Mon, Jul 4 2022, Tue, Jul 5 2022, Wed, Jul 6 2022, Thu, Jul 7 2022, Fri, Jul 8 2022, Sat, Jul 9 2022, Sun, Jul 10 2022 - West Coast Trail - July 2022 (View Original Event Details)
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Backpacking the West Coast Trail was all we expected, and more! Our group of 6 backpackers was well prepared and organized, having spent some 4 months planning and training prior to our trip.
It rained the entire Day-One of Seven, otherwise only few sporadic rain bursts. Other than Day-One, weather was quite pleasant with some overcast sky's but mostly sun. Nighttime temperatures were consistently in the +12c range, making for comfortable sleeps.
We purposely chose to hike from South (Gordon River) to North (Pachena Bay), which “front end loaded” the most difficult and challenging terrains over our first three days. The first three days backpacking were long, with our arrival to setup camp after 5pm and exhausted from the days’ backpacking effort. Our long days’ backpacking didn’t leave much time to socialize before crashing for the night. Come Day-Four, we got into a better routine and arrived at Cribs Creek to setup camp at 2:30pm. Our early arrival allowed us some leisure time to explore the area and we enjoyed a beach campfire and met a few of the other backpackers. On Day-Five we enjoyed seafood and loaded baked potatoes at Nitinat Narrows, while we leisured around for almost 2 hours before taking the ferry across the Narrows. We had expected Day-Six (to Michigan) and Day-Seven (to Pachena) to be easy backpacking, but the trail there is in rough shape too. There is lots of water and mud and broken ladders and walkways and probably didn’t help that we were somewhat worn from our previous 5 days’ adventure. The West Coast landscape is magnificent with ocean and inland views, beaches, rain forests with old growth trees, caves, sea stacks, light houses, slugs, sea lions and whale sightings.
The trail is exactly as described in the Parks Canada promotional videos and was most challenging. The deep wet mud, ladders and missing rung ladders – some with as many as 60+ rungs, boardwalks - many with missing and broken slats and sloped and slippery, slippery logs, roots, boulders and the cable cars, made the inland routes most challenging. When low tides permitted, we hiked the beaches. The soft sand and loose beach pebbles made walking difficult. The rock shelves and hard sand beaches made walking the beach routes easier, but as soon as we got into a good walking rhythm, a slippery section would catch us off guard :-).
Our group dynamic was “exceptional” and all contributed to our groups success. Jackie is an exceptional backpacker, and her fitness and agility levels were inspiring. Brent has solid backcountry experience and navigating skills, and besides keeping us on the correct path and keeping check on tide levels, he shared lots of useful backpacking insights. Mary Jane has good fitness level and frequently lead the route showing the best path across and through the mud and the many other obstacles. Noel consistently swept the rear to make sure no one was left behind and he captured our trip in photos. Noel also brought along his tasty, dehydrated fruits and snacks to share with the group. Colleen was in good spirits the entire trip, even when covered in mud :-). She persevered and consistently made her way through the most challenging terrain, always with big smile and humorous comment :-).
At the end of our “Seven Day – Six Night” backpacking adventure, our COC West Coast Trail – July 2022 trip was a big success and will be a cherished lifetime memory.