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April.24-29, 2009
Victoria .to. Port Renfrew .to. Lake Cowichan

First stop: Canadian Tire, we needed some gear to prepare ourselves for the trip. WildNed bought a roaster that sits atop the propane bottle and some pans to do the cooking in. The honorary guest bought a +7degC sleeping bag, hardly good for anything, but compact it was. He also bought an Eagle Scout 1-man tent, which was even less good for anything, but very compact is was. He officially became Eagle Scout right then and there. So, stuffed in and packed up, cruising through the wilderness, we were ready for anything.

After the first night, Eagle Scout figured out that his +7 deg sleeping bag didn’t quite work on this early season ground, especially when he didn’t bring along a mat to keep himself off the cold ground, so he was forced to the car to keep his steady schedule of zzz’s. Maybe a little too early in the year for Eagle Scout but later on in the year he’ll be set.

Our journey was to the South Western most point in Canada, Southern Vancouver Island, just to give Eagle Scout a chance, being as close as possible to the equator and all.

At one o'clock the ferry from Tsawwassen Bay departed to Swartz Bay, or Sidney, which is where we were to spend our first night. At first glance this sounds like it wouldn’t involve lots of driving, but one wrong turn and we found ourselves cruising by the Butchart Gardens and the Butterfly Gardens, finally looping around back to the Sidney to find the campground, which is only supposed to be a five minute drive off of the ferry.

This is when we got the first look at the size of Eagle Scout’s eagle scout tent, which when set up was about 6ft by 3ft, which was delicately placed on the tender moss. Unfortunately, the camp attendants (pleasant old ladies) came and told him to move his tent off the tender moss as it might effect re-growth. Poor Eagle Scout, with his tail between his legs, dragged his tent over to the hard gravel: sad and defeated.

We were off to Victoria early the next morning to check out totem poles, the Parliament buildings and the inner harbor. Midday we made a quick stop to see the Great Aunt, who was marvelous as always. Needless to say it was great to catch up with her along with the Great Uncle. They have a lovely apartment suite overlooking Oak Bay. Tea and cookies finished, we headed off to Port Renfrew, which should be noted is a very twisty and gnarly West Coast Road.

So we arrived at Port Renfrew which is known in the hiking world for its two very famous hiking trails, the West Coast Trail and the Juan de Fuca (Marine) Trail. We drove to the end of town where we found the Port Renfrew Hotel, which has a large government dock attached to it, snapped a few pictures and looked about for our last restaurant we would be eating at for a while. We got directions from an old local to the campground we were looking for, which were a little more helpful than the ‘ the campground on the Indian Reserve just passed the bridge when you take a right’ that was given to us in a guide. So, Pachee Daht Campground, we set up in the dark. It is a very nice campground; right on the beach. Our only complaint is that it’s a little windy. It turns out that we were camped right down the road from the West Coast Trail trailhead. The same local that told us where to find the campground told us that one of the locals gets hired to boat the hikers across the inlet to start the trek. It costs 100 bucks to go on and you need to have a seminar/briefing before they bring you across the river and send you on the crazy adventure.

The first day there we just chilled on the beach. We found a washed up stump and leaned all the drift wood we could find up against it to shelter us from the wind and read. The second day we headed for the Juan de Fuca Trail, which is a beautiful trail that carves in and out along the beach. The Eagle Scout said “This could be the nicest trail I have ever walked on.” I replied “That's what we do around here! It's our job.” Along the trail, Eagle Scout spotted a bald eagle perched in a tree, which we headed towards and stopped under for a second, but the eagle started squawking at us. Not wanting to mess with the creature we scurried off.

We packed up the next morning and headed half way horizontally across the island to Lake Cowichan on what used to be completely gravel road, but which is now paved for most of the way. We passed an old Sitka Spruce that was absolutely huge and had a fence around it to ward off climbing. Apparently we missed the biggest Douglas Fir in Canada that was just outside of Port Renfrew, which is even bigger than the Spruce.

When we got to Lake Cowichan we grabbed a bite to eat at a restaurant, which I might add had a better selection of than in Port Renfrew. The campground was really nice and right on Lake Cowichan. We picked a spot that was perched up about 100ft and gave us a nice perspective. We stayed there the night and hiked along the lake the next morning where we ran into the Floating Bridge Trail, and walked along the towns pride and joy: a dock of some absurd length.

This ended our journey of Southern Vancouver Island. The plan is to tour north next time, but this might take two trips. We left from Departure Bay in Nanaimo on our way back just to make sure that it was a complete loop, and we didn’t retrace our tracks. The three o'clock ferry took us to Horseshoe Bay and we were home in Burnaby by five: trip completed.