Hitz Adventures: “Have You Ever Seen The Rain?”: Vancouver BC (Part 3 of 7)

I was up about 6am and on the trail about 8am. I was scheduled to make it to Camper this evening which was at KM 60, putting it approx 8km from where I camped at Thrasher Cove. That was a little short for the day. Cullite was another 4km past Camper and that seemed like a better goal. Even though that was only 12km, it was still supposed to be slow going today.

I started out along the beach from Thrasher and immediately ran into a boulder field

These were big rocks. You were not hopping from one to the next but climbing over each one. You look about 20 -30ft ahead before making a move because you did not want to get stuck in a dead end where you could not climb out. The above picture was the part I was most scared of. I have not been this scared in a long time. You had to walk across a fallen Cedar tree. It was 10 feet off the rocks and if you fell you were sure to crack your skull or break an appendage. What made it so difficult was that you had a 50lb pack on and any slight weight shift takes you in that direction and it is not easily to adjust. At the end of the log you had to jump to another log. I'm thinking, “Fuck, if this lasts for a couple Kms longer there is absolutely no way I make it out of here.” I really wanted to just sit on my ass and scoot across, but I didn’t and it scared the crap out of me.

If this pace lasted I would not make it 2km today, let alone the 12km to Cullite campsite. Fortunately it eased up after that

I have not mentioned the tides yet. As you may know, tides are controlled by the gravitational effects of the moon and the sun. There are usually 2 high tides and 2 low tides every 24 hours (each occurring every 6 hours). When these tides occur change each day but in a predictable fashion. Starting from the beach along the WCT you have sand, then some rocks, followed by a flat shelf, ending in a rocky breaker. So with tide charts in hand, you want to attempt to plan your hike so the shelf is exposed as it is flattest part to walk. Also some parts of the beach are impassable if the tides are not low enough because the boulders are too big or the waves to rough against a cliff face with no where to walk. I never really had to worry about the tides on this hike because high tides were always around 5 in the morning and 5 at night and these were not times at which I would be hiking.

The boulders eased up and I began to hike along the shelf. The new problem was that the rock was very slick with a green moss coating

I may have fallen a couple times. I should mention that I got new hiking boots for this trip. My most recent trip to Zion left my feet shredded. Part of that is because my shoe size went from a 11 to a 13 and I forgot to update my hikers. But, I also tend to hike long distances in a day and my old Asolo boots felt like cement blocks around mile 20. I wanted something lighter, but still having decent ankle support for carrying a large pack. I settled on the Asolo Reston WP Hiking Boots seen below

They were waterproof and light. That is what my main concerns were. And although my last pair of Asolos gave me blisters, I liked the boots and figured they would be good if I had the right size. I am bringing this up now because one of the drawbacks of this minimalist hiker boot is that it has somewhat poor traction resulting in me biting it a few times. You may claim “user error” but I beg to differ.

I spent the next few hours hiking with 5 youngsters from another city on the island (Sidney). They were in their 20s and I could not believe that they had not hiked the trail before. You live on an island the size of Rhode Island with one of the top hiking trails in North America! What have you been doing all this time? I can’t fault them too much as they hiked circles around me. Their speed was depressing me as they jumped from rock to rock.

We rounded Owen’s Point and found this incredible cave system that you cannot access at high tide

With the tides out we ran through a lot of mussel beds as seen below. There was also a great deal of urchins and anemones, for which I have photos tomorrow

In addition to tides, there are also these things called Surge Channels. When the tide comes in the waves are focused on a small tunnel through the rocks up to the beach. You don’t want to get caught in one or you are gunna get pounded and pulled out to sea. This is part of one where the waves have undercut the overhanging rocks.

We used the ropes seen below to get around one of them

Here is one of the thousands of small crabs running around. I will partake in the bigger ones a little later on in the trip

At this point we had to go inland because the cliffs prevented us from walking along the shelf any longer

Although it was not raining, the ground still had some wet spots. I can only imagine how muddy it must be when the rains hit. Here are some pictures of the frequent mud pits you had to find your way through. It was kinda like a game of Frogger as jump from tree root to stump to rock.

Or like many of the people coming the other way who were tired of it all, and just plowed right through it.

We hit ladder country again

Here is the first set of cable cars

I chose to walk through the stream to get a good shot of them crossing. Basically the car sits in the middle of the river and whichever side you come from, you pull the cart to you, get in and pull across. Not very complex but a fun ride.

My boots held up pretty good against all the mud and puddles but I misjudged the depth of the river and it rose above my boottop and my gaiters were not gunna save the day

By this point we had reached Camper and only had another 4 km of ladders to get to the Cullite camp. I took of my boots and socks and just laid out in the sun for a couple hours until everything dried

Once I restarted I climbed some ladders then along some fallen trees. I thought it was cool how they integrated them into the path. It felt a bit more natural.

I came to another cable car and Cullite Creek. It is a tougher operation to use these when alone. Once you pull it to you you have to try and hold it while you get in with your pack before it runs back towards the middle of the river. It was a close call and I almost tumbled off the platform

Unfortunately it was not till I got across that I realized the campsite was back on the otherside where the creek runs out into the ocean.

I made my way back and hiked up along the river and eventually found everyone in this little hidden cove

I set up shop, cooked dinner and just enjoyed the view

We got a fire going around 8pm. Not long after there were some loud explosions in the fire and it kicked out some embers. After a couple times we determined that some of the sandstone boulders washed up and near the fire where cracking. I also learned that Cedar is pretty much the best firestarting wood. It can be splintered easily and burns wet.