Codville Lagoon to Jenny Inlet via Ocean Falls

Unknown to use, today's trip covered three major destination - Wallace Bay, Ocean Falls and Jenny Inlet.

The boat started at 6:30 am - we motored out of Codville Lagoon and up to Cousins Inlet.  Our first stop was Wallace bay where we hoped to see a collection of cabins and a petroglyph.  I was a little surprised to see all these cabins here - were at least three hours from Bella Bella/Shearwater by small boat.  I guessed the fishing was good.

The cabins were in various states of repair.  Some are still in pretty good state of repair.  Other cabins have collapsed.  There are still trails between the houses but the forest is getting pretty thick around the houses.

We continued up Cousins inlet and came to a most amazing site - a town in the middle of forest!  First you see a small collection of houses (The bedroom community) and as you turn the inlet you see Ocean falls proper.  Ocean falls is dominated by the large dam and multi story buildings.  Behind the damn is massive Link lake where lumber was collected and sent to the pulp mill or lumber mill.

There are some interesting old pictures of Ocean Falls in the BC Archives:
 

The pulp mill has been mostly torn down (except for the massive tool works) but the dam is still going working.  One of the locals told us that the dam is providing power for the remains of Ocean Falls, Bella Bella and Shearwater on one third of one of the four generators.  Most of the local community (many homes, an olympic sized pool, and other buildings) was torn down when the provincial government "renormalized" the area but some of the core of the town remains - a few apartment blocks and a hotel, the fire department, and a few buildings.

Some of the town is still functional - the court house has a library, a clinic, and a post office.  The hospital now has coin showers and a pretty good cafeteria style restaurant (way over equipped for the job).  There is a fishing resort and apparently there is a store about 15 minuets from the ferry landing.   One stop you shouldn't miss (if it's open) is the museum.

Once we walked around the town, we stopped in at the museum.  The museum is in the basement of the co-op store, what used to be the Bay.  The basement is filled with stuff that was left around the buildings when Ocean falls was "renormalized".   One wall is covered in signatures from people who have visited the town museum.  Because Ocean falls is a deep water port (used for pulling out the lumber and and paper from the mills) it could hold a cruise ship.  Unfortunately, the town has a long ways to go before it's a cruise destination.

After our tour of the town, we walked back to the boat.  Just past the dock, just off to the side of the road, we noticed two deer eating the plants.  The deer were a yearling and a two year old Mule Deer (or black tailed deer).

We got back on the boat and drove off to own next destination - Jenny Inlet.

Welcome to Jenny Inlet!  After the (decaying) development of the Ocean Falls, it was nice to see something recovering.  Jenny Inlet was logged in 1992 by interfor and it's recovering slowly.

We got off the boat and went for a walk before dinner.  After walking up the logging road (boy did I wish I had my mountain bike) we came across a nice waterfall.  

After dinner we split up.  Some of us (Bob, Dan, Charles, Mike and myself) went out for a fishing trip.

Jenny and Paul went out for a kayak.  All to short it became sunset and then night.