Moresby and Louise Islands

Gray Bay, Moresby Island

Although we had just arrived on Graham Island, with the boat tour scheduled for Wednesday, we took the twenty-minute ferry ride across Alliford Bay to Moresby Island.  We then drove to the town of Sandspit and took a logging road to a primitive campground right on Gray Bay.  The bay was exceptionally beautiful, and we were the only ones there.  We hiked the beach a bit that evening, admiring shorebirds and shells.  A pair of eagles flew overhead. 

Plovers on Gray Bay

The next morning was sunny and crisp.  We took a long walk along the beach, then decided to take advantage of our down day and reorganize the truck.  We pulled almost everything out, consolidating and rearranging.  A dozen persistent bumblebees and several opportunistic ravens tried to help.

Late afternoon, we drove to Moresby Camp, further along the logging road.  As we crossed a bridge just outside our campground, we spotted a black bear in a meadow in the distance.  The black bears here are said to be the largest in North America because of their largely salmon diet. 

Haida Gwaii black bear

We were to meet our boat tour at Moresby Camp the following morning.  We were surprised to find that the small campground was in an abandoned logging camp, strewn with rusting, heavy equipment.  Signs posted at the boat landing informed us that the area was extremely active, particularly during World War II, and had once had thirty homes and a school.  Loggers had harvested huge amounts of Sitka spruce from these islands to make wooden war planes because of the lack of steel.  It was soon discovered that these planes, known as mosquito bombers, were undetectable by radar.  As a result, they soon became the backbone of reconnaissance missions for British, Australian, and Canadian air corps.

We found a camp spot nestled in the trees… and also found a multitude of biting bugs!  Mosquitos and no-seeums engulfed us.  We quickly put up the screened tent and crawled inside.  After supper, we decided to take a stroll.  Thankfully, the breeze blowing along the shoreline was stiff enough to keep the bugs from overwhelming us.

We weren’t sure what to expect on the tour, particularly since we had to sign a waiver releasing liability from any event including “hypothermia, temporary or permanent paralysis, or death.”  What had we signed up for?

Our Moresby Explorers tour group arrived around 9:30 the following morning.  There were twelve of us, including Brian our guide.  We had been advised to dress warmly... and we needed every layer.  The temperatures were in the 40s when we boarded the boat.  Thankfully, in addition to our own clothes, we all donned rubber boots, heavy raincoats, and life jackets (provided by the tour company), before boarding the Zodiac boat.  The boat was equipped with ten seats to straddle... or you could opt for sitting on the edge of the boat and hanging on (we chose the seats).  Soon we were bouncing along the waves, headed toward Louise Island.

Abandoned dock from a logging camp

We spent nearly ten hours on the tour, making two landings along the way.  Our first stop was an abandoned logging site and missionary settlement.  Our guide Brian beached the boat so that all of us could disembark.  He loaded a small kayak into the boat, then trolled out into the bay, anchoring, and kayaking back to shore.

Our guide kayaks to shore from the Zodiac boat

We strolled into the forest while Brian told us about the abandoned logging site.  Nature had absorbed the old machinery, making it an eerie, rusting graveyard.  Everything from steam donkeys, skids, wagons, gears and wheels were covered in thick layers of moss.  Trees, ferns, and shrubs grew amid the rubble.  

Abandoned logging machinery has become part of the forest

Brian explained some of the original logging practices.  He said that the logging industry grew from a war effort into a frenzied, uncontrolled, and unsustainable rate of stripping and clear cutting the island in the 70s and 80s.  In 1985 the indigenous peoples of these islands, called Haida, led a standoff on Lyell Island to stop the clear cutting.  The standoff drew international attention.  As a result, the Haida Nation and the Government of Canada now work together to protect the Gwaii Haanas. 

A little further up the path, we walked through a Haida cemetery and were asked not to photograph the area out of respect.  The area had been a missionary settlement around 1920.  The headstones were draped in moss and scattered among the trees.  We strolled back along the beach for lunch. 

When it came time to leave, Brian again kayaked out to the Zodiac.  As we lined up to crawl back into the boat, he knelt in the frigid water, offering his knee for a stepladder.  I certainly considered that well beyond the call of duty!

Brian was our stepladder back into the boat

Our next landing was the abandoned Haida village of K’uuna Llnagaay, also known as Skeedan.  During the late 1800s, the village had around 30 longhouses and housed around 150 people.  Today, the vast majority of these ruins have been overtaken by the ever-encroaching vegetation and are mostly decayed.  Only the largest long houses were perceptible… and those were simply depressions in the earth. The once more than fifty memorial, mortuary, and frontal house poles had either been taken from the island or had fallen and were disintegrating. 

View from Skeedan

Disintegrating memorial poles on Skeedan

Brian explained that the Haida people had been on these islands over 12,500 years.  At one time about 20,000 Haida lived here.  During the late 1800s, however, several of the Haida people sailed on a ship with Europeans who were unknowingly infected with small pox.  With no immune system for the disease, small pox ravaged through the Haida people, killing nearly 90 percent of their population, and leaving less than 600 to carry on with their lives and traditions.  Today the Haida are still a nation in recovery.  Only nine remain fluent in the original Haida language.  Together they are working to preserve their art, culture, and history.

We returned to the boat and continued around Louise Island.  At one point on the Pacific side, Brian slowed the boat to idle.  Far in the distance (unfortunately much too far away to photograph), he pointed out a humpback whale breeching.  Brian said that the whale was probably launching himself completely out of the water to knock off barnacles from his skin.  We watched the whale for a few minutes before moving on and stopping again in a small inlet to see a banding station for the endangered Ancient Murrelet, a small seabird who nests in burrows along the rocky cliffs.

The boat ride back to camp was cold in spite of the sunshine.  To block the wind, I huddled behind the man sitting in front of me.  When we docked, I think everyone was happy to be on shore again.  David and I were so glad we had camped near the boat landing.  We were able to crawl into our screened tent for a meal and relaxation.  All the others had a 45-minute drive up a logging road to the ferry landing and another half-hour shuttle across the bay.

We awoke to rain and decided to break camp and return to Graham Island for more discovery.  

Sunset at Moresby Camp

TO BE CONTINUED…