Hiking, Juan de Fuca and West Coast trails

Having Saltspring as a base of operations allowed us to plan for some bigger adventures with relative ease. We had reservations on the West Coast Trail, but thought we should do a shorter, easier walk as a test-run. So we dried a bunch of food, packed our bags, and headed off to the Juan de Fuca Trail.

We found the trail to be muddy, difficult, and nearly deserted. The campsites were generally fantastic, and only on the last night did we have anyone camped near us. We had pretty good weather, but it had been rainy the previous few weeks, so creeks were high and mud was deep!


Megan crossing a creek on day 2


Bridge Crossing


This was much steeper than it looks here!

The trail was nearly all in the trees, so the only ocean views were at the campsites. There were a few moderate sections, but it alternated a lot between pretty easy and steep, muddy, and hard. All in all a great trail, but since there aren't a lot of camping options you should pick your start times carefully. Having a pickup at the other end is awesome, as the bus only runs once or twice per day, and is expensive (thanks Don & Geri).

With our test-drive completed, we went back to SaltSpring to recover a bit, and dry a lot more food. Jen and Jon were off sailing, so we could take over the kitchen and not be in the way. This was good, since the dehydrator was running for 3 days straight!

With packs loaded with food, clothes, mail, and other random heavy stuff we drove back up to Port Renfrew. We did the mandatory orientation session the day we arrived, to speed up our launch the next day. Day 1 started off with a long and very bouncy bus ride, which was probably why the first section of trail (widely described as the easiest) felt so difficult.

Days 2 and 3 were mostly fantastic beach-walking, with occasional trail sections as rest. We saw amazing tide pools, had lemonade and cookies with the lightkeeper at Carmanah, and dropped off our mail. The mail was from Jon (Dave's stepdad) to a 73-year old man living alone in the woods near the former Clo-oose village site. Oddly he doesn't like the work 'hermit' :) We were warned that he might not take kindly to visitors, so we left the letter with the Carmanah lightkeepers. Dave took a few thousand pictures of breaking waves and tide pools, 3 or 4 of which may turn out OK :)


Breaking wave behind a pool


Beach accesses were marked by float trees


Many rivers were crossed by cable-car, rather than bridges. Fun!


BIG starfish - maybe 14" across


Sunset at Cribs Beach - day 3


Chez Monique's - the cafe south of the Carmanah Light. Great egg-burgers!

We had planned to do the trail in 7 days, but the last part seemed a lot like the Juan de Fuca trail, and we wanted to see the opening parade at the Tall Ships festival in Victoria, so we followed the lead of a friendly Aussie couple we'd met on the trail and combined our planned days 5 and 6 into one. This was a long, but generally OK day. The last bit (kms 68-70) seemed endless, tho. Thrasher cove was by far the smallest and most crowded campsite - next time we'd rather stay at Camper Bay, and skip by Thrasher on the last day. Camper looked great when we stopped there for lunch...

Overall we didn't think that the trail's brutal reputation was really justified, but then we were carrying a lot less than many of the people we saw. If we'd been as loaded down as the father/son pair we saw on the last day we'd probably still be there!


Our reward for hurrying - a great view of the Parade of Sail

Gulf Islands – Salt Spring and Wallace Island Kayaking

Lucky for us, we both have family on various islands (Salt Spring, Vancouver Island) and we are currently basing ourselves on Salt Spring Island, with Dave’s mom, stepdad and dog Mati. After almost 6 months on the road based in our car, the luxuries of family, home-baked cookies and a warm indoor fire are amazing (and let’s be honest, not having to cook on a campstove in high wind and get out of a tent to go pee in the middle of the night are also pretty nice changes…)


Megan experiencing the wonder of the Comfy Chair

With just under two months to go before we take back our house and resume ‘normal’ life, the adventures (and of course rain) of BC await. Salt Spring is an excellent base, we have been canoeing, sailing and climbing since we’ve been here. The climbing is found high on Mount Maxwell, the bluffs are short conglomerate rock faces with a gorgeous view of the water below. One catch is that there does not appear to be enough climbers on Salt Spring to stem the tidal wave of moss that seems to accumulate on the rocks in this climate…the result is that most of the climbs are quite dirty, with the more difficult (mid 10’s) being completely overgrown. However, the moves are fun and it makes for a good one day outing.

Last week we rented a tandem kayak and paddled across to Wallace Island to set up a base camp from which to explore some of the smaller adjacent islands. Wallace Island is largely a provincial park, with a gorgeous campground (and most importantly, a covered cooking area) and a small dock. We spent two nights on Wallace, with one day spent circumnavigating the island and another spent exploring the Secretary Islands. This is an excellent area for viewing all kinds of marine life – we saw everything from eagles to mink to a huge harem of seals that we scared from their comfy rock lounging.


Dave in our tiny double kayak


Starfish colony


Sun-Star

However, after being rained on for a large part of the trip we were pretty happy to return to the warmth of the Salt Spring house and cozy up…we’re getting used to indoor life again!!!


Fire Good!