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.
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