Took a tour around Louise Island in a zodiac with Moresby Explorers. The excotement began before we even got to the spot where the dinghy set out from at Moresby Camp: we got a good look at a big black bear that was walking right down the logging road in front of our van, and then moved off to the side of the road.
Unfortunately getting a good look is not the same thing as getting a good photo, especially when shooting with a phone from a moving vehicle in low light... but I did get a REALLY GOOD picture of bear scat!!
The first stop on our tour was Arrow Camp, also referred to as New Clew. In the late 1800s some of the Haida relocated here after 90 to 95% of their population was killed by smallpox and other European diseases. Missionaries attempted to convert the survivors, and there is a small Christian-style graveyard on the site (though the Haida do not traditionally bury their dead underground). One of the gravestones reported that the person named "tried to be a Christian". The Haida are now taking back some of the bones of ancestors buried in this way and giving them a traditional burial in a mortuary house.
Also on the site is an abandonded logging camp, set up in the 1940s to provide Sitka Spruce for making Mosquito aircraft. When the war was over the camp was abandoned, along with everything in it. The ground is littered with old machinery, logging trucks and parts, an old stove, caulked boots and empty bottles.
After a picnic on the beach we donned our waterproofs and clambered back into our dinghy to continue our tour. We visited a few spots of interest and watched seals and eagles on the way to our next stop, the old village site of K'uuna, also known as Skedans.
The Haida do not attempt to preserve poles but allow them to return to nature. The result is a unique blend of nature and culture when ancient carved cedar poles become nurse logs out of which new trees are born.
Former longhouse site.
Our guide's great-great-great grandmother lived in this house.
Emily Carr painted this pole when the stump in front of it was just a seedling like the one now growing out of its top.
A fluted pole, probably made after local carvers had been to Victoria and seen fluted columns there, and decided they wanted some too!
Fluted pole with toppled carved pole
Poles are not normally propped up but this one already was, so they left it that way
Sara enjoying the trip
Coming through the narrows on the way back to Moresby Camp
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