Day 1… (August 26th)

Day One really started at the 1pm Parks Canada briefing.

The briefing was informative and brief! Many thanks to Dawn for keeping it short, because she had informed us that if we got to the point at the edge of Pachena Beach by 2pm, we could avoid the first set of ladders… Why do something today that we can put off till tomorrow!! There were going to MORE than enough ladders to contend with!

So, after a quick picture, we were off and running…and I MEAN running, because the tide was rushing in and waves were licking at the rocks. Within minutes it would be impassable.

Of course when disaster strikes, it chooses the most inopportune moment…and as Sarah took the first step on the rock shelf, her left SideStix made an ugly “click”…the tip sole had unscrewed, come off and was gone! In the dash to start, we hadn’t had time to thread-lock the feet! There was no time to hesitate, so with the beautifully machined aluminum ball – from the exposed ball-joint, grinding on barnacles, we scrambled around the point.

That was a sobering moment; however we stopped just before the beach exit to re-shoe the SideStix, check packs & boots and generally re-group after our somewhat inauspicious beginning. Then, with new (thread-locked) feet in place we left the beach to enter the cathedral-like solemnity of the moss draped rain-forest.

It’s hard to think up enough superlatives when describing the West Coast Trail (WCT). It’s an incredible mixture of challenges and rewards. The challenges of the terrain, the packs, aching muscles (and in some cases, aging bodies!) yet the rewards make it all worthwhile. The forest, the beaches, the waves – like freight trains bearing down on the battered shore. (The WCT was originally built as a life-saving trail, to give the survivors of ship wrecks a way out of the wilderness.)

At Km-9 we were treated to the visual and auditory feast of a huge conglomeration of sea lions barking 7 duelling and cavorting on a sandstone ledge at the foot of the cliffs that the WCT traversed.

At Km-12 we came back on to the beach. Although we were feeling tired, and could have stopped at the camp site there, we decided to push on to Km-14, Darling Creek. The reason was to make the following day less arduous, however we only got to our destination at 7:30pm meaning that we set up camp at dusk and cooked in the dark… Not optimal!

All in all it was an excellent first day, spirits were high and other than the first calamity, the SideStix were flawless, and Sarah was more sure-footed than ever before.