In July 2011, I went together with Stefan Erdmann (”Nusi”) on our second long trip together, after we had found out on the Greenland trip, that we were a very good team. This time we were going to hike the West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada, and then go to Alaska for one week. Alaska had been on my wish list for quite a long time, and I was very much looking forward to both parts of the trip.

While Nusi flew directly in to Vancouver, I started my trip in San Francisco, since I had never been to the States before, staying at the Fisherman’s Wharf hostel. I was a bit unlucky with some of the tourist attractions (Alcatraz booked out a week in advance, MoMA closed on Wednesdays…), but still had two nice days in San Francisco. From there I took an overnight Amtrak train to Seattle. After 22 hours I arrived in Seattle, where I stayed at the rather cool City Hostel. First thing I did in the morning was to take the elevator up the 500 feet high Space Needle, from whichyou have a great view over Seattle.

Right beside the Space Needle is the EMP (Experience Music Project) with different exhibitions. I spent a long time in the Nirvana exhibition which showed the development of the band and of grunge music in the Seattle region. After that I went to Pike Market to see some flying fish and enjoyed a tasty lemongrass chicken in an Asian restaurant. At 3 o’clock Friday afternoon I took a Greyhound bus to Vancouver. On the bus I met Carlos, Mannie, and Miguel, three Latinos from LA, with whom I explored Vancouver nightlife later.

Although I was out quite late, I got up early the next day to explore Vancouver. Unfortunately, it was raining all day. First I went to the Mountain Equipment Coop store in order to buy food for the West Coast Trail. The customs officer at the airport had unfortunately confiscated most of my Real Turmat dry-frozen food and soups (everything that contained meat). I also bought some new La  Sportiva mountain boots, which I didn’t need for this hike, but for later trips – they were a few bucks cheaper (or should I say: less expensive) here than in Norway. At 3.30 PM I left Vancouver towards Victoria on Vancouver Island, where I enjoyed a nice Cajun chicken sandwich at the Cactus Club Café – pretty cool place, nice waitresses… :-)

At 6 AM next morning, I took the West Coast Trail Express Bus to Port Renfrew and the trailhead at Gordon River. The West Coast Trail is a 75 km long hike in the Pacific Rim National Park on Vancouver Island.

This part of the coast is known as the graveyard of the Pacific due to the many ships that sank in this area, and the trail was built in 1907 in order to be able to save the survivors of shipwrecks. The trail goes mainly through the rain forest. Sometimes you can walk a parallel way on the beach, depending on the tide. Along the way, you have to pass countless smaller and bigger ladder constructions and a number of cable cars. At two points you have to cross a river by boat. There are no huts along the way, but several spots where you can camp – the main reason why you stay at these camping spots is that you can lock your food in bear boxes there instead of having to pull it up a tree.

You can either walk the West Coast Trail from Port Renfrew in the South to Bamfield in the North, or the other way around. Either way you need a permit for the exact day of your departure. We chose the South-North direction because the Southern part of the trail is much more challenging, and we wanted to have the hard part first.

Gordon River – Camper Bay

When I arrived at Gordon River, Nusi and twelve (!) bald eagles were already waiting for me. Nusi had arrived the day before since we couldn’t get a permit for the national park for the same day, but he had stayed at the trailhead for one night, so that we could start the hike together anyway.

After a one hour security briefing (you learn to read the tide tables and what to do if you meet a bear, a cougar or wolves), we started the hike at 11 AM. In the beginning we had to walk a lot uphill. Around 2 PM we reached Thrasher’s Cove which is the possible end of the first stage. We had decided though to walk a double stage on the first day and continued towards Camper Bay. The trail leading there became more and more muddy, and at 4 o’clock it also started raining. We reached Camper Bay at 7 where maybe a dozen other hikers had already built up the camps. Nusi built up our tent on the beach, and I got water to prepare our dinner (tonight: Hawaiian rice with chicken – the meals I bought had not the same quality as Real Turmat, they were still good after every long day of hiking). Due to the bad weather, we retreated early into our sleeping bags. In the middle of the night, our French neighbours waked us up: “Vake up – ze vater iz coming!” We had built up our tent too close to the water and the tide was just a meter away from our tent – rookie mistake!

Camper Bay – Walbran Creek

When we woke up in the morning, it was not raining any more, but everything was wet outside. We made breakfast and left as the last ones to our 9 km hike towards Walbran Creek. My shoes were still wet from the day before so that the mud and water holes could not really scare me. They hindered very effectively though any faster progress. Soon the sun came out, and around noon we stopped for lunch break at a nice, sunny beach.

Back in the forest towards the end of this stage, there were more and more boardwalks, so that we could move much faster. One of them was so crooked and unstable though that I slipped off and sank ankle-deep into the mud. Around 6 we reached the very nice camping site. After dinner I was reading when suddenly a mouse came visiting us through the open tent door. The poor thing was so scared though that it quickly ran out again.

Walbran Creek – Cribs Creek

The 11 km stage towards Cribs Creek was the first one on which we walked mainly on the beach. Since some passages are not passable at high tide, we left already at 8.15.

On the beach we progressed much faster than in the muddy forest, so we reached already at 11.30 Monique’s Hut close to the Carmanah Lighthouse where we allowed ourselves a burger and a can of beer for 23 dollars (!). Both tasted fantastic though! We quickly put the last 2 km of this stage behind us, so that we reached Cribs Creek already quite early this day. Unfortunately it started to rain again here, so that we first retreated into our tent for a little nap. Then we had to get out again for dinner, but it was so uncomfortably cold despite the camp fire, that we directly after the dessert (Nusi’s rice pudding with cherries – yum yum!) went back into the tent to read and then sleep early.

Cribs Creek – Tsusiat Falls

Today’s stage was the longest one with 17 km, but it was also the second and last one with lunch à la carte. We first walked along the beach in misty weather, then continued into the forest, over the Cheewhat River, and into the Clo-oose Indians’ reservation. At Nitinat Narrows we had to take a boat to the other side. Before though, the second culinary highlight of the trail was waiting for us: the Crab Shack! We ate lunch together with Sean & Andrea from Vancouver and the two guys from Celle in Germany, with whom we had spent a lot of time during the last days. Sean & Andrea had crabs, which an Indian girl took directly out of the water and prepared for them. Nusi and I had delicious grilled salmon and a can of beer – price: 32 bucks! We reached the Hole in the Wall (a point on the beach which is only passable at low tide) too late, so that we had to walk through the forest again for the last kilometers. In the Tsusiat Falls, I enjoyed (…) the first shower this week.

Tsusiat Falls – Michigan Creek

At Tsusiat Falls we started the day with a wonderful breakfast in the sun. Since today’s stage was not long, Nusi and I took our time and left first at 11 o’clock. This stage led us first through the forest and then with the last cable car on the trail over a wide river before continuing on the beach for the last kilometers. We had originally planned to walk to Darling River, 11 km away. Since this camping site was deserted though, we decided to wade through the river and continue for 2 more kilometers to Michigan Creek, where we met Sean and Andrea. The guys from Celle had apparently marched through to Bamfield this day. From our camping site we could watch some grey whales with our binoculars.

Arrival in Bamfield

The last 12 km of the trail were a walk in the park. We left at quarter past seven and arrived at the trailhead at 11 AM. From there we took a taxi to Bamfield where we enjoyed fish and chips together with Sean and Andrea. The bus ride to Nanaimo was a bit bumpy, but the ferry passage back to Vancouver was very nice. At 8.30 we arrived at the Downtown Hostel in Vancouver, where we started a washing machine and enjoyed a long warm shower. For dinner we had a nice burger at Vera’s Burger Shack in Davie Street, and after dinner we explored the Vancouver nightlife on Granville Street again – first in Granville Room, a hip house bar, and then in Joe’s Apartment, where a pretty cool rock band played cover songs.

Flight to Anchorage

The remaining half day in Vancouver was terrific. I enjoyed a sunny lunch with Panini and salad down by the water at the end of Davie Street. At 3.30 we took a bus to Seattle and had a great view towards Mt. Rainier the whole time. Due to an unnecessarily long control at the US border, we almost missed our flight to Alaska, but made it in the end with a small margin. Shortly after 11 PM we landed in Anchorage, picked up our rental car, and after a short lap of honour back to the airport we checked in at our hostel. The next day we had a fantastic breakfast at the Downtown café and diner, took a little sightseeing walk downtown, and left towards Denali National Park at 2 PM. We stayed the night in a quite affordable cabin in Carlo’s Creek, just south of the national park entrance.

Denali National Park

We got up early the next day to purchase our bus ticket for the national park, and then went back to our cabin to eat breakfast. When I tried to order a hot chocolate, the waiter (stoned?) replied: “Sorry, we don’t have hot chocolate, but I could make you an Irish coffee?!” Shortly after, we started the bus ride into the national park – still sober. There we saw first two hawks, a number of caribou, and finally from a distance also a grizzly.

The Denali – or Mt. McKinley – was unfortunately hidden behind the clouds all day.

After five hours we got off the bus at Wonder Lake, where we took a 2 hours’ walk to McKinley River, and then built up our tent on an idyllic camping site. At 6.15 the next day we took the first bus back to the park entrance. Today we should be luckier with the animals. First we saw a ptarmigan, the Alaskan state bird, and again a lot of caribou. Then we saw in total four grizzlies – three of them very close – and a number of dall sheep.

Satisfied we came back to the park entrance and continued our trip towards Fairbanks, stopping for a short lunch break in Nenana, which is both the home of the legendary Nenana Ice Classic, and the reason why Nusi and I were haunted by this Vaya Con Dios song for the rest of the day (Ha – I guess now you’re too!). Before checking into our Fairbanks hostel, we enjoyed a relaxing bath in Chena Hot Springs, where we saw a huge cow moose on our way. Fairbanks itself is a one-horse town, not worth a six hours’ drive really.

Valdez

My last destination on this Alaska trip before returning to Anchorage was Valdez. Our trip was interrupted twice – first by a cow moose which trotted right along the road with her calf, and then by a state trooper who caught Nusi driving 70 MPH in a 55 MPH area. The officer had a good day though and gave us a warning only. After a short break at the Worthington Glacier, we reached Valdez in the early evening. We bought dinner in a supermarket and had originally planned to enjoy it in the park, but were then warned by a couple in an SUV that there was a black bear which had just disappeared into the bushes. Master Bruin came pretty quickly out of the bushes again, too, and made a very curious impression on us so that we spontaneously decided to enjoy dinner in the B&B after all.

On a very sunny morning the next day, we first visited the Fish Hatchery, where oodles of salmon try to swim up a fish pass to hatch. Then I went on board of a sightseeing boat to the big Columbia Glacier. On our way there we saw first a group of cute sea otters which lay on their backs in the water. A few bald eagles showed themselves soon, too. And a humpback whale emerged, but he was too shy for our cameras and disappeared again so that we continued our trip towards the glacier. Normally you can’t get any further than the submarine end moraine approximately 11 miles away from the glacier, because the icebergs pile up here and make it impossible to continue. We were very lucky though and could pass the end moraine and get very close to the glacier (only 2 miles away). On our way back we also saw a bunch of lazy sea lions and a lot of puffins.

This day was for me the highlight of the trip to Alaska, which is so big that you can only see a fraction of it on a one week trip, but I definitely acquired a taste for more – and Denali is still there…