Alaska 2016 | Day 11 | Shearwater to Ocean Falls

Underway again! We made the short run to Ocean Falls via Gunboat Passage. The weather cooperated nicely: mostly sunny skies and light wind (until docking, of course).

Ocean Falls from the drone

Ocean Falls is a highlight of the trip through B.C. Once the home of a Crown Zellerbach pulp mill and 3900 residents, it's now a ghost town. Crown Zellerbach abandoned the site in 1972. The B.C. government continued operating the site until 1980. Since then, it has been decaying. Today, fewer than 40 people live in Ocean Falls and neighboring Martin Valley.

The inn is the large building in this photo

A few of us explored town, including wandering through the inn, which was shuttered in 1990. We found collapsing floors, rotten carpet, decaying commercial kitchens...it's spooky, smelly, and fascinating. I thumbed through a binder of documents from 1969 Ceramics Club meetings. We found a selection of novels published in the '70s. But most stuff with value—wire, electrical panels, plumbing fixtures—is long gone.

Brian heading into the inn

What was this room?

This place looks like a war zone

36 years of decay

We kept looking around the next corner, and kept finding peeling paint and broken windows. How long until it's all gone?

Dinner was a potluck in "The Shack," a floating building available for visiting boaters. We put on a great spread, including a couple of desserts made with fresh-picked salmon berries.

Dinner in "The Shack"

22.02 nm today
423.87 nm total