Juan de Fuca

With the group gathered, we got on the 8:00am ferry headed to Victoria. After a short drive up some windy highways on the southern western coast of the island we reached our planned base camp destination of Sombrio Beach and set up camp. Our initial plans were to hike on Saturday, northwest towards Botanical beach and hike south on Sunday morning, returning each night to the base camp.

Friday we mostly spent relaxing under the tarp by the fire and explored a bit of the region around our campsite. We went to bed early as the rainstorm had started. I slept great. The rain was torrential and noisy as it was hitting the tent…yet so relaxing when you're out of and listening to the drops hitting the tent.

We woke up to a bit of a drizzle and a noisy rushing river. The rainstorm increased the size of the nearby stream by huge proportions and it was rushing towards the ocean with great ferocity. We took our time recovering from the previous night's drinking and had a few pancakes that Kris made for us. He had woken early (or didn't sleep at all) and had magically rekindled the campfire despite the water soaked logs. Kris then braved the smoke of the fire to cook for us all. Not without consequences however as all the smoke inhalation had left him sick and feeling noxious.

It was about 1:00pm at this point and we all started the planned hike. The tide was at its highest so we had to do the detours through the forest. This is where we realized we were way over our heads. The trail was soaked with water and as muddy as you can make it. Every step you either sank or slid. To make it worse, there were some really steep sections we had to cross. Made me wish I had crampons on (do they make those for mud?). To add more to our struggle, we had to cross a creek, that normally would have probably been easy, but with the previous night's rains, the creek was fat with water. After all these, we also managed to get ourselves lost as we followed some other hiker's footsteps. These hikers passed by our tent earlier and were covered with mud from head to toe…I guess we should have known by their looks what we were getting ourselves into. We looked and looked and couldn't find the correct trail so we decided to head down to the beach…through thick brush over very steep terrain.

We eventually reached the beach and saw a buoy that marked the km we were on. It said 30. Our campsite was at 29. It took us over two hours. 19kms to get to Botanical and return. "Not gonna happen!" So we stopped, and Sophie cooked for us some yummy quesadillas until all our tummies were happy and full. We spent a couple of hours at that spot until the tide had withdrawn enough to let us return on the easier ground. Easier wasn't exactly easy. The rocks were wet and covered with slippery algae. Still, we made it back a lot quicker than going the other way.

We spent another night drinking and enjoying ourselves until we were forced to evacuate. The tide had risen by a lot more than the previous night's high and had swept over tarp-ville. After a quick evacuation (which might I add was not easy considering the amount of alcohol consumed) we retreated to our tents that were luckily high enough above the tide. We slept well once we got over our paranoia and our dreams of tsunamis.

We awoke to a clean campsite. No trace of our previous night's campfire were left on the beach…and the area was swarming with surfers who somehow heard of the massive 2-3 meter waves that were crashing on our beach. I must admit…I would have given anything for a wetsuit and a surfboard at that moment. We took our time, packed, returned to the cars and drove to Botanical beach. We were determined to see it, no matter how we got there. We explored the beach, watching massive waves hit the shore and were awed at its beauty. And then it was time to return. After a fast drive, we got to the last ferry with mere minutes to spare. I was tired, and a bit woozy for breathing in the thick smoke Kris's diesel truck produced. A fun trip to a place that makes you yearn to return. Next time I'll be better prepared and actually hike the Juan de Fuca trail…it's not quite the walk on the beach that I expected…