Victoria has a staggering number of hiking trails that almost always reach something amazing.. and radically different. From Goldstream Park's spawning salmon to the marvellous Goldstream Train Trestle. You can hike dozens of beautiful, coastal kilometres in Juan de Fuca Provincial Park and East Sooke Regional Park. Victoria is a hiker's paradise.
TheWestCoastTrail
The West Coast Trail traces a route along a 75 kilometre section of Vancouver Island's hostile west coast. The trail looks over the Graveyard of the Pacific, home to hundreds of shipwrecks over the centuries. The Graveyard of the Pacific necessitated the construction of the West Coast Trail to save lives from the frequent shipwrecks.
The West Coast Trailis a very tough hike. About one out of one hundred hikers don't make it, they need to be rescued. That's why there are so many fees. By the time you are done preparing and registering, you laugh at how hiking got so expensive. Isn't hiking usually free? All the costs are for saving people that don't make it, and for all the trail construction. And there is a lot. A lot of both.
Consider the one in one hundred statistic. It's really bad. Think of it, every day 75 people enter and every two days someone has to be rescued. To be rescued requires no little effort. The place is a jungle. It's no wonder that there is supposed cell phone coverage all the way (though there isn't). Still you feel comforted, sitting on the beach, in the middle of the West Coast Trail, marvelling at the serenity of such a remote place, then a coast guard helicopter, combing the coast, swoops past.
The comfort and serenity soon pass as you notice two boats, out past the kelp beds, shadowing you as you now walk along the otherwise perfect beach. It's eerie, they move in perfect time with you walking. Then you realize, they are fishing, or sightseeing. Either way, they are not concerned with you, but also oblivious to spoiling the supposed serenity of the West Coast Trail. It's hard to feel like you are days away from civilization, when boats follow you along the coast.
It's hard to get reliable information on injuries and fatalities on the West Coast Trail. You might as well start calling it that as it's a hike that requires a lot of studying beforehand. Whenever you hike a long trail in British Columbia and the danger of bears is so overshadowed by other dangers as to be insignificant, you'd better worry. You need to examine tide charts to determine your route. Most beach routes have parallel forest trails. For the most part you can walk the beach sections pretty care free, however there are a couple areas where you could find yourself blocked by the rising tide. Or worse, trapped by it. If you don't put your tent above the high tide mark, you may become engulfed in water as you sleep. In the summer months you can find lots of nice sand above the high tide mark, close to the rainforest wall. Imagine waking up to ocean waves soaking into your tent. To be safe from high tide, look for grass and weeds in the sand, camp there. Grass tends to not grow if the tide reaches them.
More West Coast Trail Considerations at HikeWCT.com
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When shipping in and out of Juan de Fuca Strait rapidly increased in the mid 1800's and alarming and costly number of ships were lost, the need for a ...
The West Coast Trailis incredible. Everything about it is amazing. From the wildly, incomprehensibly enormous trees to endless jaw dropping views. And ...
The West Coast Trail hiking season is confined to just five months due to the dangerously stormy weather during the winter months. In the winter the days ...
There are three entry/exit points for the West Coast Trail, however the midway entry/exit point at Nitinaht Narrows is for hikers only hiking part of the trail. ...
There are lots of options to getting to the West Coast Trail. The trail is linear so you have to arrange to get to the trailhead as well as from your exit ...
The West Coast Trailis a very tough hike. About one out of one hundred hikers don't make it, they need to be rescued. That's why there are so many fees. ...