To Namu and the ghosts of the middle coast

Here Blain tries on the latest in beach fashions on the Hakai Coast. Urchin hats.

We did let it go after this photo shoot.

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To Namu we go. The rain kept at it, but lovely abandoned Namu - a cannery town was a lot of fun to see. The caretaker showed us around and let us wander. Mo made the comment that this was a tinkers fantasy island. It had so much cool junk laying around. Blain got bar-envy when he spotted this mighty Husqevarna laying around. The real men of this coast actually cut their firewood with these babies.  

The "girls" of Namu beautified it all up.

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One interesting bay we anchored in near Shearwater was called Kushkudish Bay, and we rowed out to this sweet little waterfall on the basalt cliff.

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Up Dean Channel to Alexander MacKenzie's monument and the hot springs. MacKenzie painted this stone at the end of his epic walk across the continent in 1793. Funny, but he only missed Vancouver's expedition by about a month in the same spot. That's why e-mail was invented.

Buy Blain a beer one day and ask him to explain what was the significance of this photo.

Cinco de Mayo came and we celebrated by making tamales. Black bean, peppers and feta. Aiyiyiyii.

We set the shrimp pot off a waterfall hoping for a few, and the next day pulled the pot up to find some of the largest monsters we've ever seen. Note the regular sized vs the super sized version. Lobster really.

Around the corner, Eucott Bay hot springs were fantastic. We could live there. This remarkable hot springs jewel in the middle of granite spires and jade waters. However, as a blaringly bad example of environmental stewardship, they allowed two forested clearcuts right across the bay. Nice job Canada.

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On to Ocean Falls. A strange deserted industry town with a massive dam in the middle of it. The former residents have taken care of a few structures and this panel van shows the latest town map. Though as Blain's old boss George Dickison used to say - a map isn't a map without a north arrow, legend, and scale bar. So it's back to the Ocean Falls GIS team for a new one.

The fire hall had a nice boat-shaped concrete patio, but was equally in need of some municipal funding.

Up the dam. Wow. That's a big hydro power dam. Too bad nobody's around to turn on a light.

The marine ways looked to be freshly inhabited, and actually had a craft store in it. Not open, and no customers, though.

After this it's back to Shearwater to see if we have mail, then northbound again.Fjordland, Klemtu, and eventually Prince Rupert.