Hiking the West Coast Trail Photo Gallery by Vance Middleton at pbase.com

Hiking the West Coast Trail

The West Coast Trail is a 75 km (47 mi) long backpacking trail following the southwestern edge of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. It was built in 1907 to facilitate the rescue of survivors of shipwrecks along the coast, part of the treacherous Graveyard of the Pacific. It is now part of Pacific Rim National Park and is often rated as one of North America's top hiking trails. Miriam and I had a great time exploring.

West Coast Trail Day 1 and 2	Day 1. Miriam's first experience with the WCT ladder system.		A view of Pachena bay. In 1700 a tsunami wiped out the winter village here leaving no survivors.
The north end of the WCT is the easiest portion of the trail.	Dead tree	A blow down from last winter.
Sea lions off the coast.	Miriam	Miriam refilling her bottles at Pachena light house.	Pachena light house
	Pachena light house	A view of the ocean from the trail.	A spittlebug
	Hikers carve the buoys that wash up. This one is 11 years old.	Miriam	Left overs from a 1943 shipwreck.
Miriam	Some sort of coast guard incident off shore.	Bald eagle	Bald eagle
Bald eagle	Our camp fire. End of Day 1.	Moonlight over the Pacific.	Day 2. Miriam's shell flower.
A crabby crab.	Whales eat these krilly things.	Tsocowis Creek Falls	Some off the trail exploring
Can only be explored at low tide.	Goose barnacles. These can live for 20 years and are edible.	Small pool	Impassable. Valencia Bluffs surge channel.
Valencia Bluffs surge channel.	Vance at Valencia Bluffs
	Typical WCT board walk	Bald Eagle	Trestle Creek beach access point.
Camp art	Tsusiat Falls. Everyone spends a night here.	A beach mouse drowned itself in our water bag.	Our camp at Tsusiat Falls.
Day 3.	Bald eagle.	Tsusiat Point Hole in the Rock. Accessible only during low tide.	Giant Green Pacific Sea Anemone
Sea lions	Rooty section of the WCT	The WCT runs through First Nations land in places. There are 3 places along the trail where you can get a hot meal.	Resupply boat for Edgar
Edgars	Edgar's dogs	Miriam taking a break at Edgars	Hikers waiting for their grilled salmon.
		Edgar Jr. Age 19.	An impromptu jam session
Nitinat Narrows Ferry	Broken down boardwalk	One of the better sections	A Hairy Woodpeck (I think)
A Hairy Woodpeck (I think)	Horsetail. A prehistoric plant. Indians of the North American Pacific Northwest eat the young shoots of this plant raw.	Hikers on the beach trail. We took the high (mud) trail.	Day 3.Time to get up Miriam
Happy Miriam	A bald eagle near our tent	Hiking to Bonilla Point	Whale sighting
High five from a whale	A sea lion rock near our camp.
		Stairway to Carmanah	Carmanah lighthouse
	Lots of ladders	Arriving at Chez Monique's	Chez Monique
Our breakfast
			Bonilla Point. Our camp for 2 days.
Bonilla Creek waterfall	Bonilla Creek.	Bonilla Creek. Abandoned bridge.	Bonilla Creek. Abandoned bridge.
Miriam's shell garden	Crab art	Bonilla Creek.	Bonilla Creek.
		Rocks above high tide
	Sea ducks
	Bull kelp. The fastest growing seaweed in the world.	View from camp. Carmanah light house.
			High tide washing sea lions off their resting rock.
			Garter snake
Bonilla Point campfire	Carmanah creek. Miriam and I put this crosssing in. Note the cable car in the background.	Carmanah light house.	On Day 5 the sun came out and we could see across the Straits of Juan de Fuca to Washington (abt 12 miles way)
Bonilla Point	It took an hour to melt our names into that buoy.	A ship in the Straits of Juan de Fucu
	Bonnila Point. Abandoned section of the WCT.	Miriam was betting money that this ladder was going to break on me.	Core sample
Sunset at Bonilla Point		West Coast Trail Days 3 to 5	Day 6. A river otter crossing our camp
A wreck mini-tug used for logging.	Cool fog		Walbran camp
The trail gets prossively harder from this point one.	Telegraph wire insulator. Over a 100 years old. The wire was still solid in the center.	Suspension bridge
	Lunch break at Culite Cove
Wading at Culite Cove	Culite Cove ladder system.	The trail gets progressively worse
View from our camp. End of Day 6.	Camper Bay. Always crowded. Miriam and I stayed on the 'island' apart from everyone else.		Camper Bay. End of day camp fires.
Camper Bay.	Day 7. Our last day on the WCT.
		Old logging cable with a tree growing around it.	End of the trail. Gordon River.
Miriam signalling to the ferry to come get us.	We did it!	Gaiters are a necessity.	Gordon River ferry.
Day 7. End of the day at the Big Fish lodge in Port Renfrew	Panorama of Port San Juan from the Big Fish Lodge	Sunset at Big Fish Lodge	Day 8. Kayaking from Fairy Lake to San Juan Port (12 miles)
Our expert paddling guide for the day, Oriana.			Lunch break
	Paddling in a brackish, tidal river.	Port of San Juan
Miriam sampling edible rock kelp.		Day 9. A ride on a water taxi.	Juan de Fuca Express
Sunrise. Port of San Juan.
Fishing charters.
	Playful sea lions off our boat. Some are visible underwater.
	Thar she blows!		Whale
The Nitinat River flowing out and the tide coming in makes for some dangerous currents		Tsusiat Falls viewed from a water taxi
			Coming into the town of Bamfield
		Macro shot of a water drop on a leaf
	This is your captain speaking...		Whale off in the distance
		Checking out the Nitinat Narrows	Juan de Fuca Express with a full load of hikers who just finished the WCT.
			The catch of the day for a sports fisherman

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