Thursday, 30 July 2015. Tsuquadra Point to Carmanah Creek. 16km or 10 miles.

It was damp at the Ditidaht Campsite. So damp that not one piece of the laundry we did the night before dried. But it was going to be another slow morning, as DD wanted to take his time, explore, and let our things give up a little more of their moisture. Thankfully, the sun was cooperating that morning.

The night before, our hosts had warned us of the “mice problem” at the campsite, and they had allowed us to hang our food bags on the hooks of an open shed next to their cottage. Apparently they do not have bear problems and therefore bear boxes were uneccesary. Sometime in early morning, I heard a tiny scuffling noise, and opened my eyes to see a small form clambering along the outside of our tent, inside the rain fly, but still outside our shelter. With a cry, I batted it away, murmured “mouseykins” sleepily to DD’s “what? what’s wrong?!” and fell back asleep almost immediately.

These minor discomforts aside, it was morning, and the Ditidaht beach was amazing! We had caves to explore. Our hosts the previous evening had mentioned that we were on tribal lands where the Ditidaht people had lived for 5,500 years, and if we wanted a tour, they could show us some of the ancient burial caves. In the morning, not wanting to bother our hosts, we decided to respectfully examine the caves ourselves.

They were beautifully gloomy and atmospheric, with the sounds of the waves echoing eerily against the stone.

It was also very nice to have the beach to ourselves.

We crossed from one side of the beach to another, exploring the areas that flanked our campsite. Opposite the burial caves we discovered huge boulders absolutely encrusted with mussels and gooseneck barnacles. I couldn’t get over how plentiful they were. We also lamented the fact that we were cautioned against consuming them. Oh for a lovely breakfast of shellfish, steamed in their own juices, with perhaps a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper…

Later on as we took our leave of our hosts, we asked Stephen about the mussels. Alas, he repeated the same line Parks Canada had given us – that because of “red tide,” it was not safe to consume shellfish during the months of May-September, pretty much when the WCT is open to hikers. He himself admitted that he was not fond of neither mussels nor percebes in general, so we took his words a bit skeptically. They were very kind, though, and even gave us an extra roll of toilet paper when we enquired.

Though we did not see inside them, Stephen informed us that the luxury cabins consisted of a covered tent, up to four individual cots, a private deck, a wood-burning stove, a dining table, and seating. The campsite also had a newish-looking composting toilet, and certainly one that didn’t look as highly trafficked as some of the others we’d seen and used on the trail.

That day, we were planning on hitting both the “restaurant” at the Nitinat Ferry Dock as well as Chez Monique. So we split a Mountain House breakfast meal of Biscuits and Gravy as a somewhat “lighter” breakfast. Though fairly hearty, I was starting to get hungry two hours later when we finally left Tsuquadra at nearly 11am and needed a snack on the trail. Note that there is water at Tsuquadra, both from a stream near the entrance of the camp and within the beach itself, but it’s not great, and the flows are feeble, at best.

As usual, the trail did not disappoint with its endless roots and mud. The difficult portion we encountered yesterday when we left the beach to head up to the Ditidaht campsite characterized the stretch from Ditidaht Camp all the way to the ferry, a little over 2km away.

I’m not sure how I managed to get myself over this section – it was, as usual, a likely combination of wielding my hiking poles (growing in value every day), stepping in mud, grasping at tree roots and tree branches, and bracing off mud-submerged stones and old boardwalk boards.

We finally reached Nitinat Narrows, and waited for a bit until the boat arrived. When it bumped up at the pier, out jumped several women who cheerily said hello, but also proceeded to warn us of “the bees/ wasps at the end of the long bridge.” Apparently there was a large nest where a number of very angry insects had taken issue with several hikers along the trail and had given them irreplaceable memories in the form of stings.

But for now, there was Nitinat, and the promise of a good lunch. The Ferry is known for their crab, but DD and I had heard from other hikers that the halibut was the thing to get. Hippie Doug, the ferryman, mentioned that we should really go for the Sockeye, though, since it had just been caught yesterday. And so we decided that we could not refuse, and chose one of each. That turned out to be a very pricey lunch – with the following itemized bill:

• Halibut: $25
• Sockeye Salmon: $35
• Beer: $7
• Pop: $4 and $2 (for some reason, a 2nd can of pop is cheaper)
• Candybar: $4

For those crab lovers, there certainly appeared to be plenty of crab. The ferry site was truly a crossroads that brought together all sorts of hikers – we even saw an entire German family with kids that looked young – perhaps 8 or 9 years. As the days progressed we saw more hiking groups with young kids – quite remarkable.

But though pricey, it was a fantastic lunch, complete with carbs, fat, and protein, and we remarked on how full and satisfied we felt – it was good fuel that kept us going strong until about 4pm.

But the true highlight of the day was yet to come. And no, it had nothing to do with angry bees.

We were walking along the beach just after Cheewhat River, enjoying the sometimes dry, sometimes damp/ wet sandstone (my favourite) and occasional boulder-hopping.

At one point, I was somewhat way behind DD, as I tend to be a more cautious and slow traverser over the stones than he. I watched as he got to the end of an outcropping, seemingly unable to go any further. I saw him examine a rope that was hanging over the edge of what, from my perspective, seemed like a small cliff leading somewhere above us. I watched as he turned back towards me and, as he neared, shouted the words, “I want you to come see something.”

And that was how, in the space of around 20 terrifying minutes, we committed to climbing up this rope, with DD shimmying up first, then hauling up our hiking poles, and then our backpacks, yelling all the while since he was as stressed and as wigged out as I; and calling to some Canadians who watched his initial ascent up the hard, yet helpfully layered rockface; and hearing me respond “yes!” to their query as to whether we needed some assistance. And then for some reason I was clinging to the rope, initially with all too much strength and effort, and suddenly the little climbing experience I had at Mission Cliffs came back as muscle memory, and I told myself to relax, and think, and look and feel for the solid footholds, with DD urging me along and telling me to hold on with both hands, and yes, that ledge looks good, nice and slow, now. Eric, the tallest Canadian, had basically hauled up my backpack, and now there were 3 boys who were waiting at the top to help me during the last bits of climb, and it was fine once I realized that I was not going to fall or die, and suddenly DD was hurriedly, hurriedly gathering me up and shooing me away from the edge. We had to take a moment to breathe, and gratefully thanked our Canadian friends again and they set off. And after several moments we felt ok enough to carry on our way ourselves.

Everything after that seemed a little anticlimactic after that. Most people were stopping at Cribs Creek, about 2km away, but we decided to stick to our initial plan to continue on to Carmanah. We thought we were close to our dinner when we reached the Carmanah Lighthouse, and had a nice chat with the Lighthouse-keeper, but alas, it was still some 15 minutes to 1/2 hour away.

We reached Chez Monique at around 6:15pm, and immediately placed our orders for fully-loaded burgers. We seemed to be the only backpackers there that evening; others that came after us didn’t stop. Instead, we got to hang out by ourselves on Monique’s “patio” with some of her family members, assorted volunteer workers, and, to my delight, friendly and handout-hopeful doggies.

The famous Chez Monique Burger ($20), with extras: cheese, mushrooms and bacon ($2 each)! The side of coleslaw was a nice extra touch. While DD had his second beer of the day, I only wanted water. The kind kitchen staff gave me a cup, directed me to their faucet, which was flowing freely with clear and cold artesian well water. It was delicious – easily the best water on the trail! And Chez Monique gives it out to anyone who needs/ wants it! I was also able to do a hasty hand-and-face-washing (with soap!) at the sink, which was exceedingly needed and refreshing.

After devouring our burgers, we lingered for a bit, filling up our water receptacles as much as we could with that delicious, cold, well water. DD mended a couple of tears in his ZPacks Dyneema Arc Haul backpack, which had not escaped injury during the hauling-up on the rock face. We made some additional purchases of Nanaimo Bars and candy (we spent $76 all told), and we made our thank yous and walked on to our final destination – the Carmanah Creek campsite.

The nice thing about having already eaten dinner before rolling into camp for the evening was the fact that we had no food to make, nor no dishes to wash. We just set up the tent and did a bunch of laundry. I peeled and ate a fresh orange(!) that I had procured from Chez Monique while DD shoo’d away a curious and fearless mouse with large ears that appeared next to me and my food bag.

**Note: the rope climbing adventure was not part of the official WCT. DD and I had very likely missed an inland access point some 1-2 km back on the beach. DD was ready to backtrack, thinking we had gone off the trail completely, had he not noticed some WCT-trail ladders above the ledge we eventually climbed. Our speculation – the rope was a “use in case of emergency” type of tool – one that could help a hiker escape rapidly rising tides.

West Coast Trail Posts

• WCT Trip Planning
• WCT Day Zero + Flickr Photos
• WCT Day One + Flickr Photos
• WCT Day Two + Flickr Photos
• WCT Day Three + Flickr Photos
• WCT Day Four + Flickr Photos
• WCT Day Five + Flickr Photos