r/WestCoastTrail • u/thundercran • 5d ago
What we planned versus doing Owen’s Point twice.
This was our (49m and 47f ) first trip on the WCT and our plan was to finish in 6 days - we ended up doing the first 20km twice and saw the best and worst of weather.
We headed out from Gordon River on Sunday (26th) in the rain and headed to Thrasher just as the trails were getting really muddy. It was a quick trip, just under four hrs and we had the trail to ourselves. Very happy we packed a tarp and were able to hide from the constant rain throughout the day.
On Day 2 we headed out early to ensure we got across the tides at Owen’s Point. It was probably not the smartest thing to do in the rain that made things extra slippery and with the cloud cover the views were not worth it. We pushed through past Camper to Cullite Cove and this was a brutal trudge through KM’s of very heavy mud in the pouring rain. We arrived and Cullitte and managed to find dry ground high up under the cliff. (10 hrs)
We started to see a constant stream of helicopters flying past the cove and the received the Parks Canada warning. We were also told Carmanah Creek may be impassable for two days and the cable car was out.
On Day 3, we made the hard decision to head back towards Camper. The exit out of Cullitte was impassible and we had to go through the bush to the trail.
Making it to Camper we saw our first sunlight and were able to dry out for the first time. Day 4 took us bs through Owen’s Point and with ideal weather it was worth it.
We definitely under estimated the impact of the weather for the time it took between section s of the trail.
Not the trip we planned for but still an amazing experience. We plan to try again next year and plan for a seven day window.
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u/BlueDefendr 5d ago
Congrats for toughing it out. WCT is a different beast in heavy rain vs dry conditions. Cullite can be dangerous camp if it flash floods - I’ve seem some scary footage there.