The West Coast Trail

Vancouver Island's west coast was known as the "The Graveyard of the Pacific" by mariners in the late 1800 and early 1900's because its treacherous shorelines claimed many sailing ships and the lives of their crews. A telegraph line was erected along the coast in an attempt to establish communication between remote west coast villages and the coastal lighthouses and it became a life saving trail for survivors and their rescuers. Eventually as technology improved and ship wrecks became a thing of the past the trail was abandoned. In 1973 it became part of the newly established Pacific Rim National Park. Hiking the West Coast Trail is about exploring Vancouver Island's temperate rain forest and rugged coastline, walking in the footsteps of shipwreck victims and learning their stories. The trail is still as it was; a narrow winding path that fords rivers, scales cliffs and traverses rocky shorelines and sandy beaches and is recommended for experienced backpackers only

One of our neighbors, Brian has successfully hiked the trail for a number of consecutive seasons and invited Roy to join him this year. They trained to build stamina and planned every detail of their gear, food and clothing. They waited for the weather to give them the best possible 6 day window and then they set off from the trail head at Port Renfrew. Roy tells me that the first day was brutal, almost entirely uphill climbing around boulders, tangles of roots and fallen trees and using ladders to climb the steeper slopes while carrying a heavy pack. Brian notes that our wetter than usual spring had made the trail more difficult, muddying the path and making logs and rocks slick and slippery.






The pictures above show the terrain and ladders encountered on the first day's hike.

As the day ended the guys made camp, ate their rations and hit the sack; Day 2 would start early. At this point in the trail hikers must time their crossing of a boulder strewn beach to coincide with low tide in order to avoid being caught against the rocky shore as the waves crash in. Progress was slow as the rocks were wet and seaweed adding to the slippery conditions.



They were almost across when Roy lost his footing slipping into an opening between the boulders and twisting his knee. He tried to get up but fell again and finally had to admit that he was done, could not finish the hike, his knee too painful to bear weight. Some passing hikers stopped and using a GPS signal device notified the Parks people of the situation. They moved as far as they could up the beach, started a signal fire and waited. Within a couple of hours help arrived and Roy was taken off the beach by boat and back to Port Renfrew. The previous full day of hiking was equal to a boat trip he said that took 15 minutes. Brian chose to carry on with the other hikers and did complete the trail in the six days that they had planned. He later told us that Roy was one of 4 people injured and evacuated from the trail that day; two by boat and two by helicopter to Victoria. Over 100 injured people are removed from the trail every season.

I drove back to Port Renfrew to pick Roy up. A visit to the ER revealed that his ligaments were intact but that he had torn Meniscus, painful but not debilitating. So far rest, knee braces and time have been all that was needed. The accident was unfortunate but the outcome could have been a lot worse. Every day that we walk the beach or the trail along the creek we count our blessings.