I will start this letter with a structure. Yeah, seems akward but I guess that´s how I would like to give u and me a resumée of my year abroad, which was incredible btw:

Chapter 1: Work experience in Canada

Almost 40 weeks, almost 10 months, almost a year in Canada. Currently I am sitting at the Gate at the International Airport of Calgary and I am waiting to catch my Flight to Amsterdam. Honestly, I guess I still haven´t realized that this chapter of life is over now. Time is flying by. It feels like I´ve just passed my  A-Levels, but this has already been over a year, It doesn´t feel like the Chapter Canada is already over, but it is and that is completely ok. I am looking forward to my next adventure. But before talking about the future, let´s have a resumée about my year abroad.

Canada, what do u expect of Canada? Well, I d k about u, but when I first heard of Canada, I thaught of Ice Hockey, Maple Sirup or the country next to the USA. But Canada is moch more than that. Canada is in my opinion one oft he countries, maybe the one countrym that offers everything u need. U got mountains, u got the ocean, u got flat areas with nothing, but also the big cities like Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver. U have beautiful nature, rainforests, but even sand deserts. Weh ave a big diversity of wildlife. Black bears, polar bears, Moose, grizzly bears and even more. If u want u can explore the northern part, see the northern lights, but at the same time u can head south and relaxx at the beach. This huge country has so much to offer and I´ve just seen a little part of it. My journey took me across three provinces, different natures and climates and amazing cities. I met great people, bot I also had some neativ moments and experiences, but I was able to learn a lot out of it.

The whole trip started with my Flight from Düsseldorf to Lisbon and from there to Toronto, where I took an UBER at 3am to the Farm „Haute Goat“, close to Port Hope, the city where the movie „IT“ was produced. I got to know Cora, Liesa, Sandra, Lina, Christa, Debbie and Shain. I worked a lot, I learned a lot and got to know crazy stuff. During my 4 ½ months on this Farm, people came and people went away. Kerstin, Kathy, Saskia. Thanks to all my farm friends, that made my journey special and unique. I hope we´ll be able to organize a Farm reunion somehow. Maybe in Suisse or little Istanbul (@Kerstin). I got to know so many things back on Haute Goat, you guys will always have a place in my heart and I hope we´ll see each other once again. I will come visit u, for sure.

BTW, while sitting already in the plane since 20 minutes, I really feel like I am lost. Unbelievable for me… Leaving Canada. I don´t know how I´ll feel in Germany, but currently it´s more likely a sad feeling. Canada is like a second home for me, I mean I am not a resident or citizien, but I feel like one. I definitley could imagine living here! We´ll se what the future brings.

After Haute Goat I kept going end of january to Calgary. I flew 5 hours in one Country, flew over 4 provinces and landed in Calgary in Winter where John and Kathrin picked me up. I started to work on the Black Whiskey Ranch. I found this palce on workaway, it is located 40minutes south of Calgary Downtown. Why did I go there? I wanted to learn riding and I gotta say I did pretty good after 5 weeks. I learned together with La the english version of riding, known in Calgary, maybe some of u heard of Stampeed, a big horse riding competiton in Calgary, that always takes place in August. I got to know Bev and John, could enjoy their great dinners and a beautiful environment around me. I went hiking with Frida and saw my first Moose. But even though this place was really great and I enjoyed my time, I wanted to keep going. I spent one week in Calgary with Sandra and Lina, we went hiking, did great stuff together and I was just happy not to work after almost half year of working. Just enjoying my time. This week was probably one of the best I had in Canada, thanks to you two.

When I look back from now on I would say my year abroad can be seperated in three chapters. The First chapter ends here. 5 months and 3 weeks of working. Of course I´ve done different travel things, but mostly I was somewhere working. The second Chapter was about to start and I was so looking forward not to work anymore:

Chapter 2: The journey begins

After my really cool week in Calgary I headed to the Airport in Calgary and moved to Vancouver. I was excited about Vancouver, because tbh I didn´t like Calgary, it felt like a ghost town. A bit like Las Vegas. Somewhere in the nowhere a huge city, that offers u a bit as a tourists, but after 4 days u can leave it. The difference? Calgary is close to the Rockies. That´s great about the city, but that´s it. I´ve heard and seen a lot about Vancouver, where I flew to mid march. At that point I didn´t really feel that I´ve arrived in Canada, because I was msotly just at one place. Further I haven´t been so self-independent as now. I definitley see a big difference or change between then and now and that is also the reason why I have different chapters. Not only because they describe different times, situation or journeys, they also describe my self-development in this year. So Chapter 2…

This Chapter is probably the shortest and uninteresting one. I came to Vancouver, stayed there 5 weeks and just explored the city. I stayed at Mel´s appartment for this time. I found him on Couchsurfing and was really looking forward to it, but honestly I regret it a bit. Why? Well, I got Covid there. So I´ve spent 5 weeks in Vancouver, explored the city for three weeks and have been fort wo weeks in quarantine. Great! Every journey can´t be just good, there r always situation where something doesn´t work out for u. This was one situation, where I felt really bad. I mean completely alone, spending quarantine somewhere where u don´t know anyone except two or three friends and to take care of your own health in a country where u don´t k anything about health system and stuff like that. I gotta say thanks to all the people, especially my parents, who supported me during this time. Without u all, it would have been much more harder. Anyways, let´s talk about one oft he most beautiful cities in the world. VANCOUVER! A city that offers so much. In the background we´ve the mountains, where u can go hiking, at the same time u can go swimming in the ocean, going for a run a bike ride in the Stanley Park or just enjoy the vibe in Downtown, Gastown and all the other suburbs and part of the cities. Kitsilano Beach, English Bay, Stanley Park, Lonsdale Quay Market, Cleveland Dam, Yaletown, Olypmic Village, Mount Pleasant, the Waterfront or even the East Hastings Street. Vancouver has a crazy variety of things to do, of people to see, of nature and culture to explore. I just can think of one other city that has something like this. Well, two! Cape Town and of course my lovely Hambourg;) Even though I don´t wanna live in big cities, I am good with „little“ cities like Greven, I could imagine living in Vancouver. If I would live in Canada I wanna live in Vancouver. I can find anything I want there, I am close to the Rockies, the Ocean, Vancouver Island and and and. Thanks Vancouver for an amazing time, thanks to my roommate Mel, where I could stay 5 weeks and a big thanks to all my friends that supported me during quarantine. I met Clara, Niklas and Luca and still have contact to them. Thanks guys to be a part of my journey and to make my journey incredible unique.

Chapter 3: I finally arrived in Canada…

Let´s start the last Chapter with someone special. I got out of my quarantine and spent 4 more days in Vancouver. Mario Schrenk! We met the first time one day after quarantine and honestly I felt like: Ok, we´re gonna have an amazing time together. BUT, it hasn´t been amazing, it was breathtaking, unbelievable and just unique. Thanks for being my travel buddy, my friend and to be such a big part of my year abroad. I´ve never spent more than 2 months with someone together every day. Anyways, Mario and I headed to Vancouver Island and went on a two weeks Road Trip on the Island. That´s where everything begins. This is the moment where I completely arrived in Canada. I felt like a citizien from that point on. We hiked a lot, we explored a lot and had a hell of fun. These two weeks were the beginning oft he best two months I had so far. I mean of course I already had great moments, things, days, weeks with different people all over the world, but these two months were supposed tob e the best I had so far. I learned, I experienced and discovered so much. Not only about this country, the nature or other people. I discovered so much about myself. What do I wanna do? How do I wanna be? What am I trying to achive? What kind of human do I wanna be? What makes me happy? I am so greatful about this last Chapter in Canada, because if I wouldn´t have experienced it than I probably would still be the boy who left on october, 5th Germany. Mario and I had great two weeks, until we kept going on. We spent 4 weeks on the „Damali Lavender and Winery“ Farm in Cobble Hill. Cobble Hill is located an hour north/east of Victoria on Vancouver Island. Hello Kennedy, Christine, Sienna and Hartley. A lovely family with an incredible beautiful place on Vancouver Island. I wanna say a big thanks. I had an amazing time at your place. Especially Kennedy. Dude, this was not only a work experience, it was so much more. U haven´t been my boss, u are my friend. I loved watching hockey together, having deep talks until midnight, or even get to k things about wine, lavender or winery work. Further thanks for all the rides to anywhere. I really appreciated it and will definitley come back one day. Take care of this great place, greetings to Sienna, hartley and Christine and don´t u dare don´t taking care of that frontyard where U, Mario and I worked almost two full days in;)

4 weeks were over and Mario and I went on. We were about to go on my biggest adventure I have ever done in my life so far and probably will ever do. The WEST COAST TRAIL! The one week on the trail, which is located at the West Coast of Vancouver Island between Port Renfrew and Bamfield was the best I ever had in my life. I am honest! I could write so much about it, because together with Kathy, Liesa, Mario, Lynn, Gill and Will we experienced so much. This time was just incredible and I gotta say: Thanks! This one week was lovely. We were/are an amazing team, we sticked together, helped each other out and met the three locals. Together with the we´ve been amazing! Honestly, absolutley breathtaking. 7 days Into The Wild. I am definitley gonna do the WCT again. Don´t know when, with who, but I will be back! I got to know things about myself, about others and about things that I like but haven´t experienced before. This one week hepled me a lot and was a hell of fun. I wanna do this again. I am almost crying, sitting here, knowing this year is over and thinking about the one week on the Trail. But like I said, don´t be sad that the time is over, be happy about the time u had and look forward to the time u r gonna have😊

3 weeks left… The West Coast Trail is over and Mario and I headed back to Victoria, from where we went back to Vancouver for three days. We picked up our Rental Car and went on another Road Trip together. A Road Trip that I will never forget. From Vancouver we drove north via Whistler, Kamloops and Mount Robson to Jasper. From there we headed the whole Icefield Parkway south to Lake Louise and then to Banff. After spending the last days in Banff, we brought our Rental Car back tot he Airport in Calgary, where I stayed two days, until I was flying home. We saw beautiful nature, experienced a lot, saw a hell lot of wildlife and just had a great time together. We met Lisa and Lorena and had two last weeks together, which were incredible. There were plenty thing that gotta be mentioned, but I wanna focus on the things, that have been amazing for me. The Opal Peak Hike, the Ha Ling Peak, the Schnitzel in Clearwater and the Icefield Parkway. I probably forgot so many other things, but these are the ones that I won´t forget and will always carry with me. Anyways, this last Road Trip was the perfect end of a great year abroad. A year which I´ll never forget, a year that I will always carry with me, a year that was awesome.

I came on ocotber, 5th 2020 to Canada and I left after 9 months and 3 weeks on july, 2nd 2021. This year abroad was amazing, I learned, explored, discovered, experienced, got to knoww myself, got to knwo others, saw, felt and heard a lot. I improved my english, I got more self-convinved, I had to take care of everything and feel like I grew this year more than ever before. All in all I wanna do something like that again. I don´t knwo if I can do this, I don´t know when I would do it, i don´t know where or with who. But I hope I will get an oppurtonity like this again.

I can recommend everyone out there to do a gap year in Canada. Well, not only in Canada, just in general and it doesn´t matter if u do it with 18, 35 or 65. Do what u wanna do, do what makes u happy and the rest comes automatically.

But now I am looking forward to my dual study, to my friends, to my family and my parents. I am looking forward to the next years and to all the things that are beyond me.

Greetings from above the world,

Tom

Monday/Tuesday: We started the day at 7:30am. Drove to Lake Moraine. We arrived at the road that brings u to Lake Moraine at 8:30am and were able to take the road to Lake Moraine. Fortunately😊 When we arrived there, the Parking Lot was almost completely full. At 8.45am on a Monday. There are so many tourists, just like us. A lot of asian people and people from Québec. Honestly, Lake Moraine is beautiful, but even during Covid so crowded. I don´t wanna imagine how it looks like if there is no Covid. U probably gotta reserve a spot to get there, otherwise people will kill each other to get there. Anyways, we took beautiful pictures and headed after 30 minutes back to Banff. We relaxed the whole day. Went swimming at the Lake Minnewanka and just chilled. Why? Mario and I are planning to do the Ha Ling Peak Hike in Canmore (Canmore is about 30 minutes from Banff) in that night. The Hike is just 3.6km long, but has an elevation of 780M, so a lot. In the evening we drove tot he Parking Lot, slept until 2, well actually I tried to sleep, but honestly I wasn´t able to. Anyways, we started the Hike at 2.30am. It was dark, weh ad our headlamps with us, bear spray close to the body and listened to music. Honestly, I was a bit scared hiking this exhausting Trail in the dark. Why? WILDLIFE! I don´t wanna have close contact to a grizzly or a cougar at night. So u might ask yourself, why did u do this trail. Well, the Ha Ling Peak is known for it´s beautiful views over the mountains, and especially u can watch the sunrise from up there, like nowhere else. And it was worth it. I was really tired when we arrived after 2 hours up there. The Hike was really exhausting , but so worth it. We still got an hour until the sun started to rise. So we just relaxed, enjoyed the beautiful views and the silence up there. When the sun started to rise, I felt incredible, I had such an amazing feeling. Don´t k why, but I´d loved it up there. After probably 2 hours we hiked back down. All the pain, the suffering, no sleep was worth it. I forgot about everything when I saw this sunrise. Further we had perfect weather, so the sunrise was even more beautiful. At 7 in the morning we´ve been back at the Parking Lot, jumped into our car and headed to Calgary. We parked in front of our BnB and slept two hours in the car. Then we headed tot he Calgary Zoo. TBH I don´t really k, when I´ve been the last time in a Zoo, so I loved it. Further now I am able to say that I saw a Grizzly in Canada, I mean nobody has to k that it has been in the Zoo. Anyways, was cool up there. Around 4pm, we headed back to our BnB, went for grocery shopping, cooked something and went to bed early. A really cool, exhausting and amazing day. Probably the best thing to end our Road Trip, because tomorrow we gotta bring our Rental Car back to the Airport in Calgary. I enjoyed the two weeks with Mario so much, that I would love to do two more weeks. But honestly I start feeling how exhausted I am. 9 weeks of travelling and work. I don´t even remember one day where we didn´t do anything. We were always busy, so I am happy to get back to my routine in Germany.

Wednesday/Thursday: First of two days in Calgary. What did we do? Well, it can be described with one word: Selling! We sold all of our equipment of the West Coast Trail and got almost the whole amount back. Well not almost, but pretty much. Afterwards we drove to Peter´s Drive In, got a milkshake and kept going to the airport to drop off our Rental Car. Now it is official. The Road Trip is over. Unfortunately. I really enjoyed the time together with Mario. We experienced a lot, hiked a lot and had a handfull of fun.  Further it is in general the end of Marios and my journey together. I really enjoyed every second with u pal. During these 2 ½ months I got to k u really good and we became great friends Will see u again in Germany buddy. Take care and a lot more fun in Canada and your journeys in this country. On Thursday I took care of some thing for my Flight back to Germany and Mario and I went in the evening tot he Scotman´s Hill. A nice palce in Calgary from where u can see the beautfiul sunset behind Calgary Downtown. Further it has been the first of july, this date is called the „Canada´s Day“, the day where Canada became independent. It was crazy busy up there. Because everybody was there to watch the firework that should start at 11pm. The Celebration of the „Canada´s Day“. Honestly the Firework wasn´t that impressive, but still cool to get to k a bit more of canadiens and canadien culture. Tomorrow is the day, the day of coming home. Looking forward to it.

See ya all soon, stay healthy and safe travels.

Tom  

Monday: I got up at 8. We are still in Jasper. After my breakfast, that usually consists of toast and nutella, I called my parents and had a call for an hour, because Mario and I had to leave the Hostel at 10 to get to the Maligne Lake. We rented one canoe for 11am until 12am. It was a 45min drive up there. Stunning views along the way, some wildlife (mostly deer ad elk) and just amazing driving along the highway through the Rockies. After every section, after every corner or curve, there is something else or a different view on the mountains. Anyways, we arrived shortly before 11 and went out with our canoe. Such a beautiful lake, with stunning mountains around it. I loved it on there. We weren´t able to go to Spirit Island, that would have been a 4/5 hours canoeing trip and we just had an hour, but even though, we completely enjoyed it. After our Canoe Trip we went 500m further up the street and parked in the other parking lot. We started the Opal Hike. I gotta say that this Hike probably has been the most exhausting hike for me so far. 10km and an elevation of 800m. I think we went the whole way just uphill, but it was worth it. We had stunning and amazing views from the peak. We could have gone further up, what I really wanted, but we didn´t have any more power and time left, so we decided just to relaxe at the „first“ peak, where we also had some amazing views. After spending 30 minutes up there we hiked back down. In the evening we had some leftover noodles and went to bed quiet early.

Tuesday: Mario and I are so exhausted. We got up at nine and we both didn´t feel that good. I mean good, but tired and just exhausted. I guess that is just because oft he last 8 weeks of travelling, hiking, West Coast Trail, farm work…. Anyways, we drove to 11am to the „Valley of the Five Lakes“ and hiked the 8km and easy doable 100m of elevation. We had 30 degrees and Mario and i were just sweating the whole time, even though the hike wasn´t exhausting. The five Lakes are beautiful. Blue water, water that is blue like I´ve never seen it before. Unbelivable. We went for a swim in the second lake. It was freezing cold, but so good. One thing that I realized in my two days in Jasper, ist hat there are a lot of french speaking people here. In our Hostel, on all the Trails, just crazy. Probably a lot of Quebecois, who come here to enjoy their summer. The cool thing about is, that I can speak a bit french and can improve it. I realized that since I am out of school and I haven´t seen Gianni in a year, my french is getting worse, so I have to keep going speak it. Around 3pm we arrived back at our Hostel, where we took a power nap, planned the next couple of days and prepared dinner. We wanted to do pizza (with selfmade dough) But the problem was that the dough was just shitty, so that we had to take pre-made tortilla dough. Wasn´t that tasty, but ok. Let´s see where we´re gonna head tomorrow.

All in all, Jasper is a great city. Even though it is crazy expensive, really small and mostly consists of hotels, motels, hostels and vacation houses (tourist city), I do like it. Living, making holidays directly in the Rockies or even having Jasper as a base camp for your holidays, your hikes or other stuff. Jasper is a great location to explore the beautiful north part of the Columbia Icefield Parkway and the Rockies. More to come.

Wednesday: I just say COLUMBIA ICEFIELD PARWAY! What a beautiful Highway between Jasper and Lake Louise and we´ve just seen the first part of it. But let me start in the morning. Mario and I both had a phone call at 9. After this we had breakfast, packed our stuff together, went for groceries and started the day around 11. We headed south the Icefield Parkway, direction Lake Louise. First stop after 20km was Athabasca Falls. A short 10 minutes walk and we arrived at the Falls. Definitley a must-see on this route. I mean it is maybe in total a 30 minutes stop and you´ve got a beautiful viewpoint, where u can see the Falls and the big Mountains behind it. A nice spot for a great photo. After our little stop we went on to Sunwapta Falls. Just another 30 minutes drive. This is definitley my favourit of the two Falls. Incredible nice. Same here. Maybe a 30 minutes stop, not even that, probably less, but it is so worth it and a Must-See. Close to the Falls is our Hostel for the night, but it was just 1:30pm, so we decided to drive a it further south. Destination was the Athabasca Glacier and the Wilcox Pass. A Trail where u´ve got an incredible view on the Glaciers. First stop was the Glacier. I´ve never seen a Glacier in my life before, so I was excited. We were able to get close to the Glacier, if u wanna walk on it, u have to book a guided tour, so we just walked to the edge, but it was worth it. We were able to see on our 15 minutes „Hike“ the development of the Glaciers in the past 150 years. It is just crazy how much the Glacier shrinked in this time. They put up signs where it was said „In 1928, the Glacier was up to here“. Seeing this and still having to deal with people who are saying climate change doesn´t exist, that is just not understandable. Anyways, we moved on to our 9km, 500m elevation Hike. We had an incredible view on the Glaciers on the opposite site of us. Because it started to rain we didn´t go the whole way up, almost, but not the whole way, but the views were still amazing. After this we hiked back down and drove to our Hostel for the night. In general I can highly recommend the Icefield Parkway. This is one oft he most beautiful and stunning roads in the world. Honestly there is so much to see, to do, that u could even spend here two weeks. Just between Jasper and Lake Louise (266km far away from each other). Anyways, Mario and I are gonna spend 2 full days between these two cities. That is the plan. Tomorrow we are heading to Bow and Abraham Lake and probably gonna do some stops and hikes on the way.

Thursday: Got up pretty early and started the day with our drive back south, heading to Lake Louise. Still, the Icefield Parkway is incredile. It looks completely different every day. Depends on weather, direction of driving it … Anyways, we headed to Abraham Lake. It was a 2 hours drive, pretty long, but u forget the time when driving a road like this. Honestly, even though after the Athabasca Gaciers there was not a lot to see, the views are still awesome, the drive from Jasper to the Glacier was the prettiest one so far. If u´r heading to Abraham Lake, you´re leaving the Icefield Parkway and continue on the David Thompson Highway. There is in my opinion such a big difference. The Icefield Parkway is so much more prettier than the Thompson Highway, same about the Abraham Lake when we arrived there. I was a bit disappointed, because on the pictures in the internet it looked amazing, but I would say it wasn´t worth it to leave the Parkway for almost a 2 hour Out&Back drive to the Lake. Anyways, we saw it and that is also part of exploring. Seeing something that soesn´t freak u out. Anyways, we headed back on the Parkway and went to Mistaya Canyon. A short little 10 minutes hike and we could enjoy the amazing power of water and the way how the water built it´s own way down from the mountains. A great canyon. We went on to the Bow Glacier Falls. It´s about30 minutes north from Lake Louise. Couple days ago, back in Jasper, when we´ve done the Opal Peak Hike, I said it has been my most favourit hike so far, this one is probably even better. The 10km In&Out Hike was gorgeus. I litteraly felt like being in another world. We hiked along the whole Bow Lake, which is completely turquoise. Actually it is a mix of blue, green and turquoise. Unfortunately the lake wasn´t quiet and flat, so we weren´t able to take a picture of the mountains and the sky reflected in the water. Anyways, beautiful hike until the end of the lake, weh ad to follow the river deltha until we got to some wooden stairs. After this we were already able to see the Valley with all the Waterfals. Just gorgeus. We hiked up tot he biggest Waterfal, took pictures and just enjoyed our time. Further we´ve been there completely alone, so we had the whole moment just for ourselves. Probably we´ve seen a marmot or a wolverine. We are not sure, it looked more like a little cute marmot, but it looked similiar to a wolverine and in the beginning there was a sign with something on it about the wolverines in this valley, so we weren´t sure, but still great to see either animal. After spending 30 minutes at the end of the Trail we headed back, jumped into the icecold Glacier Lake (Bow Lake) and drove to Lake Louise, where I am currently laying down on my bed and writing this blog draft. Amazing day, unfortunately the last one on the Icefield Parkway, but I guess we still have some more great streets on our trip. AND…. I haven´t seen any bears or mooses so far on our Road Trip. Hopefully they will come up the next days.

Friday: Good Morning Lake Louise! We got up, ad breakfast and started our day around 11ish. We had two things on our bucket list. Emerald Lake and the Takakkaw Falls. First thing were the Falls. The Falls are so tall, just crazy and beautiful. I guess that they are the third biggest falls in Canada, so pretty impressive. Even though we´ve been 300 metres far away from the Takakkaw Falls, we got wet. Took some pictures and enjoyed our time on a bench with the beautiful view of the Falls. Then we moved on tot he Emerald Lake. We arrived there around 12:30pm. There is a little Café on a little Island close to the shore, where we had a cool beverage. We took pictures of this breathtaking lake, we were even able to take a picture with the reflection of the mountains on the water and finally jumped into the lake. A Glacier Lake is always a bit colder than the others, but because it was so hot on this day, it was just so refreshing. I think we´ve had around 30 degrees, so I was maybe 20 minutes out there swimming😊 Afterwars we headed back to our Campground fort he night where we stayed form 4pm on. A really chilly day, but even though it was relaxing, we´ve seen cool stuff. Tomorrow we´re heading early to the Lake Moraine and Lake Louise, probably another chilly day, but we´ve got two more exhausting days coming up after these days.

Saturday: We started the day at 9. Drove to Lake Moraine. We wanted to go there, arrived around 9:15 and we weren´t able to take the road to Lake Moraine, because some Parcs Canada Staff blocked the road. Why? Parking is full. At 9:15, during Covid… just crazy. I mean we have 30 degreees, blue sky and Saturday, but we didn´t expect it to be that full. Lake Moraine is known for the one picture that almost everyone knows when they read a magazin, when they see a TV show of canadien Rockies , which shows the Mountains on the left hand side, the reflection on the lake next to it. Just google it and you´ll remember it or just scroll a bit and you´ll see my taken pictures, which are probably worse than the ones in the internet. Anyways, we decided to keep going to Lake Louise and go for a hike there. The Lake Agnes Trail is 8km long, elevation of 400M. The Trail and around Lake Lousie, it was crazy busy. We realized that there r a lot of canadiens that make vacation in the Rockies, especially people from Quebec. I guess even though there aren´t any international tourists, thanks to Covid, there r plenty of national tourists from all over Canada. The Hike was beautifuk, even though it was crowded. We enjoyed it. We were pretty fast and we both realized that we are in a really good shape after all the hikes we´ve done. We passed a ton of people and noone passed us. But this doesn´t matter. When we arrived at Lake Agnes, after we passed beautiful Lake Mirror, we took pictures, I jumped into the icecold water. Glacier Lakes are just crazy cold. I want to say soory. All people wanted to take pictures of the Lake, with the nice reflection on the water, I probably ruined that when I jumped in there. Anyways, the Lake was so refreshing after hiking while under 30 degrees. We hiked back down, took pictures at Lake Lousie and drove back to the road, which brings u to Lake Moraine. Still, parking is full, noone can access this road. We decided to keep going to Banff, where we will stay fort wo nights. It´s just a 40 minutes drive from Lake Louise. For that reason we said let´s get up pretty early tomorrow, let´s drive to 8am to Lake Moraine and after that we will head back to Banff and will do stuff there. The rest of the day we haven´t done a lot. Mostly relaxed and went for a walk around Banff. Went to bed at 11pm.

Sunday: We decided to go to Lake Moraine on Monday, because weekends are just crazy busy. So wem et with two german girls, which weh ad contact with in a german Work&Travel Group. Wem et at the Trailhead of Sulphur Mountain, the Trail that I´ve already done together with the danish girl Frida back in Winter, when I was working on the „Black Whiskey Ranch“. I gotta say the Hike was easier than the first time. Even though we had 32 degrees, beautiful views from the top, back down around noon. The rest of the day was more like doing nothing. Just to hott o do anything. We just sit in our hotel room, drove to a Lake, jumped in it and drove back. Hopefully the upcoming days won´t be as hot as this one.

My last week in Canada is gonna come. Unfortunately. Honestly I love going back, but on the other hand I would love to explore more of this amazing country. BUT, I am gonna enjoy the last week. Every little second o fit and then I am looking forward to, well I guess just everything, back in Germany.   

We arrived in Vancouver on the 13th, Sunday. We started early in the morning, carried all of our stuff over to our BnB in KItsilano. It was a pain in the neck to do that. Took us 10 hours to get from Victoria, to the farm to get all of our stuff, go back to Victoria, up to Swartz Bay, over to Vancouver, two buses, one train and a km of walking until we arrived. Each of us had three backpacks with him. Anyways we arrived at 6 in the evening, went for groceries and cooked something. We invited Ali over. I don´t know if I mentioned Ali. Ali was on the Damali Lavender Farm with us. She arrived two days before we left, we got along really good. Unfortunately she left the farm early because of private concerns. Anyways, we had a great evening together.

On Monday I had a phone call with my parents, took care of lots of orga things and in the evening Mario and I met with Niklas. It was nice meeting u again buddy. We went o Gastown, had a beer in a restaurant and headed to the English Bay where we stayed almsot until midnight. We took the bus back and went to bed.

Now I am sitting in the living room and write on my blog. Probably gonna go for a run later one, cook something and prepare everything for our depature tomorrow. We will get up early to pick up our retnal car in Langley, go back to here, pick up all our stuff and head to Whistler. Looking forward to my last two weeks in Canada. Road Trip with Mario to Calgary through the Rockies. I guess we will have an amazing time!

Wednesday: ROAD TRIP START! We got up at 6 and left the BnB at 7, it took us two hours to get to Langley. We picked our car up and arrived at our BnB around 10:30am. Put everything in the car and headed to Whistler. About 2 hours drive north. Before arriving in Whistler we went for a hike close to Whistler. Brandywine Falls is an easy, 5km long hike with nice trails and a beautiful waterfall. Was great. Afterwars we headed to Whistler and were looking for a shelter fort he night. We haven´t booked anything in advance, just easy going and living day-by-day. We booked a motel for 1 night, cozy and cheap. In the evening we got some dinner and went to the pool – yes… we have a pool included. Nice room, two beds with pool 30€ each, not bad 😊 Tomorrow is a lazy and not that interesting day. Long Drive to Kamloops and thats it 😊… mostly;)

Thursday: Got up at 9 and packed everything together. We lef the Motel around 10 and went for a walk in Whistler. A beautiful little city. In 2010 the Winter Olympics have been here. There are still a lot oft hings related to this in the town. Further we´ve seen a lot of Mountainbikers. Whistler is mostly a tourism city, but because it is summer and Covid it was not busy at all. Of course there is summer tourism, but the winter tourism is more importatn for the city and it is much more busier at that time. Anyways, around 12pm we left Whistler and headed to Kamloops. The 4 hour drive was exhausting, but at the same time beautiful. The Sea-to-Sky Highway goes through the mountains, along beautiful lakes and incredible views. A lot of curves, I felt a bit sick, but the views made me feel great, still. We arrived around 2:30pm in Liloelet, had some lunch and drove on to Kamloops where we arrived around 5pm. I guess this was the longest car drive that we will have on our whole trip, I am happy that this one is done. More exploring, hiking and stuff like this will come from now on. We bought some dinner and went to the pool in the evening. We booked a really cheap motel for this night. Bedtime at 11pm😊

Friday: Got up at nine and explored a bit Kamloops. Honestly I don´t like Kamloops. The nature around it and all the surronding small moutnains, they do look a bit like an old western. Everything is really dry, kind of weird. In Whistler, evreything was green and weh ad beautiful nature around us. 250km further north and into the direction of Alberta, everything is dry and looks like an old western. I felt a bit like in one of the Winnetou movies, which my fathers loves so much. When we arrived in Kamloops, I was really excited, becasue I thaught it would has the vibe of a western city, maybe even the architecure of a western, but it was disappointing. Kamloops, a 90.000 inhabitants city, doesn´t offer a lot. Maybe we just didn´t spend enough time here to explore the greatness of it, but I was disappointed. Nothing that looks like western or that matches to it´s surronding nature. Anyways, I am still happy to see even bad cities or cities that I don´t like. That´s how I get to know different cities, cultures, natures and just the fact that I don´t have to come back to this place one more time. Around 12 we moved on to Clearwater. We booked a White Water Rafting Tour for 2pm in advance. We arrived there at 1:45pm. The building wasn´t open, no lights on, just nothing. We checked our confirmation again and realized that we made a mistake. We booked for july, luckily we were able to cancel it and get the whole refund. We´re probably gonna do White Water Rafting in Banff now. We decided to drive to our Campground, because Mario didn´t feel that good and he wasn´t in the shape for a hike or something else. In the evening, we built up our tent and just relaxed around our camp fire:) The best thing about the evening was our dive into the lake next to the Campground. Probably the warmest lake we´ve been in since I came to Canada. We also spoke to some of our RV neighbours, cool evening.

Saturday: We planned to get up at 8, so that we can start the ifrst hike around 9 and maybe we would have done a second one. When I woke up, it was pooring rain down on our tent, I said to Mario: „Let´s stay in our tent, let´s just do one hike, let´s watch Germany aainst Portugal and hope the rain will stop.“ Around 11am, after the soccer match, it was still raining, but not that bad. We packed everything together and went to the Moul Falls. A nice hike close to Clearwater, well, actually the hike wasn´t great, it was more boring than cool, but the 35m Waterfal at the end was great. We were even able to walk behind it. I got undressed and went a bit closer 😊 Directly after we went back it started to poor rain again, so we were soaking wet when we arrived at our car, even though we had our great rain cotes with us. Anyways, it was 2pm and we went on our 2 ½  hour drive to Mount Robson, where we will stay one night on another Campground. Excited about the next days, hopefully the weather will be great, fingers crossed;) Ok. Nevermind. We arrived at Mount Robson and the weather was so terrible that we decided to keep on driving to Jasper. It just didn´t make any sense to hang out the whole evening in the car or the tent and if the weather would stay like this, then we wouldn´t do anything in the morning. We arrived late in Jasper and were lucky. We got a cheap hostel for the night.

Sunday: First full day in Jasper. I am excited. Getting up, going out and being directly in the Rockies. Amazing! Mario and I slept until 10am. We checked out and went for our hike today. Moor Mountain is a 6km, 680M elevation hike, 20km south of Jasper. We arrived there around 12, saw some wildlife on our way there and started the hike. We arrived after 2 hours on the peak, it was a really tough hike. Up there, we realized that we went the wrong mountain up. Too bad, but the view was still amazing. Anyways, after spending some time up there, we decided to hike back down and arrived at our car at 4pm. We headed back to Jasper, bought some groceries, checked in our Hostel for the next three nights and cooked something. I took care of some stuff and we headed to bed at 11.

Only 12 more days in Canada. Excited about the rest time together with Mario. Especially about tomorrow and the day after. Two long hiking days in Jasper😊

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Sixth day – june, 7th, Wednesday: We started the hike after breakfast. We were in no rush, so I took my time. Anyways, just 26km to go. On the one hand it iss ad, but on the other hand I am looking forward being back in civilization. We hiked 12km to Darling Beach. The fist part was a beautiful way on the beach. I gotta say this one more time. The beaches, the nature and cliffs around it are just breathatking. Untouched nature since 1 ½ years, We are just so lucky that we´ve been the first on the trail since then. A part was a forrest hike, which was beautiful as well. We were able to hike this whole day together with our three canadien friends. I really enjoy speaking to all oft hem, but especially to Lynn. I was able to learn a lot from her about almost everything, but mostly about hiking, kayaking and just surving in the wildness. Lynn has done a lot of more day trips in her life. Hiking, kayaking, probably even surviving without any gear. It was great! We arrived after 14km at our last Campground. Michigan Beach! A really nice Campground. Wes et up everything, I started a fire and we had the same procedure as every evening, but one thing was different on this day.

Closely after we arrived at the Campground, a father, who hiked the WCT with his two kids came up and said: „R u interested in seeing a black bear!“ – I was like: „R u kidding me, where the hell is that bear?“ He showed us him. The bear was about 100m far away from our Campground down at the beach, he was flipping rocks over to look out for some crab or other food. We saw him and he saw us. I was sitting on that log and was just starring at him for 10 minutes. It was so cool to realize how close humans are realted to the nature. I had the feeling that I am a part of his territory. I respected him and he respected me. After 10 minutes he probably got lazy and annoyed and went beack into the forrest. So cool. Unfortunately I wasn´t able to take good pictures of him, because he was so far away, but I tried to embrace the atmosphere more than taking pictures😊 We had our last dry meal in the evening before we went to bed.

Seventh day – june, 8th, Thursday: Last day☹ We had twelve km to go. We got up around 7 and started our last day at 8:15am. Pachena Bay was the destination for today. This last part is just boring. U r walking the forrest route. A pretty flat area without anything. At least we saw the motorcylce on our way, but that was mostly the highlight oft he hike on this day. I have to admit even though I felt in really good shape the whole way along here, but I guess because I was so exhausted from the last days, I felt terrible on this day. I was so tired, even though the hike was not hard at all, I was just exhausted. The last km was really hard. We weren´t able to go the beach route beacuse of the tide, we didn´t want to sit the tide out, so we decided to keep going the last km in the forrest. Weh ad to climb up and down probably something around 10 ladders until we finally came tot he exit point at Pachena Bay. It was tough, but we all made it! We arrived at the office at Pachena Bay at 12pm. I went in, said we all are alright and signed out. I asked for a fish scale and weighted my bakcpack a second time: 17kg. I lost 5 kilos in 7 days. That is ok😊 We still had to wait 2 hours for the bus, but we were really lucky. Lynn´s ex-husband picked both oft hem up with his new RV. While Lynn and Gill were doing the WCT, he was a bit further north and did a kayak trip. Lynn, Will and Gill arrived earlier at the exit point, when they saw us, the invited us to come to the RV. We had beer, junk food and just waited fort he bus. Actually we didn´t even wait for the bus. These two hours were one of the best oft he time on the WCT. We laughed a lot, we all made it and this feeling connected us even more. A big thanks to Michael who picked the two girls up, weh ad an amazing time in your RV and enjoyed every sip of the beer. Around 2 it was time to say goodbye, but we all said this is not a goodbye for ever. We will see us again one more time in life, for sure.

Will, Liesa, Kathy, Mario and I took the bus back to Victoria where we arrived at 8pm. Mario and I are gonna stay two more days in Victoria until we will head back to Vancouver, where we will stay 3 more days until our RoadTrip to Calgary will start.

All in all the West Coast Trail was an amzing experience for all of us. Weh ad shitty moments, painful moments, shitty weather, dangerous situation, but all in all this doesn´t matter. There were thousands of things that I enjoyed. I put up with the pain for these great experiences. We met many different people from different regions of the world. Tübingen in Germany, Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, Courtenay north of Nanaimo, Vancouver, Cliffs of Moher in Ireland, Victoria on Vancouver Island… We set our own standards, pushed and supported each other. 7 days we lived together in the wild nature, on the back a backpack with 22 kilos, where everything was in it, what we needed for the 9 days cut off from civilization. Besides the physical and mental effort that the West Coast Trail demands from you, it was the ambition, the incredibly beautiful nature, the wildlife, the shared moments and much more that gave me an unforgettable time. I would like to close the chapter West Coast Trail classically, as in many Saturday night shows or gala evenings.

I say thank you to all the people from different regions of the world that I met and shared their experiences with me. I say thank you to Will, the medical student from Victoria. Thanks to Lynn and Gill, who supported and accompanied us the whole time and who became great friends. You three made my West Coast Trail experience something even better. And finally, a huge thank you to Katharina Kasperek, Liesa Voß and Mario Schrenk. Without you I would never have been able to share this experience with you. I think we were a great team and still are.

I am looking forward to the next hiking adventure with you.

Your Tom

Third day – june, 6th, Sunday:  On this day we planned to go 10km. We were at km mark 58 at Cullite Cove and we headed to Bonilla Creek. Anyways, let us start in the morning, After packing everything together and having breakfast we started the day. I have to admit I had a really good sleep, probably because I was mentaly and physically so tired from the last day. Further we improved, it took us maybe just about an hour until we were ready to go. Because we slept at a Campground which is located in a Creek, we had to climb a lot of ladders up, after this it started to rain again and the rain was not about to stop for the whole rest oft he day, but our mood was in a good shape. The forrest route was in a terrible shape, especially because of all the rain, we had slippery boardwalks and a lot of them weren´t  in a good shape at all. I guess all of us felt at least one time. Further we had a lot of huge mud holes, so I was one more time happy about my trekking poles. Furhter on the first 5km weh ad to clim over a lot of roots and fallen trees. We were wondering about the point where we meet the first hikers from Pachena Bay. Well, this day was that day. At km mark 55, we met the first two hikers, we had a little chat about the condition of the trail, where we should pay attention and some other stuff. They didn´t have any trekking poles and we were wondering how the would walk over little trees, which were fallen down in the mud holes, without falling into these mud holes, but anyway after 5km we came to Walbran Creek, weh ad to climb one more time a lot of ladders down there. People saying if u start in the south and u get to Walbran Creek, the hardest part is beyond u. So we were happy to be there, but it was still porring down on us. We met Lynn and Gill again. They were already sitting since an hour under their little yellow tarp and waited that the tide would go down, so that they could cross the river and keep going to Bonilla Creek. When we arrived I was so happy that they said u can sit under our tarp. At this point I was soaking wet, actually everything was soaking wet, but at that point I didn´t know that yet. Sitting, without moving under this tarp for an hour and waiting fort he tide, this was probably the hardest thing on the whole trail. I was freezing cold, I even changed my wet clothes to some of my dry ones, but even this didn´t help me at all. After an hour I changed again because we kept going. Shoes off, tide was low enough and we passed the knee deep river with our 22 kilo backpacks, trekking poles and naked feet on rocks and little stones. Yes, it was painful, but we wanted to go on. From this point on it still rained but not as heavy as before. The last 5km were at the ebach, it is pretty hard to walk in the sand, but thanks tot he rain, it wasn´t that bad walking there. We saw a lot of Cougar prints on the beach, but luckily no Cougar. Honestly, if u see them, they wanna be seen and that doesn´t mean anything good for u. Around 3pm we arrived at Bonilla Creek. Bonilla Creek was probably the most ugliest Campground where we stayed. Further it is really small. Mario and I found a little Cave at this Campground where we built up our tent. We were a bit afraid of wildlife but everything went out well for us. We dried all of our clothes and in the evening after having dinner we enjoyed the sun. After almost 24 hoursof rain the sun came out for the first time. That was just an indescribable feeling and I felt reborn. We dried all of our clothes and I even dried my wet sleeping pat. Because oft he rain we weren´t able to set up a Campfire, everything was just wet. Too bad – for that reason we went to  

All in all this day was an adventure. The forrest part was mentally really exhausting, the beach route was physically really exhausting. The rain just made everything worse, but we made it to km mark 48! After the first three days of hiking, I feel really great. I thaught if would be harder for me. Even as the ginnypig of the group I feel amazing. Of course some muscles feel sour, but in general after 27km I feel great, let´s see what the next days will bring us.

Fourth day – june 07th, Monday: We started the day at 7. I was really tired in the morning, but it didn´t matter. This day was about to be a short one. For that reason I was ok with getting up early (ish). Yesterday we passed Walbran Creek (the toughest part is supposed to be behind us) and that right. We left Bonilla Creek and our beautiful cave around 9. The weather was amazing, actually for the first time, so we enjoyed this. Blue sky, no clouds, just sunshine. I guess we earned this after days of shitty weather. Our destination for this day was Cribs Creek. Lynn said to us that this should be one oft he pretiest campgrounds. So we hiked the first 4km of the 6 on the beach. Was pretty exhausting, because of the deep sand, but easy doable. The hardest thing of this hike was the Cable Car to cross a river. I never, not even the first time in gym after weeks, felt so sour while pulling myself over. Anyways, after the Cable Car, we had to take the forrest route. Really slippery, wet and a lot of bad boardwalks. After this, we were able to hike on the beach again. We arrived around 12pm at Cribs Creek. Luckily Lynn and Gill were already there and set up their tents and all other stuff. Shortly before they arrived there, some people left Cribs Creek and headed south. They had a fire running and they asked Lynn if they should leave it like that. She agreed. We camped directly next to the Campfire, so our task was to keep that fire running. While drying all of our wet clothes we sit on the beach, hearing the waves crushing in front of us and enjoying the sun. Lovely beaches around us. The good thing about the regulation oft he West Coast ist hat there aren´t any tourists, no service, no streets, just the natives, the staff of the park and the hikers. That means all the beaches, in general the nature is just untouched. Beautiful! We had a really relaxing day. Around 4pm, we saw a solo hiker at the horizon. We thaught directly this must be Dennis and it was him. We sit the whole evening around the Campfire together with Lynn and Gill (of course) and had an amazing time. I went fo a little walk, stretched myself and met some irish folks, a german girl from Tübingen and a canadien from Nanaimo. I spoke to all oft hem for like 30 minutes. That´s probably one oft he best things on the WCT. Arriving at the Campground, sitting around the Camp Fire and speaking to different folks. Amazing! On the one hand it is just too bad, that beacause of Covid there aren´t a lot of people on the trail, but on the other hand because of this the trail isn´t busy at all, the nature is indescribable and u got a lot of space around the Campgrounds. Lynn said back in the times, there were like 50 tents at one Campground. Weh ad so far maybe a maximum of 6 tents, pretty lucky.  Before we went to bed Liesa, Mario and I went for a swim in the ocean, just beautiful😊 We went to bed at 11pm.

Fifth day – june 8th, Tuesday: After this realxing day yesterday we had a long trip ahead of us for today. 16km from Cribs Creek to Tsusidat Falls via Nitinaht Village. For this reason we got up at 6am, headed out at 7. The way on the beach was easy doable, I mean we are used to something harder than everything before Walbran Creek, so we had a good pace. At one point weh ad to climb the ladders up tot he forrest trail, because u can´t keep going on the beach. Unfortunaley we missed the ladders back down tot he beach, so weh ad to take the forrest route. 1 week before the WCT opened, a staff member reported an unyielding Cougar between km mark 30 and 34. U got one guess who had to hike through this area because this group missed the ladders back down to the trail – yep us! Fort hat reason we were really loud. It is weird, in situation like this u really don´t k what to say or sing or to whistle. I guess it is automatically that u start singing songs like „German Schlager“, songs of your childhood or other stuff like that. Anyways at km mark 32 we were able to go back on the beach. We met Lynn, Gill and Will (We met Will at Cribs Creek, a solo hiker who started the trail south one day after us. He is 30 years old, is living in Victoria and ist studying medicine – at this point we didn´t know yet that he was about to become a good friend of us until the end of the trip). We hiked the rest 2km to Nitinaht Village together. We arrived at this point around 11:30. We already made 12km on this day, so we were really happy about having lunch at this palce. The Nitinaht Village is a place where some natives are living. The offer a restaurant there with certain different food. Crab, fully loaded potato (oven potato with bacon, sour creme and spring onions), salmon, breakfast and beer. We all had lunch and just enjoyed some „normal“ food after days of porridge, dry food and snacks like protein bars. Of course it is not that cheap, but it was worth it at this point. We stayed there for 1 ½ hours. Then we moved on. Tob e able to go on u had to cross the Nitinaht River, a huge river, which is just passable with the boat. When u make your reservation u already pay for the ferry to cross this river. One oft he natives brought us over and we hiked the last 7km to Tsusidat Falls. Beautiful trail along the ocean, a mix of forrest and beach trails made this part so incredible that we all forgot about the pain in our body. Some oft he boardwalks were slippery, but mostly the trail was well maintained. We arrived around 3 at Tsusidat Falls. Tsusidat Falls is „la créme de la créme“ of the WCT. Unbelivable beautiful. Like I said I am going to post some pictures the next days. We went for a swim under the waterfall, we were even able to go behind the waterfall. For some reason the water was so warm, so that I stayed there 20 minutes. I just enjoyed life at this point. I felt so lucky, happy – just an amazing feeling of living😊 I started a campfire in the evening, we had dinner and sit around the camp fire with Lynn, Gill and Will. Later a canadien father and his daughter joined us and we spoke about everything. Canadiens, politics, different of german and canadien culture. Amazing evening!

Day 5 on the trail – two to go. This is the end of part two. I hoped u enjoyed reading it and further I hope too that I didn´t miss something. Anyways, looking forward to write the third part and to attach some pictures…

Honestly I don´t really know where I should beginn. I mean there is so much stuff to tell u about. The last 10 days were just incredible. Before I will start writing about my adventure on the West Coast of Vancouver Island, I just wanna give u just a short overview oft he West Coast Trail.

The „West Coast Trail“ is a 75km long Trail on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. It is located between Port Renfrew with the access and exit point Gordon River and Bamfield with the access and exit point Pachena Bay. U can either start in the south and hike north or the other way around. In generel it takes up to 7 or 8 days to hike the trail. That means, no service, no washrooms, just nothing. U gotta survive wit the gear, the groceries, the food and everything else u packed before. Seems pretty tough. I promise u, it was. The southern part oft he trail is known for it´s difficulty. It is getting easier in the northern area. We decided to start in Gordon River, south, but actually this adventure didn´t start in Port Renfrew, it started much more earlier.

It´s been the first of june around 11am. Liesa and Kathy came to the farm, they slept the night on a campground close tot he farm. We packed our stuff together and put everything in Kathy´s car, which she parked on the property. From this moment on, I just had the stuff with me, that I packed in my 60 liters Deuter backpack. Kennedy brought us tot he Milly Bay, we took the Ferry to Brentwood Bay and then the bus to Victoria. Our AirBnB was in Chinatown. Chinatown in Victoria is located close to Downtown. Weh ad a good location, even though it was so warm in there. But anyways, we enjoyed it there. In the evening we had dinner at a pub in Downtown. I had Irish Stew, really great😊

On Wednesday, the second of june, we had some things to take care of. In the morning, after a last phone call with Mom and Dad, we had to do some shopping fort he WCT. We went to MEC and Robinson Outdoor Store and bought all the food and all our camping gear, we haven´t bought yet. Even though dry food is pretty expensive it was worth it and I can highly recommend it. I mean it doesn´t taste like a nice medium roasted beef, but you just need to add some water and u got a high calories food. Before our shopping trip I made, like a schedule, a little plan for my next 7/8 days. In the morning I always had dates, porridge with some nuts and some little waflles. Nothing to heavy to carry. The dates were like 700gr, I guess too much. I woulnd´t buy them again, but it was still great to have them with me. I bought some protein bars, little snacks and energy gels for lunch and in the evening the dry food. A lot of calories are important. U gotta know yourself or at least u have to try to get to know yourself a bit. Are u more the guy who sweats a lot and needs a lot of vitamins, salt and water, do u burn a lot of calories or r u more the guy who just doesn´t need a lot of everything. Because I knew that I need a lot of everything I bought almost too much of everything, but in the end my plan was pretty good. Anyways, after our shopping trip and too much of spending money, we headed to FIsherman´s Wharf, Beacon Hill Park and showed the girls everything u need to see in Victoria. Mario and I already knew everything but it was fun spending some times with the two girls. As a reminder, I met Liesa on the first farm back in Ontario. She came two weeks before me and left after two months. So I haven´t seen her in like 7 months. Same thing about Kathy. She came after me, but left before me. I met her once in Calgary, but it also has been a long time since the last time where I have seen her. We really had a great day.

Thursday, june, 03th. We got up early. Because the West Caost Trail, as u can see it on the map, is somewhere in the nowhere, u just can get there by car, usually. There is another option, and actually the only one for us – „The West Coast Trail Express“. That is a bus that takes you the whole way from Victoria either to Port Renfrew or to Bamfield. It is pretty expensive, so if u feel comfortable leaving all your equipment and stuff in your car for a week at one of the two exit points, I would recommend that. We left the BnB at 5:45am. Weh ad to walk about 20 minutes tot he Douglas Street, where the bus arrived shortly after us. We hopped on, met two other canadiens that were planning to start the trail also on the 4th, but they would start north. Weh ad a little and nice chat until I felt asleep. The drive took us three hours until we arrived at the Pacheedaht Campground. The Pacheedaht Campground is directly next to the Gordon River and next tot he entrance point oft he West Coast Trail. We arrived early, I guess around 9:30am. We signed in and built up our tents on this beautiful campground. We went for a walkt o the Bridgemans Café in Port Renfrew and had some lunch. After this we started a fire at the beach next to the Campground and just enjoyed our non-pain time before we would start the hike tomorrow. We ate some Marshmellow and saw a black bear with two cups across the river. Unfortunately we just saw them for like 3 seconds, so i wasn´t able to take a picture. In the evening we had our Teriyaki noodles, which we already prepared in advance. I had a good sleep, I guess. Was awake two times and that is pretty good for camping. In generel I am not a camping guy, not a guy who can stay for nights in tents, but that was the only option, so I had to go with it.

First day – Friday, june 4th: The big day was about to start. We got up around 8, had breakfast and packed everything together. We went tot he Parks Canada Office and signed in fort he WCT (West Coast Trail). Thanks to Covid everything was a bit different than the last years, our orientation session was about 15 minutes instead of an hour, weh ad to watch a video prior our arrival and the nice woman asked us some questions about it during our orientation. Further she explained the tide table, the map and recent wildlife sightings. While having our orientation wem et Dennis, a germany guy from Karlsruhe. He was supposed to start the WCT one day after us and from Pachena Bay. We said that we´re probably gonna see him one day on any oft he campgrounds. After orientation we waited another hour, i gotta say we waited a lot the last two days. Coming tot he acces point at the south access u have to cross the Gordon River, that is just possible with a boat. Around 11:30am one oft he natives brought us over with the boat. We started the hike with 8 other people. 2 of them are about to become our best friends, but at that time we didn´t know that. Before we started the hike I weight my backpack at a fish scale. 22 kilos. Pretty heavy. Usually people on the WCT carry 15 up to 20 kilos with them. Mine was probabaly too heavy, but anyways I didn´t care, I was just about starting. We were slow. Compared to all the others, but we said to ourselves, that we r gonna take our time and just enjoy the beauty of this trail. After 3km we took our first break. The famous steam machine was just ahead of us. We took pictures, ate some snacks and took a little break. The first part oft he WCT ist he toughest, well, at least that´s what most people are telling you. U have the biggest elevation, a lot of ladders and pretty tough parts. I gotta admit, I didn´t fell that way. Form e it was ok, not too bad. I mean yes it was exhausting but I felt pretty good. I´ve been the ginnypig on this day. We went on until the 5km mark, it was already 3:30pm, so we decided to take the way down to Thrasher Cove, the first possible campsite on our route. Going down took us a bout an hour, really steep, thousands of ladders, climbing over a tree and all that with a 22 kilo backpack. This last km was exhausting, I was so happy when we arrived down at the beach. We built up our tents, had dinner and a bonfire. The first hike was ok. The trail is in a good shape. I mean for more than 1 ½ years nobody has been on it, thanks to Covid, so a huge thanks to all the people that maintained it recently. The last km was just horrible, same about the campground. A lot of logs and big fallen trees made it almost impossible to find a good shelter for the night. Anyways, the evening was pretty cool. We saw a seal and took a nice picture with a huge crab. Further Lynn and Gill were there just 1 hour before us. Lynn is a 64 years old woman and Gill is her adopted daughther, who is 31 years old. They have done the WCT several times and they are really experienced. Except us they have been the only people camping with us. Because of Covid, travel restrictions and other reasons, the trail wasn´t busy at all. That was good for us. We had a little talk with them and decided together that we would take the beach route tomorrow. We would have had two options. Either we would climb the whole way to the forrest trail back up or we would take the beach route. Obviously, because noone wanted to go up that way again, we decided to take the beach route. A little teaser? The second day was about to get the toughest day form e and I guess for all of us, thanks tot he beach route, but more about that further down in the blog. Mario and I stayed up until 10:30pm, just to see if the tide would come too close to our tents. Luckily not. We went to bed and had 5 hours of sleep.

This day was especially physically exhausting, but I thaught it would be much more harder than it was, but good for me. 6km from Gordon River to Thrasher Cove, took us 4h 30min.

Second day – Saturday, june 5th: For me the hardest day was about to come. I guess for msotly all of us. It was rainy. Weh ad shitty weather. We got up at 4:15am on this day. Crazy early, yes I know. I am gonna explain why soon. Weh ad breakfast, packed everything together and started our beach hike at 6. We were so slow, I just hoped that we would improve the next days. The beach route sound really nice until u get on it. It consists basically out of boulders, big fallen trees and huge rocks. We had to climb over all those things. Liufting yourself up a huge boulder with 22 kilo on your back, that is quiet difficult. Further the bad weather didn´t improve the conditions on the trail, the rocks and stones were so slippery, so we had to go really slow. Even though I was the ginnypig on this day too. I went ahead and tbh I made a lot of pressure and stress and had a good speed on, sometimes to fast, what probabaly hasn´t been that good. U might ask yourself: So, why did he has a speed like that and made so much pressure. The tide table for this day looked like this:

04:32am            1.1M

10:33am            2.6M

16:16pm            1.3M

22:34pm            3.2M

If u look on the map for Owen Pt., u can see that this point is just passable at a tide below 1.8M – from Thrasher Cove to there, it was just 3km, but especially on the WCT km marks, they don´t count. Like I already said, we had to go so slow and it took us about 2 to 3 hours to get to Owen Pt. I made such a pressure, because we were pretty late the tide was at 04:32am at it´s lowest point and started to rise again until 10:33am to 2.6M. So weh ad to get to Owen Pt early, so that we could pass it, otherwise we would have to sit somewhere until 3pm tob e able to pass it. After a mentally and physically tough and exhausting boulder and rock route we finally came to Owen Pt. A beautiful place along the WCT. Some caves and beautiul sandstone walls. We took some pictures and thaugt we would be there early enough until we realized that this wasn´t the Point. Weh ad to go around another corner to get there and that was the point where we realized: „Shit, hurry up“. I went ahead, my right leg was almost knee deep in the water, waves were coming in, I unclipped my backpack, threw it over the little cliff, where we had to get up. Actually, it wasn´t that hard to get up there, but because the stones below u were so slippery it was almost impossible to pass that point, while waves were coming in. I almost slipped, but luckily I was able to catch the top oft he cliff, so I pulled myself up. I took the backpacks from the others and they came up to. This situation was so dangerous, we just realized this afterwards. The flow was so heavy and the floot was coming. If one of us would have slipped, we would have be pulled out in the ocean. Luckily this didn´t happen and all the pressure felt of me. In the end it was good that I made so much pressure and had a good speed on. If we would have been there 5minutes later, we weren´t be able to pass. Anways, after the first 3km weh ad to pass a lot of dangerous surge chanels, we were walking on slippery stones and had to pay attention with each step. After two more km on the beach we fianlly got to the exit point, we went up, were soaking wet, because it started to rain heavily after Owen Pt. And took a little break. Gill and Lynn were also there, we had a little talk. They said: „We thaught u woulnd´t make it, we were so sure that either something has happend to u or u guys were just under a shelter and sitting out the tide“. Unbeliveable first 4 hours oft he day. We went on the forrest route for the rest oft he day. The boardwalks were in a terrible shape , weh ad to climb up and down a lot of ladders, especially down to Camper Bay at km-mark 62. We arrived there around noon, took the first cable car over the river to the Campground and had a 1 hour lunch break. It was an amazing feeling when the sun came out for like 20 minutes. I started to put all my things out to let them dry, but after 20 minutes it started to rain again. Weh ad Liguini for lunch. Actually we packed 8 dry meals, so a spare one, but I just needed something more than snacks. After our lunch break we decided to go on. Cullite Cove would be the next Campground. Weh ad to walk 4km forrest route. 4km of terrible Boardwalks, a lot of muddy and deep holes. I was so happy about having trekking poles and gaiters. They were so important. Around 4pm we arrived at Cullite. It is a nice Campground in the middle of a Canyon. The waves at this place were huge, so we decided: No, we´re not gonna make it in the water, too dangerous. It was really loud at that Campground, but even though we started a little camp fire, thanks tot he help of Gillian. Yes, Lynn and Gill arrived earlier than us, of course. At this point we still had some problems with starting a campfire, further a lot oft he wood was just wet, but I promise I improved a lot in the end😉 We went to bed at 10:30pm, just had a great time around the camp fire, especially with Lynn and Gill, we talked about everything and just shared our stories and adventures.

That is the end oft he first part of my WCT adventure. The blog draft shouldn´t get too long, so I decided to split it up in different parts. Anyways, stay tuned. I am probably gonna upload one more blog draft in the end with some pictures.

I am just going to give u a short update about Monday and Tuesday. On Monday Kathy and Liesa came visiting us, we went for a little walk around noon. We talked about the WCT and just things in general. I haven´t seen Liesa since she left the farm and Kathy since I´ve been in Calgary. So weh ad much to talk about. In the evening Mario and I went to the Mill Bay and had a burger. Something like a Goodbye Damali Lavender & Winery dinner. It was great.

Tuesday: On Tuesday we cleaned the whole loft in the morning. Liesa and Kathy came around 11 and we relaxed up in the loft until 3. Kennedy brought all of us tot he Mill Bay and we headed to Victoria. Weh ave an AirBnB here fort he next two nights. On the 3rd we´re gonna head tot he Pacheedaht Campground, directy next tot he start point oft he West Coast Trail. We will start with the hike on the 4th and we planned 7 days to complete it. I won´t have any service on the whole way, I won´t add something to my blog, so actually I won´t be reachable the next week, the next 10 days☹

I am looking forward tot he start oft he West Coast Trail. I guess we are gonna have an amazing time.
I will keep u updated directly after the hike. Stay safe and healthy,

Tom

Our last week on the farm began. It was a shitty day. It rained the whole time, there was no sun at all and we just planned our next couple weeks. In the evening we went for a run and got groceries with Kennedy. We´re probably gonna work this week from Tuesday to Thursday. Looking forward to our last week here. Let´s see what the week will offer us 😊

Monday: Lazy, rainy day. But we were productive. We planned our whole trip until mid june. Actually we also rent a car for our RoadTrip from Vancouver to Calgary. There was a lot to take care of. West Coast Trail, RoadTrip, accomodations, transfer… The plan is ready! Looking forward tot he next weeks. In the evening I went for a 5km run. A beautiful run. Weh ad around 12 degrees, it was rainy and I just had my pants, a tank top and my shoes on and just enjoyed running through the rain. I felt so good afterwards and I realised that this kind of weather ist he best one for me to go for a run. I enjoyed every second o fit n I had a good time. 5:17min/km. Pretty good.

Tuesday to Thursday: Our last three days of work were… I guess boring. The work we´ve done can be described with one word: rhubarab! On Tuesday we´ve been the whole day down in the field and harvested the rhubarab. A big field… fort hat reason it took us about 8 hours and the day was over. We had Steak in the evening and watched James Bond. On Wednesday our work can bescribed with: more rhubarb… We harvested the rest oft he rhubarb and after lunch our task was to cut the rhubarb in small pieces (not bigger than an inch). Such a boring task. Finally we cut about 500 kilos of rhubarb. This took us the rest oft he day and half day of Thursday. Of course I cut myself in the finger… Not tob ad but it still hurts.

Friday: Friday was going to be a nice day. In the morning I had a really great phone call with mom and dad. After this I enjoyed lunch. Chilli con Carne made by Mario. I replied to some mails, planned something else for the WCT and we prepared dinner int he afternoon. We invited Christine, Kennedy and the kids for a „german dinner“. Schnitzel, Kartoffelgratin und Bohnen im Speckmantel und dazu Karrtoffelsalat. Christine brought a salad and a dessert over. It was quiet fun and I guess they enjoyed the german kitchen. Mario and I did pretty good. I would say I definitley improved my cooking skilly in Canada.

Saturday: Big day! A new girl would come and for the first time it wasn´t a german girl. A canadien girl from Ontario will arrive at 3ish. I will tell you about her something later:) Anyways, we started the day at 9am. We took Kennedy´s car in the morning to bring our empties tot he depot. We got 24 bucks back😉 Ali came at 3. She is a nice, 20 years old girl from Vancouver, who goes to university in Ontario. We went together to the beach, went for a swim and had some beers. Nice evening. She is gonna stay 6 weeks on the farm until she goes back to university. Luckily we could hang out with her for two days. First meeting with a canadien in my age. After almost 9 months.

Sunday: Planning! I printed almost 20 files in the morning, we planned our Road Trip and I started to pack my backpack for the WCT and that was almost the day. We went for playing basketball in the evening and had Dinner together 😊

Mario and I are gonna leave the farm on Tuesday. We had such an amazing experience here. So much fun with Kennedy, but also with Christine and the kids. Thank your for having us @damali lavender & winery, we would love to come back one day.

Tom and Mario