Nootka Trail

So after I got back from signing up for Ironman, I headed over to Vancouver Island to hike the Nootka Trail. It's deemed like a more rugged and lesser known 'West Coast Trail', but it has become more well known so I figured there'd be enough people on it to be safe enough to do it solo. Given that I was solo, I got to do it in the reverse direction to everyone else as they fly into the start, but the take off area is so short that they can only take one passenger - so that was me! This gave me more time to hike as I didn't want to charter a plane by myself. So you get there by driving to Campbell River and, then, head straight west to Gold River. I, then, took an old steamer boat, the Uchuck on a beautiful 2 1/2 hour ride to the the village of Yuquot on Nootka Island.



I hiked for about an hour and then got caught at a tidal lagoon where I couldn't cross at high tide. It was a beautiful beach so I just stayed there for the night and just relaxed. The next day, the tide was low around 11am so there wasn't a rush to get going. I saw where there were flags on the other side of the water, so I walked through the water with my Tevas, put on my boots, bushwacked for a bit and realized that this was only marking a survey stake. So I had to put my Tevas back on, cross the water twice and finally found the trail. It took me 50 minutes to get this far.



Great start!! The trail was quite rugged. I'm really lucky I had my hiking poles and the weather was dry or it could have been dangerous. It was enough that I packed like a girl so my pack was heavy and I was alone. I was being as careful as I could since I realized the injury potential. I saw this sign for caves, so I went to check them out.



I came back to my pack and realized that my water bottle had got clipped off the back of my back by one of the many branches!!! I needed more than half a liter for the trip so I left my pack and went back to get my bottle. There and back took another hour. So, I'm now up to 2 hours longer than needed!! Oh well, I wasn't in a rush, but not really what I needed to do! I only saw people at the end of that day, which make me realize really how vulnerable I was since if anything had happenend, they wouldn't have found me until the next day. Anyways, I set up camp on a secluded beach and just hunkered down. The next day was a lazy start to the day again. Later in the morning at low tide, there were a lot of sea otters in the kelp. It was fantastic and you don't get to see them in the wild very often!! I figured it was time to get going and I got to the next main beach after going up and down a couple of these ropes!!!



I stopped for a break and realized that a sandal had come off the back of my pack!!! Nothing has EVER come off my pack before with all the backpacking I had done. So that killed another 1 1/2 hours!!! It was getting after 5 and I had wanted to get to Calvin Falls that was supposed to be beautiful and have an off day there. I figured I could always camp before that if needed. So I start off and about halfway there, I see these bear prints in the sand with fresh bear poo close by!!!!



I was singing away just to make noise so that they would leave me alone!! Talk about a little freaked out. I got halfway to the falls and I could see how far I needed to go so I just went for it since I figured that at least there had to be people there. I hoofed it as fast as I could since it was starting to get dusk. I finally rolled into the camp 10 minutes after dark - luckily the moon was bright. There were a couple of parties there so I was relieved and, also, I didn't have to hike the next day!!!

It was great at Calvin Falls!!! The fresh water went into a big swimming pool that you could even dive into! It was a warm day so I made my own shade.



Another party was spending the day there with me. A group of 4 women in their 50s - very inspiring!- and I knew one of them!! The places you meet people. I used to work with Jan at a clinic a few years back so it was fun to catch up!! There was this cool shelter by the food ropes and we made a momento from us gals - Ms. Calvina (after the falls)- with Jan on the right.



The next day I headed off and went over some great headland rocks with the waves just crashing into them. Saw more sea otters and finally made my destination of Third Beach!! It was beautiful again. A couple of hammocks and a rope swing. The scary part again, was that I didn't see anyone all day!! And I couldn't share this beach with anyone. It was still good to relax, regroup and be with myself. Here's me lying the hammock really not wanting to get up and back to reality!