The Juan de Fuca Trail

Loving the views from a kayak

The challenge for the rest of my trip was how to make the most out of my time in beautiful BC without stressing my leg. Kayaking seemed to be a good option so I enjoyed a bit of paddling around looking at the views, but we also decided that hiking would be a good compromise.


We decided to hike the 47km Juan de Fuca trail on the west coast of Vancouver Island - it doesn't sound far but is very "undulating" so we were going to aim for 4-5 days, but we ended up walking a bit more each day and cutting the trip down to 2.5 days.

All set for the off...

Typical trail sections

The initial plan was for me to carry a large daypack so as to be putting less pressure on the pesky shin, but my 2 friends are no MM veterans, and hence are less skilled in the art of packing and travelling light, so it became impossible for me to escape carrying a full pack after all.

"Fogust"

It had been really hot and sunny in Vancouver so it was nice to escape to the reputedly wet west coast in Fogust (as they fondly term August).

It was actually ideal walking conditions as the days were overcast, it didn't rain (so the knee-deep mud we'd read about was mostly dry), and the night were cool so you could actually get some sleep.

Trying to skirt some of the mud

Luckily I was small enough that
minimal ducking was required

The odd scramble

I'd recommend the hike to anyone (especially going the way that we did - North to South - as most people were travelling in the opposite direction) as it was an amazing few days.



We walked through forests, skirted some muddy patches, hauled ourselves endlessly up and down hills between creek crossings, staggered along shingle beaches, and camped on the sand listening to the sound of waves crashing nearby and waking up to foghorns out to sea.

A log bridge

A tree made into a staircase

We ducked under trees, scrambled over boulders, used log bridges and tree staircases and hid our food in "bear-bins" overnight (luckily we saw neither cougars nor bears while hiking....though there was lots of fresh bear poo on the trail).

No bears but definite bearpoo

I was actually rather disappointed to reach the southernmost part of the trail as we suddenly came across lots of daytrippers and no longer felt that we were out in the wilderness (though there had been some forestry road access points scattered along the route).

No bear-bins....hang your
food high up using a tree branch 

We'd had no phone or internet signal so there was peace and quiet (though someone was hiking the other way with music blasting from their pack) but the one thing I didn't enjoy was all the "yellowjackets" (ground wasps).

Not a bad view for a (dehydrated) dinner

Sunsets on the beaches weren't too shabby

These sneaky insects do not seem to buzz so there's no warning (well, we did occasionally see warning written on paper, but usually after the event due to us going in the opposite direction to those kindly trying to write down locations and notify people in advance) and appear out of small holes in the ground or under logs/sleepers/wooden steps. The first person walking past seems to wake them up, then the second one angers them......and the third one gets stung....and guess who was usually at the back of our troop!!

Camping on the beach

One seems to sting you and "tag" you alerting the others the then join the chase.....and I wouldn't allow myself to run (not that I could with my pack on) to get away. I ended up reacting so badly to the stings that my leg swelled up so that my knee would neither bend nor straighten fully, my shoes and socks didn't fit, and it looked like I had a DVT.

Survivors (including my leg
which was just starting to swell)

It took about a week for the swelling and itch to settle down - a nice souvenir of the hike - but even so, I still enjoyed it and would love to go and explore more of that coastline!