I was back out to Vancouver Island recently, just 3 weeks after my weekend jaunt to Victoria. This time tho it was for more than just a night and a cuppla days.
About an hour away from Victoria, on the south west coast of the island is a tiny little village called Jordan River. So tiny in fact, all it consists of is a campground and a shack containing a cafe/take away food joint. But, its also the beginning of the Juan De Fuca Marine Trail, a 47Kilometre trek along the beaches, reefs and forests along the coast. Typically, it takes 4 to 5 days to hike this from one end to the other, at Botanical Beach and finally Port Renfrew. We opted to take a little longer to complete it - 7 days and 6 nights, basically taking it easy and giving us ample opportunity to check some of the numerous side-trails, and camp overnight at every site on the trail. Doing it this way, we actually hiked closer to 60km over the 7 days.
Usually when I mention my doing this trek, most people say "Oh, do you mean the West Coast Trail?". Well, no. There are some key differences.
The West Coast Trail is incredibly famous worldwide - it's more expensive, and a lot longer at 75km, as well as being a lot more rugged and difficult further north up the coast, taking somewhere between 7 to 9 days to complete. Also, once you're on that trek, there's no getting off - there are no exit/jumping off points along the way. If you're 5 days in and you break your ankle, it's gotta be a helicopter rescue. I'm serious. Hence its fame.
The Juan De Fuca is kind of like its little brother. Being located just a few kilometres from Highway 14, there are 3 or 4 points where people can park, take a trail down and visit the various beaches on day trips, or opt to do just one or two day hikes, rather than the whole kit and kaboodle.
I would have preferred to do the West Coast Trail, but time and money were factors, and so the cheaper, shorter option prevailed.
Anyway, so I once again hooked up with the Simon Fraser Uni hiking club, and 10 of us (organiser Andrew, his Israeli girlfriend Sigal, French Xavier and Maryse, Korean-Canadian's Nellie and Ellen, me, and Canadian's Caroline, Bryan and Farley - a nice multi-cultural mix) met at the ungodly hour of 7am on a Sunday morning to make the arduous, and pointlessly annoying journey to Victoria (which you'll all know about from my previous email about Victoria). We then picked up our chartered bus to Jordan River, and, in beaming sunshine-y weather, set off along the rocky, boulder strewn Jordan River Beach.
Being away from civilisation for a week meant we needed to be fully self-sufficient, and so as you would expect, we carried in everything - tents, sleeping bags, food (our biggest weight - feeding 10 people for 7 days is heavy business!! - but it does mean our packs would get lighter every day!!...), cooking equipment, water filters, the whole bit. On average, we were carrying about 20-25kilograms (40 Pounds) on our backs each.
Arriving at out first nights camping spot, Mystic Beach, late afternoon. The great thing about the timing of our hike was that it coincided with the longest week of the year in terms of daylight hours, the Summer equinox, and the rising of a Full Moon.
So getting to the campsite around 6-ish there was still plenty of daylight hours left to go exploring. This soft, golden sandy beach defnitely lived up to its name - a secluded cove hemmed in on 3 sides from the forest above by a giant sandstone cliff, with a sweet little waterfall spurting over the edge of the cliff onto the beach at one point - just perfect for an early evening shower! Looking out over the Juan De Fuca Strait, on the horizon were the soft contoured outline of the gorgeous Olympic Mountains in Washington, USA, which were to accoompany us for the entire trek.
The first day we had been drenched in sunshine all day, and as the evening set in with the sun setting against this backdrop and a smattering of cloud reflecting the rays beautifully, we started up a campfire with driftwood gathered on the beach. And then the moon rose, not quite full yet, but bathing us with enough light that rendered our flashlights pointless, and we lay back watching the Northern Hemisphere stars. Bliss. Oh, and our 2nd days hike, and night campsite at Bear Beach was practically a carbon copy. Too Good.
While our campsites were mostly beach locations, quite a lot of the hike was in amongst the various forest environments - lush old growth, new growth, cedar wood, rainforest that seems far too tropical to be Canada, the trail passing by majestic Cedarwood trees left behind by loggers at the turn of the century, up and under, in and out of a giant tree-fernerys, you name it.
And it's even easier to appreciate towering cedar trees when they provide natural bridges and stairways over rugged terrain and steep hillsides. Day 3 was our toughest day, spent clambering up and over at least a dozen mountain ridges several hundred metres high and dives back down into valleys at sea-level, meeting pretty little spring water creeks and streams which were perfect locations for taking breaks and doing a little exploring. It was on this section of the trail that I sustained the only injury of the trek, and a minor one at that. I slipped on one of those cedarwood stairways, covered in moss and damp, landing on my arse, and for a moment struggling like a turtle on its back, with my 25Kg pack weighing me down. When I got up I noticed my bloody hand, and realised i had sliced the webbing between the ring and pinkie fingers on my right hand. Ouch!
Before the trek started we were strongly advised to buy some gaiters to cover our boots, to protect against adverse conditions on thre trail, as well as potential nasties like leeches. Well, luckily no leeches, but the gaiters did come in handy for the thick sloshy mud-pools that made regular appearances on the trail, particularly on days 3 & 4. It definitely 'watch where you step' terrain, one foot wrong, and you'd have it buried 12 inches deep in foul, stenchy goo! If i was 3 years old, i'd love it!! It'd be mud-pie city!! But as it was, we all wanted to avoid that particular experience as much as possible. Sadly, I don't think one of us managed to escaped that fate!
Trekking into the campsite at the rocky Chin Beach, one of the first two hikers in, just as the rain began to fall, finding a site with suitable shelter was item one on the agenda. A snug and cosy spot under some thick scrub would have to do for 3 of the 4 tents we had (the 4th pegged in at another site 50metres further down) - the closest in confines we had camped together so far, after having the luxury of good weather and expansive sandy beaches previously.
Second item on the agenda was collecting and filtering the water for the camp cooking, and seeing as we were at least an hour ahead of the rest of the group, Farley and I got stuck in.
The other nightly duty was that was absolutely necessary was to hang all of our food from a tall tree branch in sacks. Why? One word...bears. At every campsite along the way, there were warning signs saying to do this, because this is a wilderness environment, where bears do frequent, as well as cougars, and other assorted wildlife that would love to nibble thru any ground level foodstuffs, mice, rats, raccoon, you name it. It was a nightly sport trying to toss a rope-tied-to-a-rock over a tall-enough branch, and then pulley-ing it up to a height, then finding something to tie the other end to keep it there.
The weather on the whole was almost perfect. 5 out of the 7 days was bright and sunny, just one day and night of light rain, and one morning of pea-soup thick fog. This was a blessing, becasue as much as its nice to hike in beautiful blue sky and sunshine, having a shroud of mist surround you while hiking along a rocky reef by the sea while the tide is out, or through dense rainforest foliage, gives the scenery a completely different feel, an almost other-worldliness, where you cant see more than 15 feet in front of you. At times, hiking alone at the front or rear of the group, I felt like I was the only person on the face of ther earth. It was amazing.
With the trail meandering up and down the rugged valleys and ridges, there were inevitably sections where it was impossible for a trail to go, beig too steep or dangerous. There was at least five suspension bridges built along the trail to deal with that problem. Those with even slight vertigo will want to keep their eyes firmly fixed ahead since the bridge deck is simply a metal grate that allows you to peer past your feet to the creek bed hundreds of metres below. I have no fear of heights though, and these were somewhat of a thrilling highlight whenever we came across them. Amazingly, and somwehat to our relief, we even had a section of trail that followed an old logging road, and was as flat as a tack for about a mile. Boy, were we thankful for that small mercy!
That didn't last long tho, and one of our main side-trail objectives to a sea-lion grotto followed shortly after, a harrowing and hair-raising scramble through dense scrub, following the peak of a ridge down to the rocky granite cliffs overlooking the strait. Alas, no sea-lions to reward out effort, but a great lunch spot with awesome coastal views were ample compensation.
Day 5 was our lazy day. We only a short 7km hike ahead of us from Sombrio Beach to Little Kuitsche Creek, and so we decided to laze about for a while, chill out, read a book, sunbathe and watch the waves, as well as the surfers braving the conditions to try and catch those waves. It seemed a pointless venture to me, there was a swell of barely than 2-3 feet. It wasn't until almost 4pm that we left the campsite! An obligatory explore of the area was always Xavier's first priority on arrival, and it was here that he discovered a cave at the foot of a rocky cliff at the seas' edge, which demanded further exploration. Only catch tho, was that the tide was halfway in, the water level was waist deep, it was dusk and getting cold and therefore the water was likely to be freezing. Putting all of that out of our minds, Xavier, Bryan, Nellie and I got our swimming gear on and went for it, taking a headlamp along to check out those little nook and crannys. As we presumed, it was bloody freezing! This cave measured about 15 metres or so to the very back, where it was quite dark. Xavier switched on his headlamp and looked about. "I think i see a pair of eyes!!"...yeah right, whatever. The next thing we new, a little river otter, about 2 feet long, came scampering out and did bolt straight for the sea, turning it head once, as if to say "who and what the F**K are you!!". It sure as hell gave us a fright, but a laugh as well, whereas the poor thing must have been scared out its wits, no doubt never seeing anything the likes of us before in its little home! Good story anyways!
One thing I was definitely hoping to see along the trek was heaps of wildlife. To this point, I'd seen a couple of sea lions way out on the rocks and the water otter. Ellen spotted a bear cub once, and other than that, our group had seen nothing other than the birdlife you could hear way above in the trees. No whales either. Not a one. Nada. Disappointing. Along our next section of the trek though, we were supposed to check out another trail to another sea-lion grotto. Alas, there was a sign up saying the trail was closed due to a 'problem juvenile bear' in the area.
These are the kinds of warnings you ignore at your peril, so that idea was dashed. Damn. Down at Parkinson Creek though, Xavier the Explorer, again, spotted a foot-long Garter Snake sunning itself on the river rocks on the banks. These snakes are not poisonous, and amazingly, not only did it not slither off at the first sight of us, but we were able to pick it up and pose for photos with it!! Highlight of the Day.
Our final camp was gorgeous, set in the forested backcountry Payzant Creek. Our final kilometre of trekking that day was incredibly easy, with newly erected boardwalks covering up the worst of the swampy-muddy crap we'd been through before, and then crossed the final bridge into the campground overlooking a beautiful waterfall flowing over a cliff on one side of a ravine, and on the other cliff edge, a series of campsites overlooking the creek and falls surrounded by stands of tall trees, with the canopy of branches and leaves filtering thru sunlight in such pretty shaftfs and shards...My favourite campsite since the first night! it was stunning!!
Our last day started off in a shroud of mist again, and some of us rose early at 6am to get ina quick walk down a side trail to Providence Cove, yet another secluded rocky beach, which, with pea soup fog, was incredibly eerie, but beautiful and peaceful all at once. Thankfully the last day of hiking was the easiest, with a lot more of the boardwalks that we were treated to you the previous afternoon, and along the tidal reef pools for the very last section. With the tide out, we were able to explore the pools and check out the small marine life, the sea urchins and anenomes, starfish and hermit crabs. it was way cool.
The best was yet to come tho! at our very last stop, at Botanical Beach, we were surprised to sea a baby seal bathing in the sun amongst the rocks and seaweed. It was so cool just to sit and watch him (or her) sleepily doze in the sun and occasionally yawn, give us a nonchalant look, and go back to sleep!
This was definitely the highlight of the day, and possibly the trip. It was definitely THE talking point on the bus and ferry back to Vancouver.
Anyway, hope this wasn't too long. I didn't honestly think this email was going to get so epic!
talk soon,
tony
p.s. i know some of you have seen these already, but here's a link to a slideshow of my pics from the trip, so that you can see what i've experienced all for yourself!
http://www.dotphoto.com/Go.asp?l=freetoeknee&P=A0E5&SID=31738&Show=Y
