British Columbia

The steep, rocky walls of a British Columbia fjord flanked the ship. Beyond were blue-gray mountains, their peaks caught in clumps of clouds. But dozens of high, thin waterfalls were still visible, emerging from the forested slopes to streak down granite cliffs.

I stood on the deck of the Malibu Princess as it cruised up Jervis Inlet, a 50-mile-long fjord on the southern B.C. coast. The inlet has three long reaches, or legs, whose curiously angular geometry was formed by geologic faults, rivers and glaciers. As we entered the inlet, the Malibu Princess bore left to enter Prince of Wales Reach, then turned right to cruise up Princess Royal Reach. Ahead, we would eventually take another left into the last leg, Queens Reach. But just before reaching the head of Jervis Inlet, another right would take us into Princess Louisa Inlet, the sacred fjord of the Sechelt Indians.

In "The Story of the Sechelt Nation," author Lester Peterson relates a local Indian legend about a huge flood, which broke out from the narrow entrance to Princess Louisa Inlet. Tribal ancestors saved themselves by mooring their canoes to a log at the top of Anchor Mountain (now known as Mount Victoria) at the head of Jervis Inlet.

Up the inlet

For several years, I had heard about Princess Louisa Inlet (named after the mother of Britain's Queen Victoria) - the little fjord laced with waterfalls is a popular destination for Northwest boaters. Not having my own boat, I decided to go on a day cruise last month.

From Horseshoe Bay just north of Vancouver, a 40-minute ferry ride across Howe Sound took me to the southern end of the mainland's Sunshine Coast. After driving north for an hour and a half, I arrived in the tiny town of Egmont, at the entrance of Jervis Inlet. I boarded the Malibu Princess, a 126-foot ship that supplies the Malibu youth summer camp at the entrance to Princess Louisa Inlet - and offers the seven-hour cruises.

At the beginning of the cruise up Jervis Inlet, the ship's tour guide pointed out areas along the shore that had been native villages, and later, logging and fishing camps. According to Joni Estabrook of the Sechelt Nation, before the arrival of white settlers, over 24,000 natives had lived in their ancestral territory, which included Jervis, Princess Louisa and Sechelt inlets, and the Sechelt Peninsula. Although members of different bands, the natives shared a common culture and were related through marriage and political, social, economic and spiritual ties.

Quiet passage

We passed Deserted Bay, where in 1867 a white settler passing by on the inlet noticed that no smoke was coming from that settlement's Native longhouses. Coming ashore, he found all but one person dead of smallpox, a disease brought by whites.

The walls of Jervis Inlet bear about 46 known areas of Indian pictographs, or rock paintings. The meanings of these red-painted human and animal figures are largely unknown. No paintings were visible from the Malibu Princess, though photographs of many of the inlet's drawings can be seen at the Sechelt Nation's museum in the town of Sechelt.

The fjord, walled by mile-high mountains, was strangely silent. No eagles or ospreys were visible in the light rain, no seals lay on Seal Island. Although later we heard that a minke whale had been seen in the inlet that day, we saw no sign of its other animals, which include porpoises, bears, martins, otters, and an occasional orca.

A flurry of teenage activity greeted us at the mouth of Princess Louisa Inlet, entered through a slot between rocks about 120 feet wide. We passed close to the lodge and swimming pool of the Malibu summer camp, and off our port side, exuberant and waving teenagers dove, waterskied, and paddled around in canoes and kayaks in the light rain.

The camp's name refers to its origins during the 1940s as a playground for a wealthy Hollywood crowd. Thomas Hamilton, who made his fortune inventing the variable-pitch airplane propeller, bought this remote B.C. land in 1940 and built a resort known as the Malibu Club. The luxury lodge eventually fell victim to the area's remoteness and variable weather. It was purchased in 1953 by Young Life, a Christian group, for use as a summer camp.

As we cruised down Princess Louisa Inlet, which is never more than a half-mile wide, I realized that the summer camp had given me a rather comforting scale to anchor myself against the hugeness of the landscape, with its steep cliffs and high clouds and slivers of waterfalls hundreds of feet long. A thousand feet of water lay beneath us.

At the head of the inlet, was Chatterbox Falls. Private boats clustered near the base, where the broad, 120-foot-high wall of water cascades into the inlet.

But the falls were dwarfed by the great fortress of rock that rose behind them, which outdid every magnificent granite cliff we had seen that day. A dozen streaks of waterfalls snaked down the massive gray wall, fed by snowfields of 7,000-foot peaks.

The falls and land around them were once owned by James F. Macdonald, an American prospector who struck it rich in Nevada and bought 292 acres at the head of the inlet in 1927.

Believing that he was "only the custodian of the property for Nature," Macdonald eventually turned the land over to a non-profit trust, which manages it, along with the British Columbia government, as a B.C. provincial marine park. Boaters can dock or tie up at mooring buoys near the falls and come ashore, even camp. (Passengers aboard the Malibu Princess can't get off the boat, however, because the dock near Chatterbox Falls isn't large enough.)

The Malibu Princess turned slowly and headed back down Princess Louisa Inlet. We passed Malibu camp, the teenagers now inside. We turned out of the small fjord and headed back down Jervis Inlet.

I wolfed down a tasty barbecued salmon dinner on the boat, then

went outside to sit on the back deck. The light rain that had accompanied us much of the day had stopped, and the evening sun lit the sides of the mountains on the east side of Jervis Inlet.

I thought about the indigenous peoples who once lived on the banks of this fjord, who fished, gathered oysters and clams, and possibly knew the meaning of some of the red paintings on the rocks.

Blue-gray domes of rock receded into the distance, and more took their place, as we headed back to port.

If you go

Here is some information on seeing Jervis Inlet and Princess Louisa Inlet.

Boat tours

Malibu Yacht Charters runs seven-hour cruises aboard the Malibu Princess through Sept. 5 (Remaining trips are Aug. 8, Aug. 22, Aug. 24 and Sept. 5.)for $69 Canadian. Dinner is available for an additional $8-$9. Phone 604-883-2003. Web:

www.malibuyachts.com.

Sunshine Coast Tours offers eight-hour cruises (in 8- to 25-passenger boats) to the inlet for $95 Canadian until Sept. 22, with stops at the Malibu camp and Chatterbox Falls. Phone 800-870-9055. Web: www.sunshinecoast

tours.bc.ca.

Egmont Water Taxi runs five-hour trips to the inlet (in 12-passenger, 26-foot boats) for $75 Canadian per person (four-person minimum). Call 604-883-2092. Web: www.bigpacific.com/eg

montwatertaxi.

Flights

Kenmore Air flies seaplanes from Seattle to Princess Louisa Inlet twice weekly through Sept. 15. Phone 206-364-6990. Web: www.kenmoreair.com

Ferry information

Car/passenger ferries to the Sunshine Coast depart from Horseshoe Bay near Vancouver. For schedules, phone B.C. Ferries, 250-386-3431. www.bcferries.com.

Accommodations and general information

The town of Sechelt, about an hour's drive south of Egmont and with a population of 8,000, is the largest town on B.C.'s Sunshine Coast.

Lodging on the Sunshine Coast consists mainly of B&Bs, motels, small resorts and provincial-park campgrounds.

Good restaurants in this region include: The Sun Fish Cafe, Sechelt (healthy, with decadent desserts), Ruby Lake Resort at Ruby Lake (good Italian food) ) and Gumboot Garden Cafe at Roberts Creek (health food).

For more visitor information, call the B.C. tourism office at 800-HELLOBC. Useful Web sites include: www.bigpacific.com or www.thesunshinecoast.com/sechelt

chamber.

Cathy McDonald is a Seattle freelance writer.