Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/207624
Two adventurers kayak Haida Gwaii in time to witness the first monumental pole to be raised in 130 years T by David Quinn he All Alone Stone sits, wave-washed and sculpted by a thousand wild Pacific storms, at the heart of Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve, National Marine Conservation Area and Haida Heritage Site on Haida Gwaii. Well-named, the islet sits, lonely and isolated, in the middle of Juan Perez Sound, lorded over by the somber San Cristobal Mountains to the west and fickle Hecate Strait to the east. To many residents of Haida Gwaii, the All Alone Stone has always symbolized their reality as an archipelago, 100 kilometres off B.C.'s mainland shore. Its rocky silhouette has taunted me for nearly 20 years. I lean from my kayak and my hand slides up and down the islet's lithic armour, lifted gently on a glassy swell. Not a breath of wind stirs, as I sit with B.C. author and adventurer Bruce Kirkby in kayaks on the glassy sea, gazing alternately up at the All Alone Stone and at each other in disbelief over our fortune to enjoy calm weather on our fourday kayak trip in Gwaii Haanas. Bruce and I first met here a decade ago on an isolated beach far to the south and became fast (opposite) Multiple hands are needed to raise the massive Gwaii Haanas Legacy Pole; (above) Bruce Kirkby in Gwaii Haanas's Juan Perez Sound. (left) Darryl Dyck/CP Images, (top) David Quinn p22-27_Haida_Gwaii_Pole.indd 23 friends. We each travel the planet independently, working as guides and journalists, so the opportunity to explore together is rare. We jumped at the invitation to witness and tell the story of the raising of the Gwaii Haanas Legacy Pole, the first monumental pole to be erected in the Gwaii Haanas area in 130 years. We decided that kayaking to the historic event at Lyell Island's Windy Bay would be the most appropriate way to make the journey in this sea-sculpted land and culture. Our plan was to paddle to Windy Bay, near the northern boundary of Gwaii Haanas, from Skincuttle Inlet in the Park Reserve's south. If weather permitted, this would give us lots of options for side trips and explorations. If not, we felt we could still cover the 60 km distance to reach Windy Bay in time for the raising. Each of Haida Gwaii's more than 1,800 rocky islands and islets, scattered like verdant driftwood across 15,000 square kilometres of the North Pacific, has 10,000 years of human stories to tell. But perhaps none has played as important a role in the archipelago's recent history as Lyell Island on south Moresby Island, located two-thirds of the way down the eastern edge of the islands. It was here in 1985 that the Haida Nation set up a blockade to end what they, and eventually much of Canada, saw as insatiable clear-cut logging of lands they view as their ancestral territory. In two days, we have paddled by much of what Westworld >> winter 2013 23 13-10-25 10:19 AM