Day 7… (September 1st)

We were on the trail by 7:30am, half an hour later than planned, but on the whole we were pretty happy with our de-camping skills!

The trail from Thrasher Cove to the Gordon River Trailhead was all inland, and the first kilometre was a brutal mixture of ladders, mud slides & switch-backs. I am still baffled how a trail like that is sustainable, because of the unbelievable erosion that it is causing. Hopefully Parks Canada will be addressing that in the near future!

Once we joined the main trail, the ground conditions became much better.

At Km-71 we passed the highest point on the WCT, although because of the fog we couldn’t really appreciate it.

The detritus of logging was everywhere as we hiked the remaining few Kms. Cables wound around, under and even through the middle of trees, like some gigantic spiders nest.

Another derelict steam donkey hove into view at Km-72.

We scaled more ladders,

Scrambled over more roots,

Until at last we came to Km-75 & the end of the West Coast Trail.

Abi & Josh had reached the end of the trail quite a while before Sarah, Kelly & I. Kelly was taking it slow, in order to give his aching knee a break, and Sarah was moving slower because we had to switch tips. The sand / mud tips had worn through again and I didn’t have time to re-configure them due to our ferry commitments.

The ferry was slow to arrive (again) however eventually it arrived and we all clambered on board.

It was a brief ride, and from the middle of the river, Giffin was able to get a cell-phone signal, so he called Evan, the ‘Parking Dude’ to come and pick us up. There was no sign of Takek & Lisa at this point, however we knew we would meet up pretty soon.

About half an hour later we congregated at the Coastal Kitchen Cafe and poured over their amazing menu like a precious manuscript…. until a sudden power outage forced us to relocate to the Port Renfrew Hotel (which has an auxiliary generator!)

The food may not have been as inspiring, however the company was excellent and we basked in the glow of camaraderie, achievement and fried food!