Hello all! Just wanted to let people know that my wife and I triumphantly (well, sort of) returned to civilization yesterday. After three days in the bush, we decided that our vacation and health would better be served if we detoured from our planned path and headed back into the small town of Lund to rest and recoup. Before ya’ll go thinking we’re a bunch of weaklings, let me assure you the decision wasn’t made lightly!

After being dropped off on slippery a rock face at the head of our trail, which is apparently safe to scale at high tide, we proceeded to march with 5 days of supplies on our backs through 12 kilometres (5.5 miles) of mountains forests. Our destination was 16km from the coastal point where we were dropped off, which we figured would b easy. After all, we hiked that much in the day when we were in Camino in Spain. Well, let me tell you… hiking the West Coast Trail is nothing like Spain!

After the first four we were tuckered. After the first eight, we were exhausted and drank all our water. And of course, the bugs were quite awful and my darling bride was stung by a wasp, which swelled up really bad by midday! As the day was drawing to a close, we realized we wouldn’t make it to the first cabin on our journey, not unless we wanted to arrive at 8pm (2000 hours) and finish dinner by 10. And so we decided to make camp at the first camp site which came our way.

And when I say make camp, I mean old school! Since we planned to hike from cabin to cabin along the trail, we had no tent, and were forced to sleep on the ground in our sleeping bags and thermarests (1 inch thick pads). We drew our water from the lake and used that to cook and recoup all the water we lost hiking through the summer heat and forests. Thank God for water filters and iodine tablets, I tell ya! And granted, our shelter was very improvised, consisting of a slanted rain cover and a mosquito net, but we were pretty proud. And in spite of some serious pain from sleeping on rocks and noises which kept waking my wife up, we slept alright.

The next day, braving really sore muscles and stiff backs (from sleeping on rocks) we made it to the cabin another 5.5 km away, all uphill. However, we quickly learned that there was no water there, and we had to pump our water from a rain barrel. We knew the next leg of our journey would be even harder, and would consist of 17 km if we were going to make it to the next cabin. Otherwise, we would be camping out in the open again, subject to whatever came our way. And of course, the shortages of water were scaring us just a little. With the summer heat being more than expected, most creeks in the area were thought to be dry…

So instead we came up with the alternate plan. Instead of either hiking 17 km and braving dehydration and incredible soreness and pulled muscles, or hiking another 12 and braving much the same and expecting more sleeping on rocks with the chance of visits from nocturnal predators, we hiked 5 km through clearcut landscape and marshes to the nearest road, then hiked another 4km through road construction and a dusty highway to make it to the town of Lund, which is where we set out from in the first place. We were sore, dirty, tired, and very hungry. A shower and a final camp meal later, and we were feeling somewhat human again!

It was not an easy decision. Even though we found scarcely any water along the way, which confirmed some of our worst fears, and we were so sore we could barely walk when we got into town, I still feel like we bailed on a challenge. That never sits well. However, we vowed to return sometime in the future, promising to travel light, prepare well in advance, and bring a damn tent! That way, we should be able to set out own schedule, be able to put down where we want, and not be subject to the weather or worry about night-time predators.