The North Coast Trail is a rugged 45 km trail at the northernmost tip of Vancouver Island . It was only recently opened in May 2008, and thus is relatively untraveled. I decided to join a group of running enthusiasts (or masochists, whichever you prefer) to run the whole length of the trail in one day. This feat was part of the Spine Relay, an event organized by Andrew Pape-Salmon and Gil Parker, which was intended to raise awareness about the plan to build a trail that runs along the entire island, from Cape Scott in the North to Victoria Vancouver Island from point to point.
The first section of the trail was fantastic – double-track and without a pebble to step over. However, not 500 meters into the trail, we turned a corner and were treated to our first muddy section – one of many to come. We knew that the trail was going to be somewhat muddy, especially as the month leading up to this event, it had rained buckets down on the
Shane would leap easily across, and then wait as I eyed the mud. He would call out ‘just go for it, the worst that will happen is that you’ll get your feet muddy.’ I could tell he was getting impatient, but new to the terrain, it took me a bit to get used to it, and my mind saw the mud-pit as something much more treacherous than simply mud – stalling my actions. Unfortunately, I was not successful in staying mud-free, and both feet slipped into the mud at different points, getting completely submerged.
This first section of Cape Scott Trail
The trail was relatively technical – littered with fallen logs that necessitated climbing over, numerous mud pits, and rocks and roots to step over. Luckily, after our first slow hour, we began to move at a much faster pace, and soon were covering 4-5 kms/ hour. Towards the end, I really wanted to get there, as my shoulders ached. To try and stay ‘light’ Shane and I had packed all of our gear into day-packs. However, these packs were not intended to haul this much weight for this long, and my shoulders soon began to feel it. It was definitely a good incentive to keep moving!
The last section of this trail descended along a creek – and the trail essentially was the creek, which made it almost impossible to avoid getting your feet wet. Then, after 4 hours and 10 minutes, we made it to the beach. It was a beautiful sandy beach, and the rest of the hikers, having arrived earlier that day, were already resting and enjoying the warm rays from the sun.
Shane, and I quickly set up our tent, and set about the serious business of eating, starving and ready to nourish our bodies. A number of people had hiked to Nissen Bight, and would be hiking back to the parking lot the following day, and some of them had volunteered to be our porters (much appreciated, as this was essential to enabling us to run the trail). As the intent of the run along the North Coast Trail was to do it in one day – this meant going light and only bringing the essentials for the day. So, we needed others to carry out our sleeping bags, tent, day-packs and extra clothes.
Shane and I went to bed early, trying to get as much sleep as possible before our early rise the next day. Sunday morning came all too soon. We quickly ate, packed up and were off by 7:10 am – with initial thoughts of completing the trail in about 10 hours. Along with Shane and myself, Andrew Pape-Salmon and Jenny Taylor set off on this adventure.
We started off on the beach, and after about 1 km, we turned onto our first inland trail section. After yesterday’s hike, I expected that we’d be in for much of the same. However, the North Coast Trail sections turned out to be even more technical than the trail to Nissen Bight. There were lots of twists and turns, muddy spots galore, rocks and roots everywhere and the occasional log to climb over. So, we were constantly stepping over things and jumping from one side of the trail to the other to avoid the mud. It really interrupted the flow, as you constantly had to slow down and change up your gait to make it over and around the obstacles. Although this section was difficult, it would have been possible to do a slow jog along it. However, we reduced to a hike – partially hoping that the next sections wouldn’t be quite as difficult, and we’d be able to make up some time. This first section ended up being a perfect example of what we’d encounter throughout the day – sections that took longer than expected (we thought it was only a few kms, but it took us over 1.5 hours to complete), lots of mud and lots of technical terrain.
There were luckily a few boardwalks that had been built along the trail, over the bogs and really wet sections. Without these, it would have been a much more unpleasant hike, and much, much slower.
The rest of the day was filled with long beaches (the longest stretching was close to 10 km), and slow inland sections. Both sections were difficult. Most of the beaches were difficult to run on, with various sized rocks, some of which were slick with seaweed, and some of the beaches were on angles – all of which made the running very energy sucking, as your feet slid or got sucked into the ground. The inland sections did not get any easier – but continued to challenge us. There were definitely no ‘easy’ sections, and the only truly runnable parts were the boardwalks. I’m not sure which section was more difficult – but after some time on the beach I was wishing for the trail and vice-versa. Also, unbeknownst to us, Jenny was dealing with some injuries that restricted her ability to run, and instead she either shuffled or power-hiked. As a result, we ended up slowing down our pace somewhat and waited for her at a few points. However, to her credit, she did keep a steady pace and I didn’t see her stop many times along the route.
Up until about the 9 hour mark, I was feeling pretty good. I enjoyed running the beach sections (despite the hard work) and was enjoying the views along the trail. Then, my energy got zapped. By this point, I’d been mainly eating bars all day, and was getting sick of them, so I stopped consuming enough energy. All of a sudden, I was moving at a snail’s pace and everyone had gotten ahead of me. I knew that I had to stop and eat something, but my head told me to keep going. Finally I met up with the rest of the group, and Shane realized immediately my condition and told me to eat something. Within only 10 minutes I was feeling loads better and back to my normal self. This was a good lesson for me, as I learned that on long ventures I need to take real food with me. Bars only last me for so long, but after awhile my body craves food that’s not packaged in a wrapper. From now on, I will do like Andrew, who brought hearty rye bread sandwiches with cheese and PB.
The day wore on, the 10 hour mark came and went and then finally we hit the final inland section. The maps stated that this section was 8 kilometres – so we figured we had about 2 hours or so left. We stepped on the trail, happy that the finish was nearing. This last section was the same as all of the others, except that it had much more elevation. The rest of the trail had been relatively flat – but on this part we encountered many hills, as we steadily climbed up. Two hours passed and went and the end was nowhere in sight. We just kept on encountering hill after hill after hill.
I was tired and just wanted the trail to end. My legs ached with each obstacle I climbed over and with each hill we climbed. The long day was beginning to take its toll on me and I was ready for the finish. For the last couple hours, to keep me moving faster, Shane took my pack –lightening my load.
Finally after more than 14 hours on the trail, the end was in sight. We finally had a glimpse of the ocean and could hear the water taxi gurgling in the distance. I got quite excited and started to pick up the pace a bit. However, the very final section of the trail was downhill and pretty steep- so this limited my speed. It would be a gruelling start with a full pack, and I was happy that we only had to descend it. The final so-called 8 km section took us 3.5 hours to complete. Although we hiked most of it -- we were not going super slow, so I'm pretty certain that this section was at least 10 km, and most likely closer to 12 km. But, at this point, all I cared about was getting my bum on a seat and getting off of my feet. Tired and sore, I was ecstatic to reach our final destination. After a short boat ride to Port Hardy, we were treated to pizza and salad – thank god for real food.
Completing the trail definitely felt like an accomplishment, and I am happy that I joined the venture. However, the trail was much more challenging than I expected, and it’s not a great trail for running; the beach sections suck your energy and the inland trail is rather technical, so it’s difficult to get a nice rhythm going. But for those who like a challenge – it’ll definitely give you that!
Calories consumed: ~3000 during the hike + breakfast
Lara bars, homemade granola and fruit/nut bars, fruit bars, PB+J sandwich, VEL bar, seed+nut bars, organic grain and fruit bar. 
