On June 9th I finished at camp. Lots of cleaning, lots of tired staff members, but we had a fun season. I went up to Bellingham that night, got up the next morning and ran lots of errands, got lots of stuff from REI went to confession, adoration, and mass and then set out for Port Angeles with Jon and Corina. We got there at around....midnight? Let's just say it took Jon a little too long to pack all his stuff. I think we can also safely say that Jon brought too much stuff :) We all met at Chris' cabin in Port Angeles and had a pre-trip bonfire while we mused over how insane this trip would be. The next morning we drove all the cars to Chris' parent's place and hopped in the big brown van. This wasn't just any van, this was a striped, shaggy, huge, decked out hilarious Van. We hopped the Ferry to Victoria. When we were getting questioned by the customs guy on the other side we were asked "How much alcohol are you bringing on the trail? Do you have any bear mace? Do you have any tobacco?" ha ha ha!!! Bear Mace...Alcohol? Ha ha ha! Ehem...anyways we took a short trip to the Real Canadian Superstore to get some lunch and some last minute items, which for me thankfully meant jerky. The beef jerky which would be a crucial part of staying happy on the trip. (Little known fact: I love beef jerky).
So we get to Port Renfrew which is the southern trailhead and go through a slideshow orientation and general hazard warning session of the WCT. Let's just say the Ranger lady didn't seem to have much confidence in us finishing the trail...:) When we started there were 18 people who had been rescue/evacuated since May 1st of this year. After that good scare and purchasing a couple of maps we headed out for Bamfield, where the northern trailhead was. It was only supposed to take 3 hours.....we got horribly, horribly, lost and it ended up taking more like 5 hours. Up and down logging roads bouncing around in the brown van, and man was it hot. I'm surprized I didn't hurl, but I was sleeping most of the time. We finally got there at around 6pm to find the ranger station closed and a big "no Camping" sign on the porch which was in front of this big flat grassy area. We had no choice!! We couldn't go on the trail yet because we didn't have our park passes and our big brown van had left with Chris' brother John driving it away. We walked out to the beach with all our gear, made our dinner out there and then slept on the ranger's porch. We got up early to get our passes and head out at 9am on Monday morning.
We decided that we needed to hike extra far the first day to make up for the time we had lost on Sunday.....so that meant we hiked 25km!!!! On the first day!!!! The trail is 75km long!! I was thinking we'd go for 7 days and finish on Saturday night(originally without losing the Sunday)....ha ha ha we're insane. We did it in 4.5 days and finished at around 1pm on Friday. As for the middle bits of the trail, let's just say that it was painful, beautiful, and totally random. The pictures will do more talking, but here's some highlights.....saying the 15 decade rosary on the beach at night, swimming and sitting under tsusiat falls, going across rivers on cable cars that the boys pulled across for us, ladders upon ladders, the nice breaks at the lighthouse stations, drinking beers after the boat crossing, watching the boys spend $45 for 3 fresh crabs, eating huge and amazing hamburgers in the middle of the trail at a shack on the beach, seeing bald eagles, whales, sea lions, sea otters and lots of tidepools, listening to funny sounds we all made when falling into mud pits, and listening to Oooyip oooyip ooyip (aka coyotes on the Grizzly Man soundtrack in the van on the ride home). It was insane, I'm quite bruised, but it was so incredibly beautiful and now I can say that I've hiked one of the most difficult trails in the world. Thank you God for keeping me alive!!!
Oh yeah and on the Ferry ride back from Victoria I accepted the Youth Ministry position at St. Cecilia's parish!! I'm a YM!! I have a job!!! Oh no..this means I have to act like an adult now. Oh well, I turned 23 yesterday, I suppose it's time :) UIOGD. Going to visit the Abbey tomorrow after a driving lesson!
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