West Coast Trail Backpack

Original Trip Description: (August 8-15 and August 15-22, 1992)
This backpack explores the Pacific coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. We will begin our trip in the beautiful city of Victoria where transportation will have been arranged to the trailhead at Port Renfrew.
The trail was built as a lifesaving trail allowing access to what had become known as the "graveyard of the Pacific." It is nearly 50 miles in length and much of the hiking is along beaches and headlands. For years it was maintained by solitary linemen or light-house keepers but the provincial government has recently improved the trail increasing access to backpackers.
This backpack has almost everything - sweeping sandy beaches, sea caves, rocky headlands, shelves teeming with marine life, and spectacular waterfalls. Most of the route is on good trail, boardwalks, and beaches but the loose beach sand, frequent log crossings, seemingly endless ladders, cable car crossings of rivers, root mazes, and occasional bogs can be exceptionally challenging. Weather conditions are usually moderate in August with little rain or fog. The trip is rated moderate to strenuous (M/S).
Originates @ Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

Shipwreck Anchor

Ladder Crossing

Trip Report:

It wasn't raining when we met in Victoria but the sky was ominous. It poured for our entire shuttle ride to Port Renfrew and for most of that afternoon. The rain stopped for awhile during the evening and we were able to cook and eat dinner under our two rain shelters. Later, some of us walked into town for a couple of brewskies at the local pub. The rain started again during the night but it was clearing when we took the boat ride from Port Renfrew to Owens Point to start the trail. Once on the trail, we had clear weather for both weeks except for occasional foggy mornings. The trail was treacherous for the first few days, muddy and slippery. On the first day, Susan did a face plant on the boardwalk and ended up with an eyebrow gash which eventually led to a colorful shiner. There was a lot of fancy footwork going on that day but no one else had major trail incidents except for a number of nasty wasp and bee encounters.

The group was a happy go lucky one. A number of evenings around the campfire were devoted to analyzing and giving one member of the group advice about his love life. Hearts games were part of the daily routine and a championship was held the last morning as we waited for the van to arrive with the new group. The second group seemed a little more cerebral; chess was more their game.

On both trips we saw bald eagles, seals, sea lions, otter, whales, slugs, and lots of mice. On the second trip Jim and Susan identified a carnivorous plant in the bogs. We camped at Michigan Beach on both trips and were entertained for hours by a pod of feeding gray whales. We bought fresh crab from the Nihtihnat Indians on both passes and with Ron's advice on the first trip, eventually became experts on steaming them. We had one in-camp accident on the first trip. Bob dumped a pot of boiling soup on his leg. The result was a nasty second degree burn that took most of the second trip to heal up. Fortunately, it never became infected.

Since the tides were right, we accepted the Adrenaline Surge Challenge on the second section. Steve and Dinah reached the channel a few minutes ahead of us and not realizing that this was indeed 'IT', they pioneered a crossing. Steve made it across a narrow, slippery ledge with his pack on. Dinah almost made it but then slipped into the surge channel. Luckily Peter was approaching and saw her slide in. She initially tried to get out on the steep side but it was too slippery. Peter positioned himself in a stable spot on the other side of the channel and was able to catch her hand when she swam over to him. For a couple of minutes she surged against the barnacles with each wave; scraping her legs, arms, and hands; but suffering no major injuries. Peter was able to hold onto her but not able to pull her out. By this time Susan and Bob caught up and were able to lend a hand. Once her camera and pack were off, Peter and Bob were able to pull her up to safety. We strung a hand line and passed packs over to the far side, patched Dinah up, and continued on to lunch.

The next day Steve attempted to jump a similar channel which had an easy bypass. He missed and slid in. A couple of hikers following us, later told us that they were dumb-founded when they saw his claw marks on the algae-covered side of the channel. Apparently it was quite a heroic leap. The scrapes on his body matched Dinah's and he had to put up with our razzing about sibling rivalry.

This year Parks Canada limited future WCT use to approximately 7500 people spread over five months. Three quarters of this use is scheduled in advance with a phone-in permit system and the remainder is kept for first-come first-served use. WCT use peaked in 1991 at over 9000 people with most of this traffic occurring in a two month period during the late summer. Group sizes are currently limited to 10 and only 26 people a day are allowed to start the trip from both Port Renfrew and Bamfield - a total of 52 people per day. We found the trail in worse shape than it was on our 1989 trip. One cable crossing was out, bridges were falling apart, and a number of the ladders appeared to be marginally safe. Some bridge repairs are occurring now but more maintenance will be needed, even with the use reduction.

We enjoyed two wonderful weeks of backpacking in one of our favorite areas with some of our favorite people. After three trips, there's still probably something we haven't seen on the West Coast Trail but we'll have to see the Olympic Coast of Washington, the Lost Coast of California, the Broken Group Islands by Bamfield, and Long Beach on northern Vancouver Island before we'd consider a return trip.