Skeena-Queen Charlotte Regional District

This was our first visit to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Canada (480 miles north of Vancouver) and our first “serious” hike on this trip. This Port is the busiest hub for the British Columbia North Coast. It was a beautiful cool day with the sun out and not a typical day here where there is usually 9’ of rain per year with rain about 250 days per year.

Yes, we have walked a lot … all over the world but today we decided to take an excursion that went up Mount Hayes Mountain and back. Prince Rupert is known for outdoors activities. It is a city of approximately 12,000 people and everyone we spoke to loves the outdoors, hiking, fishing, hunting, and just fresh air. Most of the locals work at the Port since it is one of the deepest natural ice-free harbors in the world and very busy with exporting national resources and commodities and importing raw materials (when the port workers are not on strike like this month). Note: as of July 9 7,500 workers in Port of Prince Rupert and Vancouver have been on strike for 9 days, costing $400 million/day.

This area has been the heart of Tsimshian territory for 10,000 years and our guide, albeit only in his 20’s, explained many stories as he is Tsimshian. He led us with his hat and tail of eagle feathers (only natives can have an eagle feather, others found with one will be fines $15k).

We learned about “adaawx” (or true tellings) a story concerning animal spirits in human guise and is usually linked to the origin of the Earth and the peoples on it. The most well-known story is that of The Raven, connecting the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, the Raven is viewed as the creator of the universe and an intermediary between its physical and spiritual incarnations. While Raven tales tell the origins of human beings, they do not address the origins of organized Native American society but speak of humanity’s survival.

Tsimshian creation myth presupposes a dark and still universe populated by a variety of animal spirits. As the story goes, an animal chief’s son appears "bright as fire" and becomes the insatiable Raven. As Raven begins to develop a sense of generosity, he shares food and develops a world that is not focused on materialism. In the creation story, the Raven is key to the creation of the sun and moon (it’s a long story). All very interesting.

European explorers arrived here in the 18th century for trading and eventually in 1910 Prince Rupert was incorporated. In 2005 this port was built up for container ships and cruise ships and has been busy ever since then.

This hike as they said was a “hike on a rugged trail thru a coastal rainforest that leads to waterfalls”. We did the Kiwanis Trail, 5 miles and an elevation gain of 4,900’ where the grade started slow and made its way steeper and steeper. Now’s a good time to tell everyone reading this, we didn’t make it. We gallantly made it almost halfway up the mountain, when half the group decided to stop and then realized we had to go back the same way we came, so we turned around for a leisurely hike back. We did negotiate some challenging rocks, roots and slick surfaces which made it a fun hike. Some of the trail is on wooden boardwalks without which this route would be more difficult as it goes over very wet , marshland bogs, thick with undergrowth and deadfall trees and stumps. The view from the top (see the photos credited to our friend Pat) was seen later over dinner back on the ship. Challenging day but fresh air is always welcomed!

The last unrelated but very interesting fact about this Port was the tide. Wow, we had never seen such a tide swing … 20 feet. Our ship came in 8am and the tide which was high (at 5am) at 21.6 feet was quickly dropping to a low of 1.6 feet at 11am. When we left at 7pm the tide was just turning as it had been up to 19.6 feet and was going down to 6.2 feet at 11pm. Now that takes some sailing skills!Read more