West Coast Walking!

It has been a while since we last updated you! Let’s start where Heather left off with our last two days in the US. Our last two days were spent at Olympic National Park in northwestern Washington. Like all of the other National Parks we have visited along this trip, this one was beautiful. We ended up doing an amazing day hike with amazing views of the Olympic mountain range. It was a great way to conclude our National Park hiking. We also ended up going into Port Angeles so that I could skype my entire family who had all converged in Windsor, N.S. for a family reunion of sorts (minus me and Heather). The next morning we were up early in order to catch the ferry over to Victoria. We were both pretty excited to get back to Canada where we could turn our cell phones on and where they use the metric system.



We ended up spending a few hours in Victoria in order to take care of a few errands. Most importantly among these was a MEC run in order to purchase a few last necessary items for our upcoming hike of the West Coast Trail (WCT). That night we ended up camping in Juan de Fuca Provinical Park at the China Beach campground. From there it was a quick drive to the small town of Port Renfrew, which is where you gain access to the south entry point onto the WCT. Our day in Port Renfrew was spent organizing our packs for the hike and stuffing our faces with food at one of the local restaurants there. We stayed in a “hiker hut” at the Trailhead Resort. It was nothing special but it allowed us to sprawl all of our gear everywhere in order to get organized.

We left at about 8am and drove to the trailhead. We ended up parking our car in one of the local’s front yard that lived right across the trailhead. It was a little sketchy but there was a brand new Audi in the same lot so we figured if they felt okay leaving their car there than the ol’ Silver Bullet would be okay too. At 8:30 we took a short boat right to the start of the trail and we were off! The first 5km of the trail (from the end we started from) are by far the hardest with the most arduous terrain to cover. The first campsite called Thrasher’s Cove is placed conveniently at the end of this 5km. It took us just over 3 hours to reach it but since we started so early in the day we decided to push through another 8km to Camper’s Bay. We didn’t end up getting into our campsite until about 5pm. It was great, albeit long start to our hike! The first day would end up being by far the hardest.



We ended up hiking with some impressive people. One couple, Sarah & Craig were a pair of PhD’s who were both endurance athletes. Sarah had done multiple Ironman’s and Craig was a competitive cyclist. Another couple were both “Crossfit” personal trainers. Rounding out our group of hikers was a Cardiologist from Israel, and a young Austrian girl who had been traveling solo in Canada for months.

The 2nd day was my 25th birthday! Heather was nice enough to sneak a birthday card, and a piece of chocolate cake into her pack to mark the occasion. We also carried two cans of beer to share as well. It was a pretty nice place to spend a birthday!
On the third day we passed “Chez Monique’s,” a burger/fish restaurant smack dab in the middle of the trail. The owner told us, that over 25 years ago they had moved there to her husband’s native land. They had noticed hikers going by but had thought nothing of it until “she cracked opened a coke” and the hiker’s came flocking. So they decided to open a restaurant to take advantage of all of the deprived hikers coming through. Needless to say, we capitalized and each got a big juicy burger and I even got reacquainted with my long lost friend Mr. Alexander Keith’s.



So we can look back and remember where we stayed here is the list of the campsites we ended up staying in (not that this will mean anything to you unless you have hiked the trail before): Camper’s, Walbran Creek, Cribb’s Creek, Tsusiat, and Michigan. From Michigan it was a quick 12km hike to the end. Overall it was an amazing week. Each day we got to do an amazing hike, and then end up on a campsite right on the ocean. There is something about the sound of crashing waves that makes me love life that extra bit. I would go back and do the hike again in an instant.



The day we finished we ended up going to Port Alberni for a night in a motel in order to have a shot shower. The next day, after a quick pitstop in Parskville to visit our friend from med school Paxton, it was off to Tofino for 3 days. Our time in Tofino will mark the end of our trip together. We are going surfing this afternoon and then we will have a blazing campfire to commemorate our trip. Tomorrow Heather leaves with her parents and best friend Leslie to go on a sea kayaking trip and I will go to Vancouver to hang out my friend Pat Enright. We will reunite in a week to attend Pat’s wedding and then we will start the trip home to Kingston with a couple day layover in Calgary.

Well friends, this is it! It has been one hell of a trip. It’s surreal how much Heather and I have seen and done. This trip has provided experiences and memories I will cherish forever. Thanks for reading! As always, we miss you all and hope everything is going great!
Love,

Matt and Heather

Perusing the Pacific Northwest

Hellloooo friends!

Well it's that time again - time to fill you in on all the hip-happenings of our adventure. When we left off last we were leaving San Fran for the trees of the redwood forest. We ended up camping in a state park that housed 75 of the worlds tallest 100 trees! (While we didn't actually see any of those special big guys we did see a LOT of large trees - very cool!) We had originally planned to stay two nights but after reevaluating our calendar it was pretty clear we were running out of days! Time to put the pedal to the metal and kiss California goodbye. Next up? Crater Lake National Park in southern Oregon which was BEAUTIFUL! North America's deepest lake is at the mouth of a once was volcano that erupted and imploded on itself. We spent the afternoon reading on a patio with amazing views of lake before going back to our nice remote campsite and making dinner. The following day we had a lazy morning and then set off to climb Mount Scott the highest peak in the park. It was a relatively short hike but it provided amazing views of the lake and surrounding area. Crater lake NP receives an insane amount of snow a year (FORTY-EIGHT FEET!) and a LOT of it was still around. The first half of our hike was in snow and we were having flashbacks of Mt Meeker but it eased out and was very enjoyable!



The following day we left for slopes of Mt Hood. We drove from Crater Lake to the Newberry National Volcanic Monument which is a neat little area that has a lava flow walk and views from a lava butte (a big 500 foot cone of lava). We explored the ins and outs of volcano explosions for an hour or two and then headed into Bend to run some errands. From there we continued on to Mt Hood State Park and secured a cute little campsite on the shores of Timothy Lake with great views of the famed volcano. The next day it was off to drive along the Columbia River Gorge headed towards the city lights of Portland. I LOVE PORTLAND! (Just had to make that clear IMMEDIATELY!). I doubt I would ever live in the States but if I did I would ONE HUNDRED percent move to Portland. IT WAS SO NICE! Perhaps my favourite thing about Portland was the FOOD. Portland is FULL of food carts which congregate in pods all over the city. They serve EVERY kind of ethnic food you can imagine - so delicious and SO cheap. I really couldn't contain myself. I ordered Pad Thai from one cart but than went by another one that specialized JUST in dumplings and I had to order from there too.



I was dying from overeating but SOOOOOOOOOO satisfied! YUM! We also hit up the world's largest independent bookstore and spent hours browsing through the immense selection. I eventually got a book about a local Portland ER doc who works as a ski patroller and search and rescuer on the side (aka my dream life). From there we toured around the downtown neighborhoods and strolled along the water front. EVERYTHING was so clean and nice. We went out for a delish dinner at Deschutes Brewery, one of the hundreds of local breweries in and around Portland, to top the evening off. All in all a great day!

From there we left Oregon behind and headed to Mt Rainier National Park! Again it was spectacular. Mt Rainier is BEAUTIFUL and sits relatively alone all impressive and looming-like. We secured a campsite and then went for a hike up the slope of the bottom of the mountain. Its the same route that the people who actually are going to summit take and I couldn't help but be jealous. Being so close to such a big mountain made us really want to go to the top! Again, Mt Rainier receives an insane amount of snow yearly and it wasn't even close to being melted. Our hike was entirely over snow and we were impressed to see people carrying their downhill skis up the slope and skiing down. Very cool!



The next day we hiked up a pretty trail to Lake George at the base of a mountain called Mt Wow (for real). It was a pretty hike and we thoroughly enjoyed it! We spent the afternoon playing scrabble and reading on a patio in the sun. It's a tough life really. That concluded our time in the national park and we headed out on our drive to Seattle! We got here yesterday and checked in to our hotel early before heading out into the city to explore. We hit up a GREAT restaurant for lunch with amazing sandwiches (my fig, goat cheese and proschuitto sandwich was to die for) and the strolled around downtown before hitting up Pike Place Market. We ate baked goods, saw the ORIGINAL Starbucks, window shopped to our hearts content and then grabbed some beer at the Pike Place Brewery.



We finished the evening off by going out for another amazing dinner at the Steelhead Diner right in the market with great views of the ocean and neighboring Olympic mountains. Today we are going to visit a couple other neighborhoods that we've heard good things about and then probably head back to Pike Place Market because it was so great the first time round. This might be our last post for a while I think. We only have two more days in the States before we head to Vancouver Island. We start the West Coast Trail on the 10th but I doubt we'll have time to update you before then! Miss and love you allll!

xoxox
Heather and Matt