2010 Trip 5 - Pacific Grace

Lessons were the main activities this morning while at anchor.  After an early lunch we all went for a wander around Cougar Annie´s Garden. Cougar Annie was a legendary figure who arrived on the west coast here in Hesquiat Hr. in 1915 to carve an existence out of the rugged rain forest. She cleared an area of about 5 acres and began gardening in a way that no one had before had in this part of the coast. She bore 11 children, 9 of them at her home in the garden and went through 4 different husbands during her time here. Annie always kept goats and chickens which were usually too tempting for the local wild life to pass up, this being the key to her name. Any unsuspecting cougar or bear that came near her farm animals was promptly shot by Annie herself, skinned and sold for bounty. She is known to have shot upwards of 70 cougars. Peter, a friend to the SALTS boats knew Annie well and is now living at the garden. Peter every year graciously tours our trainees around the garden and then up to the nearby Rae Lake, all the time painting many colourful pictures of what life was like here in the early 1900´s. Annie was moved from the garden to town in the eighties when she herself was in her late eighties but unfortunately died a couple of years later. She was a remarkable woman and all of us enjoyed the tour and stories that Peter shared with us. After a short sail to Hot Springs Cove we all headed up to the springs which lie in a position overlooking the great Pacific Ocean. You can lie in a hot water pools and watch the swells roll in from Japan. This is always a favorite stop during our west coast trips. All are well.