Will's Wild (And Wonderful) West Coast Week
I know that I'll always be an Alberta boy at heart, but I'm sure enjoying the Coast! I think I managed to get more good West Coast experiences into this week than any in recent memory. It all began on Monday, when I got to go out sailing on a ship! Not a boat, mind you, not a ferry, but a proper ship, with masts and sails and the whole deal. It's built to a 17th century design- that kind of ship. S.A.L.T.S. (Sail and Life Training Society) is a Christian group based in Victoria that takes kids out sailing. Sometimes classes go, and you can sign up for five day trips, or in the summer ten days. They take you out, teach you to sail, that sort of thing. Anyway, every now and then they have an open house, in the form of four hours out on the water, for the local pastors in Victoria. Kathy, the curate at the Cathedral, heard about this, and since two people from a church could go, signed her and me up. In the end, she was sick, and not able to go, but I didn't let that stop me!
We boarded from the docks by Warf Street, which is downtown, but not the inner harbour. There was a crew of five, and about twenty passengers, including some kids. When we got free of the harbour, they had us all help putting up the sail (which consisted of lots of pulling on some ropes) and then, since it's a two master, the other sail. They had us divided into watches, and my watch was on duty for the first part. It wasn't really anything- some of us kept a look out at the front for obstacles in the water, and one person steered. We took turns steering, I got to try it! It was very cool - I felt quite like Jack Aubrey! We were out for about three and a half hours, there wasn't too much wind, so we didn't go very far, or very fast. It was pretty cool though!
The other part of the West Coast Week was hiking the Juan de Fuca trail, which I just got back from. The JDF is a bit like the West Coast Trail, but easier. It's a trail that links a series of beaches. I went with my buddies Jeff and Kirk. Kirk does a lot of hiking, but Jeff and I don't so instead of doing the whole trail, we decided to hike into one of the beaches, and then do a day hike.
The trail head is about an hour outside Victoria. We were going to stay at Bear Beach, which is about eight kilometers along the trail - it's the third beach along. I borrowed a lot of gear from Kirk, which was pretty cool of him to let me, and used my backpack again- first time since Europe! The first two klicks were pretty easy- a gentle downslope to Mystic Beach. After that, it's six to Bear, and it's harder- lots of up and down, tree roots, that sort of thing. At the very end, to get down to Bear, there is a long stair case. The trail itself is pretty cool - the government keeps it in good shape, and there are stairs at the steepest places. In some places, there are stairs carved into fallen logs. We made good time to Bear, only three hours, with our packs on. There are camping sites just off the beach, with metal storage lockers to keep your food in. We had to pack in everything, of course, including food, so we ate lots of crackers with cream cheese or jam. For supper, we had bought dehydrated meals from MEC. It was just after noon by the time we got to Bear Beach, and we spent the afternoon exploring the beach, walking up the river by the camp, and relaxing. Jeff and I realized that we had forgotten to bring any cards, so we made some out of bark from a fallen tree. We also made a crib board. That night we had a fire on the beach, and we were sitting there, roasting marshmallows (three each per night) when all of a sudden Jeff jumps up and yells "Bear!" I looked up, and there were two black bears twenty feet away along the beach! We all jumped up -out of instinct really- and as soon as we did that, one of them took off running one way down the beach, and the other went the other way. Somewhat nervously we checked our camp, but it remained bear free. After that we made sure to put away all our food in the storage lockers!
The next day (Saturday) we planned to do a day hike. The next beach was twelve kilometers away, over what Kirk assured us was the hardest part of the trail. He wasn't wrong. It was all up and down, up one huge hill, and down the other side, across a creek, and all over again. Over the whole day, I think there was maybe half a kilometer of flatish ground. We didn't make it to the beach - we had to turn back to make sure we got back with lots of daylight left. Coming back was just as hard - up and down, endlessly. I was pretty grateful that we had left our packs behind! In total, we walked 19 kilometers that day- there and back. I figure that 19 with no packs is about the same as 12 with packs. My knees were getting pretty sore by the end of the day, and they stiffened up when I stopped moving.
This morning we were hiking back out of Bear to the trailhead. All those gentle downhill slopes on the way there were now not so gentle up hill slopes, and my knees reminded me every time I came to a set of stairs. We made it out in about two and a half hours. It was really tiring when we were hiking, but really fun too. The trail was mostly through the forest - cedar- and every now and then you would get a look out at the ocean. You could see Washington directly across, and to the west was just open ocean. There were lots of big trees down in the forest, partially the regular cycle, and partially from the bad storms a couple years ago. Some of the roots turned on their side were twice as tall as me!
And now I'm home, and sore and stiff, and really happy that we did it.
We boarded from the docks by Warf Street, which is downtown, but not the inner harbour. There was a crew of five, and about twenty passengers, including some kids. When we got free of the harbour, they had us all help putting up the sail (which consisted of lots of pulling on some ropes) and then, since it's a two master, the other sail. They had us divided into watches, and my watch was on duty for the first part. It wasn't really anything- some of us kept a look out at the front for obstacles in the water, and one person steered. We took turns steering, I got to try it! It was very cool - I felt quite like Jack Aubrey! We were out for about three and a half hours, there wasn't too much wind, so we didn't go very far, or very fast. It was pretty cool though!
The other part of the West Coast Week was hiking the Juan de Fuca trail, which I just got back from. The JDF is a bit like the West Coast Trail, but easier. It's a trail that links a series of beaches. I went with my buddies Jeff and Kirk. Kirk does a lot of hiking, but Jeff and I don't so instead of doing the whole trail, we decided to hike into one of the beaches, and then do a day hike.
The trail head is about an hour outside Victoria. We were going to stay at Bear Beach, which is about eight kilometers along the trail - it's the third beach along. I borrowed a lot of gear from Kirk, which was pretty cool of him to let me, and used my backpack again- first time since Europe! The first two klicks were pretty easy- a gentle downslope to Mystic Beach. After that, it's six to Bear, and it's harder- lots of up and down, tree roots, that sort of thing. At the very end, to get down to Bear, there is a long stair case. The trail itself is pretty cool - the government keeps it in good shape, and there are stairs at the steepest places. In some places, there are stairs carved into fallen logs. We made good time to Bear, only three hours, with our packs on. There are camping sites just off the beach, with metal storage lockers to keep your food in. We had to pack in everything, of course, including food, so we ate lots of crackers with cream cheese or jam. For supper, we had bought dehydrated meals from MEC. It was just after noon by the time we got to Bear Beach, and we spent the afternoon exploring the beach, walking up the river by the camp, and relaxing. Jeff and I realized that we had forgotten to bring any cards, so we made some out of bark from a fallen tree. We also made a crib board. That night we had a fire on the beach, and we were sitting there, roasting marshmallows (three each per night) when all of a sudden Jeff jumps up and yells "Bear!" I looked up, and there were two black bears twenty feet away along the beach! We all jumped up -out of instinct really- and as soon as we did that, one of them took off running one way down the beach, and the other went the other way. Somewhat nervously we checked our camp, but it remained bear free. After that we made sure to put away all our food in the storage lockers!
The next day (Saturday) we planned to do a day hike. The next beach was twelve kilometers away, over what Kirk assured us was the hardest part of the trail. He wasn't wrong. It was all up and down, up one huge hill, and down the other side, across a creek, and all over again. Over the whole day, I think there was maybe half a kilometer of flatish ground. We didn't make it to the beach - we had to turn back to make sure we got back with lots of daylight left. Coming back was just as hard - up and down, endlessly. I was pretty grateful that we had left our packs behind! In total, we walked 19 kilometers that day- there and back. I figure that 19 with no packs is about the same as 12 with packs. My knees were getting pretty sore by the end of the day, and they stiffened up when I stopped moving.
This morning we were hiking back out of Bear to the trailhead. All those gentle downhill slopes on the way there were now not so gentle up hill slopes, and my knees reminded me every time I came to a set of stairs. We made it out in about two and a half hours. It was really tiring when we were hiking, but really fun too. The trail was mostly through the forest - cedar- and every now and then you would get a look out at the ocean. You could see Washington directly across, and to the west was just open ocean. There were lots of big trees down in the forest, partially the regular cycle, and partially from the bad storms a couple years ago. Some of the roots turned on their side were twice as tall as me!
And now I'm home, and sore and stiff, and really happy that we did it.
posted by Will at 2:48 PM
2 Comments:
that sounds like quite the hike Will, just reading about it makes me tired.
With your new skills, will you take over the captaining of the Houseboat?
What a great week you had - that is a lot of exercise!
Are you leaving for houseboating from Victoria or RMH? Thought you might be home for Grace's grad - if from Vic , we can do same as last year and you could join us here - looking forward to seeing you
Post a Comment
<< Home