2014/06 Haida Gwaii trip - Old Masset |
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Wednesday June 25th
It was raining early but by the time we crawled out we had a dry morning at last. We had a short drive back to Masset, and then took a walk in the sunshine into the Dalketna Wildlife Sanctuary. It’s probably very busy with birds during the migrations, but we saw only eagles and sandhill cranes, though the cranes were both noisy and great to watch, dinosaurs on the prowl.
We drove into Old Masset, a Haida village just a short distance along the channel. We had a map but all the street names look like this so it took us a while to find the Haida Rose Café for some lunch and some Wi-Fi access.
Nearby we visited Sarah’s Haida Arts and Jewelry; Sandie found a rather nice silver pendant, carved by one of the locals. The building’s decoration shows the Haida’s two social groups, the Eagle and the Raven. Sarah took our picture.
From there we took a walk around town, looking for carvings. Apart from some spectacular totem poles, it is a typical Indian village with some very neat homes with pretty gardens but many more wrecks with broken windows, surrounded by gardens gone wild and decorated with tomorrow’s antiques. The people were friendly, and seemed happy to have tourists walking around the village rather than just driving through from pole to pole.
Back in Masset we stopped for coffee overlooking the harbour, and were struck that there were no seagulls in sight or in earshot. There were plenty of eagles and 
ravens, seen amicably sharing this spruce, but no gulls. Also noteworthy and appreciated was the absence of mosquitoes, even in swampy places in the forest. There were some biting flies and no-see-ums, but not as many as on the mainland.
On our way back to Port Clements we had sunshine for our walk down to Pure Lake, an odd name for a lake full of dark brown tannin-stained water. It tasted OK but it was hardly pure. That evening it was warm and dry for cooking a late meal over the fire. 
The campground would be full at the weekend with people coming in for the village’s Canada Day celebration.
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