August 25th-27th, 2018
In the village of Queen Charlotte, I stayed at a very nice campground. Walking around the area and along the beach, I walked around the corner to see this old wooden beached barge! I had seen a photo of it in some magazine, but it did not indicate where this was! Very interesting to say the least.
After staying three nights in this vicinity and exploring the area, I returned to the mainland via the ferry. It was a fairly calm day on the water which made it nice for travelling.
August 28th, 2018
Left early this morning to make my way towards Burns Lake.
Had to stop in Gitanyow to retake some totem pole photos as I was not satisfied with the first stop a couple weeks ago of the photos I had taken.
I stopped in Kitwanga as I was informed there were totem poles in this vicinity as well. I was pleased to find them, but would like to learn more about the stories linked with each one and how old they may be.
Stopped in Hazelton, and was impressed with how this town has maintained its old western historic charm. Many of the buildings have the look and feel of the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s. I appreciated that they indicated what buildings were no longer existing in the town and identified which buildings were original.
They had a totem from the Frog Clan that was carved in the late 1800’s and a description of what the carvings were about.
I drove a paved side road that led to Kispiox to see the old totem poles in this area. After driving to the location, I was impressed with the number of totems that were here.
After taking a few photo’s, a gentleman from the village approached me and asked me if I would like to learn a little about the totems. After talking for a few minutes, Vance indicated what he charged for a 15 minute talk to a half hour talk. I indicated that I would like to hear his 15 minute talk and it really added a great deal to understanding some of the totems and their carvings linked to stories.
One totem was his father’s that he shared a story about the totem that when the village was raided in the past women and children were taken back to the other village.
One child who escaped with his mother from another village became the fastest and bravest warrior. However, where he was born in the opposing village, he would often switch sides and fight with one village and then with the other. Many of the peoples in both villages did not like this and in one village a group of the warriors attempted to kill him. He was very fast and ran into the woods … to escape from being captured he went into a lake, grabbed a special plant that was hollow, laid down in the water and breathed through the tube he had created. On the totem, it represents the long tube that he had used to escape from being captured.
It turned out that Vance had shared stories and chatted with me for over two hours … where did the time go. I happily paid him for the half hour version instead of the fifteen minute version. I had learned a great deal about his culture today and about many of the totems … a well worthwhile time was spent in this area.
I then drove through New Hazleton and had read about a shoot-out that occurred here in 1914. There were seven robbers who attempted to rob the Union Bank. This was the second time the bank was being robbed, the first time about a year previous to this date. The citizens of the area had formed a posse and bullets fired killing three of the robbers, wounding and capturing three others, but the seventh robber got away. He had the money.
I stopped in Morricetown and watched the first nations using dip nets to capture salmon in the top of a canyon, similar to how they did in the past (only with modern safety equipment). For the first four times that a dip net was put in the water, the member of the dip net crew would bring up two salmon in the net each time. After the fourth time, no fish were in the dip net and the dip net crew would go back to their shelter and wait for a little while before attempting again. It was fascinating to watch this.
I continued my drive and then took a side trip up to Twin Falls.
After parking in the lot and walking a short distance, the one waterfall was very nice. The “twin” fall beside the one only had water trickling over it … no longer a twin. LOL No matter, it was still worth the side drive and small hike.
Smither’s was an interesting town and looks like a great place to go shopping. On the south side of the highway one street reminds me a little of Banff.
I had to stop in Houston to take a photo of the longest free-standing fly rod in the world. It was worth the short stop.
Went to Burn’s Lake … tried to find the opal fields … long drive and hiked quite a distance … sign did not indicate how far of a hike it was. Evacuated area.
Driving through Fraser Lake, hundreds of tents for the firefighters … quite a scene.
Stayed in Beaumont Provincial Park and there were hardly anyone camping here. I suspect because of all the smoke in the air.