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Somehow both me and my wife Sara got inspired to visit Mamalillaculla
again. We hadn't been kayaking as much as usual due to a new interest in hiking, and
mountain biking. We ate the usual big breakfast cooked by the pretty blonde lady named
Babe again, and after promising her to not worry her again, we set off. Just outside the
cove a fancy fishing boat came roaring towards us and stopped 4 feet away. A stocky young
Indian fellow yelled, "Tours for kayakers are being given over at Mamalillaculla
(Village Island). I yelled back, "Tom Sewid?!" He responded, "Yes!"
and me, "Terry Voss here, we'll be over there in about 4 hours." He looked
inspired, but I couldn't tell if he remembered me.
I thought that this time I had the tidal timing perfect. When we got to
the Plumpers we just barely made it past a large whirlpool and then the tide was already
changing and we could not paddle through the last corner out onto Blackfish Sound. I had
barely made it with great sweat, when I looked behind and saw Sara cursing and thrusting
her arms with the paddle. She actually said, "Come back here and I'll tear you a new
asshole you son of a bitch!" We barely got through that, but then the tide was
already pushing us around the corner and toward Compton Island and Whitebeach Passage. We
were inspired now to meet our ambition goal of 4 hours to Mamalillaculla.
Four hours later we had been very lucky with tides pushing us all the way,
but Sara was crying from exhaustion, with me saying every few minutes that it was just a
few islands further and we would be there. By the time we landed on the white beach there,
a young lady with white hair had to help Sara out of her kayak. Luckily she was very
sympathetic with Sara as my welcome was worn out. She had two young wild boys with her
that were a delight. Tom was finishing up a tour and was too busy to be disturbed. When he
was done he heartily greeted us and said he had a very good place for us to camp over
where he was staying. He said, "No one camps here, not even me, because there are too
many ghosts here that will torment you all night!" We paddled around the corner to
his beach at the Native Anchorage area.
We set up our tent on a cliff overlooking Native Anchorage area. That
night we caught up on news around a bonfire on the beach with Tom and Jojo and their two
boys. Sailors came in from their boats tied up at this protected water. Tom said that I
should come over and sit in on all the tours the next day as they were each totally new
each time as he told different stories that he had been told as a child from tribe
members. The next morning we got over to Mamalillaculla and I tied up our kayaks at a dock
with a long parachute cord for the tidal action. We all had rain gear on as it sprinkled
continuously.
Tom started the first presentation to a large very modern tour group with
a dance wearing a Chilkat robe. He was leaping around like a huge frog yelling rape and
pillage and such things to mess up the faces of the young ladies in the group. Suddenly a
child pointed high into the tops of a nearby plum tree. There's a bear in that tree. Tom
didn't hear this as he was still spiritedly dancing away. Everyone grabbed their cameras
and video hardware and waled away at it. The bear's weight was so great compared to the
branch size that the whole tree was swaying side to side as it reached for different
plums. Suddenly Tom saw the bear and ran as fast as I ever saw him move with the robe
flying in air like Zorro over to a house which he ran into. He then ran out with a rifle
and ran back saying it was his responsibility to protect his guests from the bear. That
bear has been giving me a lot of trouble lately. Any more and I'll have twice as many bear
teeth on this necklace as I now have as he pointed to the grand necklace that he had just
made last week. The tour continued with that funny bear trying to steal the action. You
didn't know which one to pay attention to.
I told Sara to continue watching the tour as I thought I should check on
the boats. I hiked down a long trail by myself for the first time and felt ghosts all
around me staring. Or was it just some more bears? When I got to the boats, I couldn't
believe it. They were way out in the water. I took my pants off and tried to wade out and
grab the cord, but I just couldn't quite reach it even with a stick helping. So I dove in
and untied the cord and pulled the boats way up to shore. Then of course I had to strip
and change all clothes into dry ones from the boat's dry bag storage. By the time I hiked
back everyone was wondering what had happened to me.
It was lunchtime and the modern tours always have a health food
preparation that is incredible, but my coke can kept stealing everyone's glances until the
tour leader had to embarrass everyone by mentioning how damn sexy that coke can was to
everybody. Then back to another tour and then over to watch the wood carver work. At the
end of the day, Tom said we should have a party that night so we should paddle over to the
camp, but they would go pickup crab traps from all around so we could have a feast. We
paddled back and after a day of rain continuous, our Moss Starlight tent was baked so hot
and dry inside, we had to open the vents to breathe. This made it highly motivating to
take a nap. When we woke we heard Tom yelling, "WoooHooooo, we got crabs!" They
built a bonfire again and cooked about twenty large crabs over it. People began arriving
from all over. Stories of ghosts began being told. Tom told about a Sasquatch that smelled
bad living on the island. It made a horrifying sound of "Wooooooooooo" and he
had seen it once. He had me tell of my first visit here to the sailors that were visiting,
and they all had incredible stories to tell. It took all night to eat all that crab as you
can't eat hot crab and must wait for each piece to cool down or you will get a stomach
ache. A Siamese cat and a Ragdoll cat would pounce on the shells as we tossed them in
Indian fashion to enlargen the midden beach some more. Tom said that we should stay
another day. We told him we needed to get back. He said it will be too stormy tomorrow and
maybe all next week too. Then you'll have to stay right? I told him we really have to go.
He said if the tops of those trees are not moving in the morning you might be able to go,
but if they move you can't.
That night Sara heard the "Wooooooooooo" sound in the forest
behind us.
I heard nothing I slept so well. When we woke at 6am the tree tops were
still, so we paddled out and slingshotted with tides all the way to Compton, where the
wind began picking up. Blackfish Sound had 2 foot high waves and strong wind. It was very
fearful for Sara to keep her balance. By the time we got to the Double bay we were very
tired and happy to see the restaurant there since we were early for the tidal turnaround.
We landed on the only beach where it looked like kayaks could land, and our feet went into
the mud up to our knees. Sara fell over in the mud trying to get out. By the time we got
up onto the boardwalk that led to the remote restaurant for fishermen one person said that
we looked like half drowned muskrats. We had to clean up in the restroom for 15 minutes
before we felt we could go into public. The breakfast was ecstasy and as we finished the
waitresses said the radio had alerted them that a pod of Orcas was headed this way in
about 5 minutes. We high-tailed it and held formation in wind and wave for about 10
minutes until getting too cold and afraid of losing balance. We went on to the Plumpers
and went through most of the way until finding ourselves in a kelp bed so dense that the
only way we could move was to raise rudder and just push on kelp and slide over it. This
took most of our energy, but we made it back to Telegraph Cove swearing to never do that
again. Sure.
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