Juan de Fuca Trail: The Mystical Trail

My backpack was VERY heavy. So heavy that lifting it required an orchestrated series of moves, which ended with an impossible to suppress grunt. So heavy that I chose not to weigh it so I wouldn’t know how heavy it was. Such is life for a family of four on a five (or six) day hiking trip along the Juan de Fuca Trail. Luckily our first day was short, and ended at the appropriately named Mystic Beach. Our mystical campsite, right on the beach, had wide views (of course), and a swing hanging from a precariously positioned down-sloping log, a waterfall going straight into the ocean, only accessible at low tide, and a little waterfall right behind our tent that soothed us to sleep and provided us with a convenient water source.

Actually, it was only the hiking part that was short. Getting to the trail head, on Vancouver Island, involved a 45 minute drive, a 45 minute wait for the ferry, a 1.5 hour ferry, and a 2 hour drive. Driving along the Juan de Fuca road, while everyone else was napping, I thought back to a before-kids trip on which we had cycled this very road. What were we thinking? No shoulder, full of blind corners, roller coaster hills, and plenty of traffic including lots of RVs. Then again, things look different from the driver’s seat…

The next day we headed on to our second camp at Bear Beach. This was an introduction to the real Juan de Fuca Trail, which differs from that oh-so-easy mystical trail leading to Mystic Beach… To say that the trail is muddy is a bit deceiving, it is more like travelling directly through a Robin Hood worthy bog, in sections.

Then there are the slippery boardwalks and broken steps, and logs (also slippery) that one must walk along, tight-rope style, while not falling into the creek some meters below. Other sections are eroded and full of roots. It’s not an easy trail, so our pace was slow. At the beginning we also had to get used to our super-heavy packs. In fact, I thought to myself that our several hours of hiking a day could best be referred to as suffering, but that feeling subsided by the end of the second day. I thought about how this is just a reflection of humans being remarkable in their ability to get used to difficult situations.

The descent to Bear Beach is on a staircase that has been fashioned from a large log, and feels like it’s been taken out of The Beach. It was here that we were passed by a very large group, apparently with seven tents… COVID concerns aside, given that each campground there only has maybe ten reasonable sites, that seems kind of irresponsible. Down at the beach, we came across a few tent sites. It was lucky that we nabbed one of them, since just a moment later part of that large group came hiking back along the beach looking for a site… We had our dinner right by the beach and collected some salmon berries to supplement our oatmeal the next day.

By the time we reached Bear Beach, we were seriously doubting our ability to hike the whole trail, given our very slow pace, which often dropped to one km per hour. The next section, from Bear Beach to Chin Beach was supposedly the hardest, and at 13km could not be split (legally) into two sections since there are no campgrounds in between. We went back and forth, and finally decided to get up early and try to do it. But then it rained the whole night, and at some point we decided to switch off the alarm clock which basically sealed the deal. Luckily, given the multiple access points, we could skip the next section – we hiked back out via Mystic Beach, spending another lovely and mystical night there, and back out to the car. On that same day we drove to Sombrio Beach, which due to the easy beach access featured a combination of the sun-bleached surfer crowd, and the roll-this-rickety-cooler crowd.

Despite the Juan de Fuca Trail being a coastal hike, most of the hiking is in the forest. The forest is often lush first-growth forest, miraculously saved from the saw, unlike the unlucky trees just a few hundred meters up the slope – the protected area is very narrow. Some of the hiking was along the coast, such as the next section, going north from Sombrio Beach. Luckily we hit it at low tide, so we got a chance to explore the tide pools while meandering along, generally in the right direction. Despite much effort, we didn’t manage to find any starfish, but we did see lots of tiny crabs and anemones. From there it was back into the forest, for the now usual and expected mud fest.

We arrived to Little Kuitshe Campground to find it full, or so it seemed. One of the other campers tipped us off that she had noticed an empty site right by the outhouse. That sounded not so appealing, but after looking into it, it was actually the perfect site – off to the side, on its own, unlike the other sites that were all together. Later that same group with seven tents showed up, to a full-looking campground. Some of them ended up squished between the existing tents, and others ended up right by the outhouse. Oh well.

It rained again during the night, and some more in the morning, but it was nothing compared to what was to come. The hike to Payzant Creek Campground was through beautiful and lush forest, with a short section of really good trail near one of the trail heads, and then back to the usual muddy situation. We thoughtfully looked for a camp site with good drainage. The one that we chose had this extra section in the back, so we thought that would be convenient for cooking. As I sat down with the kids to start cooking dinner I smelled something and after a short exploration found that someone had been using this area as their toilet, yuck! Too late to move our tent, but we found somewhere else to cook at least.

On this day Neil was hiking even slower than before. We finally had an idea of how to find out why… by asking him! He said that his shins were rubbing the gumboots he was wearing. Looking at his shins, they looked as if someone had plastered them with mud and then polished it in, embedding it forever in the flesh (or so I imagined). Luckily we had brought another option for him, his Native sandals. It took some convincing to get him to step right into the mud with the semi-open and very low sandals, instead of trying to avoid it (near impossible), but eventually we gained some speed.

It rained during the night, and the next morning, and… the whole day. So, our final day on the Juan de Fuca Trail was  a bit of a challenge. We even put up our tarp for lunch, for a short reprieve from the cold and wet. I had one eye on my watch the whole day, since we had to make it to Port Renfrew in time for me to catch the shuttle back to our car at the south end of the trail. On a normal year one could probably rely on hitchhiking, but were weren’t sure that would work (or be fair) this year.

In the early afternoon, we finally arrived to Botanical Beach, just one km or so from the actual end of the trail. It’s famous for the extensive tide pools, so we explored a bit, under heavy rain, and hiked out. At the trail head, I had to leave Maya and the kids to hike into Port Renfrew, just 2kms away. There wasn’t much time, and it was hard to get the tarp up, so they ended up huddling together under a sign with a little roof. In the meantime, I caught a ride easily into town, and spent the extra time checking my email while waiting for the shuttle. I was surprised to see no one on the shuttle wearing a mask, but I wore mine – I guess I’m ok with being the odd one out. The shuttle dropped me off at the turnoff for Sombrio Beach, and I mostly ran down the road, still in heavy rain. The rest of the family survived (only Maya was cold), and we celebrated with a huge meal. I thought we had over-ordered, but we all wolfed down our food with no problems.

So, we ended up hiking 36km instead of 47km, and didn’t end up using our extra day of food. In retrospect we were very glad we skipped that middle part, since especially with all the rain at the end, it felt like we “just made it” as is, no room for an extra 11kms. We drove out via the back road to Lake Cowichan, and then to our good friends Jan and Warrick on the Cowichan River. They had a cozy fire going for us, and of course some yummy home-baked desserts. We spent the next two days lazing around, enjoying the nearby Cowichan River, and drying out our gear. Despite the sun, and running a boot drier for more than 24 hours, our boots were still partially wet when we left. On the ferry, we had the semi-mandatory soft-serve ice cream, and then enjoyed a surprise viewing of a group of dolphins.

We’ve lived in BC for 14 years, and have done a bunch of hiking, but this was our first experience hiking one of the local coastal trails. It was challening, but also beautiful and special. We’re ready for more, especially since Jan and Warrick tell us that the Juan de Fuca ranks pretty low on their list of BC’s coastal hikes. As always, every trip just adds a few more trips to that inexhaustible mental trails-to-do-later list. Till next time.