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The Bears of Hull Island

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Are there bears in the area?  Have you seen any on Hull Island? After years of being asked this question, I could unequivocally say yes a few years ago when I was alone and a grizzly bear walked through the camp.  This year the bears were back in force and we had nine bear sightings on Hull and many more in the area.  In May as I was loading the boat for a trip to Eve River, I was surprised to see three large brown bears on Hull about 120' away on the shore east of the dock.  I thought it was odd that the bears seemed to be traveling in a pack, then realized it was one adult and two large cubs.  The bears were unfazed by my presence and I spent a few minutes watching them flip rocks to get at the crabs hiding beneath. On Hull, one adult, two children, all grizzly! One morning in July, Catherine reported a tourist boat floating close by off the shore of Hull.  We all walked down to the landing to investigate and realized the tourists were watching two brown ...
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Big Rocks

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My brother Chris stopped by for two weeks to help with rocks.  The stone walls around his farm are works of art and I was excited to see his ideas for Hull.  Chris took charge of Anna and Paulo and the equipment for five or six days of landscaping work.  Chris was in heaven getting things done and making things happen. They cleared logs and brush, moved dirt, uncovered and moved large and small rocks, created rock storage yards and more.  It was amazing how much Chris did himself, and the three of them together made the entire area look so much better.   Ben, Dave, Chris at the top of Heartbreak Hill Chris, Paulo and the Big Rock. Campfire in the background. One day I was wondering, where were all the builders?  I found them off the job playing on the equipment.  Chris had lured them away with more fun - with Ben on the excavator and Dave driving the green machine they picked up and moved a large stone that now highlights our driveway entry. ...
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Good Night Construction Site

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  Good Night Construction Site. I'm back in the USA!  Other than a family week at the beach in San Diego and trips to town for supplies, I was on Hull Island 24/7 for five straight months.  4 days a week the professional builders and landscapers were also there, either sleeping in tents overnight or arriving daily by boat from across the waters.  One day there were 9 of us working. (to varying degrees of course!)   The quality of the materials, the craftsmanship, the sizing of materials are all world class and I’m super happy so far.  Lots of volunteers working together with the absolute pros from Vancouver Island and local community got an incredible amount of work done.  The progress has been spectacular. As the Canadian geese are now heading south, we will follow.  Time to rest, relax, recharge and get working on the Captain's Log.   I hope our journey to Ithaka is long.  Longhouse just before it was boarded up for the winte...
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The Builders

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On May 1st the Marine Link barge arrived with 25 loads of materials and 12 passengers to watch the show.  The road Paul built held up really well, and all but the giant glulam beams were hauled up the hill.  The barge had staff on board and on land to guide the huge four wheel drive forklift off the boat, up and down the ramps and up the hill.  The barge was there from very low tide to almost high tide - five hours!   Costs including the charge for handling on Campbell River terminal was about $12,000 CAD or about $8,500 USD.   With plenty of materials on site, and the second barge scheduled to arrive May 14th, serious construction got underway.  Led by Ben Frieitag, Tyler 1, Tyler 2 and I set to work on foundation posts, it took six or seven, 10 - 12 hour days of work over two separate trips and we're almost there on the longhouse.  Thanks to a huge effort by Paul, Anna and Vicki, the bedrock was exposed and dirt cleared away. The house will...
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The Outhouse

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It's cold and very windy outside so I'm sitting inside 1 Hull Island by the wood stove, and thanks to our children's Christmas present I'm hooked into satellite via Starlink. This is the first blog from on the island. So much happening here, and I could use a break to fill you all in. First major development is the outhouse.  After nine years of free range pooping a new era of easy living is here.  Paul dug down six feet to bedrock and lined the huge hole with large rocks to make a massive dump space.  Using some leftover beams from the kitchen, a driftwood post collected years ago by Bill, and too much store-bought materials I built away.  Two trips to Lens for cedar 2 by 4's to finish the roof, a bucket of cedar wood shavings to add post pooping and the place is open for business.  Just need to add more rock around the base, rake a better path, trim some trees to enhance the waterfront view, and order and install the metal roof.  A beautiful place to sit ...
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