getting there

my gear

chris entertains us with his qdobe tricks

canadian border

ferry from vancouver to victoria

the crew (from left to right): me, brandon, chris, matt, & bill

we left from tampa on july 8th at 3:00 and arrived in seattle at 9:00. i had to wear my pack with half the gear through the airport and on the plane because my suitcase was maxed out at the allowable 50 lbs. chris and i spent the 9th running around town getting last minute items. that evening we laid out all our gear. it became evident that all my gear was not going to fit into my pack, so i decided to strap my tent with sleeping pad to the outside.....and still i could barely close the top of my pack. i definitely had way more stuff than i anticipated or wanted. adding 2# of sour patch kids and 4# of liquor was not my greatest move, but both items became some of the most rewarding items i would take.

we got up at 4:30 am on the 11th and loaded our gear along with chris's neighbor, brandon, into chris's car and drove over to chris's friend bill's house. there i met bill and the 5th member of our group, bill's friend matt. we loaded into bill's suv. the official weights for everyone's packs were: brandon - 48, chris - 50, bill - 50, matt - 48, and i was at 41 (not including the extra 4# of water that we would carry the next morning). were on the road by 6:30 am and we hit the canadian border around 10 and breezed right through. we stopped at a duty-free shop and exchanged some money into canadian dollars ($100 us to $109 canadian). we drove onto the water ferry in south vancouver and took the 1.5 hour trip to victoria. once off the ferry at 1:00, we took the winding roads for a 2-hour trip to port renfrew. we got to port renfrew at 3:00....just in time for the last orientation of the day at 3:30. we sat through the 50 minute orientation where the following was mentioned:

cougars:

km 14-17 observed

km 35-46 cougar advisory...make noise if travelling alone

km 44 cougar in area warning

bears:

km 33-36 habituated black bear in area....no camping

km 38 - sow and cub in area

closed areas:

km 56 - logan creek campground closed due to landslide

sandstone creek bridge closed

they also mentioned that there are 108 bridges and 37 ladder sets that vary from 5m to 60m tall (with the tallest being 206 rungs).

after the orientation we checked into our hotel, the trailhead resort. at check-in we met brian, the captain of the water ferry that shuttles people from the end of the trail at bamfield back to port renfrew. we decided a three hour boat ride would be much better than a 3.5 hour bus ride through the winding roads. we dropped off our stuff in the hotel and went to the coastal kitchen cafe for dinner. i had some great halibut fish and chips. we then went to the convience store and grabbed some beers and headed back to the hotel. the hotel had a fire pit so we practiced our fire building skills, drank a "few" beers, and had a "light hearted" debate on obama health care.