It is a second stunning day of clear and sunny skies. In another direction, the day starts well. Martin has been concerned as his contract position at the UN had terminated on Sept 3 but he was on the short list for two other positions. He had seen his e-mail that one of these requires him to take a test this week and the other was requesting an interview. Neither of these is logistically possible. This morning he hears that he has gotten a position with the Human Rights Commission without taking a test.
We repack with the food from the drop and depart at 8 am up a steep climb with ladders. We continue to see whales along the coast as we walk. After a short hike, our first stop is Carmanah Lighthouse. The manned lighthouses are being phased out, as they are quite expensive. They are stocked by helicopter once a month; children are home-schooled; fuel is brought in by tanker. At this lighthouse, there is a skeleton of a whale, a sea lion skull and a labyrinth from small bushes.
We descend a steep staircase back to the shore. We are now hiking along tidal shelf with tidal pools with brilliant green sea anemones, sea urchin shells, limpets, and red sponge-like lichen. The shore changes to sand and then again to a remarkable hard sandstone rock with swirls and ridges carved into it by the sea. Then we are back to tidal shelf and then hard sand pack to Cribs Creek at 9:30. This would have been our destination the previous day if the food drop had been there when we arrived.
We continue to see whales as we walk along the coast and we pass by islands occupied by sea lions. An eagle soars by overhead.
After a 20-minute break at Cribs, we are off again along the constantly changing shore; hard grey-black rock shaped into swirls and channels, beach, tidal shelf and then a great sweep of hard sand beach against which the waves crash In the tidal pools, we find in addition purple-red sea stars and urchins with purple spikes.
At a point, the shore is impassable and we turn sharply inland up a steep ladder and then along a forest path before descending back to a hard pack beach. There was an alternate way down belaying a 20-foot cliff on a rope and we debate the merits and possibilities of that alternative. At the end of the beach, we turn inland and stop to get water and a large snack of PB, jam, nutella, cream cheese on wafer bread.
The trail follows the coastal highlands, then veers inland past a beaver lake before we reach Nitatak Narrows at about 2:00 pm. There is a restaurant on the Indian (First Nations) Reservation at the narrows that serves crab, salmon and halibut. The halibut has been recommended by a couple of hikers going the other way but I find it dry and overcooked. It is a generous portion of fish with a huge potato and I share with Marlene.
We cross the Narrows on a boat. The trail goes steeply up and then along the coastal highlands beside the ocean. We pass wonderful isolated coves with sandy beaches that seem largely inaccessible from the trail. It is a relatively easy path that goes briefly back to the shore in IR2 where we cross a creek. Our camp spot for the night has no water so we need to completely fill up here. Unfortunately, the filters are working very slowly – later Philipp concludes that they have fouled with slightly salt tidal water – and it takes 50 minutes to finish retanking by which time, we have all cooled off. By 5:45 pm, we are off again past the fixed luxury camping tents in IR2 (we had reached consensus not to stop there) to our unofficial camp spot at km 29. [Unofficial means no outhouse; another opportunity to perfect our water dump skills.]
It is a long flat beach against which modest waves are crashing. Martin and I decide to swim. This proves a mistake as the undertow is quite strong and we struggle out after 30 seconds and a couple of waves.
Dinner was elbow macaroni and cheese with ham, tuna and corn. We had Toblerone chocolate by the fire.
The hiking has been superb during a beautiful sunny day. The extra piece from Monique’s to Cribs and the slow water stop have lengthened our trail time. The next morning is a late start. Joy, Marlene and I see the campfire to its end and go to bed at 10 to the sound of the surf thundering.