June 8th Monday

From: Port Neville     To: Port Neville
Start time: 0700        Finish time: 1300      Distance: 14 km
Tide: Port Neville
0024     2.1
0615     4.2
1259     1.0
1950     4.2

     Slept last night with the sleeping bag over my head, trying to drown out some of the noise the wind was making. In my tent I had a whistle, cooking pot filled with utensils for shaking, and a couple of flares, just incase any grizzlies showed up in the night.
     The weather forecast was not good - NW 30 to 40 knots. I thought I’d paddle out to the strait and have a look for myself. I had everything packed up and was off by 7:00 a.m.
     Leaving Port Neville I turned east and as I approached the first point of land I could see there would be no paddling today. Turning around, I started back against the wind. It was gusting up to 30 + knots making for a slow slog back to sheltered waters.
     I didn’t feel like sitting around camp all day so I paddled down the inlet toward Robbers Nob, but the farther down the inlet the more the wind turned and started blowing hard from behind. Not wanting to battle it all the way back, I pulled over to an old log sort. I was going to go for a walk down a logging road toward the river estuary but there was grizzly shit everywhere.

Grizzly poop

I don’t like being on the menu so I jumped back in my kayak and pushed off.
     Robbers Nob once had a fortified village site nearby called Xwadzadzo’lis “fort on flat on beach”. This area is part of the Matilpi territory although at one time it was under Coast Salish control. It’s not known if the Matilpi ever used this site.  Mungo Martin used the name Xsela “can see from all sides” for this site (Galois). I wanted to see the petro glyphs here but unfortunately because of the wind, I couldn’t do that this time. 
     I started back up the inlet against the wind, although I did have a good push from the falling tide. I stopped to say hi to a guy that was working on his boat at the beach. After a short conversation about the weather he invited me up for a cup of coffee. He told me as we climbed the stairs up to his yard, that he had been watching me with his binoculars this morning and thought I’d made a good decision to turn back. Ron’s property is on a plateau above the inlet and faced east, looking down Johnstone Strait.

Ron's home

He built his home from rough lumber that he milled himself on a neighbor’s portable sawmill. It’s a post and beam style home using logs held together with joints and large dowels. It seamed to fit right into the environment. He grew his own vegetables and had a few chickens in a netted off area in front of the house. He also had an ingenious winch set up, with a rope that went down over a fifty-foot bank to the beach so he could haul his boat up the beach on a log skid. The winch was also used to haul a cart full of supplies up a wooden ramp from the beach.

Ron's boat skids

I got some great Information from Ron about what I could expect between here and Sunderland Channel. He told me about places I could duck out or camp and about the channel he was monitoring on the VHF if I got into trouble. Nothing like some local knowledge.
     He had a few good bear stories. One of them was about a neighbor of his that had witnessed a grizzly attack a black bear, somewhere up the inlet. The grizzly picked up the black bear in its mouth and shook it until it died. It took about three minutes from start to finish, unbelievably powerful animals. Despite all the stories, Ron says he never takes a gun with him while traveling around the area. His reason - “bears don’t carry guns.”
     Living in a remote area like this takes a special kind of person, a jack of all trades ready to deal with anything that comes along. From building a home to fixing a boat, if you don’t know how to do it then you better learn fast. I said goodbye to Ron and I made my way back to the Hansen property, set up camp, made some dinner and was in bed by 8:30. The weather forecast was calling for 20 to 25 knots in the morning.