Woke up to 57 & fog this morning which usually clears later in the morning. The sun was out by the time Nikki came to pick us up in her 17' runabout. First we went to look at her log cabin home which she built with the help of Billy Proctor - it was amazing. They cut all of the trees that the cabin was built with & hauled them up to the site on Billy's land that Nikki built on. It's at the top of a hill that looks out over Cramer Pass.
From there we went to a small rock island to gather plants for our stir fry lunch. Then on to Booker Lagoon where Nikki spent the second year of her survivalist experience. Rod & Carol (who we met last night & she joined us today) actually got out & went to see what was left of Nikki & Micah's "cabin," "outdoor toilet" & the remnants of the sweat "lodge." I didn't join them as getting out of the boat & to the beach looked like more than I wanted to try with my leg as there were many slippery rocks to climb over, so I am looking forward to seeing Rod's pictures.
After they finished looking around, we went out in to Johnstone Straits looking for whales & did actually see some although we didn't get that close as they kept disappearing. Next we headed to a rock island near the straits to have lunch. It turned out that it was very windy there but we stayed. Nikki brought a salmon fillet which she had caught & put it on a cedar frame & then attached cedar stakes to hold it in place. Next she built a fire (without matches, using a bow-drill, a flat V-notched fireboard & dowel shaped cedar spindle & bundles of shredded cedar bark which we made) & stood the frame so the salmon would cook but not get too close to the fire which was built with twigs gathered on the island & wood that Nikki brought with her from her house. Next step was cutting up the plants, bladderwack seaweed pods & berries that we collected which was put in a cast iron frying pan with some oil, rice, dried salmon & craisins to make a stir fry that was served in shell plates with a shell utensil. Eventually the salmon fillet was added to each of our plates once it was cooked & served by Nikki.
After lunch we did some more exploring - went to see a seal rookery. There were only 3 seals there when we stopped but Nikki said that in the winter time there are 100's of them. Next we went by many of the little islands in this area & Nikki pointed out some places where different well known locals had lived & we heard some great stories about them. We got back to Pierre's around 4:30.
Learned about the "Spirit Bear" from Nikki today. She is going next week with some friends to look for it. It's a black bear that has a recessive gene that makes it white & they're very rare. She had a picture of a couple of them in her cabin. Can't wait to hear if they actually see one.
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