We moved all of about a mile today.  This spot is a former First Nation village, now abandoned.  The identifier is a “midden” beach.  It is bright white, sand looking from afar, but as you row closer you realize it is actually made of crushed clam shells from centuries of people living here on the clams that are so plentiful.

It has been a very blustery, cloudy and sometimes rainy day, but after our July 4th dinner of hot dogs and homemade potato salad (thanks Ann!) the wind finally died down and we rowed ashore about 8PM.  Bob explored and Ann stayed on the beach and picked thimbleberries for tomorrow’s breakfast granola.

Moving inland, I found the area to be largely grown over with berry and other bushes, but it was pretty obvious that the flat areas under huge cedars was where the village was situated.  Add to that a fresh water stream and you have a perfect spot.  Must have been good living at one point with the clams, salmon, berries and so many other foods available to forage and hunt.

We wanted to get in here yesterday, but it’s a very small spot – really only room for one or two boats at most and there was a small powerboat and sailboat already here.  They were likely the last of the Canada Day voyagers on the long weekend (their version of US’ July 4th).  Anyway, when we saw the spot was taken, we ducked in across the inlet – about a mile away – in Burial Cove.  A decent spot, but over-taken by a cabin on one side of the cove and a research shed on the other.  Also in the cove is a log dock – four 40 foot logs lashed together and more or less anchored.  We dropped the hook to windward of them, backed down to about a boat-length and crossed our fingers that they wouldn’t drift excessively.  We came close a few times as tide and wind played their games, but it worked.  It was fairly nice, but not nearly as beautiful as this spot.

So for tonight, we’re tucked in behind a tiny island off the midden beach.  One end of the inlet is too shallow to traverse and the inland side of the inlet is only about 75 yards wide.  We are tucked in between the beach and the island with just enough swing room to keep us off the rocks.

Tomorrow we pull anchor at 1000 and make our way through the very narrow Chatham Channel passage.  While we are technically in the Broughtons right now, the real archipelago in on the other side of this narrow three mile long passage.  Once through that we’ll take a left through the even more narrow “Blow Hole” passage and come out at Lagoon Cove.  We’ll tell you about that after we get there.  It’s supposed to be a hoot – but at this point in the season we may or may not be able to get a space at the dock.  Our alternate plan is to make a reservation on the Radio and go another five miles to Potts Bay and anchor for a night or so.  We’ll see.  Mostly we are anchoring out in quiet places, but there are a few spots up here that are “must visit” spots.  We’ll blog about them as we get there.  Lagoon Cove is one of them.  Stay tuned.