Now the last days past by really fast and my last big trip was really gorgeous! Before I get into the details, first some words to the area it is located in.

The West Coast of Canada can be really rough, you have the high coastal mountains which stop most of the rain clouds coming from the west and creating so a long corridor for a rainforest. Large rocks and cliffs have been created by volcanic action millions of years ago. On most of the coastline there are no island in front of the mainland or Vancouver Island, so all the rough waves from the pacific will splash on the coast, especially nearby the Vancouver Island. In the winter time it can be really stormy and dangerous, many ships were defeated by the nature and so the name graveyard of the pacific was born. In fact there were so many survivor, the government was forced to help them out. So they put there some lighthouses, shelters with food and improved the trail many survivors have already created. Later technology ensured the save travel of the ships and the trail became abundant.
Nowadays that trail is again in use, 60 hikers are every day allowed to be there. It is a 70km journey along the coast on beaches or through the forest and is called "West Coast Trail". It is rated as the greatest hiking trail in Canada, so lets see, what we will get!

I decided to start the trail from the north end, so I took an express bus to Bamfield. It was a quite long ride over gravel roads, longer then usual (a part of the road was closed due to a bushfire, so we need to go around it). A gravel road, that doesn't sound to bad, but the understanding of what is still a road here in Canada is slightly different then in Germany. This one for example had big boulders, stones and rocks larger then watermelons sticking out of the ground and the bus driver didn't hesitate to drive his usual 80-90 km/h. After scaring a black bear from the road we finally arrived at the north trail head. After a quick orientation presentation I had nothing else to do then waiting for the next day. Time to study the map and have a look around the campground in a really nice bay.

On the next day my seven day hiking journey began, I started walking over bridges, wooden walkways and muddy trails. Sometimes there were pretty high ladders to climb as well, not the easiest job with a 30kg backpack. Good to know that I started at the easy section and on the last two days, when I will have a lighter backpack (less food to carry) I need to conquer the harder sections. The trails followed more or less the coast, in the first hours to far away to see anything of it. Later I got some viewpoints to look over at the wild coast line of the west coast. Early in the afternoon I arrived at the beach and could see areas designated for camping. Washed ashore buoys where hanged on the trees and shelters where build up from driftwood. It was really nice to see these primitive man made things, could have been build up from real sea survivors. This and nearly every other afternoon I had a lot of time to relax and watch the whales swimming by. I really didn't expect to see so many of them, mostly just two whales, but they were visible for hours.
On the next day I could see an old donkey engine (probably used for logging), an anchor and a nice suspension bridge on my trail. The next campground was near a water fall and so a little bit overcrowded (But it feels wrong to call that dribble a waterfall). I enjoyed again hours of watching the beach, the waves and whales, the nice sunset and a talk with another hiker from the first day. In the night I could do some star pictures, again a nice feeling to be up in the darkness.
On the third day there was a ferry crossing operated by natives. And for starving hikers they offered well overpriced hamburgers in a little shelter made out of plastic foil and wood. It remembered me on movies or games about Asia with similar shacks. After a long walk on beaches I arrived on my campground behind a nice rock ledge. Waves splashing over the edge, sea lions where stalked by an orca and again a pretty sunset while monitoring an eagle and talking to the one hiker. She had to much stuff in her backpack and so she gave me a hot chocolate and a chocolate bar to save weight! That was a pretty good idea, I offered her to help her out more often But this was our last night together, she wanted to finish the trail in six days and not in seven like me.
My journey took me further south on the coast, I had again a good view on the sea lions and the stalking orca. Later I past by a lighthouse where they were whale, bear and cougar bones on exhibition. One is usually not able to see the head of these animals to close up, so it was impressive to see their actual size. My next campground was in a little bay, protected from the wind and noise of the waves in the night, but with a really bad water source. Sea gulls where washing themselves in the river and so I was really happy to get water from someones filter. In the evening I saw a kingfisher, a pretty little bird who dives for small fish in shallow waters. I couldn't get a close up picture, but I saw him diving once, what was great! During the night I heard again a mouse nearby my tent, the mouse was jumping up the tent wall trying to find an opening. Later the mouse found a way on top of my tent, crazy little monster! We hikers came to the conclusion that the bear boxes for storing your food are only there because of the mice … but it would have sound pretty odd to name them mouse boxed, so they gave the way more scary name bear boxes
In the morning I was a little bit mad because a really “proud” German hunter showed off with his black bear kill somewhere in Canada. But as there was nothing I could do against it, si I continued hiking. It was the last day on the beach, the rest of the trail lead me only through forest (except for the campgrounds). Some boring parts past by and some really nice ones with lots of roots, bridges out of a single log or overgrown ones. Quite often you could see wooden walkway in a really bad shape, you paid more attention not to fall off them then anything else.
The last two days were supposed to be the hardest and indeed, there were more ladders and roots to climb over. But as I had a lot of hikes and bike rides in my summer I had not to many struggles. It was the last time on the open ocean, from now on I was in the long bay of Port Renfrew. So the water was really calm here, but still, there were at least two ships which somehow managed to sink in that area. For the last time of my Canada trip I build up my tent and read a book. I noticed it started to become cooler during the nights, not only my trip is over, summer as well!
On the last day I got up really early to not miss the ferry in the end of the day. The park ranger told us to plan 4-5 hours for the last section, but even with going really slowly and taking some pictures of another donkey engine I managed to be at the ferry after 2,5 hours. That was the first time I could see again some smoke from the bush fires, it will be gone later (probably due to the wind, to fire will still be going for some days). Juhu, that was the West Coast Trail, I made it. Seven days of hiking with a pretty heavy backpack over roots, rocks, ladders and walkways, camped on the beach, used cable cars and enjoyed really gorgeous views over the coastline. To be honest, it was probably the nicest part of nature I saw in Canada.

My aunt picked me up and I spend now the rest of my time with her. I am sitting now here with a good view on the waves out of her cottage, we have enjoyed some self-made smores on a campfire during the sunset and talked a lot. Now it is time to go back to Germany, time to continue my life there! After my third attempt my backpack is packed without overrunning the weight limit and I am ready to leave. Crazy how time runs … but I must say, I had a really good time and saw a lot of Canada.