Tag Archives: West Coast Trail

29 years later

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Twenty nine years ago I did the West Coast Trail with my wife, her parents, and two of their friends who were younger than them. This 70km hike along the west coast of Vancouver Island is a one-way trip along a rugged shoreline with many rivers to cross, ladders to climb and repel, and even a few cable cars to pull yourself over deeper rivers. You carry everything you need in your pack and you have to be prepared for any weather systems coming off of the Pacific Ocean.

This September I’m doing the trip again with a buddy. Today I picked up new waterproof hiking boots, a water bottle that filters the water (necessary since we can’t bring enough water with us for 6-7 days), a new tent, and a few other accessories. Over the coming month I’ll need to collect quite a few more items and dig up a few more from my garage that I haven’t used in years.

While it’s going to be a challenge, it’s going to be a lot different than my last experience. I’m actually in better shape, with a better back, and equipment is now a lot lighter and more compact. This is really going to a great experience.

I usually like looking for new experiences, but I think a 29 year gap is long enough that this will feel as new as if I’d never done it before. Also, my last trip was north to south and this time we are starting in the south… so the adventure really does feel new.

I can’t decide yet if I’ll do a paper journal or if I’ll still find a way to digitally write, but I won’t be taking a break from writing daily. That said, I also won’t be posting anything until I return from the trip. I’ve never written a daily travel log but I think I’ll give it a go. Or maybe I’ll do a series of daily photos? Or both? I have time to decide all that, first I’ve got to make sure all the supplies are purchased and will fit in my pack. This isn’t a trip where you want to leave behind something important, there aren’t any stores along the way.

That said, there is a local (and very remote) restaurant near the halfway point. It was called Mona’s when I was last there, and I got an overpriced (but well worth the price) breakfast of bacon and eggs on my last journey. I’m not sure what the new place is called, and how expensive it will be, but I’m not going to pass up a ‘gourmet’ meal on this trip when everything else I eat will be cooked by adding boiling water.

I’m looking forward to roughing it on the trail, but I’m going to accept any luxuries that come my way. One other luxury I hope to take advantage of is staying an extra night at a beautiful waterfall. The waterfall is near a ferry that we need to take, and I’m hoping the locals that run the ferry will sell us some crab for a dinner on our extra night at the falls. A luxury like this is a memorable moment on a trip like this… I trip I hope to remember 29 years from now.

The beautiful slug

It was the summer of 1997 and my wife and I were here on the 70km West Coast Trail with her parents and a couple that are family friends, who are few years younger than her parents. It had rained horribly the weeks before we left and just a week earlier some people had to be helicoptered out after two rivers flooded too much to pass through. So, we were prepared for the worst, but arrived to sunshine and heat that made each day less and less muddy.

We planned 6 nights, some people do the trip in 4, so we took our time and enjoyed an extra night at the prettiest of the stops, at a beautiful falls. My wife loves to keep a fast pace and with a pack on, she struggles to go slow. She’s also someone who speeds up going up hill, or when she sees the finish line… she can really move when there is a goal in front of her.

It was day 3, we were heading to the falls and we were pushing ourselves with our longest distance to travel when something happened… Four of us were well ahead of Ann’s parents and her mom fell. She didn’t hurt herself, but with the pack on she fell in a way where she was pinned down and struggling to get up. Ann’s dad is a bit hard of hearing and didn’t hear her calling for help, and when we looked back she was just getting up after struggling out of her pack.

That’s when we realized how heavy her pack was. She was fit and trained well for the trip (which she had done already) and decided to take the burden of more weight than she should have. Two new decisions were made at this point. First, I would take some of her weight – though my pack was heaviest, I had much of the food so it was already lighter then when we started. Second, we decided that my wife’s parents should not be at the back of the group.

The next day my wife was going crazy going slowly at the back with me. As I mentioned, it was still very muddy from the rains the weeks before and her parents were overly cautious as they traversed the muck. Where I would just slosh through, ankle deep with my gators on (think rain coats for your ankles and shins), her parents would carefully and thoughtfully choose the route with the least amount of mud. Makes perfect sense when you’ve got a heavy pack on and going through the mud is a bit of a balancing act.

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About two hours into our walk my wife said, “I can’t do this, I’ve got to go ahead,” and I told her to go on ahead, I’ll stay at the back. About 3 hours in, I was feeling like my wife did. I’d slosh through the mud then lead against a tree and watch my wife’s parents gingerly traipse around the mud, calculating each step. While I understood their need to be careful, watching them go so slowly when I was standing with a heavy pack waiting for them started to feel like work I. Just. Wanted. Them. To. Speed. Up! Every muddy section became a long slow chore of waiting and I was getting frustrated.

Then we reached a slow muddy section and after getting to the other side of it I saw a branch the perfect hight to rest my pack on while it was still on my back. This took all the pressure off my shoulders without me having to remove the pack. It felt great and as I took a deep breath I looked down at my feed and saw the most unusual slug. It was mostly yellow, but it had a bluish purple section as well. If it wasn’t moving I would have been sure it was fake. How did this ugly little animal have such beautiful contrasting colours on it?

After seeing the slug, I started to look around and really see the trail that until then was just a path to our next destination. Suddenly I was noticing birds, leaves, plants, colours and sounds, that before this point were just things in the background. Suddenly they were in the foreground. I no longer felt any need to rush. I was no longer waiting for my wife’s parents, I was traveling with them. I was enjoying the journey.

It was a big shift thanks to a small, beautiful slug.