Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/109278
Star Trek p18-27_The List.indd 21 coast with a warm breeze at our backs. Hikers heading in the opposite direction offer friendly tips on the challenges ahead. I pass a group of girls, a Dad with kids. Even the park rangers are smiling at Chez Monique���s, one of two places to buy food, an oasis of burgers and beer. We build elaborate camps from limitless driftwood, swim in crystal-clear creeks, tell tall tales around the fire while our food lies secure in bear lockers. One morning I awake to find wolf tracks outside my tent, leaving me in a state of wonder, not fear. I habitually clack my walking stick against the metal mileage posts; since we���re hiking the trail in reverse to Bamfield, it���s a countdown to the beginning. On the trail bus back to Port Renfrew we collapse exhausted, elated, glad it���s over, not sure we���ll ever be the same again. ��� ���Robin Esrock couver I an and sl PORT RENFREW, VANCOUVER ISLAND This is not an adventure chosen on a whim. For starters, Parks Canada allows just 52 hikers a day to embark on the 77-kilometre coastal odyssey known as the West Coast Trail. Fifteen centimetres of rain can fall in just 12 hours, civilization is sparse and more than a hundred hikers are medically evacuated each year. But few trails offer such extreme challenges, and rewards: the technical mayhem of ladders and tides with the magic of tidal pools bristling with sea anemones. The key to my success? An experienced team leader, over-preparation on the part of my hiking buddies and complete ignorance on mine. They greet me at the Vancouver airport with a prepacked 25-kilogram rucksack. (Had I known what I was getting into I would have run for the nearest hotel.) I almost collapse under the weight, so they add some painkillers to my load and whisk me off to the ferry and the long drive to the Port Renfrew trailhead. Built as an escape route for shipwreck survivors along a stretch of coast called the Graveyard of the Pacific, the trail is rife with slippery roots and sticky mud. These quickly cause the first ankle sprain, but our friend continues, hobbling like a stepped-on spider. Then come the ladders, a 25-metre vertical ascent to reach ��� the next ladder. We lunch on gorp (granola-oatmeal-raisins-peanuts) and heave along to our first campsite, collapsing in exhaustion. Only six more days await. Tired, sore, cold and wet, I���m also seared by the mental anguish of having agreed to do this. Then something wonderful happens. Muscles firm up, loads begin to lighten. We arrive at the s.w. V The Hike START HERE Guided, full-service West Coast Trail hikes, including transportation, accommodation, food, gear: seatoskyexpeditions.com 13-01-28 10:30 AM