We had recently decided to reacquaint ourselves with backpacking and equipped ourselves with new gear in anticipation of our upcoming voyage to New Zealand. We'd toyed with the idea of doing the famous Pacific Coast Trail, along the west shore of Vancouver Island, as a gear shakedown, but, because it's so famous, it's very busy and requires pre-booking of a hiking slot meaning you have to stick to a schedule, not our idea of a wilderness experience at all. In contrast, the Sunshine Coast Trail was relatively unknown, uncrowded, free and sounded more like it. So, when we found ourselves homeless after selling our camper van too quickly we thought a visit would be just the thing to use up some of the time before our departure date.
The Trail is 180 kilometres in length and is billed as Canada's longest hut-to-hut hiking trail. It was recently listed in Explore magazine as one of the fifty best hikes in the world. We didn't have the time, or more likely the stamina, to do the whole thing in one go. We decided on a 50 kilometre loop from Sarah Point to Powell River. This is advertised as a three day loop. We decided to stretch it out, take our time and doubled that estimate to take a week.
We took a water taxi from Lund to get to the start point and gradually worked our way through all the ups and downs (which can be as hard as the ups) of the trail. We found it a hard go in places, especially where there was sharp and crumbly rock on the trail, just waiting to twist your ankle. The trail was exceptionally well-marked and maintained, all done by volunteers. It was impossible to get lost.
We were lucky and only had one afternoon of rain in the entire week, but, it did bucket down almost every night. The sleeping bags and tent got damp and stayed that way. This was our first time camping in a rain forest and we found it not pleasant, it was like sleeping in a wet, green, sponge.
The drier and higher rock bluffs at the upper elevations did provide better camping and spectacular views in places. There were a couple of small lakes and ponds along the way which were supposed to have good swimming, but, the silty, mucky bottoms and snakes spotted in the water turned us off. We found ourselves missing the thousands of lakes in Ontario with their dark, clear water and smooth rock bottoms. We only saw three other hikers all week. The only wildlife we saw was a group of three young otters and the aforementioned snakes. One night, at dusk, there was an awfully loud crash which we attributed to a bear which must have tried to get at our food bag (hanging high up between trees) by standing on a huge, rotten log which broke off and crashed to the ground. Luckily, it didn't crash on the tent and also lucky the bear must have had a good scare because he didn't come back! Ironically, when we got back to 'civilization' G was making an early morning coffee run to Tim's when he had a close-up encounter with a huge bear nonchalantly strolling down the sidewalk in Powell River. This time of year, bears are a real problem there. Unfortunately 38 had to be destroyed last fall. They get into the garbage, compost and fruit trees.
The last time we did a backpacking trip it was so long ago that the only outfitter available was Canadian Tire, so, you can imagine what the gear was like: huge tubular aluminum backpacks, hiking boots of heavy leather with steel supports, tents and sleeping bags that were enormous and weighed a ton. We thought that all the new gear available now would help to make the experience a lot more enjoyable and we were right. We relied heavily on the recommendations on http://www.outdoorgearlab.com/ and found their assessments and ratings to be very helpful in our choices.
1. Trekking poles - We'd seen people with these and thought they were an affectation, but, do they ever make a difference to your stride and confidence level, a must-have item.
2. Tent - We chose the Swedish Hilleberg Anjan 2. It's not available in Canada, but, was worth the effort to import it from the US. It weighs just 58 ounces and is a breeze to erect.
3. Sleeping Pads - The item that made the most difference to our comfort was our choice of sleeping pad. We went with the crazy expensive Therm-A-Rest NeoAir XLite and it was worth every penny. It is light (340g), doesn't bottom out, doesn't deflate during the night and keeps you warm, dry and comfortable. It also rolls up into a tiny bag. We added a couple of ultralight inflatable pillows which added to the comfort level.
4. Backpacks - Osprey Aura AG 50 for A, Osprey Atmos AG 65 for G. We were able to pack enough food and gear for a week's trip in these.
5. Chairs - There's nothing worse than trying to get comfortable in camp when you might only have a wet rock, or, log to sit on. These Helinox Ground Chairs, available at MEC http://www.mec.ca are an incredible design, they fold up into a tiny bag that weighs just 640g, provide great back support, allow you to stretch out your legs and are very comfortable.
6. Camp Stove - MSR Pocket Rocket. Inexpensive, small and light enough to carry two, we also had these on our sailboat for backup cooking facilities.
7. Sleeping Bags - Although new and lighter sleeping bags were enticing, we decided to keep our old Kluane Mountaineering down sleeping bags that we mail ordered from Edmonton around 1981. They cost a fortune back then, but, have proved their worth over the years. They don't leak down and still keep us warm, so why change. Out of curiosity, I just checked and Kluane Mountaineering is still in business http://kluane.ca/
Now that we are so well-equipped it opens up a lot of free backpacking and backcountry camping opportunities that may hopefully balance out the cost of all the great new kit. We've already spent more than a month living in the new tent which is certainly cheaper than a hotel.
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