Naikoon Park and Masset BC Attractions

Yes, the night before it had been not so pleasant outside, but this new day brought forth warmth and calmness. Today was the day I was going to conquer Tow Hill and explore the geological phenomenon known as the “The Blow Hole”.

Rapid Ritchie's was only 6 kilometres from the base of Tow Hill, it did not take me long to arrive by car. I must remark that the drive itself through the rain forest is a sight to behold in and of itself, the road is narrow and the trees envelope you in a green canopy. The moss in this part of the world grows so thick and in abundance that it forms large clusters on the trees and forest floor.

When I pulled into the parking lot a kindly gentleman from Penticton B.C. approached me (everyone talks to everyone in this part of the world) it was still relatively early morning and he was wearing his five o'clock shadow and sipping his coffee. He wanted to know where the fish were biting. For anyone wanting to visit Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) they come here for one of two reasons, to see the unique natural beauty and to go fishing. Haida Gwaii is one of the salmon fishing capitals of the world and early fall is the time to do it. Depending on the river you access on the islands you can have good fishing from August to November. Crabbing is very easy, especially along the South and North Beach from Masset to Naikoon park, all you need is a net and a pair of hip waders and when the tide recedes just walk a few meters out into the surf and scoop up the King Crab in your net as they scurry out with the lowering tide. Fishing licence is required, limited quantity, males only and there is a limited season.

After talking for 10 minutes with gentleman from Penticton I told him that this time of year he can't go wrong in any creek or river he comes across. This was proved time and time again on my trip, every hike or drive I took along a river someone was fishing and catching salmon. Besides Campbell River, Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) is an anglers paradise.

Tow Hill

I decided to walk up tot he top of Tow Hill, its a moderate walk along board platforms and eventually after a 30 minutes or so you reach the summit. Half way up they have built a deck that overlooks the beach and Rose Point in the distance. There is a beach access road at the end of Tow Hill Road in Niakoon Park, and from the platform you can see vehicles driving along the beach. It is a good 7 kilometre drive from the end of Tow Hill Road to Rose Point, if you want to drive on the beach you must have a 4x4 or all wheel drive vehicle, people do get stuck out there and if the salt water gets to your cars electrical it won't run again. There is a stretch of land in Old Masset that has the remnants of people who have tried to take their normal car out onto the beach, got it stuck and it ended up being destroyed by the tide. I too wanted to take my car onto the beach because it looked like a lot of fun and would save me a days walk out to Rose Point. Luckily I ran into a couple of surfers who gave me a bit of an education on driving on the beach and better judgement won out at the end of the day.

Rose Point is the most north eastern point on Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands), when the land ends a long sandy spit stretches out into the ocean. This is a great place for migratory bird watching, clam digging, fishing for crabs and appreciating the scenery. If you do not have a four wheel drive vehicle then it also a great day hike, make sure you take food and water with you.

The view from the top of Tow hill is spectacular. You can see the entire stretch of North and South Beach all the way to Masset and on a clear day you can even see some of the Alaskan coast. Tow Hill is very unique, it is built like a towering fortress of basalt that looks like it was violently jettisoned from the Earth into the sky, and that may not be far from the truth. Tow hill used to be part of old mountain range and was once part of a volcano, it used to have a more towering facade in the distant past but due to erosion it is now shear cliff on one side and a forested slope on the other.

Half way down the trail, or up depending how you look at it, is a fork in the road that will take you to the Blow Hole, this saves you from having to walk all the way down to the bottom of Tow Hill and then make your way over. This is one of the more beautiful parts of the trail that takes you through a moss covered rain forest with colourful mushrooms sprouting up from everywhere. I even saw a squirrel eating a mushroom, but those little guys are quick and its tough to get a good picture of one.

The Blow Hole

Under the towering cliff of Tow Hill is the famed Blow Hole. It is a little hard to find it is actually about 5 meters in front of the big grassy rock (that is often mistaken for the Blow Hole), make sure you are looking down and toward the water and you will eventually find it. The Blow Hole in Naikoon Park is probably its most interesting natural phenomenon. The Blow Hole is connected to the sea via an underwater cavern, depending on the severity of the wave action and the tide, water can be forced through this whole at great pressure and spout up into the sky. When I was there all it did was fill up with water and then empty itself repeatedly, not too exciting that day.

The walk back to the parking lot takes you on a trail that follows the Hiellen River. As the river enters the ocean it creates some waves, also during the salmon spawning season you can watch seals here feasting on the salmon trying to swim up stream. Further up the river at choke or narrow points you can see black bears (the biggest in the world) and eagles feed on the salmon.

Be Bear Aware

Just a note, you are in bear country. If you are walking through the forest make sure you are making noise from time to time to let the bears know that you are there, especially if you are walking into the wind. If you suddenly come in close proximity to a bear, make your presence known, talk in a low voice and slowly back away, never run else the bear will think you are prey, may give chase and attack you. Bears like to use the road and trail systems too, if you see one try to get yourself off the trail to let the animal pass. (I am not a bear expert, if you want more information on bears you should independantly verify this information for yourself.)

In the rarest of circumstances if you think you are being followed by a bear, grab a big stick and rock, start making your way toward any kind of safety (not a tree, black bears can climb trees). At this point the bear is stalking you as if you are prey, you have to take this bear behaviour very seriously. If the bear comes out in the open make your self appear as big as possible, bang your stick on the ground or trees and yell loudly at it. If the bear starts to run at you or charge you, throw the rock at it as a last effort to tell the bear you mean business if it tangles with you, if the bear is still coming at you then run as fast as you can toward safety, you may need your stick to defend yourself, so if that bear gets close to you beat it with the stick. If all this has failed and the bear is clobbering you, curl up in a tight ball in the foetal position and hope the bear eventually looses interest in you. If the later is an upsetting scenario for you there are three things you might want to keep in mind. (I am being mildly facetious)

1. Shock is our bodies natural instinct when we are receiving trauma or a frightening experience. You do not feel pain in the normal sense and you are not in a normal conscious state, in other words your ordeal sounds worse than what you will experience and you will not be sure of what is happening to you.

2. If you follow the former part of the above section, this will never be an issue.

3. The later example indecent has not occurred on Haida Gwaii in common times. This an extremely rare experience.
   

If you want something to re assure you when you go into bear country you can always purchase bear spray, keep in mind this does not work all the time and the bear needs to be down wind of you. If you inhale any bear spray it can cause serious respiratory distress in a human so if you are an asthmatic for example you would want to be careful with its use. There is another item called a Bear Banger, it's a device that takes charges and when used makes a loud firecracker kind of sound, this is an attempt to frighten the bear off. Again, the Bear Banger is not always successful, but safer than bear spray. Please only use these products where you are in a situation where it is your last resort.

Old Masset

After a morning of gallivanting around Niakoon Park, I decided to go see Old Masset. Old Masset is just past the village of Masset and was the original site of the Haida people previous and post contact with Europeans. Old Masset besides being home to aboriginal peoples has also attracted artists, carvers, potters, weavers etc. and has transformed itself into an artist community. You can see many traditional and contemporary artworks at Sarah's Hiada Arts and Jewellery at the far end of Old Masset in a long house shaped building.

Inside you can see the culmination of artwork from the community as well as other local curios and general First Nation items of the mass produced variety too. There is a large selection of custom carvings made from argillite, wooden paddles, masks and totem poles, handmade jewellery incorporating gold, silver and abalone shell. An impressive selection baskets, hats and other items made of Haida weaving from cedar bark. The Haida art displayed and for sale at Sarah's is of high quality, is highly sought after, exclusive and has a price tag to match it. Though Sarah's has an assortment of reasonably priced souvenirs, the bulk of the Haida art can be very expensive.

I saw a small weaved basket that could fit into the palm of my hand had a price tag of about $450.00. The average sized Haida basket had a price tag of $1500.00, this price system carries over to the other Haida original artworks as well. The prices are justified considering the amount of labour that goes into these items, and besides, the money stays in the community and goes back to the artists where they can continue to practise their craft and keep their traditions alive and well.

You can visit the artists around Masset and Old Masset, their homes or workshops generally has a sign that indicates they are an artist and you are more than welcome to go visit them and browse and purchase there artworks. Aside from seeing their little gallery you can often watch the artist at work creating that one of a kind masterpiece. Some things you need to consider when visiting an artist are that they are not usually open for too many hours, this is helped by some of them having an open/closed signs and there is also an artist route map at the Tourist Information Centre that contains the hours of operation for most artisans.

Another great place in Old Masset is the Haida Rose Cafe, featuring some of the best coffee in Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands). Asides from the coffee and light meals offered, they also have high speed wireless internet available and two computers that are available for rent. If you are camping, RV'ing or staying at a remote cabin this is a good place to recharge your batteries, surf the net and relax for a while. The Vancouver Island Regional Public Library in Masset has free wireless internet and computers for accessing the internet, however they are only open on a part time basis and not as convenient as the Haida Rose Cafe.

Delkatla Wildlife Sancuary

Just down from the only bridge where you access Masset and Old Masset is the Delkatla Wildlife Sanctuary that have viewing platforms at a few locations for the bird watchers. There is an access road along side the sanctuary called Masset Cemetery Road where you can access the other bird watching platforms, but at the end of the road there is a quaint and very picturesque cemetery.

As far as photography is considered there was only 3 places I was told not to take pictures. I respected this request and if you are planning to go to Haida Gwaii I would hope you would also honour this request. They firmly state not to take pictures inside most areas of the Haida Heritage Centre (which was very odd for a museum to request, many other museums let you take pictures), the Masset cemetery and Bill Reid's grave at Tanu (I'll talk about that later).

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