You can see the breathing hole in the slug. Some photos are a bit out of focus. I liked this orange fungus:
That last photo of the mushrooms did not record the color properly. The mushrooms were a brilliant purple color, very pleasing to the eye. Possibly some of these got munched either by a slug or a squirrel. I don’t actually know if what we saw were squirrels or chipmunks. I really wish I could have taken a picture of one squirrel I saw. It was very small and I don’t know if it was a baby but it made me laugh. I saw it cross the trail just three feet in front of me. It was carrying a huge fir cone twice the size of its body in its teeth. Its tiny legs barely touched the ground as it scurried across my path. It was hilarious and cute at the same time. The trail was fast becoming a walk in the park! Just look at the beauty of this path that Jutta and Marilyn are walking on:
There were a couple long ladders ahead of us but we made it. Before we knew it we looked up and there was the end of the trail! We invited Jutta to step over the “finish” line ahead of us but she would have none of that. We all agreed that arm in arm we would step over the line at the same time! Here is the Pachena Trailhead Office and we were a bit surprised to find that completion certificates were waiting for us:
We finished the trail just in time because we ended up camping in Bamfield in the pouring rain all day and night! Here is a shot of part of the harbour at Bamfield:
We were very sad to part ways with Jutta who was taking the bus back to Victoria, but we wanted to take the Juan de Fuca Express back to Port Renfrew. This is a water taxi that takes you by boat back to Port Renfrew. We would have seen the trail again from the perspective of a boat on the ocean plus got to whale watch at the same time. Unfortunately, the seas were too rough for the boat to run and we had to take the bus back.
I will leave this tale with some photos we took of the Salmon run at Yard Creek on our homeward journey. Yard Creek is on the Trans-Canada Highway just past Sicamous. Yard Creek campground was really nice and also we had it totally to ourselves:
Here is Yard Creek looking downsteam:
And finally here is are two photos of Abraham Lake in our native Alberta. The lake is formed by a dam on the North Saskatchewan River which eventually flows through Edmonton, Alberta and of course our home in Devon, Alberta:
The End. Or is it the Beginning?
on Aug 5th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Great pictures and very informative. My husband and I are planning to do this trail next year. Would you recommend the south to north route knowing what you know now?
Thank you for the advice in your planning section and also the information about the 2 litrs of water.
I really enjoyed the whole article.
Karen from Calgary
on Aug 5th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Thank you for the kind comments, Karen. I would definitely suggest taking the south to north route for a number of reasons. Doing it from south to north allows you to do the hardest part of the trail first. The first 5 km from the trailhead out of Port Renfrew to Thrasher Cove is very difficult with climbing over exposed tree roots as you saw in the picture. Some people think that doing the easiest part of the trail first allows you to get in shape for the hard part but I disagree. If you can make it past Thrasher, you can make it all the way. Good luck with this worthwhile trip and I hope you make it next year.