West Coast Trail Preview

Last weekend we returned from our vacation to British Columbia to hike the West Coast Trail in British Columbia. It was an eventful trip, and many more stories, photos, and videos will grace this blog as soon as I have time to post– I’ve been spending too much time this summer having fun rather than writing about it. Er… maybe not. 🙂

The Good
The West Coast trail was absolutely beautiful. We saw otters, seals, seal lions, whales, and bald eagles. Six nights camping on the beach was just lovely. Waterfalls, surf, sea caves, tide pools, and really cool temperate rain forest.

The Bad
On the sixth day of the backpack, Dorinna’s knee started hurting. By the middle of the night it was noticeably swollen, and by morning she effectively couldn’t walk. With a borrowed cell phone, we managed to get out a call to Search and Rescue. When the paramedics arrived on the beach, took off the band-aid, and watched green pus ooze out, they declared it a raging infection. We spent 8 hours in the Victoria hospital emergency room that night, and had a rough flight home the next day. Upon arrival in Fort Collins, we went immediately back to the ER for more intravenous antibiotics. She’s getting much better, but it wasn’t a great way to end the trip. Thankfully it was an easy rescue (the advantage of camping on a beach), and it was the last day of our trip.

The Difficult
The West Coast Trail is the hardest trail I have ever hiked. Heavy packs didn’t help of course, but this was ridiculous. Roots, rocks, huge mud wallows, fallen logs, you name it. Ladders like you wouldn’t believe… Here you go:

On that one day of the hike, we went up and down forty-one ladders. The other days had ladders too, along with swinging suspension bridges, ropes, rope ladders, hand-operated cable-cars and two ferry crossings. It was 47 miles of crazy-hard hiking.

More to come…