Camper Creek to Thrasher Cove
I got up around 7am. As usual, I was up before anyone else. Did my morning thing and had my breakfast. An half hour later, everyone woke up and did their morning routine.
We began to packed up quickly as we wanted to hike along the beach to Owen Point. However, from looking at the tide chart and talking to 2 ladies who had hiked from there yesterday, we needed to make it there before noon.
So at 9am, we started to head out. Since Camper River water level was low, we crossed the river instead of taking the cable car. We hiked in the forest which was quite dry with a few muddy sections. We thought it was going to rain but it was just cloudy. We did, however had sunny moments.
At about 10:30am reaching the 65-66 km mark, we were at the fork to the Beach Access A. This is where would trek along the beach to Owen Point. From our sources of information of the tide levels, it will be high tide around 1:43pm. At this point, we as a group had to decide whether to hike the forest route or take the beach access to Owen Point. Since some were not comfortable hiking along the beach because of the high tides in the afternoon and not being able to make it before then, we all then decided that it would be safer to hike along the forested trail
Shucks! We all were looking forward to Owen Point as it was one of the highlights of WCT. But we started too late and wished we left Camper at 7am as opposed to 9am.
Tip: Good start hiking out Camper would be at 6am if plan is to reach Owen Point.
As we continued to hike in the forest, we went through bridges, log bridges, boardwalk and a few were worn down and crippling, alders and ladders, hopped of large fallen logs. At some point after the Beach Access, we crossed a wooden log bridge and Karlie fell. Luckily, it was 3 feet deep and she fell on her backpack into the bushes. She wasn’t hurt, so she was lucky. Those logs are quite slippery when wet. So be careful.
We took short break at around 67 km mark and had snack. After that, we continued hiking the forest and going up and down the terrain of the forest.
At the 70 km mark at 1:40pm, we reached the fork of the trails going to Gordan River and Thrasher. So we veered to our right towards Thrasher gaining and losing elevation at the same time. It was roughly about a 1.5 km hike to Thrasher Cove.
At 2:10pm, we arrived at Thrasher Cove. The campgrounds were small and it was crouwded with other hikers who are either spending their first or last night. Luckily we found a camping spot. So, we set up our tents, hang up our clothes while the sun was still out
While others are still setting up, I started to gather rocks and logs to build our communal area. It’s kind of our thing and nice to have at every campsite as we will be spending our time together eating, drinking and bonding.
After dinner at around 4:30pm, we sat around the communal area, chatted and enjoyed the ocean views awaiting for the sunset. Josh brought our his whiskey. Lalit and Quynh had brought something special. We all got very happy because of that. I won’t go into details.
As we spent the rest of the evening enjoying the waves, sunset, and just how unreal the scenes around us is. It was timeless. I totally forgot all the stresses in life and nature sure got me relaxed.
As the sun was setting and the sky was about to darken, we turned in at around just before 9pm. Lalit and I were concerned about the high tide as we pitched our tent in an area that is quite close to the tide line which eventually we found out later before midnight, the water will come crawling underneath our tents. We were tired, so we then said “fuck it” as there is no where else to pitch the tent as it was crowded with many other hikers
Lalit and I decided it was a good idea to keep all our gear except the sleeping bag and pad on the higher log behind us just in case we had to move our tent out very quick when the tide comes in. After that, Lalit and I went into out tent and slept.
As I was trying to sleep, I kept on thinking about the tide. So I got up 10 minutes later, went out and repositioned my tent with the nose pointing towards Lalit’s tent instead of towards the ocean.
While I was trying to sleep, I tried my best to stay up til 1:43am as that is the time of the highest tide. At around 11:45pm, I heard Lalit scream my name saying that he has sea water under his tent. So I quickly unzipped my sleeping bag and tent door and saw the tide was touching the edge of my tent. The sea water was touching almost half of Lalit’s tent. I was laughing.
Two other camping neighbour’s next to Lalit’s tent, also got water underneath their tent. So I called Lalit to get out of his tent, and I moved my tent on a log. I helped Lalit moved his tent to higher ground just next to the steps towards the creek.
Then we walked towards the girls tent to make sure the tide isn’t sipping underneath their tent. They were fine, so we didn’t bother waking them up
Then we went back into our tents, repositioned it and on higher ground. Once we were in the safe zone, we then went back to sleep at 12:30am. This time, we were sure that the tides won’t reach us.
