Aug 7-10, 2012

We departed from the Ferry at 6:30 am, cycled into Charlotte City and left a bag of kayak stuff at the motel we had booked and were headed up island by 7:30 am.

Graham Island is where most of the people live, and the road north to Masset is paved.  Before long we spotted some Bald Eagles and had our first siting of the very tame non-indigenous Sitka black-tailed deer.  The road was pretty flat and there was a bit of a tail wind and so when we stopped at Tlell to get a snack the little store was still not open.

Crossing inland from Tlell we hit a few hills but none more than a few hundred meters.  At Port Clements we had a nice lunch in a cute little restaurant.  Not long after that we got to Masset and set our tents up in a campground where we were also able to get dinner and check up on the Olympics.   We had ridden 120 kms.

In the morning, in the rain, we found a nice breakfast spot, rode into Old Massett to see the totems.  We wanted to see a carver there, but he would not be in business until well into the day.  We headed back towards Port Clements again, riding through a couple of rain showers along the way, and so we had some drying out to do while we had clam chowder in the same little restaurant.

Because of the rain, we booked into Serenity Now B&B at Tlell.  We got there mid-afternoon and after showering Christine allowed us into the living room to join Peter so we could watch the Olympics.

Peter took us out in his truck to look around and we saw the little Salmon river that runs through Tlell.  I was particularly pleased to see the former home of the author, James Huston, which has been preserved, complete with some well carved Haida totems.

Peter invited us to join them for a dinner of Salmon and crab.  Rich and I chose well  on this day.

The next day we rode on into Skidegate where we surprisingly found a yuppy type restaurant before our extensive visit to the Haida Gwaii Museum.  The museum has some of the best old totems, some excellent new carvings, some canoes and gives a number of talks on Haida history and customs.  Well worth visiting.

We checked into our hotel and began preparing for our kayak trip.  In the morning we watched the Olympics for a while and then took the short ferry to Moresby Island and rode the final 10 km into Sandspit and our motel.

Seeing Haida Gwaii by bike is highly recommended.  We cycled about 280 km on Haida Gwaii, including our return after the kayak trip.