Princess Louisa Inlet

By Maryanna Gabriel. 

    The season has turned. The deer have been up onto the front porch pillaging the geraniums and I have just realized that the lettuce is not growing because there is a rabbit ransacking the garden. I have also been in a tizzy. The writing courses I am taking have started and I still have not written about Princess Louisa Inlet.

Resting At The End Of The Day

     About a month ago a dear friend who was visiting from Tasmania and I travelled to the Sunshine Coast and we stayed in a little place called Egbert. We were looking to travel up to Princess Louisa Inlet, a place I had heard so much about. It took me a long time to understand the convoluted geography that I stare at so often from Salt Spring and The Big Island. I worked out three ferries to get there, a feat in itself, and by the end of the day if felt great to finally arrive.    
   
     Even although it was the height of summer it felt restful and we enjoyed 

Downed Totem At Back Eddy Resort

a relaxing glass of wine overlooking the water as well as the challenge of getting the gas burner started so that we could make tea. We had an old cabin right on the ocean and we couldn't have been happier with the arrangement. 

     We left in the morning on a steel bottomed tour boat. It would be good for the strong currents and winds that frequented these waters. A thirty mile trip lay ahead that takes five hours. I had been hearing about this famous place for many years and we were both excitedly anticipating the day. Our guide was a veteran of Yellowknife and his favourite thing to do is ice fish in Northern Ontario so we got along fine as he chatted away with a few of us about locals, now and 

Waterfalls On Way To Princess Louisa Inlet

from the past, as we gradually made our way up the coast. I was surprised that the landscape was open. I think I rather pictured it would be like a Norwegian fiord. We saw other waterfalls and glaciers named after Queen Victoria's children. He stopped and showed us pictographs demarcating fishing runs made by Shishahl, the Sechelt Band, from days gone by. He talked of when cod was fifty cents a pound and how the waters used to be teeming. Now the catch is limited to one cod a day.

    

    Princess Lousia Inlet would be inland up two long arms of water and interestingly was only twenty miles west of Whistler and on the same latitude as Campbell River. The famous scenic Chatterbox Falls was a huge drawing card as was the rugged scenery in a landscape that is not accessible by road. The clouds seemed to lift and the smell of the sea was inspiring.