INTRODUCTION
West Coast Trail often referred to as WCT in its short form, is located on the western coast of Vancouver Island in the Pacific Rim National Park between Bamfield and Port Renfrew. WCT’s astonishing landscape is a 75km hike along the west coast consisting of rugged and forested terrain, and sandy and pebbled beaches.
I’ve been fantasizing about doing the multi day backpacking hike along the WCT coast ever since year 2019; a time when I was searching for new adventures outside of the Lower Mainland of BC. WCT was then on my bucket list and was on my mind quite often.
Initially, I was planning to do it in May 2020 but Parks Canada cancelled all reservations due to Covid 19. I tried to rebook it for years 2021 and 2022 but without any success as within the first few minutes when Parks Canada reservation system opened, all the dates have already been taken. Guess I wasn’t fast enough.
Fortunately, in March of 2023 when the reservation system opened again for the hiking season, I was able to get 6 spots for our group and reserved from June 12th to 18th. What a sigh of relieve!
Once we had secured our WCT permits, the planning and preparation process began.