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
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.
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
To the point. One of our longest, most tiring days. Mostly through forest, over headland. BIG CLIFF NEAR BEGINNING, WHALE CARCASS, IN AND OUT OF COVES
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.