Hartley Bay What A Terrific Place!!
It was by happenstance that our unplanned stop at Hartley
Bay turned out to be a special and unique segment of the trip. It was a good
place to stop for fuel and have a celebration for Torben’s birthday. As we
pulled into Hartley Bay not fully knowing what to expect but it was quickly
realized that the docks were filled with small fishing boats. A boater then hailed
from the docks that space was opening up in 15 minutes. After tying up we
walked through a modern Native village that has about 200 Gitga’at Nation
residents. The community is constructed on boardwalks and includes a school,
fish hatchery, new Community Center, part-time health clinic, Fire Department,
Administrative Offices and lots of pre-fab houses. There are no stores and
their primary protein diet comes from salmon and crab. Everyone was so
welcoming and helpful. Watching the village children get out of school and hop
on their personal ATVs to go home was most entertaining – many of the “drivers”
were of primary grade children age.
Jessy was one of the first people to greet us. He has lived
on the island his whole live and had a six-year-old son. We asked him about
buying a salmon from a local fishermen and was told the men often went out to
fish after work for fun and family food. He said just go up and ask in the
evening. Low and behold early evening a fisherman brought us freshly cooked
crab and this followed by Jessy dropping off 2 beautiful fully cleaned black
mouth salmon that he just caught. The generosity added for a very memorable
stop.
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