22. June 2022

Day 19: Welcome to the Jungle!

Hiking in the Jungle

We were maybe not well enough informed before we started our Hike today, but yesterday during our research we found that two longer trails start near Port Renfrew. One is the West Cost Trail, its a 75 km trail which ends near Bamfield in the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. The other is the Juan de Fuca Trail which is 47 km and goes from Botanic Beach (near Port Renfrew) to China Beach.

Because the West Cost Trail start isn’t that easy reachable, we decided that we do part of the Juan de Fuca Trail. The Plan was, hike as far as we feel like and then back.

So we first had to reach the Botanic Beach Trail head, which was only 2 km from Port Renfrew. We did it by car to save us the road walking.

The first 200 m of the trail were a easy single trail, then we hit a gravel road for the rest of the first km. So the beginning wasn’t to spectacular and we assumed that we could easily cover 10 or maybe even more km before we turn around… How naive we were :)

We then came to the Botanic Beach and from there the Juan de Fuca Trail really started. It was a narrow path through the really dense forest, which is best described as a Jungle. The trail quickly slowed us down, there were a lot of small wooden ladders, big steps over trees and a lot of mud. All in all, it was an amazing trail!

From time to time there was access to the beach or at least a view of it. This was an interesting contrast to the forest.

At one of these beach access we did a short break and enjoyed the nice weather we had today!

But the trail never allowed for mindless walking, it always required full focus to not miss a step or slip on one of the wet and slippery roots. This made for a fun but also quite exhausting hike.

We made it to the first campground, Payzant Creek, which came after 7 km, and had to realise that this is our turn around point. It took us around 2:20h to cover 7 km, which was probably the slowest we ever hiked, but the terrain was also the most challenging. Beside of some really muddy parts, it was just amazing!

Even though the way back was the same we came, we discover new views and it never felt boring or old.

Back at Port Renfrew

We had all day nice weather and it stayed like this for the evening as well. So we enjoyed a bit the sun from the small garden of our Tent.

Later on it was time for Dinner, again at the Pub just next to our accommodation. It was Salmon Burger time for me, Nicole went again with the Mushroom Burger. But the most important part were the beers.

Cheers!