Listening to anthropologist Denis' wisdom in the Broken Island Group aboard the 70' schooner Passing Cloud.

The Broken Islands with Outershores Expeditions and our expert archeologist, Denis St. Claire.

What blew my mind the most was walking midden sites (old first nations rubbish heaps that look like massive banks of rich soil) which are five or six thousand years old, hundreds of meters long and up to ten meters deep. Not to mention the ability to track the change in sea level rise based upon the geographic location of the middens relative to higher middens and the current coastline. Barkley Sound was inhabited by 8-10,000 people (the densest population north of San Fransisco in the PNW), and the first peoples date back ~ 10,000 years, but the middens only go back 5-6000 years. Why? Sea level used to be much lower than it is today and the earliest midden formations are now under water.

The stone walls of the fish traps were something I'd never seen before either.

To view the rest of the photos, click HERE.

The "tender" aka. Russ's sports car, sits on a spring line as a deer swims over from the other island.

Denis gets a little help from Liam during his beach side lecture series.

Watch out for pirates.

The weather was horrible the entire time... 

Now imagine exploring this group of islands hundreds of years ago, for the first time, in the fog.

Sunrise special in the Pinkertons.

That's not actually the captain, it's a client, and he's excitedly pointing at a reef.

Anchorage on the backside of Wouwer Island. That rock gets a lot closer to the boat at low-tide.

Denis in profile at the birthplace of the Tseshaht origin story.