No.37 Buy Now Darling River on the West Coast Trail
The Other Day

I am back, from both the West Coast Trail and a blogging hiatus.  We have also begun our travels, well the West Coast Trail really kicked them off.  Presently we are in a hotel in Oslo, Norway.  More to come on Norway and our European adventures soon.  First things first, the West Coast Trail.

It sure was one heck of a trip.  There is a lot to mention so No.39 Tsusiat_Falls_River I will break it up over a couple of posts.  Today, I’ll start with the details.  There was seven of us who embarked on the hike (in our group that is, we joined about 6 million other hikers…apparently that’s early season).  We decided to do the trek from north to south.

We stayed a night in these tiny little shoeboxes in Port Renfrew.  They were about as basic as it gets, but when you are about to sleep on a thin, light air-mattress for 6 nights it’s all you need really.  I won’t bore you with the details but I was sick that day and night.  I hadn’t eaten in about 4 days, I was feeling weak and thoughts crossed my mind of pulling out of the trek.  Fortunately, I woke up on Sunday morning ready and raring to go.

We caught a bus from the southern trail-head to Bamfield at the northern end.  This bus was…well…shit.  No suspension, heat cranked, stuffy and to add to that we got a bumpy, windy road.  Most of the passengers did not feel terrific.  The driver also insisted on driving on the wrong side of the road at all times.  This included around blind corners and blind crests.  The driver gave zero f$%^s!  We survived.

Off the bus we got, and off to the trail we went.  The photo above is from the campsite on day 1.  There should be more photos, but equipment failures and temper tantrums ensured that was not the case.  Stay tuned for more camera debacles.  We camped at Darling river, a campsite 14kms from the trail-head.  It was gorgeous, the sun was out and we were blessed with an amazing sunset.

It was a relatively uneventful first 14kms.  Ben acquired his first blister at kilometre two, but other than that it was mellow.  Day 2 was just around the corner.

Until next time,

Jimmy.