The North Island: chapter 3

Last words on the north island, unless you are speaking with me and then I'll probably go on and on....

Here are a few fun images from Alert Bay, Cormorant Island:

apparently some English bloke has great plans for these

this structure does not instill confidence

"twee" doesn't quite describe it

On to Sointula (Place of Harmony in Finnish), on Malcolm Island, famous for a Finnish utopian settlement in the early 1900s. The group was working in the coal mines in Nanaimo, and being persecuted, so decided to row north to find a new home. Yes, I said ROW. A boat. Through the most ridiculous tides and currents you can imagine. Yikes. Somehow they made it and recruited a guru from Finland to lead the community. Utopia lasted only a few years but the community hung on and prospered in resource industries until that bubble burst with the decline of forestry and fishing. The general store, co-op, is the oldest cooperative in British Columbia, begun in 1909.
I hoped for more evidence of the Finns but other than the chaotic museum and blond children there isn't much to suggest northern Europe.

Malcolm Island is quite large, still has active logging (we got onto a logging road and it was a bit scary to think a truck might come barrelling around a corner at high speed) and is home to Beautiful Bay which is a whale rubbing beach. Sadly, no whales were in sight the day we were there.

looking back to Port McNeil

On our last full day we went to Telegraph Cove, not on another island so not requiring a ferry trip. Once upon a time, Telegraph Cove was a fishing and logging village but now it is virtually a hotel. Half the "community" is owned by a local family who turned all the little original houses, stores, warehouses, into rental accommodations and restaurants; from one room suites to four bedroom houses. Rustic and fun and all connected by the boardwalk/dock. At the end of the boardwalk is an interesting whale interpretive centre. One of the young women we spoke with, passionate about octopi, which creep me out having seen too many black and white sea monster movies in my childhood, is the niece of the owner. While just finished grade 10, she was a wealth of knowledge. In fact we met amazing people all over the place.

The other half of TC, it's an almost circular cove with a narrow opening, is an American owned resort. Next time, if we ever go that way again, I want to stay in one of the old houses and take a day excursion up Kingcome Inlet to see grizzly bears. It's expensive @ $300.00 each for the day, but still...

We went on a very short walk to a local beach, the alternative being a 3 hour "strenuous" one, and were advised to carry a walking stick in case we encountered bear or cougar. We didn't.

The North Island: chapter two

Alert Bay is on Cormorant Island and the population now is predominantly First Nations. At one time the mix was different; we know a woman of Chinese descent who was born and brought up in Alert Bay. We were told the Chinese community "drifted away".

Our purpose in going to Cormorant Island was to visit U'mista, the cultural centre of the Namgis nation. Any time we have an opportunity to visit an aboriginal community we like to go with a native guide because it is too easy to be innocently rude by breaking the unknown rules of etiquette. On this occasion we went with K'odi Nelson with Sea Wolf Adventures and it was well worth it. We spent about 4 hours with K'odi and learned so much more than if we had stumbled around on our own as we saw other people doing. For instance: in the cemetery are buried chiefs from many groups because there was a hospital on the island: burying the dead is not a traditional practice but was instilled by the Anglican Church; the memorial totems are not "restored" but are meant to return to the earth as they decay and fall apart.

Fascinating, was the juxtaposition of the derelict St Michael's Residential School adjacent to the U'mista Cultural Centre which holds the "Potlatch Collection" of masks (no photos allowed) which were confiscated in 1922 and disbursed to collectors and museums around the world. Ironically, last summer the collection was on exchange with a museum in Dresden, Germany, so tourists to U'mista were faced with beautiful Dresden China instead of masks, and tourists to Dresden wanting to see the china, got the masks instead. Funny really.

St Michaels Residential School

K'odi's father was a student at St. Mike's and that experience impacted the family deeply. One Christmas when K'odi's grandfather came to pick up his son for a visit home in Kingcome Inlet, he was told the boy had been moved to Port Alberni even though he was still at St. Mike's. They did not see each other for another four years. It's still hard for us to accept that the residential school system went on for 70 years and was a deliberate attempt to destroy native culture. It's a concept foreign to our lauded Canadian Mosaic and not our finest national hour. Apparently the model was hatched in New Zealand and came to Canada via the US. Sad.

Inside The Big House of the Namgis people.

The Namgis are working hard to relearn and restore their cultural history and K'odi teaches in the cultural school in Port Hardy. Potlatches are held again, no longer illegal, and we were fortunate to be able to go inside The Big House which holds up to 1200 people for one of these events. It was very interesting to get some insight into the hierarchy and class system in the First Nations. and to discover that a potlatch will probably cost a host family $30,000.00 in food and gifts for everyone who attends.

It was a dark and chilly day, but fascinating.

The North Island; chapter one

We were persuaded that Saskatchewan in June wasn't the best season for a prairie experience so decided to make a long delayed excursion to the north end of Vancouver Island, which is actually a lot more west of here than north. We'd never been past Campbell River and  have wavered between "why would we" and "we should". I booked a B&B in Port McNeil back in March and for various good reasons we almost cancelled this trip a couple of times but kept coming back to it.
We stopped in Sayward on the way 'up'. The only thing I'd ever heard about it was during a rain-induced flood a few years ago and there's not much more to say. Like many of the north island communities, it's in a lovely location but is not exactly thriving. Ups and downs in the resource industries, fisheries and forestry, which used to make these places prosperous, have been mostly down for a dozen years. We had tea at the Cable House Cafe, made from 26 tons of recycled logging cable dragged out of the forest and welded to a steel frame. It's rustic and interesting with a new enthusiastic lessee but we wonder how long she can last with no custom except the odd traveller who ventures off the highway.

On we went another couple of hours, it's 5-6 hours actual driving time from Victoria to Port McNeil, to our reservation at At Water's Edge. And it was, with ferries, cruise ships and 7 eagles zooming past regularly. Our room was pretty cramped and basic but the location was superb. We had taken our propane campfire with us and enjoyed a nightcap on the beach each evening despite it being unexpectedly chilly.

Day one we went to Port Hardy and it rained. The various people we met were overly cheerful and enthusiastic about the town while we were depressed by it. We expected PH to be a bustling centre and it is not. Not only has it lost virtually everything due to the fishery collapse, it suffers from being too spread out (IMHO). Downtown Port Hardy, the sport fishery hotels, the BC Ferries terminal to Prince Rupert, and the beautiful Storey's Beach are not close together making it unlikely that the various players work together. Later, once we got used to no people and the road to ourselves we decided our first impression was culture shock because we are used to "cute" tourist destinations. Every visitor we met was from Europe (England, Belgium, Germany, France) looking for a wilderness experience and anxious to see bears and whales. I lie, there were groups of American sports fishers as well but not at our B&B.

On our way back to Port McNeil, we sidestepped down a winding fjord road to Port Alice for a look-see. It's tiny and isolated but seemed to have a better sense of itself. Our Irish house-exchanger from last year spent time working in the mill in Port Alice, yonks ago. Talk about culture shock from just outside Dublin to Port Alice.

Chapter two takes us to Alert Bay...

Garden Art

We're in Seattle for a couple of days, mostly for the big garden show at the Convention Center. The last time we attended was about 20 years ago; we were amazed then and still were today.  The demonstration gardens knock your socks off and we can't understand how they get the tons of rock, full sized trees, etc. up to the 4th level. But they do. And there are acres of market stalls with every garden toy and decoration that anyone could imagine and then create.

It's a "really big shew" (a shout out to Ed Sullivan for that phrase).

But for sheer spectacular beauty, we went to the Chihuly Garden Center at the Space Needle. His 'school' of artists are fabulous and his influence is everywhere in this part of the world. No words needed.

Ran Away From Home

Post renovation, post Christmas, post AGM package preparation; it seemed a good time to get out of Dodge for a week. San Diego was our destination but here we are in Palm Springs instead. It’s 10 degrees warmer than it should be so each day is getting into the low 80’s which is fine by us but we’re hearing some concern expressed because there is no snow-pack, at all, and that’s an important water supply for the valley. According to a guide that we spent a few hours with this is the hottest driest desert in North America. The guide is a burned out hippie/surfer/new-ager so his info might be suspect but it sure feels and looks dryer than Arizona at this time of year.

We spent a day with Vancouver friends who live here in the winter, went up the tramway, did a couple of desert hikes, hung around the pool, and generally haven’t taxed ourselves at all. Not even shopping although Jim did manage to find a few things he couldn't live without.  

These first 4 photos are from a visit to Indian Canyons with our surfer dude guide, Richard. The canyon we hiked in is an oasis of native palm trees, quite different from the imported ones in people's gardens. The 'skirt' is full of wildlife and insects, a city structure of its own (4th pic).  The 2nd pic is a palm trunk coated in mud from a flash flood which are to be taken very seriously. According to Richard if you are hiking and see a cloud, get out of the canyon as fast as you can. The mud was up at least 20 feet from where we stood. Third pic is supposed to have been the inspiration for the rock in animated movieThe Lion King; a photo of it was in Walt Disney's creative department.

The next 3 are from our excursion up the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, a rotating tram built in Switzerland of course, that rises a steep and dramatic 8000 feet. Below is the dry, dry desert floor but at the top and on the west side of the mountains is heavy forest because of humidity from the west coast. It was interesting to see the profound contrast. Building the cable towers was quite a feat and accomplished mostly by helicopter. Crazy people, helicopter pilots, along with surfer dudes.

Palm Springs itself is a small town and definitely caters to tourists with lots of restaurants, FREE parking, a couple of street markets, and quirky sights. The statue of Marilyn Monroe is in the middle of town and is huge. The 'sculptures' are in a private garden in the movie colony area which we also toured with Richard who called Marilyn Munroe, Mary Jean Baker. We decided he's enjoyed too much Mary Jane in his life. 

Speaking of Mary Jane the palm trees are freaking me out a bit. Either I've spent a lot of years oblivious, there's something in the water, or these trees are different. They are super shiny and reflect the sun or moon like glitter. Maybe it's because the air is so clear but with a full moon this week the back-lit palms look like Christmas decorations. 

Of course I can't get a good photo of the phenom but here's a daytime shot that sort of shows it. On the other hand the Betty Ford Center is just down the street.