West Coast Trail

So we did it! 

No blood, lots of sweat and no tears and we completed the West Coast Trail! The whole trip itself couldn’t have gone any smoother. We got on the trail with ease, we didn’t forget any vital pieces of equipment and neither one of us hurt ourselves (I was waiting to see when I was going to sprain and ankle and it just never happened, hurrah!).

I have lived on the west coast of the mainland my entire life and every night when we stopped for camp, I was still breathless at these beaches! Like come on, how pretty is this?

The West Coast Trail is definitely a difficult trail; there are log bridges covered in moss, mud pits that you have to get to the other side not knowing how deep it really is, and of course everybody’s favourite, LADDERS! I never used to think of ladders as something that was very difficult since usually you only go up or down the ladder once and then you are done however, having a 45 pound back pack on and 50 feet of ladders, it changes things a bit. Can't you see how much I love ladders? and just look at Kelly's excitement... that photo makes me laugh every time!

Within the first day we had already gotten into a routine. Once we got to camp, I would start dinner and a fire and Kelly would set up in the tent and in the morning it was the same. It was perfect because near the end of the trip, we didn’t even need to think about what we were doing and camp practically set itself up. We usually finished hiking each day around 3 or so which game us lots of time to explore the beaches, take a nap in the sand (my favourite pastime) or just hang out around the fire. I'm also so glad I brought a waterproof camera since the tidal pools were amazing!

One of the best things about doing a trip like this is the people you meet. We met lots of different people from lots of different places; there were students from Ohio and LA, an older family of 6 from Edmonton and everything else in between.

Don’t get me wrong, I love hiking and the outdoors but that doesn't mean a girl can’t be clean! While many of the hikers we met, chose to go au natural for their entire hike, which just didn’t fly with us. Kelly found this awesome environment friendly shampoo bar and brought some homemade soap so every other night we put on our bathing suits and jumped in the creek to have a quick soap up. Having clean hair on the trail just made you feel so fresh every morning plus standing in the creek while lathering up, helped our poor blistered feet feel a bit better.

 

All in all, it was a great experience and something I can now check off my bucket list. I couldn't have had a better person to go with, we both love hiking but at the same time we both had the same faces on every time we saw the ladders ahead.

stay clumsy

xx jamie