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
Canada Work&Travel 