Category: Backpacking

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Hiking Mount Derby & Mount Peel: Uphill Both Ways

–submitted by Matthew Lettington– originally published on explorington.com

Another May long weekend has come and gone, and with it another “first of the summer” camping trip. I don’t put much stock into the idea of the shoulder season — it’s a myth made up by The Man — but this trip felt more like a summer getaway than any other of the season, except for the rain, fog, and snow up to our knees. But thank goodness that the shoulder season is over, right?

The trip started with a hoot an’ a holler. We anticipated a longish slog along a deactivated logging road, more of an alder farm complete with cross-ditches, but today we found that the former jungle has been replaced by a new logging road. We cheered the removal of this most dreaded obstacle, the one that would take the most amount of effort with the least amount of reward. Driving to the end of the logging road allowed us to park just meters from the old-growth, and probably saved us a few hours of travel in each direction. What a boon! We grabbed our gear and headed up into the dense West Coast forest.

Total Distance: 33 km
Starting Elevation: 844 meters
Maximum Elevation: 1645 meters
Total Elevation Gain: 3155 metres

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Landslide Lake: a beginner’s backpack

–submitted by LeaderJamai Schile

Pre-Trip Planning:

Prior to heading out on the trail we met up a few days in advance to chat about gear, packing tips and travel arrangements. Rick was very helpful in showing us how to shave off unnecessary weight in our packs and meal planning. Turn’s out that Rick is quite the backcountry camp chef and he passed on loads of tips on preparing dehydrated meals as well as how to make pizza on the trail!

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Juan de Fuca Trail

-submitted by Jessica Wilcox

Our trip started out a bit rocky as we had a bit of a miscommunication with meeting places. Port Renfrew has no service so that did not help either! We eventually started the trail in 2 separate groups and managed to find each other within the first 2 kms! It was all smooth sailing from there.

We had great weather and no rain, but the trail still had lots of mud! We also saw our fair share of wild life including bears! Our nights were nice and relaxing as Chloe brought her ukulele which was great around the bonfire! We also met tons of awesome people along the way. It was definitely a great place to spend Canada’s 150th birthday! Everyone brought their Canada day gear/red which got us tons of compliments along the way! couldn’t have asked for a better weekend with a great group of people!

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Wild Side Trail with a Three Year Old

–submitted by Mathew Lettington; Read the full report on his blog

Dear Hemingway,

We did it! We survived our first father-and-son backpacking adventure. I’m happily writing the trip down as a success! We picked the perfect location, Flores Island’s Wild Side Trail, and lucked into a spate of great weather. Of course, our adventure companions helped us enjoy the trip all the more. We were just two members of an eighteen-person trip that I was co-leading. Trips of this size are often complicated, and the Wild Side Trail is fraught with additional issues. This trip proved no different. Aside from the normal challenges with the water-taxi, some of our hikers had contacted me the night before because they were stranded with a broken axle.

As I expected, you fell asleep on the drive to Tofino on the day before the trip, which made you grouchy and unwilling to go to bed that night. What’s a dad to do? We made the best of it by wandering the mean streets of Tofino, even though it was well past your normal bedtime. I treated the trip with the care that it deserved: we ate pizza-by-the-slice, I bought you a toy car at the Co-op, and when we returned to the hostel (the Doctor’s House, as you called it), we watched the sunset from the big window in our room. It was ten o’clock by the time you were asleep, after we read all the way through the Five-Minute Star Wars Stories book–twice!

 

Total Distance: 15 km
Total Time: 3 days

 

 

 

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Magical Meares Island

On the summit of Lone Cone with a marvelous view of Clayoquot Sound, Tofino, and surrounding islands.

I had wanted to visit Meares Island 20 years ago or more, and didn’t, but this winter when I was planning trips for the spring, I looked into it once again. I found the site to the “Lone Cone Hostel and Campground,” with information about climbing adjacent Lone Cone Mountain, and further details about the nearby Big Tree Trail. I was stoked! I listed it on the Rambler’s website, and before long I had 10 other eager hikers.

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Our first failure at winter camping

–submitted by Matthew Lettington, Read the report on his blog

Dear Hemingway,

We just finished our first father-and-son camping trip, or at least our first attempt. You’re only three and a half years old, and we’ve already done a lot of overnight backcountry trips, but never one in snow, and never just the two of us. I was excited, and so were you. It was an ambitious undertaking: I would be on skis, pulling you in the sled. Our goal was to head out from Raven Lodge, and camp between Battleship Lake and Kwai Lake. Beyond that, I was willing to be flexible, because above all else I wanted you to have a great time.

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