South OZ Adventurers - Adventure, Travel, Expeditions


Craig and the Totem Fest

We spent the next 3 days hitchikiing around Prince of Wales Island to catch the festivities of the Totem raising festival. An event of this kind only occurs every 20 or so years, with all of the surrounding Haida people, coming together to raise poles for their clans. A total of 9 new poles were raised over the 3 days of this event. Some neighbouring Clans paddled their traditional open canoes to this festival, traditional crafts were on display and traditional food was served out for breakfasts and potlatch dinners.

With our desperate long 2 day paddlle from El Cap, our sleep trackside of the mud bog races, our hitchike to Craig and our random camp set up on the local harbour masters front lawn, we set out to find the Alaskan culture and make the most of this 3 day event in Klawock. Our first evening was lead out by bumping into some people that we knew from our adventures, particularly our last major Alaskan event, the 4th July in Pelican! Discovering that we were Australians, a nice native couple from Hydaburg, took us under their wing and explained what was going on and the difference in the dancers. Some of the best dancers in Southeast Alaska attended this event, different clans performed traditional dances and songs for over the three evenings, combined to form a major finale on the sunday evening.

The food was abundant, delicacies such as deer and salmon decorated the table. With over 1000 people to feed, this was some potlatch. A potlatch is a meal supplied by a person to others, as a gift. It is viewed that a person rich in potlaches, is represented by the number of tiers on their hat. Check out the photo. Some of these hats made from local grasses are flatter, occasionally are significantly tall.

The celebration was enjoyed immensly until the following day when I awoke at 4am to a tummy bug. By 5am I was out of my tent and taking a casual tour of Craig. By 6am I was feeling ill and by 7am through till 7pm I was definately ill. Lach followed with a touch of this mysterious illness that afternoon. It left me exhausted and dehydrated for the following day too......so our big once in a life time event was crushed. For the whole 106 days of this trip we only every used 1 bandaid, when Lach cut himself opening up a crab. Besides this 24 hour sickness, we got through this adventure, prepared for but unaided by medications and suppliments.

So we departed Craig, hitchiked back to our kayaks where we had left them on the Nukati dock. Late that afternoon we headed for Stanley creek, to shorten our day into Craig, considering we were not feeling 100% healthy. The next morning we headed off south along the west coast of Prince of Wales Island, through Tonowek Narrows, where Chief Tonawek's grave lays.

The water was glassy calm, several humpbacks were cruising with us for a good few hours. Their 'blows' as they surfaced drew our attention and our paddling was halted in this surreal environment that only contained us. As we continued on the inside of Culebra and St Philip Island, we stopped in the San Christoval channel Islands for lunch and a nap. Needing the tides to assist us towards Craig, we departed late afternoon and sailed with some crazy tidal rips, swirling amongst the Islands. Dodging powered boats, log transport ships and a random bench seat, we arrrived to the northern marina in Craig Harbour. Lucky to escape a landing float plane, Lachie laughed at me as we pulled into Craig and stayed with the harbour master and his wife for yet another night.

The paddle from Nukati to Craig was interesting.