LeeMobile

Photos can be found at: http://picasaweb.google.com/leemobile

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We started our trek on the West Coast Trail on June 13th.

The day before was spent in Victoria, where upon our arrival we found the local paper headlines to read “Five hikers rescued by helicopter off of the West Coast Trail.”

Oh dear, what an ominous sign of things to come! I have done the West Coast Trail once already, and so I clearly remember how painful some moments on the trail could be. Being spoiled by the comforts of civilization can make being away from all our nice amenities a complete shock after a few days. For Renata, however, she had high hopes that the whole ordeal would be “easy” (since all her friends who have done it told her this, and for whatever reason she never believed me on this one).

Anyways, we started that morning in Victoria bright and early at 6 AM where we were picked up by the West Coast Trail Express-bus. For only $50 a head, we would be whisked away to Port Renfrew in a beaten down old diesel bus. It took us a good 2 hours to reach their, and we got a nice scenic view of the vegetation as we drove further up the coast.

We reached the trail head office and had a 2 hour presentation put on by the parks staff-person there about the trail. She mentioned what to look for, what to do in case of emergency, and she gave us all the warnings in terms of animal activity. A family of black bears was reported in one of the camp-grounds and there were numerous cougar spottings on various points of the trail. Fun!

We started off with a German couple who were in their early 40’s. Most of the German people I’ve met on the trail are generally pretty friendly, but they seemed a little less so. We crossed the river from the trail head office to the trail head by ferry, and I had to get my hiking poles all ready before continuing the first leg of our journey of masochism. The German couple managed to get a good 20 minute lead on us, as Renata and I took our time to fasten up our gear.

The weather wasn’t all that great, as it was lightly misting rain and the clouds kept the sky dark, but we felt it could’ve been a lot worse. For all that we could have, a little light mist isn’t so bad as a full on storm here on the coast.

The first section of the WCT (starting from the South End) is the hardest leg of the trail. We quickly found that it was nearly impossible to hike with our rain-jackets on as we were just boiling from the sweat of huffing up the steep inclines. Thick mud holes, root systems, and steep vertical inclines slowed our hiking speed down to a grueling 1km/hour.

It was okay though, as our legs were completely fresh and we were well rested from the night before. Still, the initial shock of backpacking is always tough. My body was not used to carrying a 60 pound load on my back, and I wasn’t in any condition to be hiking for long stretches of time. I ooze sweat with any physical activity, and it didn’t take long before I was completely drenched in it.

Along the way we met some more German hikers coming in from the opposite direction. Some of them looked completely beat. One girl was so exhausted that she just muttered something to the effect of “OMG I want off this trail and into a nice hot shower.” But everyone coming in the opposite direction seemed to be relieved of coming off the trail soon and to have completed it.

We eventually caught up and passed the German couple that we started out with, and they looked like utter shit. I can only guess that they didn’t realize what they were getting themselves into exactly. After about 5.5 hours we made it to our first camp, Thrasher Cove, where I slowly hobbled my way to the campsites.

Trasher Cove is this beautiful small cove that has a nice stream of fresh-water nearby for a water-source. On a sunny day, the cove is absolutely gorgeous and the fine sand is nice to lay on. The dense vegetation serves as a nice barrier from the elements, and there’s plenty of driftwood here for firewood. The only downside is that going back inland requires a 1 km hike back up some ladders and some hard inclines.

There were a bunch of guys there already. They had gotten there in about 3 hours time, an amazing feat actually considering the rough terrain. It was two older guys and a younger fellow. Chit-chatting with them we discovered that it was a father-son-and-uncle trip. If they did what we did in 3 hours, holy crap they’re fast! However, something seemed off with them when I saw the son had brought with him a steel shaft hatchet, rope, and a few other really heavy items. They were even boozing up on their free time there! Either they’re gluttons for pain, or they’re just not very bright about things. (We’ll discover why they were so blazingly fast on my Day 2 trip report… the secret to their speed is revealed!)

The German couple came into camp only a half hour behind us. But we were so exhausted that we just set up camp, cooked up our food, and passed out.

We knew the next day would be tough. We had two options for day 2. Either we could go back up the ladders for a km of hard climbing, which could take at least an hour of time and kill our legs for the rest of the day, or we could take the beach route through Owen Point. At least that route is free of any hard inclines. However, the low tide is at 6 in the morning for that day and would require an early start.

Owen Point is one of the more dangerous sections of the hike, and it was near the very point where the 5 hikers were rescued just days before. Being the lazy bastard that I am, I chose danger instead of the gruelling hike back up into the inland route.

Sleep was so nice, and I was fondly reminded of how wonderful it was to sleep next to the ocean.

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