For anyone reading this for useful information about the JDF Trail, read only the BOLD print if you want to skip the fluff.
The JDF trail is a 47 km wilderness hiking trail on the SW coast of Vancouver Island, BC in some of the most rugged and beautiful rainforest coastline in the world. (IMHO)
Now before I start to describe for you my experience on this magnificent adventure, I'd like to introduce to you, my 2 best friends:
And I should also point out my least favourite of the group:
But seriously, here is the one who invited me on this trip and I'm so thankful she did. My good friend, Denise, invited me to help her friend Susan, fulfil a bucket list item for her birthday this year. I quickly accepted and didn't really think I would know any of the other women. I knew Susan slightly through Denise and as she named off the others I soon realized that I had some kind of community connection with several of them. The remaining 2, I met on our practice hike.
Day 1-- We started our journey at the China Beach trail head, hiking 2km to Mystic Beach where we enjoyed our first encounter with the sea and the beautiful beach there. This was our breaking in period where we came to terms with the size and weight of our heavy packs weighing in at anywhere between 28 and 38 lb. Again, this may not sound like much to some of you but at 28 lb, that is well over the recommended pack size of "25% of your body weight" for the smallest of our pose. Here is our group in the parking lot as we were about to set off:
From Mystic Beach we hiked 6 km more that day to our first campsite, Bear Beach. This was moderately challenging but enjoyable terrain to get us started but we weren't making great time. It didn't take long before we had our first "incident". Joanne got not 1, but 3 wasp stings; but she was a trooper and there was very little "to-do" and we continued on. In an effort to keep us moving, our fearless leader, Jocelyn, said "I don't need to look at the ferns". We were thankful to get our packs off after only about 3 hr and 40 min of actual hiking that day. At Bear Beach we camped on the beach and enjoyed meeting other hikers; a father and his 21 year old daughter, 3 international students from 3 different countries enjoying the Canadian outdoors and being forced to communicate in their only common language, English, and some friendly Sunshine Coasters. As one 20 something young man walked by, Barb asked with nothing more than motherly concern, "Are you camping alone?" and much to her dismay, the rest of us would not let "Cougar Barb" live this down the rest of the trip. We enjoyed our communal time around the fire but the wind was quite cold and we were anxious to get to the warmth of our tents. The loud, crashing sounds of the waves lulled me to sleep that night and I awoke to a completely serene ocean with barely a wave in sight. Barb and Jocelyn on the other hand, awoke to see a bear about 20 meters from their tent.......thus the name of the beach I guess.
Day 2 started at km marker 9 and our destination that day was Chin Beach at km marker 21. Twelve km, no big deal for this group of seasoned hikers trained on the Vancouver North Shore mountains. Norvan Falls is 14 km and we can do that with our eyes closed. To our surprise, this stretch of 12 km felt like 20. It was slow going, gnarly terrain with about 10 or 11 hills to climb. After about 6 1/4 hours of hiking we reached our second camping spot feeling pretty spent.
The trails are a friendly place where you greet and speak to everyone you meet. You are all equals on the trail no matter what your walk of life. Our common question to those who had come from the other direction and were heading our way: "How are the trails further along? Does it get easier? Is it this tough the whole way?" Well, the answers varied as much as the people giving them. Some said it got easier, some said harder, one said monotonous and another said the upcoming camp-sites were "fugly". We didn't know what to think but kept hoping for the best.
Day 3 began with great discussion. If we only got to our originally planned destination that day, we were leaving 17 km for our 4th day and risking missing our 5 pm bus back to our vehicles and this would surely make it very difficult to catch a ferry back to the mainland that night. Plan B was to go an extra 7 km to the next available camping spot. Could we do it? What is the terrain going to be like? We'll have to decide when we get there. We had barely got going that morning when one careless gal in the group (aka-me) had to stop to fix her seriously leaking hydra pack. Hmm, yes, they tend to leak when you don't screw the lid on properly. We hadn't gone far from that little mishap before Barb took a log to the head landing her down on the sand where her eyes had been focused during the painful event. No major injuries and off we went......although on inspection later, her elbow that she landed on was showing some pretty drastic signs of haematoma.
After 4 hours hiking that we described as treacherous, challenging, tough and hazardous, we came to our lunch spot on Sombria Beach, km marker 28. We had heard that this was a marvellous place and we were not disappointed. We even found a gorgeous hidden waterfalls.
After our lovely lunch break at Sombria we hit the trail again for the next 4 km to Little Kutchie Campground where we would decide if we should go on or not. Along the way, I tripped on a root and my pack, having a mind of its own, decided to take a leftward dive into the bushes off the trail. There I hung like a turtle on its back trying to right itself. Jane and Alette rushed to my rescue and pulled my pack so I could return to my feet. None of us dared look to see what was below those bushes.........we had passed some pretty steep cliffs earlier on.
The terrain continued to be very challenging, very technical. I concurred with my fellow hiker when Susan said "Thank God for poles!" Every step was quite diverse; we couldn't understand the one hiker's description of "monotonous". I once again agreed when Jane said "Never a dull moment." It was 5pm by the time we reached Little Kutchie; it had taken us 3 hours to go 4 km. There was no way we could possibly go 7km further so we stopped for the night with the knowledge that we would have to set out at 7am if we were going to catch our bus the next day. Much to the dismay of the coffee lovers in the group, we banned the stoves from use in the morning to facilitate the early start. The die-hards had cold coffee in the morning, savouring it as though it were an iced cappuccino from Starbucks.
As we cooked and socialized and "enjoyed" our last night of freeze dried food and last night of tenting in our dark but quaint forest home, we tried to lighten our packs for the last day. Food eaten is food not carried. Anne encouraged us to eat up all the chocolate she had brought. She said "Better on your hips than on my back!"
Day 4 (aka Orca Day) We got our early start; 7:15, not bad! Leaving km marker 33, we had 14 km to get to the end of the JDF Trail and then 3 km into the town of Port Renfrew where we would catch the bus. We had to keep moving. We were almost there with no injuries and everyone intact. Don't stumble now. Anne coached us on by saying "Lose your focus and your ass will follow". As we got to the beach at Parkinson (37 km) we saw a lone orca below the water and we could spot its white markings just below the surface. What a sight to brighten our moods!
From there it was onward to Payzant Creek Campground where we had hoped to have made it last night. Our decision had been right. It would have gotten too dark in those trees after 5 pm and the terrain was still pretty rugged although it was easing up with stretches of "cream" between the harder areas. Here we had our second orca sighting. This time a whole pod of them frolicking along the shoreline.
We had a quick peek at Providence Cove, leaving our packs up at the trail after great debate whether the bears might get them in the brief time we were down there. I reasoned that there was only a 1 in 9 chance that the bear would choose my food to eat so I risked it. We then used our budgeted 15 minutes for lunch on the rocks at Yauh Creek where I heard Barb say "Peanut butter and jam never tasted so good in my whole life!"
Hitting the 40 km marker at Payzant Campground had been our moment of jubilation. We knew we were going to make it; only 7 km left to finish the trail. The topography was getting easier and easier and we were making great time. As we approached the Botanical Beach at km 46 Susan could not wait to strip to her undies and swim in the ocean; another of her bucket list items. The rest of us enjoyed putting our tired feet into the cold, soothing water.
The 1 km out was easy peasy and we finished the trail having hiked 14 km in 6 hours that day. This had turned out to be a much easier day then we had anticipated when we could not get a consensus from our fellow hikers on how treacherous it was going to be. We were done and it was only 2pm.
We were going to have time for a burger and beer at the local pub. I was ecstatic! This was the moment I had been waiting for. The flat 3 km walk up the road to Port Renfrew was easy but became even easier when a friendly good Samaritan stopped her panel van and transported all of our packs for us while we walked this last stretch. That was a big weight off, literally.
In conclusion, this was an incredible experience for me.
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| Friendship |
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| Camaraderie |
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Serenity
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Wildlife
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Here are many examples of the beautiful flora of the area:
And here are some examples of the amazing fungi (that everyone thought I was kind of crazy to be photographing):
Lastly, I would like to thank each and every lady that I enjoyed this trip with. You have each contributed to my thorough enjoyment of this adventure.
To Susan for orchestrating this whole escapade.
To Jocelyn for leading the way.
To Denise for navigating and time keeping.
To Jane for your continuous smile.
To Barb for your ever positive attitude.
To Alette for your entertaining songs on the trail.
To Joanne for your knowledge of the coastal waters.
To Anne for your entertaining sense of humour.
A few last tips for future JDF Backpackers:
Each campsite has a Food Cache that looks like this:
Any time you want to get from the beach to the JDF Trail, look for an orange ball like this:
