Alarm goes off at 4.20am - What a time to get up! All things packed and ready, only grabbing a sandwich and banana for a quick breakfast. I am ready for a pick up at 4.50am and a few moments later I am cruising through empty streets with my friend Ales in his Chevy Blazer, still in the dark.
We pick two other members of our car crew on the way, one in North Vancouver and last one in a downtown core. We head straight to Tsawwassen where we are about to board ferry all the way to Swartz Bay, about 30km above Victoria.
We meet a second car crew on the ferry and grab a quick morning coffee/tea. Our destination is Juan de Fuca Provincial Park, home to Juan de Fuca trail, about 47 km in total length. The plan is to go from north (Port Renfrew) all the way to China Beach to leave shortest amount of distance for the last day of the hike.
Drive from Swartz Bay to Port Renfrew takes about 2 hours total - on the way there we leave one car at China beach car park and to my surprise we are able to fit all passengers (8 people in total) including luggage (backpacks for a four day hike) in Ford Explorer. If you would have asked me a day before to think about trying that, I'd tell you it's just not possible at all. Magic.
We start our first leg of the trip shortly after noon, heading towards Sombrio Beach from Botanical Beach. The first couple kilometres serve us as a little warm up before we face a muddy trail here and there all the way to Little Kuitshe Creek campground.
About two hours before reaching aforementioned campsite, right after we stop for a quick snack, two from our crew start coughing for no apparent reason. It takes only a few seconds before everyone coughs and runs from compromised bear spray, triggered by placing one of the bags on the ground. Fortunately, we were able to seal it back up and continue after a short break.
Today's part of the hike took us a little over six hours with couple of stops for refreshment and sights. We decided to camp overnight at Little Kuitshe Creek as we already started hiking late, yet have been able to complete first 14 kilometres from the total hike distance in the first day. We were pretty tired, so after quick dinner and little chat before bed, we fell asleep shortly after 10pm.
Hike + distance: https://www.strava.com/activities/3616906332
Visualization: https://ayvri.com/scene/qv5pxe01jr/ckbgr9zkm00003g6fk4oclzd9