One of the things we were hoping to do on the islands of Haida Gwaii was to take a boat trip to SGang Gwaay, formerly a Haida village, now a UNESCO World Heritage site. It features the largest collection of Haida totem poles in their original locations. Uniquely for such a historical landmark, the wooden totem poles are allowed to naturally decay in the rainforest climate of the area, as is the custom of the Haida people.
None of that we got to observe though, because poor weather caused our trip to be postponed and eventually cancelled. Instead we spent three glorious days riding around Graham Island, which seemed almost manageably small, compared to Vancouver Island. There is essentially just one main paved road here, and we rode it until it ran out. It starts in Daajing Giids and hugs the east shore until turning west towards Port Clements, another sizable town. From there pavement continues north along Massett Inlet towards the town of Massett, hits the ocean and heads east again.
As a special treat, where the pavement ends, the North Beach begins, and that beach is open to enjoy with a vehicle, which many locals do. It’s a popular place to hang out, get some sun, set up picnic, or go dip netting for crabs. That’s where we stopped, had a snack, looked out at the ocean and tried to spot Alaska. The straight line of the beach continued for several miles. The moody skies, strong breeze and full throttle made us giggly.
In a grocery store in Port Clements we made a serendipitous discovery of locally made small batch chocolate flavored with unusual ingredients like spruce tips and mushrooms. It was perfect with black tea.
While crossing one of the many bridges Alex spotted something odd. We found a small trail leading from the road towards the marshes, and the oddity turned out to be an overgrown barge stuck in shallow water. With low tide we were able to carefully walk to it and check it out. There was an entire forest flourishing on its deck!
There was supposed to be a dirt road connecting Port Clements to Daajing Giids through the center of the island, but it was not open due to bridge work. In Canada, road maintenance and riding motorcycles have the same peak season.
Daajing Giids itself is a very pleasant little town (population a bit under 1000). The area adjacent to the pier is filled with great places to eat, craft shops, and historical artifacts, like a set of rails that head straight into the water. A friendly black cat was hanging out by a plant nursery and came over to say hi. Dozens of bald eagles swarmed the shores of the bay fighting for scraps left over by the fishermen. Outside a local grocery store there was a line up of scooters for rent.
It was slightly sad that we didn’t get to go to SGang Gwaay, but there is an airport here, too, with flights from Vancouver. It felt better when we looked at it not as something we missed, but as a reason to come back.
