When we arrived to this lovely campsite, there was a tinny here. Aaron and Brad argued about taking it out. Soon after, a woman, Christy, arrived who owned the boat as well as the cabin. She has two very large dogs and sleeps with her high power rifle in the cabin across the lake. Glad we didn’t listen to Aaron and take the tinny out without asking. She later came and took Aaron and Brad out to fish in the tinny. Christy was a lineman in Yellowknife for BC hydro for 10 years and retired here but she is only about 35 or 40. She acquired the cabin by tenure. So she held possession of the land for over ten years and then she owned it. This ex lineman says she doesn’t like electric power. Apparently she didn't like cell service either as there wasn't any.

In the morning we caught 5 rainbow trout in Iskut lake. Aaron and Brad learned how to fillet fish and ate a breakfast of fried trout fish omelet and grapefruit. Good breakfast. mmmm....good.

So the hammock is set up, the fishing lines are in the water and the weather is perfect. The lake is a bit cool but such a refreshing swim. We head to Watson lake in the morning to get cell signal so Aaron can work a bit.

I met John and Mikey. Just this morning and I thought they were local red necks going fishing on Iskut lake. John is 61 (he told us) and Mikey is somewhere between 30 and 50, we really don’t know or agree. They pulled their tinny off the truck and started loading gear. It turns out they were hiking to the peak of the mountain on the other side of the Iskut Lake to hunt the most prized game, the stone sheep. Who knew they were so prized?? This is their third year to try to get the ram on that mountain. The horns have to go all the way around the ear and back up over the nose or 8 annual rings. You should see the “sight” they have to check the rings before killing it. ($2000) They track any ram they find for days before trying to shoot it. They bring only a cube of dried meat and dried cheese to do them for a week. They drink from the stream in the mountain or melt the glacier. John is a guide for hunting and fishing and goes to the five star resorts on the most westerly island of Canada to take people out from there. The hunt trips he says start at $39,000 and the fishing trips are $1000 a day. No guarantees either.

The Naikoon provincial park is right on the north beach of Haida gwaii. What a windy place and the most beautiful rocks. I do love rocks of all kinds and Agates are a favorite with all their colours. Agates here are believed to be formed over 62 million years ago during the paleocene epoch. The Haida word for agate is Hlgaa k'aats'll and literally means hard rock. I am sticking to agate.

There is a metal called argellite that is found only on this island, on one mountain. Only Haida can mine it and they can only take what they can carry on their backs. It is heavy, dense and jet black. The only use I have found so far is for carving and selling to tourists!!! I succumbed.

The northern tip of Haida gwaii is only accessible at low tide so we headed out in the morning with about 4 hours to high tide to conquer Rose spit. Thus began another adventure. We had to take air out of the tires to get over the loose sand and pebbles. The trail narrowed more and more as we travelled toward the tip. We pulled in the mirrors and shut our ears to the scraping sounds on the sides of the truck by the ever closing in black spruce branches. We stopped and sauntered along the sand to the tip with dogs in tow. If it was clearer, we could have seen Alaska. What we did see were tons of bald eagles. We actually carried the pup to be sure he was safe and not eagle food. I had to check the performance of my new bear bangers and this was the perfect opportunity in this isolated desert. It has little kick to it but it is loud.

We made a campsite off the beaten path, out of the wind just back from the beach in an awesome boondocking site.

Aaron managed to kiteboard on the ocean. The dogs had free range and found many bones. I, of course continued to rock hunt. The best beach for Agates was cemetery beach. I missed it but they had a training session there on how to save a beached whale. Apparently they had a blow up whale to save. Should have stayed there longer.