Vancouver Island--Part I

The next chapter of our big journey took us to Vancouver Island.   We’d visited here once for just four days, eight years ago, and never forgot it!   We vowed we’d come back and when we did that we’d stay much longer.  Now we had about three weeks to enjoy this beautiful and fascinating place!   

By way of orientation, Vancouver Island is located off the southwest coast of British Columbia, just a couple hours from Seattle by ferry boat.   A tour book described it as "the exposed tip of a submerged mountain range stretching 285 miles from the southernmost to the northernmost tip".   The interior boasts multiple 7000+ foot high mountain peaks, the east coast is fringed with numerous islands separating it from mainland, and the west coast, exposed to the full force of the Pacific Ocean, is deeply carved into dramatic fjords.   On the southern tip lies the capitol of British Columbia, Victoria, a city of about 78,000 people, and on the northern tip, the town of Port Hardy (Pop = 4000).   The warm Pacific Ocean gives the island one of the mildest climates in Canada and the entire island is considered a rainforest.  All that rain makes for a greenness that has to be seen to be believed….and TREES!   This is the home of incredibly huge, ancient Douglas Fir, Yellow Cedar, and Sitka Spruce!  Visiting and hugging them was one of the most awesome experiences we had on the island. 

Map of Vancouver Island

"Shrine" to the World's Largest Burl in Port McNeil, BC

We arrived in Victoria by ferry boat and immediately hit the Vancouver Island Highway, which starts as Trans-Canada Highway 1 and becomes B.C. Highway 19 as one travels north.  We drove six hours that day to reach Port Hardy.  Our idea was to work our way south from there over the next few weeks, speeding up or slowing down as the days and wonders of Vancouver island unfolded, knowing we had Victoria and that ferry boat to Seattle waiting at the other end.  We hadn’t driven anything approaching six hours in one day on our entire trip, however, so although the scenery was lovely, we were happy to see Port Hardy and camp that evening!   

Driving along the Vancouver Island Highway

Our campsite at Georgie Lake Recreation Site near Port Hardy, BC

The next day we started exploring this interesting island!  Just as we found when we were on the island eight years ago, many visitors centers, museums, businesses and campgrounds cut back their hours or close outright on Oct 1.  We had to get creative to learn about hikes and other must-sees.   A Port Hardy sports outfitter gave us excellent advice about hiking trails.   Fellow hikers then gave us more hiking suggestions and ideas about camping spots as well.  The most exciting hike we took near Port Hardy, the Tex-Lyon Trail, let us know from the start that we were in for a challenge!   It followed the Pacific coastline closely and one had to traverse numerous deep ravines along its six mile course.   This was accomplished at various points by hauling oneself up and down big ropes tied to the trees, climbing up and down soggy wooden ladders, and balancing oneself on fallen log "bridges”.

Tex-Lyon Trail followed the Pacific coastline

...with one deep ravine after another

Some traversed over fallen logs...

Some by going "up" ropes

And some by going "down"

Quite the challenge!

With rewards along the way

Including a beautiful beach at the end

We had a real sense of accomplishment relaxing on the beach after that one, let me tell you!  Gazing out to sea from Port Hardy, we could see the coast of BC stretching north to the horizon, over the very same waters we had travelled by ferry boat all the way to Alaska back in June!  It was a poignant moment, a feeling that we’d come "full circle” on our trip!

Camped oceanside in Port Hardy

View north from Port Hardy, note white ferry boat en route to Alaska

Also visible from Port Hardy were some of the many islands scattered between Vancouver Island and the mainland, many of them accessible by ferry boats as they have established communities on them with museums and interesting hiking opportunities.   Bernie was keen to do some island hopping and so we made our way down to Port McNeill where we caught ferry boats out to Malcolm and Cormorant Islands over the next few days.

Lily prepares to board ferry boat to Malcolm Island

"All aboard!"

Malcolm Island appears ahead

   

Malcolm Island has two fascinating features:  a historic town and a wonderful hiking trail.  The town of Sointula is a Finnish community established in 1902.   Living where we do in northern Wisconsin, we have familiarity with and admiration for Finnish culture, and very much enjoyed visiting the museum here.   We learned that Finlanders, along with other ethnic groups, had emigrated here from Europe seeking freedom, social justice and economic opportunity.   Unfortunately, the group of Finns who established Sointula found instead oppressive working conditions in the coal mines of Vancouver Island.  They sent for a charismatic utopian journalist back in Finland to come and lead them in setting up a socialist commune on Malcolm island.  Here all property was jointly owned and everyone participated equally, including women—a revolutionary idea in those times!   They named it Sointula which means “place of harmony” and promoted the idea of a sound body and a sound mind.   So besides endeavors such as growing their food, starting a cooperative store, foundry, brickyard, and sawmill, the membership participated in regular exercise sessions, gymnastic programs, music instruction, concerts and drama productions.   

Sointula is the largest town on Malcolm Island

Finish culture abounds here

Matti Kurikka, a utopian socialist who lead the Finlanders in
establishing a commune on Malcolm Island in 1904

The early Sointula pioneers worked hard to establish their community

Cooperative store still in operation in Sointula since 1904

Commune members had regular participation in the arts

Unfortunately, the early community faltered under its first, too-idealistic leader, but with a spirit of tenacity and hard work, (what Finns call “SISU”) as well as some practical modifications to its founders’ vision, Sointula has endured to the present day.   It is a charming and laid back town.   It is obviously still committed to being a "place of harmony” as evidenced by a statement in its brochure for visitors:  “local dogs and cats have the right-of-way; if you come across one sleeping on the road, let it sleep and go around”.   LOVED IT!!

Peaceful Sointula harbor

Sign in the harbor the likes of which you don't see at a Wisconsin boat landing!

The hike we took on Malcolm Island was called the “Beautiful Bay Trail”—well-named!   Besides winding among awesome ancient trees, the trail is famous for providing access to a pebble beach to which orcas (aka “killer whales”) ROUTINELY come to rub their bellies!   I know, you are not believing this, but it’s true!!    Each rubbing session lasts from 15 minutes to up to two hours, and no one knows why they do it.  Socializing?  Massage?  Parasite removal?  We didn’t get to see the phenomenon personally—DARN—but plenty of people we met had.   But just standing there and imagining great dorsal fins converging on the beach for this ritual was a thrill!   Orcas, by the way, are not really whales, but the largest species of dolphin.   Male orcas are bit larger than females, averaging 19-22 feet in length and weighing 8,000-12,000 pounds.   British Columbia is blessed with lots of orcas and much research is conducted on them here.   Among other things, they’ve learned it is only the TRANSIENT orcas which kill seals, sea lions and other "sea-going mammals”  (ahem!).   British Columbia’s RESIDENT orcas are strictly fish-eaters, primarily salmon, natch!   

250 foot tall Sitka Spruce over 300 years old

Hiking the "Beautiful Bay" trail

Beach where orca come to rub their bellies on the smooth stones at high tide

View from camp at Bere Point on Malcolm Island with gathering
flock of migratory birds

A view more beautiful to me with Bernie in it!

After spending the night on a stunning Malcolm Island beach we ferried back to Port McNeil, then did a ferry boat "cha-cha", immediately reboarding to go to Cormorant Island, specifically, to Alert Bay.   This involved driving off of the ferry boat, circling around the pay booth, and immediately reboarding the same craft!   Seemed so silly we chuckled all the way through it. 

  

Drive off the ferry boat

Circle around the parking lot...

And reboard!

"You do the hokey-pokey and you turn yourself around...that's what it's all about!"

Poor Lily got dizzy!!

We arrive in Alert Bay and disembark again!

Our goal on Cormorant Island was to visit the U’mista Cultural Center to learn more about the Kwakwaka’wakw (pronounced Kwock-wock'-a-wock) peoples of the Northwest Coast and view their art.

U'mista Cultural Centre on Cormorant Island

Home of the world's largest totem pole--174 feet in height.
Can you see tiny, tiny Bernie with outstretched arms at its base?

Modern carvings

Modern masks

A special attraction was an opportunity to view the Namgis First Nation’s extensive collection of masks and ceremonial objects called “The Potlatch Collection”.   The objects were confiscated from the Northwest Coast tribes in 1922 when the native ceremonies called potlatch were declared illegal by the Canadian government in an effort to suppress the culture as has been discussed in previous blog postings.   The objects were not destroyed, however, but taken off to museums elsewhere in Canada, England, and the USA.   They were held there for eighty years until legal and humanitarian struggles to get them repatriated to their rightful owners met with success.   The Kwakwaka’wakw collection we viewed has been housed in the U’mista Cultural Center since 2002 and is absolutely amazing!

Ancient masks and potlatch regalia belonging to this tribe

In addition to admiring these objects, we viewed exhibits here which helped us understand the significance of potlatch to these peoples.  I liked the simplicity of this explanation: 

"The ceremony to tell our stories and to show social changes such as birth, marriage, name giving, standing up a new chief and death is called a Potlatch. In the Chinook language it means ‘to give’. The people we invite are not only guests. They are also witnesses of our Potlatch and we give them presents for being a witness.” 

A crucial part of the potlatch ceremony is the dancing by key tribal members dressed in ceremonial regalia explained as follows: 

"We dance to celebrate life, to show we are grateful for all our treasures. We must dance to show our history, since our history is always passed on in songs and dances. It is very important to tell the stories in exactly the same way. We put our stories into songs and into dances so they will not change. They will be told the same way every time. We use theatre and impressive masks to tell our ancestor’s adventures so the people witnessing the dance will remember it."

A movie of a potlatch ceremony that we saw at the cultural center made us wish with all our hearts that we could witness one some day...  

Blurry photo snapped during movie of a Potlatch ceremonial dance

Modern mask in museum reminiscent of above

Modern figurines depicting dancers at Potlatch ceremony

  

We’ve reported previously how fortunate we have been with the weather on our trip, having had maybe ten days of rain in the last five months!   Well, our luck was about to change!  We heard that rain was coming—seven to ten continuous days of it!!  At first we were optimistic and brave.   We thought the rain would be just FINE!   Heck, as the old saying goes, "there is no such thing as bad weather—just bad clothes”!  We were going to make like “northwest coasters”, don our rain gear, and continue to hike and enjoy the outdoors!

We identified a hiking trail that we wanted to take the very next day near the town of Campbell River.   The trail went to Ripple Rock or, more accurately, to an overlook of where Ripple Rock USED TO BE!   Until 1958, the channel that separates Vancouver Island from the mainland of Canada contained "the most notorious marine hazard in North America"—Ripple Rock.  Essentially a submerged mountain peak, the tip lay just 6 feet below the surface of the water at low tide.   It produced water flow velocities of 15-20 knots with the movement of tides, and spawned huge, deadly whirlpools.   Needless to say it was the cause of dozens of shipwrecks through history.   In an amazing feat of engineering which took over two years to complete,  the Canadian government drilled tunnels deep into Ripple Rock and skillfully placed some 2,750,000 pounds of explosives there.   On April 5, 1958, they ignited this and produced the largest man-made, non-nuclear explosion in history.   370,000 tons of rock was broken and 220,000 tons of water displaced with this blast which amazingly enough, produced no collateral damage.    The height of Ripple Rock was thereby reduced to 45 feet underwater at low tide, a depth that allowed even the mega cruise ships that came along in the 1990s to pass through the channel.   

We saw a movie about all of this on the ferry boat that took us to Alaska back in June—chock full of explosive footage—and now here we were on Vancouver Island, at the scene of the event.   We felt we just had to hike that trail, despite the rain!   As we started out on the 5 1/2 mile hike, the light rain got heavier, and heavier...and heavier.   We were confident our new rain coats and pants would keep us warm and dry no matter what, after all, we had paid top dollar for them!   But the rain continued to worsen, the overhanging trees dripped on our hats, the sodden trailside shrubbery slapped at our legs, and little by little we became utterly and completely SOAKED to our skins!   Yes, we finished the trail, having a bit of “SISU” of our own, and it was a memorable view from the top, looking down on Ripple Rock’s “graveyard”, but we learned we are more fair-weather tourists than we thought we were, and began looking in earnest for INDOOR activities for the next few days!

Soggy Bernie above Seymour Narrows where Ripple Rock once threatened mariners

Smiling on the outside...cold and miserable inside that raincoat!!

The town of Campbell River provided that in spades.   A nice library for my blogwork, a laundrymat, grocery store, microbrew, museum, and a visitor’s center with a staff member who told us about an upcoming event which provided us with one of the best experiences of our whole trip!   So she’s telling us about various museums, shopping opportunities, restaurants, and guided tours in the area, and then says, “Oh, and I don’t know if you’d have any interest in anything like this, but on Thursday over on Quadra Island there’s going to be a ceremony and feast to celebrate the repatriation of the potlatch regalia of Chief Billy Assu's family.” “Will there be dancing?”, we asked.   “Hmmm, lemme see, oh, yes, it says here there will be 30 dancers there.   Oh, and lunch is provided…”   OMG!   OMG!    Not a Potlatch, per se’, but an opportunity to attend a native celebration and see some of these incredible objects worn in dance ceremonies!    We bought our ferry tickets that day!  Thursday came with heavy rain, and I mean HEAVY rain.   We decided to leave the camper behind and walk-on the boat, since a shuttle bus was to be provided to the Nuyumbalees Cultural Center where the ceremony was to take place.
   

A rainy ferry boat ride to Quadra Island

Wet, wet, wet arrival at Quathiaski Cove on Quadra Island

It had been planned as an outdoor ceremony and a huge tent was erected to accommodate the attendees.  The place was filling up fast with native and non-native people, dignitaries, a uniformed mountie (!), and get this, cameramen and journalists from the BBC!   The rain kept falling and falling, and then there was thunder and lightning, and periodically buckets of rain would cascade off of the tent onto people pressing in to watch from outside, as the tent had filled to standing room only.   Yet we noted that on all those faces—nothing but SMILES!   A woman beside me whispered that the rain was seen as "a good sign”, contributing to the joy of this occasion, as rain is integral to the Kwakwaka’wakw (rainforest) culture, and it had been dry all summer—until today!
    

Tent to house the repatriation celebration

Quickly fills with celebrants

...including a Canadian mountie in uniform!

BBC on hand with camera and microphones to cover the event

And then the ceremony began.   A big hollowed out cedar log was laid on its side and several men sat on each side of it, sounding out the heartbeat rhythm, and the singing commenced, beautiful songs in the Kwakiutl language, while native dancers of all ages entered the tent and danced before us wearing the button blankets, woven cedar hats, and other regalia that we’d so far only seen in museums.   Then another and another dance took place with dancers wearing different costumes, and using stylized cedar paddles to imitate canoe travel.  And then came the dance of the chiefs, with about a dozen chiefs of different northwest coast tribes wearing priceless Chilkat robes and headdresses containing little receptacles from which eagle down flew with the purposeful nods of their heads in time to the music.   

Drummers sound the heartbeat rhythm on traditional cedar log drum

Let the dancing begin!

Two participants in the "Chiefs Dance" wearing priceless Chilkat robes and headdresses

These headdresses released eagle down with ceremonial head bobbing

V.I.P.'s take center stage

It was tooooo much!   We felt like the luckiest people in the world to be there!!!   Each of the numerous dignitaries, including members of parliament and mayors of various cities in BC, got up to give speeches, and various family members gave testimonials about Chief Billy Assu and his many accomplishments nationally and internationally on behalf of native peoples.  He was quite a guy and I’ll ask you to Google his name for more information.  Sadly, he died within the past one year, before actually getting to see these objects returned from the museum in Ottawa where they were being held, though he was aware that it had been approved and was going to take place.  

After the ceremony we enjoyed looking at the incredible collection of artifacts in their cultural center (no photography allowed), and then went over to the community center where we were all told to “join us for lunch”.    Indeed, here was a big hall filled with set tables, and spread out for us to enjoy, great kettles of salmon chowder and pans filled with grilled salmon prepared in their traditional manner, along with rolls and salads.    No soft drinks, desserts or alcohol—a healthy meal and a wonderful celebration that we will never forget.  

Luncheon ready to be served

Community center begins to fill for the celebratory meal

A very special experience for us!

It occurs to me that I may have been guilty of speaking of the native cultures of Alaska and Canada as if they belong to the PAST.   The experiences I describe above underline the fact that that is NOT the case.  These cultures and their peoples are alive and well in 2015!   Although much healing still needs to take place, they are on course for recovery, and we were comforted and just plain delighted to see evidence of that everywhere we went!  These people have been around for a long, long time and as one tribal member said from the podium at the repatriation celebration, “we’re not going anywhere!"

A few of the petroglyphs on display outside the Nyubulees Cultural Center
of the We Wai Kai First Nation

"We're not going anywhere!"

As we chugged along in the ferry boat back to Campbell River, we visited with fellow passengers who were curious about our now five-month long trip.   They asked where we were going next.   “Well", we said, “we WERE going to go to the west coast and see the mountains of the  interior along the way, but heck, with this rain, we won’t see much, so we may as well stay put…”   To which they said, “Are you kidding!!??   This rain is coming from Hurricane Joaquin out in the Pacific!   Everyone is FLOCKING to the west coast of the island right now to see the surf!   Waves as impressive as these haven’t reached our shores in years!!   It’s the chance of a lifetime!”   

Thus we made our travel plan —to the west coast of Vancouver Island we go!!!   Hmmm, this rain is turning out to be a blessing indeed!  See you in Vancouver Island—Part II of this travelogue!

On our way to the west coast of Vancouver Island for more adventures
and surprises