It’s decision day. My quads and calfs are tired and feet are blistered. My hiking speed is… slow.

The plan is to hike to Nissan Bight and then down to San Josef the next day. Do I hike with the rest of the group and then 22 km down to San Josef Bay? Or do I break it up and hike to Eric Lake, a 15km hike, leaving the last 7 for the day after? That would leave an easy 3km hike out to the parking lot the last day.

I wanted to stay with the group but my feet were saying hike to Eric Lake and get a head start. I didn’t want to do any solo hiking but there were many people on the trail. My feet would be much happier splitting the distance up. The group wouldn’t have to wait for my slow pace all day. But splitting the group up, what if something happened?

What to do?

I decided to do the solo hike to Eric Lake. A solo mission with lots of people on the trail and the rest of the group coming through the day after if anything went wrong. Done. Let’s do it.

One thing with some of the photos below is they point north along the trail instead of south, the direction I was travelling. Some of photos were for a slideshow of photos showing the route from the parking lot to Nels and then the lighthouse. I turned around to take them facing north. Yup, wierd, I know. They still show what the trail is like at that point.

Get comfortable. Here’s the rest of the story from Day 3 of the Cape Scott Trail.

We should have waited to go up to the lighthouse. Today would have been beautiful for it. I’ve got a long hike ahead of me. Better get moving. Tough choice to leave the group and head for San Josef instead of seeing Nissan Bight.

One part of me, the explorer, my logical mind, wanted to see Nissan. To leave a place with a beautiful beach unseen, tore at that part of me.

The other half, my legs and my feet, were telling me the smart decision would be to break up the hike, give those legs a break. I would be staying at a different campsite we hadn’t stayed at yet. Get some solo time in.

Ok, feet. You win. 

A few floats at the entrance to Nels Bight.

All sorts of things coming washing up on the beaches this far north. There’s not much to stop the bits and pieces coming from Japan to the island. Only the lucky folks find anything good and I’m sure it’s whisked away to someones treasure chest. The boring leftovers are hung up on trees. 

Out onto the plains of Hansen Lagoon. 

The trail to the first dyke. Still one of the most unique places I’ve seen hiking. It was a confusing place to be. Popping out of thick forest onto grassy meadow a kilometre wide was not in my hiking plan but there it was and it was beautiful.

You can still see the old fence posts heading out to the dyke in the photo below. The posts lead out to Hansen Lagoon and the first dyke. The settlers added dykes to Hansen Lagoon, the first completed in 1899 and the second in 1905. On our way in, we were eager to the beach and didn’t venture out to see the lagoon. Here, on my way out, I wanted to keep moving. Long day ahead. 

Remnants of one of the settlements. A sign in the top left corner talks about the Cape Scott Community Hall.

The sign says:

The Cape Scott Community Hall With the arrival of the second wave of settlers, the community centre shifted from Fishermen Bay to the Hansen Lagoon area. The government, in response, reserved a plot of 40 hectares (100 acres) at this site for public purposes, and in 1910, a community hall with a classroom was built. During peak peak population years, 25-30 students of all nationalities attended school here.Due to Cape Scott’s isolation, settlers developed a strong community spirit demonstrated by night-long dances, annual fairs, lively parties and general meetings held at this hall. The picture on the right shows the Cape’s first Agricultural Fair attended by over 200 people in 1914. Today, a moss-covered mound of rotting planks is all that remains of this structure.To those who settled here, Cape Scott was something special. Though they had so little, they had so much!

A Building of Unknown IdentityThe identity of the crumpled building between the Community Hall and the Hansen Lagoon road is not known. It is thought to be the relay station used by the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II to boost telegraph signals from the radar station at Cape Scott to the air base at Coal Harbour.

The Spencer FarmOne the north side of the Lagoon road are remnants of the Spencer farm. Alfred Spencer arrived at Cape Scott in 1912 with the second wave of colonists and settled into the abandoned King farm. He remained at Cape Scott until 1956, one of the very last settlers. His home, pictured on the right, stood in relatively good shape until 1969. It was then burned to the ground by a thoughtless visitor.

All that’s left of the old Cape Scott Community Hall. 

Boardwalks through the bog.

Back into the forest. 

Parts of the old telegraph line ran into the area in 1913. 

Eric Lake. 15km done. Done for the day right? Well…I had planned to stop and pick up some water at Eric Lake. Just out of the photo below to the right a couple were having their quiet romantic swim so I didn’t want to stay long. There was another entrance to the lake at the south end. I’ll head to the south end grab some water there, see what the dock looks like. We hadn’t checked it out on the way in. 

The southern entrance to Eric Lake. Looks great from up the trail. When you get down to the water it’s a mud pit. All the goo that gets blown down Eric Lake by the wind ends up here. You’d have to wade out 10 metres to get fresh, clear water. And that dock I had read about? It’s the rotted remnants of a shipping dock they would float supplies up the lake from. All that was left was a couple of pilings and some rotted wood half under water. Not a real dock.

I had a break but didn’t get any water. I was almost out of water at this point. Decision time.

I could head 1.5km back up to the north entrance to Eric and get some water and probably spend the night there in a buggy forest campsite. Or I could continue down to San Josef Bay from here, another 5km. Only 5km. That wasn’t the plan but it was so close. A few more hours trudging along and I’d be at the white sands of San Josef Bay with rivers of fresh water coming down onto the beach.

That sounds great. Let’s do it. 

The trail to Cape Scott isn’t especially technical but it’s not easy. There are so many little rocks and logs and things to trip over. It makes for a tiring hike.

The marker!

This is the fork to turn off to the parking lot or turn south to San Josef Bay. Less than 2k from here to San Josef Bay (I had to hike farther to get water which made it about 3k). Easy hiking now. My goal at last.

My feet were screaming at me but just a little further I’d be able to get some water and lay this pack down for an entire day. I was already looking forward to the next day of relaxing on the beach, pina coladas and working on my sun tan.

The post Cape Scott Trail: Day 3 first appeared on Pack & Trail.

Hiking to Guise Bay

The morning started out completely fogged in. We couldn’t see much. Oh well. Let’s go to the lighthouse anyways. It might clear up when we get there.

The weather was warm and dry. I wasn’t complaining. A wet day dampens the spirits. 

The forest is so lush.

We followed the path in from the beach along the old log roads.

We were much lighter today, only carrying the food and water that we needed to do the 12km return trip from Nels Bight to the lighthouse. Sore, tired legs from the 20 km the day before made for slow going but we didn’t have to deal with full packs.

The ground wasn’t flat. Duh. Hiking trails aren’t sidewalks but I assumed with the lack of elevation around Cape Scott that it would be easy hiking. Even though where wasn’t much elevation gain, the old boardwalk was full of holes, missing chunks here and there. Some of it was just dirt, wormed with roots, between a patchwork of old boards.

Aside from the old road boards in the dirt, this could be anywhere on Vancouver Island, packed with green ferns and salal. I caught my mind wandering thinking I had seen it before. Obviously not. This was my first trip to Cape Scott.

The trail heads into the woods from Nels Bight to the east half of Experiment Bight.

Guise Bay

From the east half of Experiment Bight we left the sand to the woods for a kilometer to pop out on Guise Bay. Guise was my favourite scenes of the trip. I could have stayed there the entire time, just relaxed and taken in the view.

The sand was a more golden colour than Nels and the water more blue. It looked tropical when the sun hit it right. There were 3 groups camped there but far fewer than Nels.

Guise is another 3 km farther along the trail from Nels. It’s a full 20km in from the parking lot. I was happy to stop at Nels when we did. Taking all your gear 3km further to camp at Guise is just more work. It might be worth it if like it better and planned to spend a few days there. 

After Guise Bay, the trail heads back into the woods and gains the elevation up to the lighthouse. There is just over 2km of trail from Guise up to the lighthouse. 30 minutes if you’re hiking about 4km/hour. With breaks we were moving about 3km/hour.

Relics of old logging in the area, springboard holes in one of the trees made an art project for someone coming through. The seashells around the stones to add depth to the eyes. I admired such attention to detail. Obviously I’m not an artist. Most of the trail from Guise to the lighthouse was some type of old road. Some was just logs placed across the road and others were planks parallel to the trail.

The odd thing in this scene was the old hydro (telegraph line?) pole.

Cape Scott Lighthouse

We trudged up the dirt road to the Cape Scott lighthouse. There was a small that lead down to the water on the right as we were coming up the road. We later learned that this lead down to the fuel tanks previous location. Thanks to a fuel spill years ago, regulations changed and they had to have their fuel further away from the water.

Obviously I needed to have a picture of my friend Bryn taking a photo on every trip. I don’t think there’s a photo on this blog where you can actually see his face. We’ll just call him the cameraman.

We couldn’t see a thing through the clouds and the fog. I’ll be back one day to enjoy that view for sure. We can’t even see the water that surrounds the point we’re on. We can just see up to the lighthouse and that’s about it. The lighthouse keepers have brought a little puppy named Hurricane. His black and white fluffiness was vibrating with excitement with visitors. They didn’t let him out to play thought, sometimes he runs away. 

Satisfied (or not?) we won’t see any water from the lighthouse, we turned to head back to base. One of the buildings had treated rainwater for drinking from a tap. We filled up our water and wandered back down the dirt road. Back into the lush green forest, onto board walks and old roads.

Some of the boardwalks are recent and made for hikers to manage the mud. 

Other boards are remnants of old roads.

Back to Guise Bay

The sand dunes between Guise Bay and Experiment Bight was the most interesting place I saw on the trip.  Vancouver Island doesn’t have much for big sand dunes. I’ve only seen them in New Zealand and on the coast of Oregon. Such an interesting view to pop out of thick coastal forest and see giant sand dunes from bay to bay across the cape. The top of the dunes don’t see much sea water, leaving them covered in tall grass. I thought I might see a little dinosaur running through the grass beside me.

Part of the dunes get washed away in the winter with storms as they come pounding down on Experiment Bight from the north. Guise Bay is much more sheltered and protected. The thick grass stops at the edges where the waves have eroded a path through. Small patches have sprouted in the sand at the bottom. I’m sure they wash away every season during the storms.

Guise Bay

Experiment Bight

Experiment Bight has a much more desolate feel to it than Guise Bay. It’s just on the other side of the sand dune but it could have been on the moon. Not nearly as inviting. It would be quite the place for storm watching if you were (un)fortunate enough to be here when the wind and seas picked up.  You might need the white hard hat sitting on the orange buoy below.

Each little trail section had its own own personality. Some looked like they were from their own planet. Others, like this one full of ferns, salal and salmon berries, could be from anywhere on Vancouver Island. Hiking just a few kilometres along the trail, you’d see all sorts of scenery.

Nels Bight

A little over 12km there and back and we were home on Nels Bight. The weather brightened up for us after we got close to camp. Nice of the weather to break just as we get back to camp.

With the nice weather coming in, I spent the evening wandering the beach near camp. With all the tales of crazy things washing up on the beaches, I expected to find more garbage and treasures there. There was a small amount but not nearly what I’d thought. Nels is a busier beach with the ranger cabin on it so it must be regularly cleaned by rangers and beachcombers. Would the less frequented beaches have the more interesting garbage still lingering? 

Coastal creatures.

Looking back towards Experiment Bight from Nels.

Getting a little suntan in.

What else do you do with flotsam and jetsam sitting around? I’m not sure if he’s scary or inviting.

We got many comments from passers-by. 

Sun setting on our second day in the park.

My legs and feet were toast from hiking but all I can do is smile looking out over the point to the sunset. There’s nothing better than relaxing with friends on a beautiful beach kilometers from any city in the warm evening.

The post Cape Scott Trail: Day 2 first appeared on Pack & Trail.

Cape Scott has been on my list of places to hike for a long time. Lots of people I know have done it. You get to see the tip of the island. There are wolves and bears. There’s lots of mud. It sounds like the perfect place to get away for a week.

We left after work and headed up to Cluxewe Resort in Port McNeill. No one wanted to do the long drive and then break out all the tents and gear just to sleep in the parking lot so we started in an air-conditioned cabin on the water in Port McNeill. Not rustic at all but really really comfortable. The cool sea breeze and air conditioned kept it an almost-cold temperature, a welcome break from the heat in Nanaimo from the few weeks prior.

A 6:30 am start turned into a little later than we wanted but we still got out the door at a good time and on the road. One stop in Port Hardy to top up fuel and on to runner-up for middle of nowhere on Vancouver Island, Holberg.

After hearing about all the problems people have with their cars on the way to Cape Scott on the bumpy roads I was worried we might have the same issues. Justin’s trusty VW Jetta got us all the way there and back with no issues.

The parking lot was quite full when we arrived. As usual we had too much food packed for breakfast and had to either eat it or ditch it. We ended up giving the three last croissants to three girls that had just come off the trail from their hike. Good timing for them.

The trail starts easy, flat and wide. A nice warm up for what was to come. I knew Cape Scott was a relatively flat hike, which I was glad for. My preparation for this hike was short CrossFit workouts. They don’t translate directly into long slow hiking. Better than nothing. 

The trail splits at 900 metres in. South heads to San Josef Bay. I recommend checking that out if you can. North heads to Eric Lake and then Cape Scott. 

The south end of Eric Lake. It looks like a pretty place to hang out from the down the trail. This beach on Eric Lake is actually terrible. The water was brown and full of crud. There was no where to sit aside from a couple of logs above soggy dirty. The access by the campsite boardwalk 1.4 km north is much nicer. 

The obligatory crossing a bridge photo. I seem to get these from every trip I go on and some of them are really nice photos. This one was crossing a creek by Eric Lake. Someone we were talking to before we left for the trip had run across a bear here and had to wait until the bear crossed the bridge and wandered off into the woods before they could cross. 

Eric Lake campsite

Eric Lake campsite looked pretty cool. If you were coming in late in the day and could only hike the 4k to the lake, I would camp here. It’s inland though, near the lake but not on it, and apparently a nice place for bugs to hang out. The camping would probably consist of arrive, kill as many bugs as possible, set up camp, go to bed. 

Fisherman River had a good amount of water in it. There was a small place to camp near the bridge with a toilet and 3 or 4 tent pads. They were hidden behind the toilet and hard to see from the rest of the boardwalk trail. I only noticed them on my way back. 

Remnants of farm life from early dutch settlers. 

The meadow and trail to Hansen Lagoon were one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. The strangeness of seeing this view in the middle of a coastal forest made it very memorable. In my head it still shouldn’t look like this. But it does. 

The beautiful sand of Nels Bight. 

The owner of Strategic, the company that manages the park for the province, was checking on the rangers working there. They hadn’t checked in because their satellite unit was broken. It was a bit surreal to be on the northern tip of the island, enjoying being as far away from home as you can get still being on the island, and having a helicopter cruise in and buzz the beach. 

Sunset. Good night Cape Scott! 

Stay tuned for the rest of the photos from my 2015 Cape Scott trip. I’ll post links here after they’re posted. 

The post Cape Scott Trail: Day 1 first appeared on Pack & Trail.