Hiking
The North Coast Trail and Cape Scott Park (EB)
Too Wild To Settle-Walking Through History
9 days-Strenuous -CDN$1,799 + 12% HST
| Dates | Availability |
|---|---|
| August 14-22, 2012 | Available |
The North Coast Trail is the new crowning jewel coastal hike in BC. Travelling through ancient, coastal, temperate rainforest and on sand and cobblestone beaches, enjoy this new, rugged addition to the glorious Cape Scott Provincial Park at the northwestern tip of Vancouver Island.
The North Coast Trail hike is a scenic tour through a number of coastal ecosystems. Dominated by hemlock, cedar, and sitka spruce, the trail passes through large stands of each tree species. The upland trail areas travel through coastal marsh and bog ecosystems full of small, but intricately beautiful plant species. At the shore, the trail winds through and around many pocket beaches adorned with sea stacks and caves, watched over by eagles from their aeries.
Cape Scott is full of its own hiking trails leading to a number of incredible historical and geographical features. There is time on this trip to explore the beauty of Cape Scott Park, with side trips to Nels Bight, Hansen Lagoon, and Guise Bay.
Just outside the park, past Guise Bay, is the Cape Scott Lightstation, one of the few remaining attended lighthouses in Canada. Exploring the trails gives the chance to imagine how a group of Danish pioneers tried to survive here before vacating the area after 10 hard years, leaving only the names of the areas we will visit. The history of this area is fascinating, and the views are unbeatable. Come see for yourself!
The colors of the evening sky are incredible on the North Coast Trail. The night sky is even more amazing with virtually no light pollution. Day or night, this trail gives awesome views.
Between light and shadow, Cape Scott is at the boundary of land and open ocean, between muted dark sky and bright day sun, between open light and covered shadow. The contrasts here make the trip.
If you are interested in this trip, you might also want to look at the classic coastal hike, theWest Coast Trail. Or if you want a similar coastal experience, close to the open Pacific, but in a kayak, try the Nuchatlitz Inlet Endangered Species Tour.
Images from the North Coast Trail
Cape Scott Provincial Park is relatively flat, with a good trail system. Hiking trails within the park lead off to the Cape Scott Light Station, Hansen’s Lagoon, and to a several outstanding beaches. The addition in 2008 of the North Coast Trail hike has opened up a number of other spectacular beaches, shoreline features, and upland ecosystems. Getting through this new hiking trail is difficult, however, adding a new challenging hike to British Columbia’s coastal hiking network.
Several features make the trail difficult and the travel relatively slow. Weather and tides greatly affect the North Coast Trail hike. And of course, transportation to and from the trail has its challenges, also.
If you are starting at the east end of the North Coast Trail hike, at Shushartie Bay, you will need to be taken in by water taxi from Port Hardy. This can be a bit pricey, and currently runs at about $110 per person for 3 people. The price goes down for more people, but expect about $100 each. The way out is another matter. The Cape Scott Water Taxi and Marine Services has combined with the North Coast Trail Shuttle to provide transportation both in and out, trailhead to trailhead, making it possible to easily plan a complete hike through all of Cape Scott Park.
The first leg of the North Coast Trail hike out of Shushartie Bay heads immediately uphill, pulling up with a rope to get onto a plateau. The climb from there is pretty steady up to a larger plateau with coastal bog terrain. This area is quite remarkable. This is similar to one section of the West Coast Trail, and its prevalence here on the north coast makes is a hallmark of the North Caost Trail hike. A fair section of the bog is protected by boardwalk. The boardwalks are new, so they are level and good, but that does not prevent them from being extremely slippery when wet. The hiking pace must slow down on the boardwalk to prevent slips and falls. Much of the bog is small in size, including the trees. A slower pace means more attention goes to the scenery and appreciating the incredible diversity of life there. The upland bog shows up throughout most of the rest of the hike from time to time, but the first day is full of it.
The upland trails contain some deadfall trees that have to be climbed over, and also root systems that complicate the way. These root systems provide some footing opportunities, but are also usually slippery. Climbing up and over some of these systems can be strenuous and slow. Careful foot placement and a properly adjusted backpack are absolute essentials for travelling over these obstacles. The journey is worth it, taking you through sections of old growth cedar, hemlock, and sitka spruce. This is a unique environment, full of life. The tall trees are the home of many eagle's nests, indicating how high the eagle population is in this area.
After the upland trail on the first leg of the North Coast Trail hike come creek crossings and beach travel. The creek crossings can be challenging because of swift water. At the end of the day, it is often too time consuming to take off boots and wade across the rivers, but doing so helps prevent the problems of wet feet and wet boots.
Beach travel presents two problems. The first problem is the speed and effort to walk on a beach. Some of the beaches are sandy, some are cobblestone. With either type, the footing is somewhat soft and the travel can slow down a bit. Although it is very tiring to walk on the beach, it is great psychologically. You can see how far you are travelling and tell you are making progress. Cobblestones can be quite difficult, especially on sloped beaches. Many of the middle beaches on the North Coast Trail are cobblestone. The way between Cape Sutil and Shuttleworth Bight has a large section of cobblestone beaches, and it is called the Sutil Scramble.
The next obstacle has to do with the tides. The tides complicate two things. Some spots on the North Coast Trail hike are impassable at high tides, so timing is important. This means that you need to have the tide tables with you and be able to interpret them. Some places have upland work arounds to pass these tide dependent spots. A good section of the Sutil Scramble is walking over pocket beaches and getting around the headlands between them. Some walk arounds take steep, rope scramble courses up and over narrow divides, then back down on ropes again. Low tide walks around the headlands speed things up considerably. Intermediate tides mean judging whether climbing the rocks at the edge of the headlands will be faster and safer than taking the walk-around trail. The really amazing part of the North Coast Trail hike, particularly on the Sutil Scramble, it the intimate look at sea stacks, sea caves, and tide pools while moving around the headlands.
Parts of the forest trails are old settler routes and have been lined underneath with logs, creating a corduroy effect. The corduroy can be slippery and in places where it is completely rotten, big mud holes dot the trail. Generally, straight through the mud hole is the best way, but sometimes one has a deeper meaning to it, i.e., you are going to sink to your knees. The history here is fascinating and a good study beforehand or with a guide along can help you appreciate the challenges that the early settlers had in trying to carve out homesteads in this wild place.
At the end of the day, after 7 to 9 kilometers of travel along the North Coast Trail, you really feel like you have been somewhere. It is not exactly bushwacking, but not far from it. The ruggedness of the trail is exhausting; the beauty of the scenery is exhilarating; and the abundance of life is awe-inspiring here on this boundary of land and ocean. After the North Coast Trail hike, Cape Scott’s trails are easy and the visit to the light station over the sand neck at Guise Bay and Experiment Bight caps off the journey with another sense of beauty and wonder.
The wolves found on the North Coast Trail hike are a subspecies of the grey wolf found on the mainland of BC. Canis lupus crassodon, the Vancouver Island Grey Wolf, is endemic to Vancouver Island, meaning that it is a native species there. Populations of these wolves, found mostly in the northern third of Vancouver Island in the sparsely populated areas as well as in Clayoquot and Barkley Sounds, have diminished over the past few decades. It is now an endangered species and if the last of the Vancouver Island wolves dies, it will be virtually extinct. Two Vancouver Island wolves live in captivity, one grey and one white.
I had seen tracks before on a previous visit to the North Coast Trail. There were fresh tracks around our tents every morning and tracks on the trail. I knew they were around on this North Coast Trail hike in 2010.
These Vancouver Island wolves live in packs of from 5 to 35, but I have seen no more than two sets of tracks at a time, one adult, one juvenile. They are high level predators, consuming mostly black tailed deer and Roosevelt elk. One of the locals from Port Hardy told us that the deer populations were down dramatically in the last couple of years. This is putting pressure on the wolf populations on the north part of Vancouver Island. When larger game disappears, wolves range over a large area and take smaller game that they would not ordinarily take. The declining population of Vancouver Island marmots is being blamed on wolves. Whether they are taking more small rodents is unclear. There was a significant amount of scat on the North Coast Trail in the park. Many decaying piles had significant amounts of beach gravel, leading me to speculate that the animals were grazing off the abundance of creatures at the shore.
The wolf “encounters” punctuate the North Coast Trail hike, but other wildlife is abundant. Along with bald eagles, populations of grouse, robins, kingfishers, ravens, owl, and woodpeckers are high. The bears can be similar to the wolves. It is common to follow tracks for most of a day on beaches, but never see one. River otter, mink, chipmunk, seals, and sea lions are even more visible than the bears and wolves. Although there are year-round gray whales off this coast, large seas make it difficult to see or hear them. Other sea life that is abundant here are Orca whales, but they travel through mostly in July and August, humpback whales in October, and sea otter in the winter months. One thing is guaranteed, however, and that is that visiting the North Coast Trail and Cape Scott Park gives a huge opportunity to see any or all of these animals in their native habitat.
The challenges on a North Coast Trail hike are different from other, inland hiking trails. Hikes along the coast have unique hazards that must be understood and respected. Because of these unique risks, planning and preparation are extremely important. The North Coast Trail hike is a traverse, requiring extra planning and organization. Every hike has its special needs, and the following four are geared toward the North Coast Trail.
Date Considerations
Choose the dates wisely for your North Coast Trail hike. The number of people in the group will present an opportunity or a challenge, depending on the dates. High season and shoulder season times allow or restrict larger groups due to the availability of camping spaces. The tides and the trail conditions vary greatly during the season and the month. The North Coast Trail hike can be dependent on the tides. Lastly, the weather can be highly variable along the coast, but the general trend is to have the better weather during the high season of July and August. Judging your group is important in deciding how they will do in wetter weather on your North Coast Trail hike.
Transportation
There are three main considerations for transportation. First, which end is the starting point and which the ending point? How you get to and from the trail is an important consideration. The third is whether to take a vehicle or to hire out all the transport.
Food
The dates you pick, or the length of the trip affects the food planning. To complete your North Coast Trail hike safely, plan on taking at least seven days. The longer the trip, the more food is needed, and the planning and preparation increases. Choosing to buy or dry and package your own food needs pre-planning, and the amount and quality of the food you carry is important. Fresh food is healthy, but heavy, and absolutely essential for a North Coast Trail hike.
Equipment
There are some special backpacking equipment requirements that make the North Coast Trail hike better. The common elements are the proper pack, with the right features for a long , multi-day hike, and proper hiking boots. The climate is very wet, even in August. Keeping clothes and sleeping gear dry is nearly impossible. Longer trips need lighter gear, and then there is the ever-present problem of mud. A warm, dry shelter is important for the end of the day, so taking a great tent helps make the North Coast Trail hike better. Clearly, the right equipment is essential for your hike.
To make it through a North Coast Trail hike, one needs a good sense for adventure. The first time out on the trail means everything is unknown, even with a good guidebook. The overland trails are really only foot tracks through the hidden, fallen jumble of deadfall trees. The level areas are bog. On dry days, the boardwalks over the bogs can make for fast hiking, but on wet days, they are just like a kid’s Slip-N-Slide. Any false step and down you go. Then there is the mud and puddles lined with spongy moss, calf deep. The bogs are one of the most striking habitats on the hike, however. It is a very fragile environment and well worth the slower hiking to really look at the incredible plants beside the boardwalk on the North Coast Trail hike.
On the beach trails, the tides can drive you up the beach to the steeper slope, making it a lop-sided walk on the beach. Hiking through the forest with a 22 to 25 kg pack, up and over roots, trunks, and through streams only complicates things. The long stretch, called the Sutil Scramble can be very tiring at high tides, scrambling along the steep cobblestones at the top of the beach. The hope of seeing wolf tracks, bear tracks, eagles nests, and humpback whales just offshore drive you along on this North Coast Trail hike until you get to the next camp. The biggest challenge is over after Nissen Bight. Here, you can read about the challenges of the settlement attempts, walk along the long, sand beaches, and join the light keepers at Cape Scott Light Station for a cup of coffee (if they are not running low that day). These features of the North Coast Trail hike provide a draw to set that goal to hike the trail.
Knowing these difficulties lie ahead on the North Coast Trail hike calls for courage. Getting up in the morning, getting packed up, and simply setting off, helps feed the courage to get back on the trail, meet the unknown scenes around the corners and over the hills. Knowing that most of the animals living in the park are solitary and shy helps to muster enough courage to move forward. Making sure your gear is up to the task helps with being brave enough to set up camp in the lonely campsites and walk right through the middle of the puddles, conserving energy for other activities at camp at night. Having some knowledge of the trail also brings courage to set off down the trail, knowing that at the end of the day, you will end up at the right destination. Hiking with a group is also great for courage building, and it is great to share the load and the experiences with someone else. Courage on the North Coast Trail hike is absolutely necessary, but it is easy to set yourself up to support that courage.
Along with the sense for adventure and courage, you need to make sure you exercise a bit of caution along the North Coast Trail hike. Understanding the risks and how to minimize them almost guarantees caution. Risks are everywhere. In our regular lives, we learn how to manage the risks we face each day. The process is the same out in the challenging wilderness environment. The more you understand, the better you can manage the risks by exercising caution. The terrain you travel on your North Coast Trail hike calls for caution in each step. The long days require good management of your water and food intake to ensure you have enough energy not to get clumsy. The wild animals live among anyone who lives in BC, so finding out how to deal with encounters is easily taken care of beforehand. Caution with your level of warmth is a major factor that can influence the whole trip. Learning how to manage your warmth and wetness make warm clothing essential. All of these things are necessary for packing up and heading out for a North Coast Trail hike.
Preparing for challenging hikes needs to be taken seriously. Researching about the trail helps understand the difficult aspects and ensures that some thought and planning have been done before setting out. Hikers need to embrace the challenges and meet them with a sense of adventure. North Coast Trail hikers need to muster up the courage to get ready and go forward to meet the challenges, exercising caution, and reap the rewards of taking a North Coast Trail hike.
The most important part of dry, warm hiking is the system you have for your clothes. A North Coast Trail hike demands attention to these details. The clothes need to be the right fabrics for staying dry and warm. Anything cotton is a big no-no on coastal trips. Cotton gets wet easily, is difficult to dry, and cools your body off very rapidly. Your mantra should be “No Cotton!” Better fabrics are polyester (fleece), polypropylene or merino wool. There are a number of high tech applications of all these materials for outdoor use, and are absolutely appropriate for a North Coast Trail hike.
The right fabrics need to be worn in the right layers. You need a base layer that wicks moisture away from your body, a mid layer of insulation, or two, or three, and an outer layer that sheds water. While hiking, you will want to keep the insulation layers light and keep the outer rain gear layer handy, but off if it is not raining. Heat loss can be dramatic and can be fast. When stopping for a break with packs off, immediately throw on some of your insulating layers, and especially a hat, to retain your warmth. The North Coast Trail hike is very damp, being on the north coast of Vancouver Island.
You need a dry set of clothes just for camp, and this set needs to be in an absolutely waterproof bag inside your pack. This set of clothes may include another dry base layer, but at least needs to be enough insulating layer to keep you warm with little or no activity. I usually hike with two light and one mid-weight fleece tops, plus an extra base layer just in case, and a fairly heavy pair of fleece pants. I use my rain gear as a wind break and an extra heat retention layer.
Your bagging system is vital to maintaining dryness. The old standard of plastic garbage bags inside stuff sacks does work, but need some extra care and attention to maintain. The past few years have seen extremely lightweight dry sacks brought to the market. You can get these in various sizes, which is what you need. Again, this is where your outdoor store can help you tremendously. If you are dealing with larger bulky items, such as a sleeping bag, then you have some other issues and options.
Sleeping bags come in several varieties. The old Coleman cotton/wool bags are absolutely not appropriate for a North Coast Trail hike. They are bulky, not really very warm, and extremely difficult to dry. The most bomb proof bags are synthetic fill bags because they retain their insulating capabilities even if wet. Of course, it is best to keep them dry because they add weight when wet, and just to be safe, dry is always best for warmth. Down bags can work, but they take extra care. Down bags lose their insulating ability if the feathers get wet. Both the down and synthetic fill bags can be bulky, but can be compressed easily. Very lightweight compression bags are available, and the best for a North Coast Trail hike. A plastic bag can line the inside of the compression bag, or the whole compression bag/sleeping bag can be put into a lightweight dry bag in the end.
The North Coast Trail has some creek or river fords, so boot protection is important. Make sure your boots are completely waterproof before leaving. If they are leaking, try to repair the leaky areas and apply conditioning/waterproofing compounds to the leather and other upper materials. If water is above the boot top, there is no way to stop the water from getting in. Mud puddles are a different matter. Gaiters that connect to the top and bottom of hiking boots and run up the leg can prevent a lot of wetness inside of boots. For the North Coast Trail hike, gaiters are essential gear. Boggy upland trails are part of the whole length, and trying to go around them is next to impossible and very time consuming. Walking straight through muddy patches and puddles can save an hour a day or more. With a 20 to 25 kg pack on your back, that makes a difference. Inevitably, your feet get wet, if not from external moisture, from sweat. Take enough pairs of socks to try to have dry feet each day. This helps prevent blisters and other foot problems.
The next level of dryness is at the camp level. There are a number of things you can do to help prevent moisture from getting to you and your gear on your North Coast Trail hike. The type and quality of gear make these methods more or less easy. Your tent is your main shelter against all elements. It needs to be appropriate and up to the task. An optional tarp is very helpful, and can even be a quick, emergency shelter when needed.
As with clothing, tents and tarps have become lighter and more flexible over the past few years. The balance between function and weight is extremely important for hiking trips. Modern tents are built to keep out moisture and handle strong winds, both of which are common on a North Coast Trail hike.
You must be familiar with the operation of your tent before you leave. Details are important. Know how to stake it out and tighten the fly to prevent water from entering. Pay attention to how far out the fly is staked because rain spatter from the ground can enter the tent under the fly. Understand how to place the ground sheet to prevent water from collecting under the tent. Know how to use the ventilating systems to prevent condensation inside the tent as well. When you pack up the tent, know how to fold it and roll it to minimize water transfer to other objects. Make sure you have plastic garbage bags for the tent and the fly to prevent the moisture from getting other things inside your pack wet. These are all crucial factors on your North Coast Trail hike.
Modern lightweight tarps are a great way to help prevent moisture from invading everything you have. They provide an important shelter for cooking and eating areas, and can be placed to cover the door of your tent so you can enter and exit without getting wet. This is really helpful when having to shed wet outer layers before entering the tent or having a dry place to put on rain gear and boots before breaking camp. Make sure you have some knowledge about how to set up a tarp to provide protection and for shedding water. It’s not rocket science, but a little knowledge and practice make it much easier when having to do it in the field with rain coming down and with cold hands, which are common on a North Coast Trail hike.
Keeping dry and warm is essential for really enjoying coastal hiking on the North Coast Trail and other coastal trails. What you bring to do those jobs is paramount. Modern materials and equipment make it much easier than in the past, being both good for warmth and moisture protection, as well as being lightweight. Simple techniques and a little knowledge and planning go a long way to make sure you stay warm and dry. Starting with your self, then moving out to your camp equipment and practices, it is possible to do a really good job of staying dry, and certainly of staying warm on a North Coast Trail hike.