Gallivanting: intransitive verb (informal) — to travel, roam, or move about for pleasure
Good day, good people! With summer upon us I trust everyone is getting some sunshine and putting those boots and calf muscles to good use. This is the first in what I hope to be a regular feature for our Haida Gwaii News — an opportunity for people (like you!) to submit photos and stories of our favourite hikes and destinations on beautiful Haida Gwaii.
Our first foray is to see the famous giant rhododendrons of the Evans Farm Homestead.
More than most hikes, this one really is dependent on timing — timing the season to find the rhodos in bloom, and timing the tides to get around the otherwise impassible alders leaning over the beach. As you’ve likely noticed, rhodos bloom at different times across the islands. Red, orange, yellow, pink will have peaked by the time the purple blooms open, usually in the second half of June.
Keep an eye out, especially around Port Clements and Nadu Road, for rhodos that are cuttings from the Evans Farm Homestead and share the same purple colour.
Timing the tides is important if you want to walk the beach. Starting an hour before low tide should get you back before the water complicates things, so aim to start about two hours after the Prince Rupert low. There is a rough path through the woods if you get the timing wrong.
Evans Homestead is an undeveloped private property within the 2,722-hectare Kamdis Protected Area, accessible by canoe or by hiking 2 km in from the Nadu Road trailhead. The hike takes about two hours and requires good footwear and balance.
Park on the gravel at the end of Nadu Road, and walk down the rough, muddy old road as it heads down a steep section, across a creek, and up into the remains of a former peat-harvesting operation that ran for only a year in 1967. Rusty hulks of vehicles and machinery are being overgrown by vigorous alder, and the trail ends at an old dock used to ship peat to market during this brief enterprise.
The dock is condemned and inaccessible now, but a few brave trees have staked out a place there, presumably for the lovely view of Masset Sound. From the dock it’s a scramble down to the rocky intertidal where beachcombing reveals eelgrass, sea stars, and the odd detritus of times past.
Hiking south you come around to Kumdis Slough and Kumdis Island, and an impressive century-old mortarless stone breakwater. This ancient wall-building technique involves carefully placing each stone with its centre of gravity leaning into the middle, creating a surprisingly stable structure. Please don’t climb on it — in the past someone did and it just falls apart.
At the breakwater, a short trail leads up to the old homestead where the rhododendrons reach an impressive height and fill the end of the clearing.
This is where Edward Evans and his sons, Francis and David, arrived in 1911 to farm in the Kumdis Slough. The Kamdis Protected Area is a significant intertidal estuarine wetland complex that provides critical habitat for waterfowl, shorebirds, and salmonids. The area’s deep history of Haida management is evident in dozens of archaeological sites, culturally modified trees, and continuing oral history.
