This summer (August 2015) our family (two parents, 3 kids ages, 15, 14, 11) hiked the West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island. This blog is intended to help out anyone else hiking the West Coast Trail (or any other longer trail). What worked for us and what didn't - learn from our mistakes! The blog will be broken into sections: should your family do the hike?, logistics (getting to and from the trail), equipment for 5 people and food, campsites, other considerations.
Should your family do the trail?
- Parks Canada recommends only very experienced backpackers and hikers attempt the trail. We and many others we met certainly did not fall under this category. In fact, our family had never done a trekking trip like this before. We did however have some camping experience, lots of day hiking experience and we are all in good physical shape.
- The trail is definitely not for anyone who dislikes heights - lots and lots of very high ladders to ascend and descend, some fallen logs to walk across that bridge ravines and at least one suspension bridge that is quite high off the ground. There were times that I was a bit nervous about these aspects of the hike but everyone in our family was very cautious when faced with the more dangerous portions.
- The hardest part of the hike is the daily grind of walking with your pack on. 12-15 km per day may not seem like a lot but the hikes take all day long and carrying a heavy pack wears you down physically and mentally. The truth is there many times when all we did was put our heads down and trudge on (sometimes I even counted out steps - to 100 - before I let myself look up again).
- There were other children on the hike - we met one boy who was only 8 years old and a lot of boy scout troops.
- The trail is rewarding and challenging and often times very beautiful but I don't think anyone in our family would have called it fun!
We hiked the trail from south to north - I will get into the pros and cons of choosing where to start shortly.
Here is how we structured our hike:
- Fly into Victoria - we stayed 2 nights - this gave us a day of sightseeing and time to purchase any last minute equipment (like fuel) at Mountain Equipment Coop - there is really no where else to buy stuff you need so I would highly recommend stopping here.
- Drive to Port Renfrew (about 2 hours from Victoria), stopping on the way to grocery shop for the next two days and buy more food for the trip. Note, if start your trip in Port Renfrew there is really no place to buy anything in this town. There is a general store but other than candy bars and beer, not much offered.
- Stay 2 nights in Port Renfrew. We stayed in a vacation rental but there is also a hotel there that has a good pub. Port Renfrew has no cell service at all, so if you need to make a phone call you have use the pay phone.
- On our first day in Port Renfrew we attended the mandatory information session for all WCT hikers. Finding the office from Port Renfrew was not easy! There are very few signs when you are coming from the town of PR- we took several wrong turns and had to keep asking people for directions. We were almost late to our information session. It was almost the most stressful part of the trip! It seems as though most people attend the info sessions only one day ahead of their hike (we went two) as there was some kind of issue printing off our permits so far in advance. Luckily, Lori who works for Parks Canada was kind enough of drop off our permits for us the next day. Lori also gave us the name of the driver who could pick us up from our cottage - this was all necessary because on our second day in Port Renfrew we were bringing the car to the trail end in Bamfield.
- Day 2 in Port Renfrew, my husband and eldest daughter took a 3.5 hour road trip to Bamfield to drop off the car. There is very limited cell service along the way. The plan was to take the 1.5 hour ferry back which was supposed to leave at noon ($120 pp). The high cost of travelling back to the trailhead was one reason we wanted to the car at the end of our trip. Paying for 5 people to ferry or bus it back is expensive! Unfortunately the ferry was not running that day so they had to take the 1:45 West Coast Trail Bus back to Port Renfrew ($60 pp). There is only one bus per day! They did not arrive back in Port Renfrew until 6:30 p.m. A good portion of the road to Bamfield (from Lake Cowichan on) is an unpaved gravel road and it did not sound like fun to drive on.
- We were very careful to pack all of our unneeded belongings into our rental car the night before - otherwise you have to leave it in Port Renfrew!
- Meanwhile I called Evan Solomon (who also owns the parking spots many people leave their car at by the Port Renfrew trail head). He acts as the local taxi service. We arranged that he would pick us up at 8:30 a.m. the morning of our hike.
- All went smoothly with our pick up by Evan and drop off at the trail head ($3 pp).
We chose to hike south to north in order to get the most difficult parts of the trail over with first. I don't think there is a right or wrong way - there are pros and cons to both.
South to North pros and cons:
- Get the hard parts over with while you are still fresh. The first 5 km but really the first 25 km are full of steep steps with lots of mud and tree roots - nothing life threatening but it would be easy to sprain an ankle here.
- You have the beauty of the beaches and wildlife to look forward to
- You really really appreciate the sections that are easier to hike
- If your car is in Bamfield (Pachena Bay) you don't have to worry about what time you make it out on your last day
- The cons are that the first 25-30 km are so difficult that you are mentally and physically quite exhausted by the time you get to the "easier" portions. Not always sure we enjoyed it as much as we should have....
- Day 2 of hiking was brutal because our leg muscles were so sore from the day before.
- You see the beauty fairly early on in the hike and you may appreciate it more because you have all this energy!
- Bamfield definitely has a better general store for last minute food supplies
- You can more easily avoid the 17km hike that we did on day 4
- Your legs will be more used to hiking and may not be as sore as ours were as you hit the more challenging parts
- A big con to hiking south is that you must take a ferry ride from Gordon River to the trail end. There is no where to camp at Gordon River and the last ferry is at 4:30 p.m. so you really have to plan your exit. I would absolutely not recommend trying to hike from Camper's Bay to Gordon River on your last day - especially with children, rushing out to catch a ferry on this challenging terrain could be dangerous.
Equipment:
-2 - 2 man tents (our youngest is small!)
-Waterproof hiking boots and gaiters - we didn't all have gaiters (or waterproof boots) - what's nice about this is that no matter how dry the hiking is season is there is still lots and lots of mud and puddles and ocean to walk through. Having waterproof boots and gaiters gives you more freedom to just walk right through some of the nasty stuff instead of trying to jump over it or around it.
-hiking poles - each of us had one (except my husband who didn't like them) we all agree that we couldn't have done the hike without them
-gloves with some grip (we used cheap gardening gloves) - these are great for pulling yourself up on muddy roots, using them on slippery and wet ladders, while bouldering and on the cable cars (many WCT trail sites don't mention gloves but we were all really glad we had them!)
-sleeping mats
-sleeping bags
- 2 rolls of toilet paper (the perfect amount for the 5 of us)
-fire starters and/or paper (we did not have this but wish we did)
-several lighters (I had purchased 3 from the dollar store and we kept losing them or dropping them in water
-2 lightweight pairs of shorts/2 t-shirts per person
-1 long pair of pants (running tights worked for us) that could also be worn at night
-1 hat (it did get cold)
-1 lightweight long sleeved shirt (also for sleeping in)
-1 heavier long sleeved top (like a cool weather running top)
-rain jackets
-pack covers
-2-3 pairs of hiking socks (I burned a hole in my daughter's socks trying to dry them out so I gave her my extra pair, which left me with dirty wet socks for part of the hike)
-moleskin for blisters
-first aid kit (we never used ours)
-duct or hockey tape - can come in very handy - both of us adults had older hiking boots that started to fall apart and we had tape up!
Instant oatmeal (6 pkgs made in one pot)
Instant steel cut oats
Instant oatmeal
Powdered eggs with bacon (inedible)
Instant oatmeal and Mr. Noodles
Morning Snack
Apples
Pepperoni Sticks
Longo's Morning Glory Trail Mix Bar
Longo's Morning Glory Trail Mix Bar
Kind Bar
Freeze dried apples
Lunch
Salami, Cheese, Crackers
Salami, Cheese, crackers
Lunch at Chez Moniques (the hamburger shack at km 44.5) $25 for a burger
Lunch at NitNat Ferry Crabshack (fresh caught crab and salmon and halibut - all excellent - $25 -$30 a plate)
Pepperoni Sticks, cheese, Crackers
Afternoon Snack
Kind bars
Longo’s Morning Glory Trail Mix Bar
Pepperoni sticks
Kind Bar
Freeze dried pineapples (I found these in packages at Bulk Barn)
No snack needed on day 6
Dinner
Kielbasa + 2 pkgs rice & broccoli Sidekicks
Curried chickpeas (grocery store – boil in bag) + Kielbasa
Backpacker`s Pantry Chicken and Noodles (basically Ramen noodles with freeze dried chicken). Not our favourite and we tried to cook all in one pot which did not work.
Mountain House Freeze Dried Lasagna with Meat Sauce (our favourite of the freeze dried meals)
+ packages of asian style instant rice that I found in the drugstore
Miso Soup + Mountain House Turkey Tetrazzini + Freeze dried Raspberry Vanilla Mousse (hard to mix up and we kept getting lumpy bits of powder)
No dinner needed on day 6
*The adults had Starbuck`s instant coffee each morning with powdered milk.
I also packed individual ziplock baggies of treats (nuts, m&ms, etc) all from bulk barn. I was able to keep some of my treats until the last day but the kids ate theirs by day 2!
Things we learned:
*Bring bowls not plates - we had both and never used the plates once!
*Don't forget a serving spoon and at least one tea towel (for cleaning and as a pot holder)
*Do not bring any lunch foods that require heating up - there is no place on the hike to fire up a stove and no one has the energy to do this anyway. Some of our food listed above – miso soup and instant rice, Mr. Noodles, were originally designated as lunch foods but our stops at Chez Monique and Nitnat gave us extra lunch meals that we ate later on
*2 pkgs of Mountain House entree meals is barely enough for 5 people (you can live on it but you are still hungry)
* Cheese keeps a looooong time! We bought two medium size pkgs of cheddar cheese and only opened the second one on day 5. It was perfectly fine!
*Kind Bars are excellent - the kids loved them! I was a bit hesitant at $2 dollars a pop but I wish I had brought more as they always gave a good burst of energy
*Never Ever Buy Powdered Eggs! It was a wasted meal - I literally had to dump the eggs in the sand. The kids still gag every time I mention that meal
*I filled some small travel size containers with maple syrup and honey and we used these both up
Cooking Utensils:
We had 2 cooking pots (necessary - especially once one was covered in powdered scrambled eggs that we couldn't clean out!)
The cheapest stove: Primus Classic Trail (around $25) plus 1 large and 1 small fuel canister (bought in Victoria) - it worked perfectly. I would not spend more money than this.
The dollar store is your friend for light weight dishes - a little BPA is probably okay for a week, right?
Food/Water - or as I like to call it "Bowls not Plates." My kids say I should call this section: "Powdered Eggs are never a good idea"
Water:
We brought iodine drops and one Sawyer Squeeze filter system (very hard to find in Toronto, where we are from). Then we just used old gatorade bottles. These are cheap and light and we could throw them away when we were done. We had 2 bottles per person plus one large 2 liter bottle of water. Our oldest daughter was always in charge of filling the bottles and adding iodine drops. We didn't use the filter a lot because like all filters they take a long time. For the most part our water system worked out fine. I always made sure that all the water was ready to go before we went to bed each night. There are probably easier ways - a lot of people had something called a gravity water filter - what's nice about these is you can treat/filter a lot of water at once. Also at Tsusiast Falls campsite you need some kind of wide mouth container to get your water because you have to get it from the running falls (we just used a cooking pot and then poured the water into our bottles). I was not really supervising the iodine part too closely and none of us had any stomach troubles at all.
Food:
Planning food for 5 people was a bit overwhelming at first!
I started off by clearing our dining room table and then laying out cards with meal headings (breakfast, am snack, lunch, pm snack, dinner, treats).
Then I started adding food under each category as I purchased it. It took a few days but it allowed me to look for items on sale and source things from different stores. I purchased extra large freezer bags and put each type of meal into one bag. Each person in the family was responsible for carrying one bag. Obviously, our youngest got the lightest bag (afternoon snacks) and dad got the heaviest (dinner). Whoever was responsible for the bag could also decide what we were going to eat at that meal.
Here was our meal plan for 6 days (in order):
Breakfast
Peanut butter & bagelsInstant oatmeal (6 pkgs made in one pot)
Instant steel cut oats
Instant oatmeal
Powdered eggs with bacon (inedible)
Instant oatmeal and Mr. Noodles
Morning Snack
Apples
Pepperoni Sticks
Longo's Morning Glory Trail Mix Bar
Longo's Morning Glory Trail Mix Bar
Kind Bar
Freeze dried apples
Lunch
Salami, Cheese, Crackers
Salami, Cheese, crackers
Lunch at Chez Moniques (the hamburger shack at km 44.5) $25 for a burger
Lunch at NitNat Ferry Crabshack (fresh caught crab and salmon and halibut - all excellent - $25 -$30 a plate)
Pepperoni Sticks, cheese, Crackers
Afternoon Snack
Kind bars
Longo’s Morning Glory Trail Mix Bar
Pepperoni sticks
Kind Bar
Freeze dried pineapples (I found these in packages at Bulk Barn)
No snack needed on day 6
Dinner
Kielbasa + 2 pkgs rice & broccoli Sidekicks
Curried chickpeas (grocery store – boil in bag) + Kielbasa
Backpacker`s Pantry Chicken and Noodles (basically Ramen noodles with freeze dried chicken). Not our favourite and we tried to cook all in one pot which did not work.
Mountain House Freeze Dried Lasagna with Meat Sauce (our favourite of the freeze dried meals)
+ packages of asian style instant rice that I found in the drugstore
Miso Soup + Mountain House Turkey Tetrazzini + Freeze dried Raspberry Vanilla Mousse (hard to mix up and we kept getting lumpy bits of powder)
No dinner needed on day 6
*The adults had Starbuck`s instant coffee each morning with powdered milk.
I also packed individual ziplock baggies of treats (nuts, m&ms, etc) all from bulk barn. I was able to keep some of my treats until the last day but the kids ate theirs by day 2!
Things we learned:
*Bring bowls not plates - we had both and never used the plates once!
*Don't forget a serving spoon and at least one tea towel (for cleaning and as a pot holder)
*Do not bring any lunch foods that require heating up - there is no place on the hike to fire up a stove and no one has the energy to do this anyway. Some of our food listed above – miso soup and instant rice, Mr. Noodles, were originally designated as lunch foods but our stops at Chez Monique and Nitnat gave us extra lunch meals that we ate later on
*2 pkgs of Mountain House entree meals is barely enough for 5 people (you can live on it but you are still hungry)
* Cheese keeps a looooong time! We bought two medium size pkgs of cheddar cheese and only opened the second one on day 5. It was perfectly fine!
*Kind Bars are excellent - the kids loved them! I was a bit hesitant at $2 dollars a pop but I wish I had brought more as they always gave a good burst of energy
*Never Ever Buy Powdered Eggs! It was a wasted meal - I literally had to dump the eggs in the sand. The kids still gag every time I mention that meal
*I filled some small travel size containers with maple syrup and honey and we used these both up
Cooking Utensils:
We had 2 cooking pots (necessary - especially once one was covered in powdered scrambled eggs that we couldn't clean out!)
The cheapest stove: Primus Classic Trail (around $25) plus 1 large and 1 small fuel canister (bought in Victoria) - it worked perfectly. I would not spend more money than this.
The dollar store is your friend for light weight dishes - a little BPA is probably okay for a week, right?
Our Route:
Day 1 Gordon River to Camper's Bay (13 km):
Day 2 Camper's Bay to Walbran Creek (9 km):
Day 3 Walbran to Crib's Creek (11 km):
Day 4 Crib's Creek to Tsusiat Falls (17 km):
Day 5 Tsusiat Falls to Michigan Creek (13 km):
Day 6 Michigan Creek to Pachena Bay (12 km)
If I was to hike from North to South I would probably try to stay at the following campsites:
Day 1: Darling River (14 km), Day 2: Tsusiat Falls (11 km), Day 3: Crib's Creek (17 km), Day 4: Cullite (16 km), Day 5: Thrasher (12 km), Day 6: Gordon River (5 km)
Day 1 Gordon River to Camper's Bay (13 km):
Day 2 Camper's Bay to Walbran Creek (9 km):
Day 3 Walbran to Crib's Creek (11 km):
Day 4 Crib's Creek to Tsusiat Falls (17 km):
Day 5 Tsusiat Falls to Michigan Creek (13 km):
Day 6 Michigan Creek to Pachena Bay (12 km)
If I was to hike from North to South I would probably try to stay at the following campsites:
Day 1: Darling River (14 km), Day 2: Tsusiat Falls (11 km), Day 3: Crib's Creek (17 km), Day 4: Cullite (16 km), Day 5: Thrasher (12 km), Day 6: Gordon River (5 km)
