawwassen to Duke point and had an easy (=smooth) sail to Vancouver Island.  Stopped in Parksville to see Gary and Sally and admire their new fence and rejuvenated back yard and carried on to Comox to have a wonderful dinner with Wendy and Gary.   Complete with birthday cheesecake and candle...how good is that!  Then over to Cape Lazo campground, and a brief trip to the beach to enjoy the sunset.   Great start.  

testing for Haida gwaii

This is a picture of the cherry blossoms in South Surrey - just practicing to see if I can still put together pictures and travel blog.  Stay tuned...Haida Gwaii 2018 expedition starts in two weeks!