August 16 to August 22, 2007
Allan, Dan, Sarah, and Clarissa
Pre West Coast Trail
o o Took 10 hours to drive
o May speed by Allan: 147 km/h caught by GPS
o Dan and Clarissa slept a total of 6 hours combined over two days
o Sarah got GPS which was super useful
o Filled up gas twice, Revelstoke & Victoria
o Got chowder & soup on ferry
o Went to Wal-Mart and bought a lot of stuff (flavour water, rope, etc.)
o Wal-Mart was green and had deceiving front
o Went to Mayfield mall for dinner and had Japanese food
o Packed our bags in parking lot changed clothes in food court, and filled up all our water bottles.
o Went to only shell gas station cuz we thought Allan had air miles. He didn’t.
Day 1 – August 16
•· Woke up at 7am, then it started raining
· We left before they went around to charging camp fees.
· Parked at Stan & Judy Medd for $28 dollars/7 days
· Took shuttle bus. Allan quotes, “Drove crazy fast and I almost threw up”
· Went to orientation, which turned out to be the same place we camped the night before. Allan, Clarissa, and Sarah (x 3) tried to poo, but couldn’t. Dan pooed.
· Weighed our packs on a fish scale
o Allan: 44lbs
o Dan: 45 lbs
o Sarah: 41 lbs
o Clarissa: 38 lbs
o Random guy: 65 lbs
· Hike: Gordon River Trailhead (75km) to Thrasher Cove (70km)
· Up and down with lots of roots, muddy, and started raining half way through
· Clarissa acquired a stick from a guy almost finishing. The stick was all the way from Bamfield.
o She found another one later, but then threw it away and regretted it. So she found yet another one later
· Sarah quotes, “Super hard, I thought I was going to die”
· Clarissa wore a tank top and got extreme chaffing and blisters on her back
· A guy from the hike couldn’t find his glasses but it was on his head
· Sarah walked across the first log really slow because she was scared and her backpack wasn’t strapped on properly
· Sarah fell and slid on her bum and got her pants dirty with mud. This was the beginning of her super dirty mud pants for the next seven days
· Arrived at Thrasher cove after 4-5 hours or hiking
· Found a campsite secluded underneath the trees
· We had a “cute” fire that wouldn’t start up, so a guy offered us fire starter, matches, and wood, because we only had enough matches to make our dinners
· The dad, son, and son’s BF gave Clarissa a pink lighter, because they didn’t like pink
· Later, we offered our campfire to a couple who couldn’t start their own fire
· We put our packs far away from our camps, because we were paranoid of bears. That night it rained and Sarah’s pack got wet.
· Clarissa thought the boys were bears because they were scratching and moaning.
· We had macaroni and cheese.
· Dan and Clarissa hate cheese.
• Hike: Thrasher Cove (70km) to Camper Bay (62km)
• Woke up late (at 7am) because we wanted to make the tides
• Left campsite at 8:30am. We must make Owen’s point at 10am, but we got there at 10:30am, which freaked out Clarissa
o Owen’s Point: Beach Access to Owen’s Point where tides are below 6ft/1.8m is required. Difficult route, many boulders.
• They were very big boulders, very slippery from last night’s rain, and difficult to climb
• Allan almost died. He slipped on a log 10 feet above the ground with sharp boulders below and turtle. But he used his abs and saved himself.
• In that process he bent his poles and he wasn’t very happy
• Then it started raining
• Conclusion to whether the barnacles on the rocks are sharp: YES
• Fall record:
o Clarissa: A lot and hard
o Dan: twice
o Allan: fell once hard and slipped three times
o Sarah: fell twice
• After Owens’ point we climbed a shelf “and it looked like dinosaur land” –Allan
• Clarissa: “And there’s surge channels which were very scary”
• Then we had board walks for a long time, which was much easier than beach. But they were muddy
• Ate lunch under a tree that had three benches. Lunch was pita and cheese. Again, Dan and Clarissa hate cheese.
• First cable car near Camper’s Creek. We climbed on and a guy helped us by shoving us across the creek
• Arrived at Camper’s Bay in one piece
• Spotted Solo Man for the first time
• During dinner, Sarah found a total of three bugs in her food (Salmon pasta). Dan ate them.
• Clarissa, Allan & Sarah didn’t sleep well
• Dan peed 20 m from the tent. He turned off his head lamp and peed in the middle of the night.
Day Three – August 18
• Hike: Camper’s Bay (62km) to Walbran Creek (53km)
• Creeks passed: Sandstone, Cullite (cable car) Logan, and Adrenaline Creek.
• Woke up at 7am
• Continue hike in the forest
• Even muddier than before, because it rained yet again that night
• Saw Clarissa’s university friends
• Had crazy insane ladders today
o 3 sets of ladders: 250 down or 214 steps (which was the biggest ever)
o At the bottom of the ladder there was a one man suspension bridge. It is so narrow that you can’t even turn around with backpacks on. (Super duper cool)
o Climbed up insane slippery slope afterward
o Dan’s shoes only got wet because he was sweating
o We were going to Logan creek but Clarissa whizzed us to Walbran 3 km away, passed the bog and all
o Arrived at camp ->so beautiful!
o We all took showers in the lake –WOOHOOO!! Good thing we did because right after a million seagulls landed and began taking showers and pooing in the lake.
o The shower felt so good that Sarah found a brand new washroom and pooed.
• Started own fire today without fire starter. Yay, go Dan.
• Hike: Walbran Creek (53km) to Cribbs Creek (41.5km)
• Creeks crossed: Kulaht Creek, Bonilla Creek, Carmanah Creek (cable car), and Coal Creek
• We first had to cross Walbran Creek with Sandals
• Sarah –“Stupid beach”
o Sarah cheated by walking on water
o (She had full waterproof shoes and would rather walk on slippery rocks)
o Saw two cute little fawns. They were cute until they started “playing mommy and daddy”
• Had good weather for today (this one and only day)
• Cable car across Carmanah Creek was super long and tiring
• Finally arrived at Chez Moniques
o Allan: Burger, beer, chocolate muffin (which Dan totally envied), snickers
o Dan: Chocolate bar and coke
o Clarissa: 2 apples
o Sarah: ½ burger, apple, blueberry muffin, chocolate bar
• Allan felt sick afterwards, and Sarah’s burp smelled like burgers
• Soloman (real name is Christian) drank six beers by the time we left
• Visited Carmanah lighthouse
• No one fell today and arrived at Cribbs Creek to beautiful sunshine
• Dried all our clothes
• Decided to sleep at 8:30pm because we wanted to beat soloman (currently at Dare Point (39km) to Nitinat Narrows
Day 5 – August 20
• Hike: Cribbs Creek (41.5km) to Tsusiat Falls (25km)
• Crazy longest day 16.5km and it took us a total of 7.5 hours
• Woke up at 5am but it was too dark so we woke up again at 5:30am
• Wrote “Asians 40 minutes” on sand for Soloman to read
• Eventually they caught up to us, but in the end, they only beat us by five minutes
• It was a super muddy day. Dan’s shoes got wet
• Had fresh Salmon for $20 at Nitinat Narrows. But well spent. Too bad they ran out of crab
• Allan had to poo right aftwards and used to trowel even though he was only 50m from the outhouse
• We were very tired. Sarah and Clarissa almost collapsed.
• Beach was hard to walk on, because the sand is the soft fine sand
• Were very close to not making the tides near that hole at Tsusiat Point
• Arrived at Falls only to find a MILLION (not joking) birds flying around the beach and bathing in the falls.
• Saw naked German people
• Had really yummy rice today
• Dan built a gigantic fire. One log being burned had all these bugs in it.
• We were out by 7pm
• Water filter had some issues
Day 6 – August 21
• Hike: Tsusiat Falls (25km) to Michigan Creek (12 km)
• Woke up at 6pm
• Rainy yet again. There hasn’t been a night where it hasn’t rained. Took two hours to get ready because we were all so exhausted.
• Started the day with a huge set of stairs up from the Falls
• Allan has a total of 227 bug bites on his legs
• Waded 2 creeks
o Dan finally got wet inches from camp. He was not happy
• Dan built a fire. It was cute but burned a hole in his shirt
• We had tuna pita for lunch. It was AMAZING!
• Sarah slipped on a rock
• Clarissa slipped in mud
• Saw the Valencia bluffs where 129 people died from Shipwreck in the early 1900’s
• Saw naked German...again (actually a different one)
• Arrived at Michigan Creek at 2pm
• We were so tired we all took naps on the beach. Good thing it was sunny today.
• I woke up and found crazy sandal tans on my feet. Allan says they look like band aids.
• Boys, “Saw little German boy pee”
• Ate dinner at 4:30pm. Yummy curry Couscous
• Took cool silhouette pictures on beach
• Sarah finished all her snacks
• Dan showered. He doesn’t smell bad anymore
• Daniel fixed the water filter, so it doesn’t take 5min to pump one 2 L bottle
• Anticipating lots of boardwalk for tomorrow Looking forward to the 3 m trails
• Talked about what were going to eat the next night for like...1 whole hour
• Last day at camp! And it didn’t rain for the first time at night
• What we would have brought
o Clarissa: poles, sleeveless shirt
o Stuff to keep the fleas away
o Gloves
• Things we forgot to mention
o Met hardcore photographer
o He had a measuring tape and helped Us off the cable car
o It was his 12th time on the WCT and he used over 10 cameras
o His book will release at the end of next year
o His name is Pabel
• What we are craving:
o Allan : wonton mein, ice cream, and fries
o Dan: plain ruffles chips and pop
o Clarissa: fresh fruit and wonton
o Sarah: chips and gelato
Day 7: Michigan creek (12km) to Pachena Bay (0km)
o Hiking time; 7:30 am – 11:15 am
o Breakfast: granola cereal
o Lunch: tuna pita
o Some parts were muddier than we expected
o We walked crazy paced: 3km/hr
o Saw guardians again from yesterday
o Heard sea lions while on trail
o We made it 2nd, after Solomon
o Bus didn’t arrive until 1 pm, and drove us into Bamfield our original bus broke, so we shared the other people bus.
o Arrived at Bamfield at 5 pm
o Photographer guy hiked 9 km/ hr
o Ride was super bumpy. Clarissa got car sick
o Mont back, had Ruffles chips, lays BBQ chips and rice crackers
o Stayed at traveller’s inn
o Saw a bear on the way home to Port Renfrew
o Tried Priceline but it didn’t work.
No comments:
Post a Comment