Ten Years Ago Today....

....I was on the remote islands of Haida Gwaii in the Pacific North-West, standing alone in the rainforest near the site of where K'iid K'iyaas (the mystical Golden Spruce) was felled almost 4 years earlier.


I had followed my intuition to journey there, and the day turned out to be a magical one in many ways.



Unbeknownst to me at the time a fellow named John Valliant was also experiencing his own epiphany as a result of this tree, and those experiences subsequently inspired an article in The New Yorker called "The Golden Bough". John later followed this up with an award winning book entitled "The Golden Spruce".


The story of K'iid K'iyaas was also later integrated into Mark Leiren-Young's award winning film "The Green Chain".

Best of all: John and Mark are now friends.

(Special thanks to Russ Heinl of www.heinlaerialphotography.com for permission to use this photo of the Golden Spruce.)