Queen Charlotte Islands Tour

Performers: Keith Bennett & Ed Mohoric

Day One

The flight from the Vancouver airport was fantastic as we followed the Sunshine Coast past Desolation Sound and beyond. We were on a small Dash 8 carrying around forty people and the trip took 90 minutes. We landed in Sandspit, were met by Pat from the arts council and were ushered to a waiting school bus for a 23km ride to the ferry that would take us to Charlotte City.

The coastline here is etched from stone and seems to have a weathered pine or two on every rock. There are so many shallow islands that navigating here without good charts would be the peril of any boater. The last time I was in the Charlottes it rained the whole time and to now see this coast in the afternoon sun was breathtaking.

On the 20-minute ferry to Charlotte City we saw a fishing barge being towed by a tugboat. It is a complete floating hotel for fisherman with rooms and a huge dining room, kitchen and bar. They were probably towing it towards quieter waters in Prince Rupert for the winter. The bus dropped us off at the post office where our contact for the tour works.

Day Two

Using a car that was loaned to us for the day, I picked up Ed from where he was staying. We headed off towards the town of Tlell. The first stop on our National Geographic adventure was Ernie Burnett’s woodworking shop where we were given a tour of his studio. He did fine freehand carving on boxes and fine furniture. In the Charlottes the quality of wood available to wood carvers and builders is amazing. As I do a little wood turning myself as a hobby, I am aware of the fine-grained wood preferred by woodworkers. I asked Ernie if he might have a scrap of this excellent yellow cedar that I could buy off of him to try on my little lathe at home. He walked me to a shed stacked to the roof with it and handed me a gorgeous clear plank, 3" thick by 14" wide by 12" long and said, “Will this do?” My mouth dropped and I said "Wow! This is beautiful. How much do you want for it?” He said “Oh, you can just have it. This is my fire wood pile.”

We then stopped at the shore and took a walk on an amazing beach that drew your eyes beyond the waves to the horizon. It is one of the vastest beaches I can remember seeing and the warm October sun brightened the already colorful rocks. There is a major problem with erosion here, with the winter storms eating away at the sandy coastline. Many stretches of road have had to be diverted and re-paved farther inland as the sea eats into the shores. In the winter there are many power shortages from the sea-loosened trees being blown back into the land by the powerful storm winds, and then falling onto the power lines.

Our next stop was to take a hike along Anvil trail. This is by far the most magical moss-covered trail I have ever seen. It is so infrequently used that you are indeed walking in the moss. It was a soft, meandering thread through many different and changing forest environments, from dense underbrush that you couldn’t see through to Robin Hood-like wide-open moss and fern-filled meadows. It is well marked and leads to a walk along the Tlell river with salmon jumping and splashing every 10 seconds.

Back on the highway we stop at the famous Funk It! Shop for a quick look. I found a great little book entitled “How to Mow a Lawn” which I thought I would give to my son as a mild hint. Ed and I began talking to Dawn, the owner, and told her why we were in the islands and that we were performing on the weekend. “Can you teach me to play the stand up bass?” she asked. “Sure,” I said. “No problem. I’ll trade you a lesson for that little “How to Mow the Lawn” book. Five minutes later Ed and I were doing a tandem lesson on the 12 bar blues for stand up bass. Her instrument was upstairs above the shop in their living room, which had, in my mind, one of the finest million-dollar views I had ever seen. We gave her some ideas on what to do to play the notes for the blues and then wrote them out for her to practice along with later. She was delighted to practice what she’d learned. We said our goodbyes and headed off again.

The next stop was Spirit Lake Walk, which looked innocent enough and was touted to be wheelchair accessible. It took us about 1 km on this trail to begin wondering what kind of all-terrain wheelchairs they must make here. It went straight up a mountain for about 25 minutes!

Just before we got to the top, the only people we were to see on either of the trails were two women jogging, and they ran past us like we were standing still. We asked them about which way we should go when we reached the top and they told us that the trail went around the lake and either direction would work. The last thing they said, with a grin, was “watch out for the bears.”

It was another nice walk around a lake that was snarled with mossy snags and had many islands of rotting trees and sun bleached wood. Around the back of the lake there were some long boardwalks that had been built above the marshes.

Our next stop along the highway was the famous balancing rock, untouched by the winter storms. We took some photos and headed back as the afternoon sun lowered in the sky, making the rolling surf look like cotton candy as waves broke far out to sea and rolled slowly into the shore.

We got back to the house and were treated to a fantastic meal of smoked salmon, baked salmon, halibut and rockfish. After dinner I drove Ed to his billet’s home and was asked to record two songs for a cd by Wendy Watts, a very talented local singer and songwriter.

The first concert was in Masset, and driving there I stopped counting grazing deer when I reached 50. We performed two sets; the first was original pieces from our Tin Sandwich cd, and the second half was a mixture of classic blues songs that I played guitar and sang to as well. We had a great reception there and were told that the turnout was good.

The next night we performed in Skedegate and received an equally good reception. There were close to 60 people there and compared to the population, that was a great turnout. There is a special energy in the Charlottes and the audience, and I think the performance itself reflected that.

The next day we finished packing and said our goodbyes to all the great people that had helped with our stay. We were truly blessed to have been able to visit such a spectacular place and meet such wonderful people. When we left we thought only one thing: When is next time…?