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| The start of the West Coast Trail at Gordon River. |
I stood looking up at the impossibly tall and vertical wooden ladder that represented the start of the West Coast Trail (WCT). I knew there were ladders but this one was intimidating. And of course with our packs full, we had to climb with our maximum weight. It was the only way to get on the trail. The landing craft had already left the pebble beach, and other hikers were waiting their turn to climb the ladder. The simple rule was, one person on a ladder at a time. This was the start of an awesome coastal hiking adventure.
June 28, 2024 - Day 1: Gordon River to Camper Bay (13 km - 9h,30m)
I awoke in my own bed at 5:15 am. My pack was already packed up and ready to go. Trekking poles stowed. All there was to do was to put on my light hiking gear, pick up my pack and hike through the early morning streets of Victoria to the bus stop. I met Charlene at the corner of Linden and Fairfield and together we walked (hiked) along the quiet streets to the Crystal Gardens bus stop on Douglas Street.
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| West Coast Trail Express - bus to Gordon River |
Other hikers were already at the stop and visibly happy to see us as it meant they were in the right place. Right on time the West Coast Trail bus arrived. It was a 2017 vintage converted school bus, painted in West Coast Trail Express colours. The reason for using a converted school bus is they need a vehicle that can handle the punishment of driving hundreds of kilometres along unpaved rough logging roads. This is not your typical bus route. It exists solely to transport hikers for the West Coast Trail and the Juan de Fuca Trail, and it is surprisingly quite a busy route. It runs once a day every day during the hiking season (May to October).
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| On the boat to cross Gordon River to the trailhead |
After stopping along the way at China Beach Trailhead to drop hikers and pick up 13 hikers, and then at Botanical Beach to drop hikers, we arrived at Gordon River Trailhead at 9:20 am.
We checked in, paid our park access fee (at the time it was $11 per day up to 5 days then annual pass price applies). As Canada Day is free park access we only had to pay for four days on the trail. Our hike was planned at five day.
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| Start of the hike |
At 10am, all hikers attended the mandatory briefing by the park rangers. This covers how to read the map, how to read tide tables (both of which are supplied and came in extremely useful). They also provided details on any animal sightings, trail closures, and warned us to only plan hiking at 1 km per hour on the first six kilometres of the trail. They also advised once we get to Wlbran River Crossing we had covered the most difficult section of the trail. Then with that, they handed out our backcountry passess and walked us down to the water taxi.
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| On the Gordon River to Thrasher Cove section of the WCT |
Sixteen hikers and a boat designed to hold 12. The operator was okay with squeezing us in anyway, so i ended up standing behind the operator. The crossing was a pleasant five minute ride across the river to a little pebble beach, where the operator beached the craft nose first and then dropped a gangway so we could walk off. While I appreciated not having to get our feet wet, it was somewhat ironic as that was the last my feet were dry on the entire trip.
Facing us was a tall ladder, and that was, apparently, the only way to access the trail. We waited our turn and the began the climb. The park rangers advised always keep three points of contact when climbing or descending a ladder; advice I took to heart. Normally climbing a latter you would move a hand a foot at the same time, maintain two points of contact. But these ladders had thick well spaced rungs, so going slow but steady was much safer to do.
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| More ladders |
Finally at the top. One ladder done. And this didn't count towards the official 38 ladder sets on the trail. A set of ladders could be anywhere from two consecutive ladders split by landing to a record seven at one location.
From here it was a gruling tough hike as we climb up towards the highest point on the trail, only to descend and equally steep trail. Deep mud puddles and massive roots to climb over made the going very slow. Downed trees meant navigating around, under or over. And then deep gullies to cross. Usually these were traversed by using a set of ladders to get down, only to then immediately climb another set of ladders back up. While fun, ladders where slow as only one person at a time could be on them.
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| Remains of a steam donkey on the trail. This used to be a telegraph route - not sure what this would have bene used for, other than to haul things up the hill. |
We made it to the junction for the trial down to Trasher Cove at 2:50 pm. This was a great spot for a break and we ate apples and plums. Fresh fruit on the trail is a luxury. Unfortunately, and as I expected, we had missed the tide to get around Owen Point today, so we decided to continue on the trail to Camper Bay. While a little better than the first six kilometres, this section of trail was pretty slow going to, and in all it took us five hours to make the remaining 8 kilometres to Camper Bay.
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| Lots of mud, some of it thigh deep, on the trail. |
We could see Camper Bay as we descended the ladders and entered the camp area on our first cable car. These were fun. A tight fit for two backpacks and two people, but a fun ride to halfway across, then hard haul on the rope to pull all our combined weight up to the opposite platform. It was 8:15 pm when we walked into camp.
Camper Bay was packed. There must have been 30+ tents sets up on the small sandbar at the mouth of the river. We found a spot between two tents and set up there. And just in time as a light rain started. While I set up the tent, Charlene made dinner - Anne's Mac and Cheese with home dried vegetables and skip jack tuna added. And we ate the last of our fresh fruit. It was delicious! After cleaning up and storing the food in the food lockers, by 10 pm we were in our sleeping bags and flat out asleep.
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| On the cable car to cross Camper Creek to Camper Bay. One of five cable cars on the WCT. |
June 29, 2024 - Day 2: Camper Bay to Bonilla Point (15 km - 9h,50m)
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| Busy at Camper Bay |
We were up at 6 am and were packed and ready to go at 8:20am. Leaving Camper Bay we had a steep climb up ladders back to the trail and much the same as yesterday on a rough muddy foresty trail. The trail was unrelenting and my estimate of 7 hours to make the nine kilometres to Walbran Creek was off by about 30 minutes. We walked onto the beach at the mouth of the Walbran River at about 4 pm. Now we had a decision. Could we make the tide to hike the beach up to Bonilla Point? We needed tides below 2.7 metres. I spent some time calculating and figured we had until about 6 pm to make it around Vancouver Point, and 7 pm to get to Bonilla Point before the tides would be too high. Hikers heading south who had just completed that section assured us we had time.
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| Pick your route across the creek..... |
So with that we waded across Walbran River; the river was about knee high. A lot of hikers were taking off their shoes and rolling up their pants. But why bother. My feet where already wet with mud. We just waded in and it felt so refreshing. Though I did forget the back-country pass was in my pocket and it got pretty wet.
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| Coastal views made the trail that much easier. |
The beach hike was lovely. Pretty hard packed sand. We watched Grey Whales as we hiked and were weary of the tide as it was coming in fast. At the end of the 2.7 metre tide section, we came across a couple sitting at the trailhead studying their map and tide table. I guess what they were doing so I assured them they had time to make it to Walbran before the tide. It was 5 pm and the hike had taken us only 40 minutes.
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| A rather intimidating ladder up a sheer rock wall. |
We arrived a Bonilla Point camping area about 6:30 pm, and we were the only ones there. We had the entire camp area to ourselves; such a nice change to the night before. And a waterfall right in the camp. What a perfect spot to end the day.
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| Crossing the Walbran River |
Charlene went for a swim and shower in the waterfall. We got the tent set up and had Mac and Cheese for dinner again (this is the heaviest of our foods, so they get eaten first). It started to rain around 7:30 pm. It was light misty rain but it certainly soaked everything. We had a protected area under trees so we really didn't get wet, though the tent was exposed. We re in our sleeping bags by 9 pm and asleep as the rain pattered on the tent.
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| Hiking the beach with only an hour left of favourable tides |
June 30, 2024 - Day 3: Bonilla Point to Tsusiat Falls (26 km - 11h,55m)
I awoke in the middle of the night with part of the tent collapsed on me. The weight of water had caused the tent peg to come out of the sand. The pegs are not great in sand and I usually use rocks on top to provide more counter force. It didn't take long to re-establish guy-line and add more weight to the peg. it survived the night.
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| Bonilla Waterfall - right in the camp area made a perfect shower. |
We woke early to the sound of rain. We had a long day planned so we got up about 5:15am (and yes it is light at that time at this time of year) and were packed and ready to go by 7:20am. I always hate packing up the tent when it is wet, and it must weigh another kilo with all the water that the sil nylon soaks up. With out rain jackets on and umbrellas up, we set off up the beach in the rain.
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| Hiking in the rain |
We passed Carmanah camping area and waded across the Carmanah River and arrived at the burger shack by 9:00am. Too early for a burger but so tempting. We kept moving, climbing the trail over the Carmanah Point headlands before rejoining the beach for a lovely hike all the way up to the Cheewhat River. Well mostly. We had to go off the beach and climb ladders up high then back down after a short trail to get around an impassable surge channel. The tide was quite low and still going out, so we were able to walk on the rocks and look at tide pools.
We waded across the Cribbs River about 10 am and as we did we could see a lot of hikers hanging out at the camp area. They were waiting for the tides so they could continue north. We had timed it perfect as the tide was low enough after 10 am and it was exactly 10 am when we were wading across the Cribbs River.
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| Morning fog |
The lovely beach hike ended and we then had a beautifully smooth forest trail to take us across the Cheewhat River the inland and right into Nitnat Narrows. Beautiful board walks along this route, with the occasional mud pit just to keep it real. We arrived Nitnat Narrows Crab Shack at 2:30 pm.
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| Such a beautiful morning to hike the beaches at low tide |
We took a break here and had an early dinner of one full freshly caught crab, Pacific Cod, and fully loaded baked potato, two ciders, a Bubly and Reeces Peanut Butter cups, all for about $130. In the middle of nowhere, that is good value. We stayed at the crab shack until 4:00pm. The food tasted amazing.
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| Endless paradise of hiking |
At 4 pm we showed our extremely wet back-country pass to the ferry operator and he took us and four other hikers across Nitnat Narrows to the trailhead for the northern section of the West Coast Trail. While the trail started out somewhat muddly on the climb up, it soon became a very pleasant hike through the woods and we mad good time to the beach. Once on the beach we had an easy hike on the packed sand. The incoming tide made the headlands a bit more of a challenge and we had to time the surf to climb up onto one of the headlands. Once around this we could see Tsusiat Falls and it did not take long to reach it from there. We arrived about 7:30 pm.
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| Lunch/Dinner at the Crab Shack at Nitnat Narrows - freshly caught crab, Pacific Salmon, fully loaded potato, with cider, Bubly water and Reece's Peanut Butter Cups. |
This camp area was on the beach below some towering cliffs. It was quite busy so we set up at the south end of the camping area. I was confident we had pitched above the high tide line. High tide was at 9:15 pm so I didn't expect the tide to come much further. As it was the surf reached to within 2 metres of the tent.
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| Coastal views along the trail north of Nitnat Narrows |
After setting up the tent, Charlene went to swim in the waterfall and bring back water to filter. No dinner tonight but we had some snacks instead. Then I sat and watched the whales. In our sleeping bags by about 9 pm and after watching some downloaded YouTube videos (no service so had to watch whatever was downloaded to the phone) I was asleep by 10 pm.
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| easy sections of trail - loved these! |
Canada Day - Day 4: Tsusiat Falls to Darling River (13 km - 6h,00m)
No rush today. We slept in and go tup around 8 am. I left the tent up to let it dry out and relaxed on the beach, while Charlene went for a swim in the waterfall. We took our time packing up and got going about 11 am. The start of today's hike was a tall flight of four ladders to take us up well above the waterfall.
The trail was pleasant and relatively easy to hike. It offered peak-a-boo views along the cliffs and eventually brough us to a set of steep ladders to take us down to the Klanawa River and a cable car to cross it. Two young hikers ahead of us were enjoying helping people on the cable car, so they ended up hauling us across.
From here we were on the beach and again we had favorable tides to allow us to make the transit. If the tides were too high we would have had to wait it out at the Klanawa River as there is no alternate trail. The day was bright and sunny but also a pretty strong westerly wind was blowing against us.
We had about four kilometres of trail to get around some surge channels and dangerous coastline, before getting back on the beach for the remainder of the hike to Darling River. This part of the beach was hard to hike as it was loose pebbles and the rocks were not really favorable for hiking on, even with the tide so low.
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| Tsusiat Falls = our home on the 3rd night |
We got to Darling River at 4 pm and only one other hiker was ther. We debated continuing to Malcolm Creek, about two kilometres further up the beach, but in the end decided we'd set up here and have a short day of hiking. The wind was pretty strong and that made setting up the tent a lot of fun, but I managed to get it up and used rocks to hold the pegs down in the sand. The tent held to the strong wind all night.
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| Cable car to cross Klanawa River |
I spent a lot of time relaxing and watching the whales and sea-life. As the sun set we lit sparklers in celebration of Canada Day. We debated having a fire, but the wind was so strong I don't think we could have got one going. Nobody else was bothering with a fire that evening.
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| Taking advantage of the low tide to avoid the boulders |
Watched some downloaded YouTube and asleep by 10 pm.
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| Tent setup at Darling River |
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| Happy 157th Birthday Canada! |
Day 5: Darling River to Bamfield (22 km - 7h,30m)
Another relaxing morning, and woke to a mix of mist and sun. Typical morning on the West Coast. Last time on the trail to take the tent down and back everything into the backpacks. And one last time applying glide to my toes and putting wet Marino wool socks on, and putting my feet in wet shoes. Nothing really dries fully on the West Coast Trail. My feet will be soaked again soon from river crossings and deep wet mud.
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| Low tide this morning made the going relatively easy |
We started our day with an easy walk along the pebble beach at low tide to Malcolm Creek, where we had to go on trail for the remaining 12 km to the Pachena trailhead. At 10km we came to the Pachena Point Light Station, and we stopped in the grounds there and talked to one of the two light keepers. They live there year-round, and supplies are brought in by helicopter, except bulk items like fuel and furniture, those are brought in once per year by barge. The barge anchors out, and then a aerial line is used to haul goods up to the light station, and a flexible boom is used to pump fuel and oil into the massive storage tanks.
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| The 1907 Lighthouse at Pachena Point is still in operation |
hort way further down the trail we came to a side trail to a view point overlooking two sea-lion haul-outs. We could hear the sea-lions from the trail well before we got anywhere near the lookout. We had lunch, ate the last of our lunch food and snacks) at the viewpoint watching the sealions. There were hundreds of them.
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| Sealion haul-out at Pachena Point - it was fun watching this mum chasing her pups. |
From here, it was a relatively easy trail, with some muddy section, and a lot of small hills and gullies to navigate across. We missed the beach access onto Pachena Beach (the tide was favourable for this route) and didn't notice until we were at the ladders. Rather than go back we decided to finish on the forest trail, so we climbed three ladders to the top of a steep hill, navigated a fallen tree, then descended down four ladders to the trailhead at Panchena Bay. We walked off the West Coast Trail at 1:55 pm, and checked out with the rangers.
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| End of the West Coast Trail - checking out at Pachena Bay trailhead. |
From here we walked through Pachena Bay Campground, and then a local road along the Pachena River, before joining a hiking trail that ran alongside the Bamfield Road. We had a pleasant and easy walk along this trail right to the market in Bamfield.
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| Hike from Pachena Bay to Bamfield |
We were hungry, so we asked at the market for advice on open restaurants. The cafe at the market had closed at 2 pm due to staff shortage. It turns out only Flora's was open in West Bamfield. Charlene had heard from a southbound hiker that this was a great place to eat. So we got a water taxi from the dock over to Flora's ($10 each for the water taxi), which was a fair way down the inlet. We had fish and chips, a Thai bowl, fish chiviche, beer, cider and a homemade carrot cake with caramelized walnuts. In all the food was amazing, and the owner of Flora's makes everything by hand. If you're in Bamfield, highly recommend it. We sat out on the deck overlooking the inlet and boardwalk.
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| West Bamfield - boat access only |
After dinner, we took the water taxi back to east Bamfield, then walked about 400 metres to our campsite for the night in Centennial Park. We had a nice grassy pitch, perfect for the last night as it meant I didn't have to get dirt and sand out of the tent before packing it way. The campground (which was small with about 20 campsites) had free hot showers and flush toilets. A luxury after no running water (other than rivers and waterfalls) and using composting toilets all week.
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| Water taxi |
Day 6: Homeward Bound
We had lots of time in the morning to get going. It had been a dry night, no condensation or due on the tent. I left it up a bit longer to ensure it was bone dry. We laid out our sleeping bags too to let them air out before final pack to take them home. Our packs were light by now as we had ditched our water bottles (2 litres each means a loss of 2 kilos each), and our food was down to just two dinners and a breakfast (we had one in reserve in case we had to stay on the trail an extra night, and we didn't eat one due to stopping at the crab shack on day 3).
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| Welcome to Bamfield where the time is 1983 - poor cell service means these things survive. |
We stopped for brunch at the market cafe (eggs benedict for me with bacon and spinach, and an egg, bacon, veggie and hashbrowns bowl for Charlene). Lisa at the Market let us leave our packs in her car so we could go for a walk around without them. There's not much to see in east Bamfield, so it didn't take long. West Bamfield was certainly more interesting with the boardwalk and a walk over to a beautiful beach - next time we'll have to spend time in West Bamfield. West Bamfield is on a peninsula but it is only accessible by water, there are no road connections. The year round population is about 50 people. Same for east Bamfield.
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| Our ride home - the seasonal daily bus to Victoria. |
Now the road to Port Alberni is chip-sealed and the town roads are all paved, they are seeing an increase in tourism. Almost four-fold. Some think, and I agree, that Bamfield is the next Tofino, as it reminds me of what Tofino was like 25 years ago.
At 1:15 pm the West Coast Trail bus pulled in, with the same driver that took us out from Victoria on Friday. This was our ride back to Victoria, taking 6.5 hours via logging roads and forestry service roads. It went via Pachena Bay WCT trailhead were we picked up a bus load of hikers, then via Alberni Main (the chip-sealed road), then Carmanah Main, Cowichan Main and South Side Main to Honeymoon bay, where we took a break. Then down the Pacific Marine Road to Gordon River WCT Trailhead, then a stop in Port Renfrew to pickup Juan De Fuca trail hikers, and along Highway 14 back to Victoria, arriving at Crystal Gardens at 8:00 pm.
All in all a wonderful adventure and I wanted to keep going.
I want to do it again, but this time definitely time the tides to go via Owen Point. I would plan it over the same number of nights as that was about perfect. It's not a hard route physically, but it is mentally challenging and super slow going east of the Walbran River on those crazy trails, and the many ladders and cable cars really slow things down. Next time the plan is to hike both the Juan de Fuca Trail from China Beach, then the WCT to Bamfield over 8 nights with a resupply at Port Renfrew; the distance is about 135 km).
Thanks to Charlene for doing this with me.
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| The tail of a grey whale feeding in the surf. We saw lots of whales. At Darling River we spent hours watching four whales very close in. |
