Pacific Storm-Watching (fall & winter) in Haida Gwaii

Storm watching is a titillating off-season beach activity at our Canadian oceanfront hostel. Some of our shanty cabins have a 180 degree vista of the ocean and rain forest at their back. Watch the raging southeast storms that swirl from the Pacific to scream across the Hecate, drenching and shaking all and everyone in their path.

Experience the full symphony of the storm whilst hiking the beach, or enjoy the duet between the relentless patter of rain and howling of wind, and the crackling of the wood stove from the comfort of your shanty, as you watch the seas run wild and the seagulls screeching and careening across the skies.

Built in rustic mode, our shanty-style hostels admit the sounds of fury: trees whining in the wind, twigs and cones bouncing off the roof, the occasional moist gust swirling in an open window, the shudder as another evergreen giant falls to the earth. The surge of elemental energy seems to stir all the static that has settled within and carry it all away, leaving you feeling cleansed and one with the calm that descends in the wake of the storm.

Mushroom Picking

Home to the Boletus, chanterelle, hedgehog, Gomphius, blewits, oyster, angel wing, chicken-of-the-woods and a host of other edible wild mushrooms, we experience a phenomenal fall blossoming that equals (in its own way) the shows put on in the alpine meadows.

Traipsing through the forest, your senses are assailed by the cool, clean moist air laden with the iodine smells of the fungi in an infinite variety of colour, form, and size. Shrinking under the onslaught, you may become small as did Alice; all the better to appreciate from this slugs-eye view the miniature vignettes that everywhere appear as pine cone meets with lichen-leafed twig to frame some unnamed, mysterious mushroom in a soft bed of moss.

Following your eyes, you soon become lost to place and purpose, but if you emerge empty-handed of edible wild mushrooms, your mind and spirit overflow with wonder and awe.