Port Clements and the chopped down Golden Spruce!

 

Sea Level II has been in Masset for a few days now and will be here for a few more.

Daybreak has taken some guests out fishing nearby and Karen Fisher has joined us on Sea Level II.

As the possession limits for different types of salmon and halibut are quite low we don’t want to do our fishing too early and not be able to fish down the west side of Haida Gwaii. The guests aboard Daybreak will be flying home with their catch which resets their possession limits.

Daybreak will be doing a crew change on Friday, July 7 after which we will start heading west towards Langara Island and down the west coast of Haida Gwaii.

So, Kim, Karen and I have stayed in town and have been exploring the north island (Graham Island) in a car we have rented.

Yesterday we went to a town south of Masset called Port Clements which was quite delightful.

Port Clements borders a large bay internal to Graham Island that is connected to the ocean via Masset Sound. It’s roots are fishing and logging and they have built a very nice museum that highlights their heritage.

Just outside of Port Clements is a trail that leads to the site where a very unique Golden Spruce tree used to be.

In 1997 a disgruntled inhabitant went out to this unique tree and cut it down which, as you can imagine, created a huge uproar with everyone especially the indigenous people in the area. They have since grafted seedlings to the remnants of the old tree and are growing new seedlings which they have planted in various protected locations so the tree will be preserved.

The walk in to the site where the golden Spruce tree was located is through an old growth forest and the trees there are absolutely massive. I’ve attached some photographs with Kim and/or Karen in them for scale so you can see how large they are.

One tree in particular stood out in that viewed from one direction it looked just like a normal large tree but when viewed from a vantage point 90° to that you can see how inclined the tree is.

It looks to be 20° to 30° out of plumb and I can only imagine what kind of root structure it must have to keep it standing!

Below are some photos of our hike to the Golden Spruce and the Museum in Port Clements

                                        

....and a video of the outside display portion of the museum at Port Clements including a Russian sonar bouy that broke free from it's tow line and washed ashore nearby!