July 7 – To Tanu and Sandspit

Today it rained all day. Not really hard but enough that we didn’t want to take our rain gear off while outside. Also, our little waterproof camera was called into duty for the first time. It was just too wet to risk the other cameras.

Before breakfast we sat on the deck for a while.

Jennie took this picture of the rain splashing down on her hand from the roof.

The rain slowed down long enough for me to get this photosphere from the corner of the deck. 

Floating Lodge Photosphere

We took our time getting ready on this last day, so we didn’t leave the lodge until around 10.

There had been some rocks lying around the lodge deck that were full of fossils. Jennie had expressed a lot of interest so today’s first stop was a rocky beach only a few minutes from the lodge.

Off we go up a creek bed.

Grace found them rather easily. I didn’t find any.

Since we are not in the national park, Jennie was allowed to take some of the rocks. This one started a bit too big so she smashed it into smaller fragments.

For Kieran it was all about the crabs. At just about every stop he manages to find one, give it an interesting name, then watch and play with it for a while before releasing it. This was a particularly large one. I wish I could remember his name for it.

Back to the boat.

Grace had suggested that we all sit backwards in the boat to protect ourselves from the rain. On the short hop over here I had tried facing forward. Did you know that 50 kph raindrops hurt? We all sat backwards for the rest of the day. Grace wore her goggles.

Next up was the Haida village of Tanu. When we called in to ask permission to land, the watchmen said that they were currently giving a tour but to come ashore and look around the tide pools.

Again we were at a place great for exploring at an extremely low tide. Grace, Kieran, Jennie and I headed off to the seaweed covered rocks in the picture above.

Another place just covered in multi-coloured sea stars, anemone, even some red ones and sea cucumbers. I just can’t resist more picture of these things.

First up was this brightly coloured worm that caught everyone’s attention.

I had never seen a red one before.

Here is one open underwater.

I had always thought that the sea stars would be squishy but they are quite hard.

I tried a few underwater pictures.

I have no idea what this is.

After our scramble over and around the rocks, we relaxed for while, out of most of the rain under a giant tree.

When the other tour was over, we headed up to the watchmen’s house. Mary and Walter, along with their adopted daughter Raven who is really their granddaughter, invited us in out of the rain.

Grace put out our lunch, which consisted of crackers, meat, cheese, an olive spread and pasta salad. Then Mary said that she had done some baking for us as she knows we are coming. All of it was amazing and I couldn’t resist trying at least a bit of everything. There was cinnamon buns, fried bread, blueberry loaf, muffins and cookies.

Back outside we go.

Mary took us on part of the tour, then Walter took over.

I can’t remember who this memorial was for but the famous Haida artist Bill Reid is buried by the headstone that you can see in the background. Steve emailed that it isn’t for Bill Reid but none of us can remember.

There were a lot of longhouses here but not much remains of them. It is quite exposed to the weather here so it is very wet and very mossy. I think Walter said that most of the logs would be gone in about 20 years.

The corner post for this house is now inside the tree and part of its root grew along the fallen beam.

There are no recognizable poles here. This is the one left that was a house frontal pole.

And then back in the boat for the long ride back to Moresby Camp. Grace even did a donut in one of the calmer spots for Kieran.

After the walk back up to the storage shed, it felt very good to take off the heavy rain gear and know we would not have to put it on again. Our arms and legs automatically felt lighter.

Driving back to Sandspit, we saw another bear walking up the road. No picture because we were at the back of the bus. Kieran had been disappointed on the way in because he had been at the back and had not gotten a good view of the bears.

We stayed at the tour company’s B&B. It was very nice and new. When Grace dropped us off there was no one there but there was a list with our room number. I went over to the main office next door to ask about the room key but they said that they don’t have keys. This is not the big city, which is nice.

The seven us had arranged to out for one last dinner together. We met at the other restaurant in Sandspit, Dick’s Wok Inn. Dick really is Chinese and he and Jennie had a short conversation. We were told to order the Won Ton soup and it along with our other choices were very good. I guess I was really tired because I completely forgot to take any pictures.

Then almost immediately after dinner we went to bed.

Our path today

The GPS even caught the donut

And the entire trip.

What an amazing trip with a great guide. It would have been nice to have a bit more sunshine but I think we made the most out of what we got.

To finish off, here is a group picture we had taken back at the floating lodge.

 

Us, Sharon, Steve, Paul, Grace, Ashley, Jesse, William and Kieran.

Some notes on our amazing tour mates. We were very much in awe at how much they had travelled. We thought that we were fairly well travelled but mention almost anywhere on any continent and either or both of the couples had been there. We can only aspire.

Sharon Brunzel is a librarian and archivist who has worked with many companies in Silicon Valley, helping them record the history of computers and the internet.

Steve Deering is quite famous in the internet world. It didn’t click until I saw his last name but for some reason he seemed familiar. He is a former Fellow at Cisco Systems, has chaired many IETF working groups, invented IP multicast and was the lead designed of IPv6. 

Paul Winston was dancer with the National Ballet for 6 years before an bicycling injury cause him to change career. He is now a doctor of rehabilitation medicine and associate professor at UBC.

Dancer turned doctor landed in second dream job after injury - The Globe and Mail

William Laurie is a Psychotherapist with a practise in Victoria.

They, along with Grace, Ashley and Jesse, were such friendly and interesting people that it really made the trip that much more special.