The Queen Charlotte Islands are really quite amazing. We arrived on Wed. after flying from Victoria to Vancouver and then up to Masset, the northernmost community on the Queen Charlottes. After driving around town and heading to the local Co-op, both Barry and I agreed that it reminded us of Inuvik. There is a lot of housing that was built for the military, that reminds us of the fourplexes in Inuvik, although they aren't painted nearly as brightly and the grocery store was almost a dead ringer.
Wed. afternoon we drove out to a beach called North Beach that goes on for miles and miles. The road just ends and then you are driving on a beach, unbelievable! That evening a friend of Barry's sister dropped by and gave us some freshly caught and cooked crab, what a welcome to the Islands. I kept saying we should keep some for lunch the next day, but we just kept eating until they were ALL GONE!
Since then we have driven down to Queen Charlotte City and seen where the ferry from Prince Rupert lands. We also went back up to that gorgeous beach yesterday and fished for crabs. This involves putting on hip waders and wading around in knee to hip deep water in the surf with a net in your hands keeping an eagle eye out for crabs. I managed to catch a little wee critter that we had to let go because it was too small. Barry actually saw one that was big enough to catch but he said it was going about 60 miles an hour sideways and being retired he just wasn't fast enough to catch it!! (Barry hardly ever reads my musings)
Today we headed down to SANDSPIT, yes you read it right, Sandspit, BC on Moresby Isalnd, to watch logging days. We arrived in time to watch the horizontal chop, the vertical chop, the burl races, the nail drive, the axe throw and much, much more. They were serving salmon burgers and ice cream and we had the a super nice day. On the way home we stopped at the Sandspit Harbour and chatted with a fellow in a Hans Christian Catarina, I believe he said, that was up from Oregon. The sailboat was about 50 foot plus, a real beauty. They had been in the National Park at the south end of Morseby Island and were headed up to Ketchican, Alaska. As we drove around town we realized why it is call Sandspit, the whole town is located up and down one very long sandspit.
The weather here has been alway cloudy and it can rain for short and long periods of time. We carry out wet weather gear with us everywhere, it has been warm though and the only reason you put on your raincoat is because you feel yourself getting sopped. One day we went for a 10K hike to see a old shipwreck that was washed up on a beach in 1928. That is the furthest Barry has walked since he quit running and he wasn't in too bad shape the next day. He has also been walking any beach we encounter with his head down hunting for agate. He has found quite a few lovely examples, I, myself am still hunting for my first agate. You never know I may find one yet.
We do not have our softwear available to download any pictures, I will add some later.
