Return from Haida Gwaii

Once our time in Haida Gwaii was finished, we headed home. We chose to return via Vancouver and the island - ferry to Prince Rupert, ferry to Port Hardy, drive to Nanaimo, ferry to Horseshoe Bay. We stopped overnight in Port Hardy, Nanaimo, and Vancouver.

My father used to joke that Canada's scenery was just "rocks, fir trees, and water", or in the case of my beloved mountains, "rocks, fir trees, and snow". From the ferry it was more like "clouds, fir trees, and water". Despite the "simple" recurring ingredients, it's still beautiful scenery.

I think the little hummingbird (see photo) had hit the window of our Nanaimo hotel. We found it lying on the sidewalk. I picked it up so it wouldn't get stepped on. After a few minutes it flew off my hand but only made it a few feet to the flower bed. When we went by later it was gone. I hope that means it recovered. I wish I could have taken some photos when it was perched on my hand in the sun. Such beautiful little birds.

My sister Clare drove up from Victoria with her friend Vera and we had a great supper together at the Nest Bistro in Nanaimo.

In Vancouver we stayed at the Lonsdale Quay Hotel since it had easy access from Horseshoe Bay and to the #1 highway out of town. It was a good place for a short stop. We wandered around the market and enjoyed the view of the water. It has easy access to downtown via the Seabus - Shelley went over in the evening to meet her niece. I met up with an old friend for supper at the next door Pier 7.

The drive home was, as usual, more tedious than the drive out. We took the #3 Crowsnest highway for a change, overnighting in Castlegar and Lethbridge. We stopped briefly at the Creston Wildlife Area on the way by.

(click to view 21 photos)


See also: other posts and the collection of photos from this trip.

Haida Gwaii part 2

After our hike we stayed overnight in Masset. We were surprised to find most of the accommodation was full, but we eventually found a nice B&B. We could have camped but after 3 nights of camping we were ready for showers.

We visited the Delkatla Nature Sanctuary centre and checked out the bird watching towers. We didn't see too much but it's a nice area.

The next day we made our way back to Skidegate ready for the ferry back to Prince Rupert the following day. We stopped at Port Clements to hike the golden spruce trail, and to check out another bird watching tower. Shelley spotted some sandhill cranes in the distance and after trying a few spots along the road we got fairly close to them, although even with the big lens, they were still fairly small.

We had booked to stay at Jag's Beanstalk but the reservation was made for the wrong day. However, they kindly found us another place to stay so everything was fine. They even let us hang out in the coffee shop (and use the wifi) after closing while we waited for the other place to be available. (The owner of the other cabin turned out to be the photographer who had taken the reflection photos displayed in the coffee shop in Masset.)

There were two Townsend's warblers (photo below) hopping around in a tree. It was a challenge to photograph them but I managed a couple of decent shots. This is the big lens at work again.

The barn swallows had a nest on the B&B where we stayed. When we arrived in the evening there were four of the young in the nest and another one on the railing. In the morning they'd all left the nest and were perched in various nearby spots. They were pretty cute.

(click to view 21 photos)


See also: other posts and the collection of photos from this trip.

Haida Gwaii hike

We wanted to do some hiking in Haida Gwaii and decided to do a 35 km route that combined 10 km of forest and 25 km of beach on the North-East tip of Graham Island near Masset. We drove up to Masset, had lunch at the Sunrise Cafe and then picked up coffee at The Ground Gallery & Coffee House. (where there was a great display of reflection photographs)

By the time we drove to the trail head at Tow Hill and packed, it was 3 pm when we started hiking. The 10 km of the Cape Fife trail across the peninsula to the coast took us about 3 hours. It was wonderful through the temperate rain forest of moss covered trees. There's a hut at the end that's free to use and was in good shape, but we had brought our tent and set it up overlooking the beach.

I'd read that there isn't a beach anywhere that doesn't have garbage washing up on it. It's bad enough to hear that, but to see the reality is worse. Here we were in one of the remote corners of the world, and you couldn't go ten steps along the shore without seeing plastic garbage. It's still a beautiful place, but it's sad.

The next day we hiked the 10 km up the East coast to the end of Rose Spit, the NE corner of the island, and around onto North Beach. We'd known there wasn't much fresh water on this route, but there were several creeks on the map, and this is a rain forest, so we assumed we'd find something. We couldn't find any sign of the creek on the east coast so we kept going around the spit aiming for the creek shown on the north coast. But we couldn't find it either. We'd only started with about 2.5 litres each and we were down to about a litre each. We could have hiked out the last 8 km to the car, but decided we'd rather spend one last night on the beach, even if it did mean rationing our water.

Unfortunately, this part of the beach is frequented by ATV's and trucks - mostly people crabbing. They didn't bother us, but it did spoil the wilderness feel.

The next morning it only took a couple of hour back to the car. On the drive back we passed the Moon over Naikoon Bakery and it was open! We'd assumed it would be closed on a Sunday, but apparently they're open 7 days a week. It was a cool drizzly morning, but the shop was toasty from all the baking and the cinnamon buns were fresh out of the oven (and very tasty).

The bakery is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, but it turned out to be a popular spot, both with locals and tourists. By the time we left the first batch of cinnamon buns was almost gone and another batch was in the oven.

I discovered a copy of Observations from Off the Grid on the table and ended up reading half of this wonderful book of poetry while we sat there. The poems were about travel with quite a few from Guatemala. I'll have to track down a copy so I can finish reading it.

Overall, this was a great hike - recommended.

(click to view 31 photos)


See also: my other posts and the collection of photos from this trip, and Shelley's post

Haida Gwaii part 1

We took the ferry from Prince Rupert to Skidegate, Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte islands). It's about a 7 hour trip with much of it across open water with no land in site. We didn't luck out with any orca or whale sightings unfortunately. But we had a nice calm crossing, and it gave me time to process some of the photos I've been taking.

We booked at the Sea Raven Motel in Queen Charlotte City for the first night since we arrived fairly late and weren't sure what the weather would be like for camping. It turned out to be a good choice because one of the few decent restaurants, the Ocean View, was right next door.

The next morning we discovered Jag's Beanstalk on the outskirts of Skidegate. Definitely recommended - good coffee, baking, breakfasts, and ocean views. (They also have rooms for rent.)

The Haida Heritage Center is another recommended stop - nice museum and nice totem poles.

In the afternoon we rented kayaks and went for a paddle. It was a bit rough so we got a workout, but it was great to get out on the water. We had a little trouble finding someone to rent from. We ended up at Queen Charlotte Adventures.

The next night we spent beside the beach at the Queen Charlotte City campground (small, but nice).

(click to view 19 photos)


See also: other posts and the collection of photos from this trip.

Prince Rupert eagles

Our ferry from Prince Rupert to Haida Gwai didn't leave till 1pm so after breakfast we went for a walk on McClymont Park Trail. We started at the ocean end of it, which happened to be at the inlet where I'd taken photos of the eagles from the bridge. There were eagles by the water again but they flew away. As we were walking along the trail I happened to look up and there was an eagle in the tree over our heads. There was nothing to brace against, and on top of that I was shooting almost straight up, but amazingly I still got some good results. The photo below is one of them. If you zoom in on the original you can even see the reflection of the forest in the eye.

A few minutes later we came across several adult eagles sitting in a tree. There were also several more juveniles chasing each other, squawking and crashing around in the trees. One of the challenges was getting the correct exposure for the white heads in the sun versus the dark body and shady foliage. I ended up shooting on manual for some of them.

Of course, when a kingfisher flew by and landed down stream in the shade I wasted a few shots before remembering to switch back to automatic exposure. Even with the big lens it was still too far away to get a good shot and as soon as I started to move closer it flew away. Some day I'll get a decent close up of these guys!

When we walked back to the inlet there were eagles down by the water again.

Occasionally you see bald eagles in Saskatchewan, but not very often. So at first we were excited when we saw them. But then we saw more and more, and soon it stopped being a big event. However, they are still magnificent birds. And the challenge changed from just getting any eagle photo to getting "good" ones.

(click to view 7 photos)


See also: other posts and the collection of photos from this trip.

Prince Rupert

We stayed at Eagle Bluff B&B in Prince Rupert. We chose it mostly because of the location - right on the water. We had a great room - that's the door and window to our room just to the left of the restaurant. The Cow Bay Cafe next door was excellent as well (reservations are a good idea). And I could indulge my fondness for reflection photos :-)

(click to view 13 photos)


See also: other posts and the collection of photos from this trip.

Prince Rupert - Butze Rapids trail

Butze Rapids is a nice 5 km trail near Prince Rupert (6 km east) with good forest and shore. The rapids are a narrow point where the tides rush through. The tides around Prince Rupert are roughly 20 feet!

(click to view 7 photos)


See also: other posts and the collection of photos from this trip.

Prince Rupert early morning walk

Since we actually stayed in one place for more than one night I could get up early (6 am) and go for a walk. It was very foggy by the water. I found a bridge overlooking an inlet and I was thinking it would make a good vantage point to photograph an eagle, when voila, there was an eagle, and several more down by the water. I could brace the long lens on the railing, but it was a small bridge so I had to wait for the cars to pass since they shook the whole bridge.

(click to view 15 photos)


See also: other posts and the collection of photos from this trip.

Dinner with eagle and lens (and Shelley)

Our first night in Prince Rupert we walked up the hill to the Crest Hotel for supper. I took my camera and brand new telephoto lens with me, just in case.

We had a great corner table looking over the bay and shortly after we had sat down I realized there was a bald eagle on a crane down by the water. At first I wasn't going to get my camera out but eventually I couldn't resist. I took a few shots through the window and then moved out to the deck. I'm afraid Shelley (and my food) got somewhat ignored!



A bit later (halfway though salad) the eagle left its perch and flew up to land in the tree much closer to us. Out came the camera again. These shots were a bit better.  He flew away again, but during dessert he showed up back at the original spot. And then flew up to the tree. And from there to a tree on the other side of the hotel where I got a few last shots.

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Tech Notes

Obviously, I finally took the plunge and bought a bigger lens - a Sigma 150 to 500mm. I've resisted for a long time, not wanting the size and weight and having to change lenses. But much as I like my small Tamron 18 to 250mm, it just isn't quite long enough for birds and other wildlife. (Note: The K5ii has a 1.5 crop factor so the Tamron is equivalent to 27-375 and the Sigma 225-750)

Originally I put the Pentax 300mm f4 and a 1.4 teleconverter on order. But then I found out that autofocus doesn't work with teleconverters on the K5ii. I'm not prepared to manually focus so I scrapped that idea. I looked around for other options and found the Sigma. It gets mostly good reviews, especially in terms of value for money. It's not cheap, but you could easily pay ten times as much for an equivalent "pro" lens. It's not a fast (bright) lens at f5-6.3, but that's the same as the 18-250. You can mostly get around that with the ability to shoot at high ISO.

Don's in Saskatoon didn't have the Sigma in stock, so I emailed McBain's in Edmonton and they had it. I knew it was big, but I was still a little shocked when I first saw it. Zoomed out to 500mm, with the lens hood on, it's long!

Tamron 18-250

Sigma 150-500

Sigma 150-500 at 500 with lens hood

I took a few test shots with my camera in the store. It seemed to autofocus well, and even hand held at 500mm I could still get some reasonably sharp images. The lens has built in optical image stabilization in addition to the image stabilization built into the camera. I was afraid I'd be forced to use a tripod to get decently sharp shots, but with a little creative use of trees and railings for support it's not bad.

So far I've been pretty happy with it. I wouldn't have been able to get these eagle shots with the old lens.

See also: other posts and the collection of photos from this trip.

Prince Rupert Sunken Garden flowers

The afternoon when we arrived in Prince Rupert we wandered around town. The sunken garden in front of the court house was lovely.

(click to view 8 photos)


See also: other posts and the collection of photos from this trip.

Ancient Forest

Intrigued by the name, we pulled into the "Ancient Forest". It turned out to be a recently constructed boardwalk trail through a stand of old Western Redcedars, possibly as much as 2000 years old. (They're hard to date because the center of the old trees is normally rotten or hollow.) If you're driving by and you have the time it's well worth the stop. (Assuming you like big trees.) It's about 36 km west of McBride. (where there's a good coffee shop and gallery in the train station at the end of main street)

(click to view 12 photos)


See also: other posts and the collection of photos from this trip.

Bear Pause

A black bear ran across the highway in front of us. Like true tourists we stopped to watch. I scrambled to grab my camera from the back seat, although I fully expected the bear to be long gone by the time I was ready. Surprisingly, she stopped behind a bush and stood up on her back legs to look at us. Then she came around the bush into the open, still looking at us.


(click to view larger)

Then we spotted the two cubs on the other side of the road, with us in between. We were safe enough in the car, but momma obviously wanted to be reunited with her cubs. We reversed slowly and as soon as there was room she ran back across the road. Of course, by this time the cubs had decided to climb a tree. Momma bear disappeared into the bush and the cubs soon followed.



See also: other posts and the collection of photos from this trip.