West Coast Trail the Beginning
The Packs – Phil Hiom –54lbs, Grace Hiom 43lbs, Annette Hiom 16lbs, Gale Lutkehaus 18lbs to start the hike.
The West Coast Trail with all the talk and the hype has finally become a reality for some very impressive hikers. It says on the brochure this trail is only for ‘experienced backpackers’ which is something both Annette and Gale commented on.
The boat lands at the start of the trail and everyone was chomping at the bit to get started soon after our pictures in front of the trail sign. With a drop of a hat Gale and Annette were gone and Phil and Grace were still extending their hiking poles looking around going where did they go. The anxiety was high for Annette she had a hard time eating this morning and Gale had something to prove. He had one speed and it was fast on the technical walking and slow when the trail was easy.
We soon caught up to Annette at the first tricky part of getting over a log and a small ladder. Where is Gale? Long gone trying to keep ahead. The packs were heavy for Phil and Grace but no complaining as it was supposed to be hard and slow – one foot in front of the other the hike was on. Luckily the trail was dry but logs were big and the roots were high — it was tough for Annette with big steps as Grace offered many boosters up over logs and rock steps with a heavy pack it was quite an accomplishment for Annette.
Calling for Gale… he’s up ahead…. on the first ladder and had climbed to the top having a rest. As we encountered more ladders thus, became the question “Annette are you going to take your pack on this one?” and most of the downs she kept her pack but the up ladders it was just too much weight. Phil would climb up the ladder and drop his pack at the top and come back down for Annette’s pack Grace helped out a few times.
Some of the boardwalk was amazing as it winded its way through the forest and other was broken and not very stable. No turtles here for this crew.
Knowing this was the hardest part of the trail everyone felt confident we would be able to make it to the end as planned. The first night was kind of crammed as we stopped at beach access B. This meant we didn’t have to make the long ladder trek down to Thrasher and back up again it was worth it. By this time we had met 3 groups of people that knew Phil and Grace from Calgary – who would have thought?
The days were long enough each day pushing the envelope a little for Gale, as some of the planned camping areas were either closed due to landslides or Cougars being in the area but non the less the camp spots were awesome with some great ocean views. The trolley cars were coming next and so was the beach walking, lots to look forward to.
Great pictures, thanks Phil.