IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF HORROR

CANADA’S MOST REVERED BACKPACKING TRAIL WAS BORN OUT OF A GHASTLY MISFORTUNE

- SCOTT YORKO

An old timer with a scruffy white beard under a Royal Canadian Navy hat stood in the back of the line with a toothpick protruding from the grin on his face. He watched our group of four backpackers buying last-minute candy bars at the Pacheedaht Campground office in Port Renfrew, British Columbia, on the southwest end of Vancouver Island. Indeed, we had packed gaiters, hoping to deflect mud and late-May rainfall from entering our boots, and one of us gave him a sheepish nod.

“How about an orange tarp with a black spot in the middle for a helicopter rescue?” Now he was just trying to scare us—maybe. “Make sure you get past Owen Point before the tide rises or you’ll be climbing a couple hundred feet straight up through thick mud to get around it on land.”

“Can you see remnants of the shipwreck out there?” I asked, exposing my naivete.

He raised an eyebrow. “Which one?” Minutes later, we were standing outside the office in drizzling rain at a mandatory briefing for hikers embarking on the six- to eight-day, 46.6-mile West Coast Trail between Gordon River and Pachena Bay in Canada’s Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. After warnings of mountain lions stalking hikers and an explanation of the tide chart, a ranger handed everyone a waterproof map of the lumpy coastline dotted with 29 small icons of what appeared to be sinking boats.