o o o TURKS & CAICOS, E2 NEW MEXICO, E6 OREGON, E8 IKE-BATTERED NATION’S FIRST REMOTE, RUGGED ISLANDS BEGIN WILDERNESS A CAPE PERPETUA SLOW RECOVERY TIME CAPSULE BEST IN AUTUMN

ABCD | 9.21.2008 | Section E TRAvEL NATURALLY BEAUTIFUL Queen Charlotte Islands offer native culture and history, too

By Margo Pfeiff Special to The Chronicle

Ninstints, oss, moss everywhere. Meandering lushly up tree trunks, it envelops woodpiles, grows moss- MAfros atop fence posts and encroaches on the cedar plank pathway I’m hiking through a rain forest of Sitka spruces so big they could be simultaneously hugged by a dozen people. Then, just ahead, a pair of huge eyes stares at me and my heart does a little jig. An unmistakable eagle’s face, craggy and weathered, peers out from a bleached silver eerily naked in a green clearing. And then I see the others, the only cluster of ancient totems still standing. And like my first encounter with giraffes in the African bush and seeing the hilltop enclave of Machu Picchu, these poles pack a spiritual punch in real life that I never get from even the best documentary footage. Seventy miles off the north coast of British Columbia, the Queen Charlotte Islands — a.k.a. “the Charlottes” or, 1 QUEEN CHARLOTTE: Page E4

Attention-getting sights include, from left, a sign in , the eagle atop Bill Reid’s totem in and a Haida man’s tattoo in Old .

Photos by Margo Pfeiff / Special to The Chronicle Visitors observe totem poles, one of the major attractions of Island. Also known as Sgan Gwaii, Ninstints is a tiny island at the far southern tip of the archipelago in British Columbia.

COMING SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE SANTANA REBA & KELLY CLARKSON JEFFDUNHAM NEILYOUNG TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA October4 October10 October11 October12 November1 November 14 All performances are in the Downtown Reno Events Center. An MGM MIRAGE Property E4 ABCD COVER STORY SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2008

If you go

GETTING THERE Air ’s Tango subsidiary has two-hour flights from Vancou- ver to Sandspit in the Queen Charlottes. www.aircanada.com. Fares run around $360 CND (US $339) round-trip. BC Ferries operates a 6½-hour ferry from the town of Prince Rupert, on the mainland, to Skidegate in the islands. (888) 223- 3779, www.bcferries.com. One-way fare for a vehicle with two passengers is about $160 CND (US $151). WHERE TO STAY AALASKALASKA Dorothy & Mike’s Guest House, Queen Charlotte PPrincerince RRupertupert City, (250) 559-8439, www.qcislands.net/doro- CANADA mike. Serene, comfortable BRITISH lodgings overlooking Skide- COLUMBIA gate Inlet. Doubles from $58 CND (US $55) with break- Queen fast. Charlotte Premier Creek Lodge, Islands Queen Charlotte City, (250) VVancouverancouver PacificPacific VVancouverancouver 559-8415 or (888) 322- Ocean IslandIsland 0 200 3388, www.qcislands.net/ VVictoriaictoria premier. Funky renovated MILES WASH. historic town lodge. Doubles The Chronicle Photos by Margo Pfeiff / Special to The Chronicle from $35 CND (US $33). Baby sea Tlell River House, Tlell, (250) 557-421, www.tlellriverhouse- lions are part .com. Elegant field stone and wood lodge and spa on the Tlell The Charlottes of the region’s River. Doubles, $175 CND (US $165) per night with breakfast. vibrant sea Popular for river fishing. life, above. WHERE TO EAT Totem poles show off their on Ninstints Queen B’s Cafe, Queen Charlotte City, (250) 559-4463. Funky Island are one cafe/gallery, homemade food. Open daily. Lunch, $25 CND (US of the major $23.50) per person; dinner (Thursday and Friday only), $40 attractions, CND (US $37.75) per person. history, beauty left. Purple Onion Deli, Queen Charlotte City, (250) 559-4119. Great breakfasts and deli sandwiches from $15 CND (US $14) for two. 1 the West Coast Fishing Club, by QUEEN CHARLOTTE Keenawii’s Kitchen, Skidegate, (250) 559-8347. Haida culinary From Page E1 helicopter, scattering tame deer expert Roberta Olson “Keenawii” comes from a long line of tradi- off the landing pad. The lodge is tional food gatherers. She and her two teenage kids cooked up increasingly, “” in the an elegant, manly place that en- our best meal on the islands, a traditional Haida-style feast in- native Haida tongue — are just 20 courages catch and release by of- cluding octopus, seaweed, silky smoked black cod, cod souffle miles shy of the Alaska Panhandle. fering world-class Haida art in ex- and much more. By appointment. $50 CND (US $47) per per- To get there, you can fly from change for letting your 40-pound- son. Vancouver or take a ferry across er go. But I didn’t have to make Trout House Restaurant and Bakery, Tow Hill, (250) 626-9330. from Prince Rupert that decision because, as usual, Great food including halibut burgers, candied salmon focaccia on the B.C. mainland. The cruise nothing nibbled. We blamed a and seafood chowder of the Gods. Local musicians on week- on B.C. Ferries is likely the best pair of killer whales patrolling in ends. Call to check seasonal hours. Open for dinner Friday and approach, with 6½ hours at sea to the distance and switched to deep- Saturday. From $25 CND (US $23.50) for two. mellow down to the local’s pace. er water halibut gear. I found my- across a huge, partially completed We spotted humpback whales Hidden Island RV & Resort Fish n Chips, Masset, (250) 626- My sister and I came for self childishly overjoyed to snag a canoe in the forest, and called in from Hawaii gorging themselves 5286. Eight tables in a tackle shop/diner in an RV park, where glimpses of long-abandoned Hai- modestly sized specimen, an expe- anthropologists. Sleek though en route to Alaska; pilot whales; you dine on terrific fresh halibut and chips amid day-glo lures and da village sites with their toppling rience akin to hauling a fridge mossy, it is one of more than 30 bears and teenage Stellar sea lions fish bonkers. Lunch for two, $20 CND (US $19). totems. They’re now protected door from the ocean depths. found in the islands. goofing off in the water while within Gwaii Haanas National Masset is a no-frills fishing “The trees were selected, felled their parents’ syncopated grunts WHAT TO DO Park, a wilderness covering most town of loggers and fishermen, and partially hollowed out before filled the air from a nearby rock. of the southern tip of this blade- hippies and Haida, like the rest of being moved on log rollers to the The sea life was lush, too, a Tech- Haida Gwaii Discovery, www.northwestrecreation.com, (250) 626-3949 or (866) 626-3949. Day tours, $80 CND (US shaped archipelago. the island. It sits alongside Nai- water,” Merilees said. nicolor underwater forest of $75.50). Longer custom tours also available. We wanted to walk wild beach- koon Provincial Park, a vast ex- They were then filled with hot anemones and sea stars brighten- es and hike in some of the conti- panse of beach and forest occupy- stones and water to steam them ing the shallows of Burnaby Nar- Moresby Explorers, Sandspit, BC, (250) 637-2215 or (800) nent’s most verdant rain forest, ing the northeast corner of Gra- open. Canoes as long as 60 feet rows. 806-7633, www.mores- which is drenched in 51 annual ham Island. We quickly became were the Haida’s most valuable During the 21 hours of daylight byexplorers.com. Four- inches of rain. Also on the agenda accustomed to the on-and-off trading tool, and they have been in summer, we soaked in natural day Gwaii Haanas Nation- al Park boat trip, $1,290 was taking in the resurgence of light rain showers that are the found as far afield as Northern pools on Hotspring Island and vis- CND (US $1,216) per Haida culture, a bit of fishing and Charlottes’ trademark weather California. ited the old village of T’anuu person. Advance reserva- some whale-watching. pattern as we beachcombed for Along with standing cedars where huge, fallen roof beams tions essential. And we had our fingers crossed agates, chatted with crab seekers from which strips of bark were and poles are distinct mossy bulg- for a sighting of the elusive migra- and poked around a shipwreck. harvested years ago to weave bas- es on the forest floor, spanning the , tory tufted puffin because neither Great coffee is generally a rar- kets and hats, the canoes are offi- sunken interiors of once-spacious Skidegate, www.haida- heritagecentre.com. of us had ever seen a puffin in the ity in remote places, but we found cially dubbed CMTs — Culturally longhouses where extended fami- Open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. flesh. it everywhere here, even at Moon Modified Trees — and the Haida lies lived. Closed Sundays. Adults, The Queen Charlottes are Over Naikoon, an offbeat, off-the- are presently using GPS to map We spent two nights at Mores- $12 CND (US $11.30). composed of two main islands — electrical-grid cafe/informal their sites as evidence to back their by Explorers’ cozy wooden float Graham and, to the south, Mores- whale museum in the middle of native land claims. house, complete with a propane FOR MORE by — and 1,500 surrounding islets. Naikoon’s rain forest, where we At the southern end of Graham fireplace and a cook whipping up INFORMATION Operations Manager Jason Only about 120 miles of paved met guide Andrew Merilees over a Island, 70 miles from Masset, Ski- fabulous meals. The third night Alsop stands at the new Haida roads connect the seven commu- fair trade Java and still-warm cin- degate is the islands’ second native was at a quirky, hippie-style guest- Northern British Colum- Heritage Centre in Skidegate. bia Tourism Association, nities, the biggest being Queen namon buns. community. In August it hosted house on the site of the aban- Charlotte City, population 1,000. Merilees took us to nearby Old the official opening of a $26 mil- doned Rose Harbour whaling sta- www.nbctourism.com, (800) 663-8843 Tourism is relatively new here. Masset, one of the island’s two re- lion Haida Heritage Centre, an el- tion, where a pair of giant metal Haida Gwaii Tourism, www.haidagwaiitourism.ca This means things are costly and maining native communities. egant and insightful complex in- “bone digesters” — rendering Queen Charlotte Visitor Centre, www.qcinfo.ca, (250) 559- the only five stars you’ll see will be “There were once over 500 Hai- cluding a museum, traditional drums — rusted on the beach. 8316 on a rare cloud-free night sky. da communities in the islands, amphitheatre and canoe/totem Four thousand whales were “pro- And the experience is not, as with a population of over 7,000,” carving shed. cessed” here in the early 20th cen- they say, for everybody. “People he said. Six totems erected out front tury, their meat and bones re- need to make sure they know what The Haida were fierce warriors were created by master carvers duced to fertilizer. this place is about before they go and traders, with a rich culture af- who worked with apprentices to the effort and expense of com- forded by a bountiful land. In the learning the ancient skills. Totem forest ing here,” said late 1800s, though, a series of There is also the Bill Reid Teach- Ninstints, also known as Sgan spokeswoman Nathalie Fournier. smallpox epidemics reduced their ing Centre, named after the iconic Gwaii, is a tiny island at the far Stormy winter weather dictates population to less than 700. Re- part-Haida artist who spearheaded southern tip of the archipelago, a short visitor season — from late markably, their culture didn’t dis- the current revival in Haida carving and I’d wanted to come to this June to early September — so appear and has been undergoing a beginning in the 1950s and whose place for decades. Tension built as planning and booking far ahead is growing revival for 50 years. monumental works are showcased I walked the boardwalk from the essential. It’s not too soon to begin Artists here encourage home at Canada’s embassy in Washington beach through the rain forest, fol- booking a trip for 2009. visits, so we dropped in on silver- D.C., in Vancouver’s airport and on lowing one of the Haida Watch- smiths, carvers of argillite — a the Canadian $20 bill. men who spend summers guard- Super-size me black, coal-like stone — and to the The Heritage Centre stretches ing and guiding the more popular Everything in the Charlottes is home of Joyce Bennett, a fourth- along a crescent of pebble beach, a sites in the park. super-sized, from trees and bears generation button-blanket maker. contemporary rendering of a se- The highlight of the trip is the (the biggest black bears in North Sarah’s Haida Arts and Jewelry, in a ries of longhouses echoing the first glimpse of the clearing where America) to seaweed, scallops and stylized longhouse in Old Masset, haunting black and white archival roughly a dozen totem poles tow- record salmon that draw folks for sells the works of dozens of artists. photos of once-thriving Haida vil- er, a stacked cedar menagerie of some of the world’s best sports lages, a line of totems and the fam- killer whales, ravens, beavers and fishing. You can hire a Masset fish- A canoe in the forest ily canoes parked out front. bears. It’s clear that this is a special erman or head to one of the exclu- We headed south with Merilees place, a sacred site for the Haida sive luxury lodges on Langara Is- toward Port Clements, a strug- Home of the Haida who regard it as the resting place land off the north coast. gling logging town with a pioneer It is the remnants of those old of ancestors felled by smallpox. We zipped over to one of them, museum. Years ago loggers came villages that we set off to see next UNESCO also found it sacred in after a short ferry ride south to 1981, when it declared it a World Moresby Island, where we joined Heritage Site as the best preserved Moresby Explorers for a four-day remaining First Nations (what Ca- trip into Gwaii Haanas National nadians call Indians) village any- Park. where, abandoned when there Enormous canoes are part of the islands’ history. Here is a A reserve jointly managed by were only a handful of survivors in partially carved one in the forest. Parks Canada and the Council of the 1880s. the Haida Nation, it comprises It was hard to imagine the trip hundreds of small islands accessi- could get any better as we left Five cool things ble only by float plane and boat Sgan Gwaii. But then an ungainly A zodiac is the most efficient flock of five birds suddenly lifted about the Queen Charlotte Islands way to see the park. With our off the waves ahead of our zodiac. 1. The islands’ original Haida name was Xhaaidlagha Gwaayaai, trusty 23-year-old guide, Laura Chunky orange beaks and a bright “islands at the edge of the world.” Pattison, a sharp homeschooled yellow Mohawk flapping in the 2. The only naturally occurring golden Sitka spruce in the world, local, we zoomed to sites of old breeze could mean only one thing the 500-year-old “Golden Spruce,” was sacred to the Haida copper mines, the ruins of canner- — tufted puffins. people. It was cut down in 1997 by a logging protester with a ies and logging operations that “Well spotted,” exclaimed one history of mental illness, who subsequently vanished while kay- once clear-cut these lush rain for- of the guests in a British bird- aking to the islands for his trial. ests. watchers’ plumiest accent as the 3. Fierce and feared warriors who raided coastal villages as far In 1985, the widely publicized birds flapped in a circle around us. away as California in enormous dugout war canoes powered by blockade of clear-cut “Check!” we chimed in as as many as 60 paddlers, the Haida were called “the Indian Vi- logging operations was the impe- “twitchers” do, ticking another kings of the North West Coast” by an early anthropologist at the tus for the park’s establishment on great life experience off our life Canadian Museum of Civilization. south Moresby a few years later. list. This is often called “the Gala- 4. A unique species of caribou once lived on . The last one died off in the middle of the last century. pagos of the North,” a major sea- Margo Pfeiff last wrote for bird stopover where eagles are so Travel about Quebec City. To 5. The Web site of the Queen Charlotte Islands Chamber of A Haida Watchman at work on T’anuu. The Watchmen spend common locals call them “chick- comment, visit sfgate.com/travel Commerce (www.qcislands.net/chamber) lists a tanning salon. summers guarding and guiding the more popular sites in the park. ens.” and follow the links.