Turn Right at Guud k'yuuwaas

Way down south in the North, far from the mainland but close to the pan handle, where there seems to be more eagles than seagulls, and a Chinese restaurant for every 300 people, is the town in which I have spent more time than any other place in our country outside of home. This town, (village really, because the population is only 900 people), is on an island called Graham, and is part of what was once called the Queen Charlotte Islands but is now called Haida Gwaii.

Masset is the town where military personnel lived when they weren't at the listening station, listening to the Soviets during the cold war. Masset is where a local coffee shop dug in it's heels against the might of the Starbucks Empire when Starbucks didn't like the name Haida Bucks. Masset is where, if you're lucky, you can catch a 300lb halibut or collect scallops on the beach. And just down the road from Masset is Old Masset where the street signs are shaped like canoes and only printed on one side, so you can find your way in but not out.

I still remember the first time I arrived in Haida Gwaii years ago and was shocked to find the locals already knew all the "secrets" about the project I was about to start. And when I rented a truck at the airport they told me explicitly not to bring it back with blood in it.

On my second visit I found Englehart's Oceanview Lodge and the Hidden Island RV Park, the best places to get breakfast and dinner respectively.

Now, three.