A hike along the Strait of Juan de Fuca

wolffbite

wolffbite

Joined
May 7, 2010
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Hello fellow ratpackers =)

As some of you already knew, I had a 4-5 day hike planned over this last weekend (I left thursday) and unfortunately due to some navigational and health issues we had to return home today. This also means I had no opportunity to really get any good shots of my esee knives in action... but I suppose there is always another time ;)

However, I can say that this trail kicked my ass, and showed me how freakin' out of shape I was.

So here's the gist of what my sister Kris and I did. And the cause of our navigational issues will be explained...

Day 1
Distance: 2km from trailhead to Mystic Beach
Time: 45 minutes to beach, and to set up camp for the evening

Our first day out was really chill, just tested out our legs and backs, made sure our packs were nice and comfy. The short hike was a good stretch and warmup. However, my sister got a nice bee sting on her right bicep, and I had to remove the stinger with a pair of tweezers... more on that later.

This place was BEAUTIFUL. Lush green forest the whole way down with lots of bridges carved with chainsaws out of massive fallen logs.

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The beach was decently busy, we met an older couple who had been staying there for about 3 days with their dog (who was very friendly when we started cooking :rolleyes:)

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I felt 100% that evening, but my sis was unfortunately coming down with a cold. However, she is a hardass and doesn't like to let on how sick she is actually feeling...

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Day 2
Distance: 16km (6km from Mystic beach to Bear Beach, ~12km of wandering...)
Time: 7 hours

We woke up about 7:30 to make breakfast. Mmmm yummy oatmeal, needed salt!

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Our original plan was only 6km this day, but we ended up underestimating the time it would take to do... since we arrived at our camp for the evening at about 11am. Then we decided to extend that days hike by 12km to our destination for the next day. And here is where our problems began...

We had so much energy on the first 6km however... so some sillyness ensued :D

This MASSIVE live tree we came across. (I'm 6'4 and my reach is about the same... I didn't reach around more than 1/8th of the tree...)
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We found most of the creek signs to be graffitied with some witty, and some not so witty additions...
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This trail was poorly marked from the start. Driving directions were useless, the driveway to the trailhead had no signs, and registering our stay was a pain because they had no registration envelopes left (found some at the day beach closeby though)

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Supposedly, giant hanging orange markers were there to tell you where the trail ends and beach begins, and vice versa. So we did what the signs told us to do, and followed the first GIANT orange marker (with a smiley bear sharpied on it) we saw after walking 45 minutes across the beach...

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Yep, it was a trail all right. With an elevation gain of probably 200 meters in the first 15 mintues of hiking. Literally climbing up the trail of roots and improvised stairs. So we get to the top, and it flattens out for about 3-4km (yes there were km markings, so we thought we were on the right trail) until we hit a service road. And it lead us to a dead end... at that point we doubled back, and ran into a couple who had also chosen this trail, and we informed them that it lead to nowhere.

So we all headed back down the fake trail to the beach, refilled our water in the streams and headed down the beach, farther along this time. About an hour later of what seemed like many km's (probably only 1 because it was REALLY slow walking on all the rocks). We found that actual trailhead... another GIANT orange marker, this time with a small sign covered in overgrown brush marked "Chin Beach --> 12km".

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At this point, we were so pissed off and tired we decided to head back to Bear beach to camp. The couple hadn't gone as far as us today, so they went out on the trail as we said goodbye and headed back along the beach.

We didn't realize that the tide had come in quite far from the time we had left the first orange marker... as you can see in the picture below. We JUST made it past this rocky/sandy face. 15 minutes later it was a foot deep of ocean.

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So we made camp, and went to bed at 10pm after a good cigar and some laughs about the adventure we were already having. By this point, I could also tell my sister was feeling QUITE sick, as she was coughing a lot and needed lots of our toilet paper as tissue... she claimed to be fine, but I knew she wasn't...
 
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Day 3
Distance: 8km from Bear Beach back to main Trail Head

So the evening of day 2 ended with a huge windstorm moving in. 8-10foot swells were crashing into the beach and trees were bending 20-30 degrees. That made it a really cold night, and a very noisy and uncomfortable one aswell.

So with very little sleep, we were both still awake at about 4am, and we started talking. My sister started to complain that her arm was bothering her, and when she rolled up here sleeve, her bicep had swollen considerably and she had red marks almost to her wrist. Uh oh, we don't have anti-histamines or any means of treating stings or allergic reactions.

The morning was also very damp and cold, and there was a VERY thick layer of fog everywhere...

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That was the final blow to make us need to head home. She had a cold, a swollen and painful arm, and I wasn't about to be stuck 30km on a trail with my sis having an allergic reaction I could do nothing about :eek:

Once we packed up and made breakfast, we realized just how sore we were from the previous day. The 6km hike from Bear Beach back to Mystic Beach made our legs feel like jelly... and the last 2km felt like hell.

So... it was probably a good thing that we didn't try to go all the way to Chin Beach on this trip, or go the full 5 days for that matter. Neither of us had trained or conditioned ourselves properly, and we severely underestimated the trail.

It was a great experience, and sitting here I have muscles that are sore that I didn't know could get sore. 30 pounds is fine for 2km... but not 16 km :p

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Hope you all enjoy the pics. It certainly was an amazing adventure and I can’t wait until I’m in better shape to try the whole trail (47km) one day!
 
I know... mega disappointed. It would have been great to make a fire and whatnot while out there, but despite the rainy weather the forest is bone dry. Complete burning bans all over BC at the moment...
 
Finally, an honest appraisal. I've hiked that area twice, and to be quite honest, the costal stretch from from Ft. Bragg, CA. to Port Angeles, WA. can be pretty brutal if ya don't catch the one week of the year with good weather...

Heal up, fatten up, buy some 'go anywhere' clothes, and hit it again - you'll be glad ya did :thumbup:
 
the sunlight in that last pic is great, hope your sis is alright, train more and have a good trip next time!!!!
 
She's alright! We got to the clinic yesterday when we got home, and she is developing an allergy to bee stings apparently. So we now have epi pens in our packs for the next trip :thumbup:
 
THAT is a nice report of the trip. Great photos! So if we traveled from the Eastern U.S. to hike this trail where is the best place to fly/drive into to start it?
 
If you fly into Victoria airport on Vancouver Island its a straight drive from highway 17, onto highway 1 west, then onto highway 14 which becomes Sooke Road which follows the coast. Then you just have to watch for campground signs... I'd say it was roughly 50km from the airport/ferry terminal, and took about 1.5 hours to drive it because it was so dang twisty.

If you drive in, you would take the ferry from either Vancouver-Twassawen or I think a ferry from Seattle goes to Victoria aswell... then it is the same highway as from the airport.

Unfortunately there is no actual "address" for the trailheads. So we relied on where we knew the trail sort of was on the island, because we knew what highway it was on.

Starting from the end we started on is supposedly the most difficult party of the trail. The first 25-30km are what would really be a test I think... the other end is Botanical beach right outside of Port Renfrew so there is a lot of beach day usage and people doing leisurely hiking as it is fairly flat.

I know there are groups of people who run the entire 47km trail in 9 hours... crazy buggers. But if we trained properly I bet it would be more like 4-5 days to go end to end at a leisurely pace with plenty of picture time :thumbup:

Also, if you drive... parking is included with your overnight camping registration fee. It's $10/night per person, and you pay at the beginning when you register, and can stay up to 14 days. There is also a shuttle service to the trailheads, but it is kind of pricey... something like $60 total. But then you don't have to worry about your car being left for many nights unattended.

I can get you more detailed driving instructions if you are really interested at some point at coming out. Who knows, I may be up to join you if you are in the area :D
 
Thanks for the trip report, Wolffbite. Learn from this one , so the next one is better. I always take notes on my trips: what to bring next time/what to leave at home. My leave at home list usually is getting bigger, but some things I never leave without. Geat pics from the area. Glad you and your Sis made it back ok.:thumbup:
 
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