TR - Hiking the Nootka Trail
This page is only meant to help Philipp and Rueben colaboratively write the following article. It will be removed once the article is complete.
Nootka Trail VOC Journal
Rueben Schulz Philipp Winter
So i've begun to post sections as I get them done, these are my first drafts...feel free to make any suggestions or anything. I'm not to sure if i've gone into too much detail or not... -Phil
I put up one section and will start another soon. It is also a first draft, so it will need some editing. Don't worry about detail yet: in a few days we can start editing the entire section to make things consistent (mentioning the weather, other families, bears, etc.) - Rueben
Intro - Philipp
Discuss the trip location and other general information. Transportation and costs. Info on the planning. Philipp did trip with family a few years before.
At the end of August Rueben and I hiked the Nootka Trail, a five day, 35 km hike off the west coast of Vancouver Island. The Trail is located on the west coast of Nootka Island, which is located pretty much straight across Vancouver Island from Campbell River.The trailhead is only accessible by float plane or water taxi, float plane being the prefered choice. The preferred choice for getting back to Gold River (float plane launch) is a tourist ferry/supply boat (MV Uchuck III) which stops at Friendly Cove (the end of the trail) twice weekly. After a while of message board postings and e-mails going back and forth, Rueben and I were left as the only two willing and able to go on the hike. Originally we had no way of getting to Gold River. I researched taking the bus to Campbell River or Tofino and taking a float plane from there, but those options always came out very expensive. In the end I was able to borrow my parents car and the total cost from Vancouver to the trailhead, and back to Vancouver totaled $350 per person (for 2 people). This included gas, BC ferries to/from Nanaimo, float plane to trailhead (Louie Lagoon), MV Uchuck back to Gold River, and the “trail user fee” imposed by the natives to cross their land at the end of the trail.
Day 1 (Monday) - Philipp
To third beach and our northern excursion (wrecked ship) AND ATTEMPTED FURTHER NORTH. Cool beaver.
We left Vancouver on Sunday morning and drove to Strathcona Park Lodge where we met up with my parents who were camping in the area at the time. We camped with them on Sunday night not too far from the Gold River float plane launch and took the float plane in on Monday morning. My parents decided to join us for the flight which not only made it cheaper for us, but also allowed us to fly in the de Havilland Canada Beaver, a wonderful Canadian bush plane which is over 50 years old (this plane had just celebrated it’s 50th birthday the previous May). We had nice weather on our flight in and got a nice preview of the trail as we flew over it. After landing in Louie Lagoon and getting set, we started out on our 5-day hike. It only took us about 30 min to get out to the coast and our first campsite (Third Beach). We set up our camp, had lunch, and set out for a day-hike north along the coast, to visit and old shipwreck and try to make it to the northern point of Nootka Island (ferrer point). Unfortunately we didn’t make it all the way to Ferrer Point as the trail became a very heavy bushwhack once we passed the old shipwreck.
Food cache to keep out bears?
Day 2 (Tues) - Rueben
On the second day, Tuesday, we traveled from Third Beach to Calvin Falls. After getting up rather late, we broke camp and left sometime around 11am. The first business of the day was to climb up a steep, wet rocky section (which had a rope) to get into the forest. The first half of this day was spent climbing through bits of forest and beach, and the second half consisted of mostly walking along beaches and nice flat sections (almost like pavement). The weather was mixed throughout the day, but was mostly good.
Early in the day we encountered the first, and only, bear that we saw on the trip. We heard a loud rustling in the shrubs beside the beach and stopped. Philipp got out the bear spray and we both climbed up onto a nearby rock outcrop. The bear poked its head out through the bushes once and then headed off into the forest rather slowly. Once it had gone far enough, we continued on our way and talked to it as we went by.
Around lunch, we stopped at a small stream and filtered some more water. The water filter did not filter anything, and it was not until it built up enough pressure to blow off a hose that we realized that the filter was completely plugged up from filtering water at Third Beach. Some of the streams had a brown colour to them (from peat I think) that would plug up the filter very quickly. Once it was cleaned, it filtered fine.
We did not get into Calvin Falls until about 6pm. The south side of the creek was covered by a huge amount of drift wood in a pile about 2m high. After a bit of searching, we setup the tent and tarp in a clear spot behind the drift wood, about 20m from the other family. Near the end of the day the weather had improved and it was now sunny. However, our late start meant that we did not have time to take a swim and instead had to get straight to making dinner. The other family got in earlier, and had lots of manpower, so the girls got to go swimming while the parents cooked. At night, we wandered over to the other camp site and shared the fire with them.
Day 3 (Wed) - Philipp
To Beano Creek. ALL beach walk? Rained all day. FUN BOULDER-BOULDER WALKING, CROSSIN BEANO, CAMP BUILT BEHIND LOG
Our third day on the trail, Wednesday, was from Calvin Falls to Beano Creek. This day consisted solely of beach walking and quite a number of stream crossings. Beach walking gets rather monotonous after a while, but fortunately there was variety in the beach. Along one section of the beach we had to step from boulder to boulder. Since it was raining all day, this was rather difficult as the rocks were rather slippery. Once we got to Beano Creek, we had to cross it. Luckily we didn’t have to time our crossing with the tides as Beano Creek isn’t affected by the tides. Beano Creek was a bit more then knee-deep at the point where we crossed it. Rueben nearly fell in after losing his balance while trying to get a rock out of his shoes (mental note: don’t worry about rocks in your shoes while you’re crossing a creek). Once we got up the other side of Beano Creek, we realized we might have a bit of trouble finding a good place to set up camp, as it was rather windy and rainy. The beach was all nicely exposed to the wind and rain except for behind one very big log which is where we set up camp, using the log as a back wall for our tarp. Along the beach here is the only place along the Nootka Trail which has privately owned land. There are a quite a number of cabins just tucked into the woods. There is even a bed and breakfast on the far end of the beach.
Day 4 (Thurs) - Rueben
Thursday was our longest and most tiring day, when we traveled from Beano Creek to the point. After the previous day's rain, it was nice to wake up without it raining. Of course it was not very nice to put on cold, wet boots, and pants. The rain held off while we packed up, but it started sprinkling once we got underway. The father of the family ran over in the morning to get a better view of some whales swimming offshore. He mentioned that he had watched a bear cross the creek upstream in the morning.
We had to get going rather early, because we had to pass a cliff that had no overland route before the tide got too high. This cliff was not very far from Beano, and a short while latter we passed by a whale carcass. I do not have any pictures of it, since by this time the rain had started again and my camera is not waterproof. Then the fun began. The beach walking ended and we started the overland route. The only route up from the beach to the forest went straight up a very wet and slippery rockface that was about 10m high. Fortunately it had a rope attached, that we first tested by both pulling on it from below.
We then spent most of the rest of the day climbing in and out of coves and walking through the forest. After traveling for a while, I looked at my watch to discover that it said we had only been hiking for about an hour. Remarking to Philipp that maybe it stopped, I looked again to see that it had indeed stopped and the ### had broken off. Pushing the ## back in with a twig, we latter found out from the family behind us that my watch was 55 minutes slow once they caught up with us. Latter in the day the sun started to come out and our spirits picked up a bit.
Eventually we caught up with the family that passed us earlier in the day. They had set up camp at a very nice beach that was surrounded by cliffs and had an "island" in the middle. A log went from the island to the surrounding cliff that someone had previously put a rope around (## need to describe this better##). The family suggested we stay with them, but Philipp wanted to stop at the same place where he had stopped previously, so we continued on. However the route off the beach went up a 10m wall, and we were so tired by this time that we took one look at it and turned around. After setting up camp, we gathered some wood and shared a fire with the other family. Since the wood was wet and hard to start, I offered some alcohol to the effort. The bit of alcohol smothered the small flame and put it out, which was not my desired outcome. But a second match ignited the vapors and helped get it going. We used the fire to dry out our socks and boots, though some sparks melted a small hole it the tongue of Rueben's boot. The weather cleared off by the night, and we were able to watch the stars, around the camp fire.
Day 5 (Fri) - ???
To Tidal Lagoon (30 min from Friendly Cove). Short (due to tide time). Set up camp by lunch and got to dry stuff in the nice sun. Did some laundry and took a bath. I had some pretty sore feet by this time. DECIDING WHICH HEADLAND TO GO AROUND AND WHICH TO GO OVER, NICE PRE SET-UP CAMP
Day 6 (Sat) - ???
30min hike to Friendly Cove. Sight seeing, ferry out, crazy drive to Nanimo for late night ferry back to vancouver. LIGHTHOUSE (TALL BRIDGE), LAST LUNCH ON THE BEACH, LUNA
Coastal hiking tidbits - Philipp
Floats mark trails, STICKS GOOD FOR HELPING CROSS STREAMS, WATCH TIDES, Shitput and sea launch
Misc.
Other families traveling with us.
Luna the crazy whale
Note: our wakeup times got earlier as the trip went on, because of consideration for the tides.