Last week I wrote about hiking Parker Ridge in Banff National Park. After spending the morning on the ridge, Kristine and I backtracked through the park to Saskatchewan Crossing, leaving Banff to explore along Highway 11. This area is mostly public use lands, I’m not sure if it has a formal name, but given that the highway travels to the small town of Nordegg, Kristine referred to the area as Nordegg too. It was my first time visiting the region and it was surprisingly uncrowded and very beautiful. A large part of the area is dominated by Abraham Lake, which people are familiar with in the winter because the surface of the lake freezes and bubbles can be seen frozen in the ice. The area is just as beautiful in the summer, but not very popular.
We followed the highway along the North Saskatchewan River to the start of the lake. We hadn’t originally planned to stay in area overnight, so we hadn’t booked any campsites. However, there is a large first-come, first-served campsite called Preacher’s North rustic camping. It’s a series of campsites along the lake. There is an outhouse, but no other facilities. We didn’t even see a water tap and the lake is too silty to take water from, so be prepared with your own water. I’ve been staying in more rec sites in BC in recent years, but a lot of those sites are small and off the beaten track. I was pleasantly surprised with this campsite. I guess things really are bigger in Alberta because the campsite was huge and we didn’t have any trouble finding a place to pitch our tent. Once settled, we decided to explore further along Highway 11. There’s a hike called Vision Quest about halfway up the lake that Kristine wanted to check out, so that’s where we headed.
To access the hike, you park at the dump and follow signs up around the dump and up through the trees. It is a little confusing at the start because the GPS track doesn’t match the new trail. There used to be an old trail that took a more direct route up the slope from the trailhead, but that area has been closed for restoration, so now you have to hike around the back of the dump instead. If you’re on the right trail, it’s easy to follow, but we started on the wrong trail and it was confusing. If you’re having trouble following, you’re on the wrong trail, go back to the parking lot to find the correct one.
It’s a steep hike that continues through the trees for approximately 1km before the view opens up. From there, you can hike another 7km along the ridge up to the Vision Quest Peak, but that’s a full day hike and our goal was only to hike high enough to get out of the trees. We didn’t quite make it to the alpine as it was very hot and steep (and a little bit smoky), but we hiked just far enough to get a full view of Abraham Lake. It only took us 45 minutes to hike up to our viewpoint, but it was a really phenomenal view for the amount of effort required to get there.
We hung out at the viewpoint for a half hour, enjoying the hazy view of the surrounding mountains and Abraham Lake, before hiking back down to the car. In my opinion, this was the most challenging part of the hike. Whoever constructed this trail wasn’t familiar with switchbacks and it’s extremely steep with a lot of loose rock, so it took me some time to crawl my way down. That might just be my bad knees though, Kristine found the downhill a lot easier. In total, including our break, it took us a little under 2 hours to hike up, but we only did 2km in total.
We returned to our campsite at Preacher’s North and decided to go for a swim and eat supper down by the water. Like I said, I was really impressed with the site. The only problem is that it’s mostly campers and RV’s and since it’s an informal campsite, there are no rules on quiet time. Most of the RV’s turned off their generators overnight, but some didn’t, which is really loud and annoying if you’re sleeping in a tent. But overall, a great option if you forgot to book a campsite in the National Park!
I spent a few days visiting my friend, Kristine, in Calgary in August and we spent the weekend traveling around Banff National Park. Kristine is very familiar with Banff and wanted to do a few day hikes that she hasn’t gotten around to visiting over the years. We took off from Calgary early on Saturday morning to spend two days road tripping around the park, our first stop of which was Parker Ridge on the far north end of the park.
This was a fun trip for me because, in the 12 years I lived in BC, I’ve never driven highway 93 past Lake Louise, also known as the Icefields Parkway. I drove it once as a teenager on a family trip, when my parents took us to visit Jasper and the Columbia Icefield, but I’d yet to return. I still haven’t made it back to Jasper National Park, but hopefully one day soon! On this trip, we drove past all the hot spots – Bow Lake, Peyto Lake, and the Waterfowl Lakes – until we hit the parking lot for Parker Ridge, right on the edge of the Columbia Icefield.
Parker Ridge is a 5km hike with 300 metres of elevation gain in mostly exposed alpine terrain. The entire hike is a climb, but you are rewarded with gorgeous views at the top. From the parking lot, you hike along switchbacks through the trees. If you’re thinking this means you’ll get a bit of shade, think again. It’s a sub-alpine environment and the trees are pretty low and sparse, so they don’t provide much protection against the sun. Eventually you exit the trees altogether and continue following switchbacks up to the ridge.
Once you hit the ridge, the view really opens up and there’s a couple of large plateaus. It’s easy to think you can walk wherever you want once you hit the ridge, but please stick to the trails. It’s a very sensitive alpine environment and while it’s easy to walk anywhere, avoid damaging the alpine shrubs, they take a long time to recover. There are the main trails and a couple of side trails that go to views, please try and stick to those.
Once you’ve done most of the elevation gain, you hit a small saddle. From there, you can walk up to a small summit, or you can walk down the other side of the ridge for a view of the Saskatchewan Glacier, which connects to the Columbia Icefield. We did the summit first, which I recommend doing as there is a really nice panoramic view up there, but you can’t see the glacier from the summit, so it’s also worth heading down the ridge a little bit to see the glacier. We didn’t go the whole way down, so potentially there are better views than what we saw, we just walked until we found a nice little viewpoint and then hung out there for a break. As you can see from the photos, it was quite windy and cold, despite being mid-August.
It’s a quick walk back to the car from the top since it’s all downhill. In total, the hike took us 2.5 hours, with a half hour break at the viewpoint. It’s not a longer hike and even though it’s steep, it has a really good payoff for a relatively short distance. I was recovering from a cold when we did the hike, so I did struggle, but I still had a great time and would absolutely recommend this hike. It was fairly busy when we were there as this is a popular hike. We were still able to find a spot in the parking lot, though it was much busier by the time we finished.
After a very eventful day hiking in the rain to Camper Bay, we really needed a win on Day 6. We only had to hike 7km from Camper Bay to Thrasher, but we had a pretty important tidal window. Out of Camper Bay there’s a cable car and some ladders, followed by 2km of muddy forest walking before you return to the coast. Then there’s 5km of beach walking to Thrasher Cove through the infamous Owen Point section.
This section of the trail is well known by hikers because it offers stunning coastline views and the opportunity to explore the sea caves at Owen Point. The challenge is that it has a very sensitive tidal window. In other parts of the trail, there are a few pinch points that you can’t cross during high tides, but if you got stuck there, you could likely crawl up into the trees and wait it out. The section of trail along Owen Point is very long and lacking in safe places to wait out a high tide. This meant that we had the challenge of getting to Thrasher Cove by 1pm.
After our long day hiking to Camper Bay, I’d come to terms with the fact that Adriana likely wasn’t going to have the energy to get up early and hike to Owen Point. She’d expressed trepidation earlier in the trip about the potential slip hazards in this section of trail and I kind of got the impression she didn’t want to do it. I was disappointed about it, but could understand her concerns. To my surprise, when we talked about it the night before, she was keen to hike to Owen Point.
If you skip Owen Point, you have to do a 5km re-route through the forest. I can’t say for sure, but I believe this section of trail is very similar to what we did between Walbran and Camper Bay. We’d need to get up very early (at 5am) to give ourselves lots of time to make the tidal cut-off at Owen Point, but Adriana figured that since we were going to bed so early (8pm), it would be okay to wake up early. I think both of us were super keen to avoid another 5km forest slog, so we agreed to get up and do it in the morning. We wanted to leave camp by 7am and get to the beach by 9am, giving ourselves 4 hours to complete the 5km section.
We were still a bit sluggish when we awoke. It continued to rain all night and it was drizzling in the morning, although less wet than the previous day. In contrast to when we’d left Walbran, everything already felt damp. All our hiking and rain clothes from the previous day were still soaking wet, as were our shoes. Plus, I was disappointed to discover that a lot of things inside the tent, including my sleeping bag, were a little damp. I wasn’t cold overnight, but I don’t like to pack up a damp bag.
But the only way out was through. We packed everything and left pretty close to our planned time. We started with another cable crossing, which was fortunately very short and much easier than the crossing at Walbran. The rain stopped and we layered down after the ladders, taking off all our rain gear. The 2kms we had to hike through the forest was still very painful. The trail was muddy and in poor shape and we couldn’t quite maintain the pace we wanted, arriving at the beach access slightly after 9am.
We decided to go for it anyways. Generally, we move faster on the beach, but we were warned by the park ranger that this section was filled with dangerous surge channels and giant boulders that would make navigation slow. Our friends (the guys and their sons) arrived at the beach access at the same time as us and we ended up hiking most of the way to Owen Point with them. It wasn’t intentional, they were ahead of us, but as they navigated the obstacles, they were very kind to point them out to us when we followed behind, including helping us cross a particularly challenging surge channel.
Owen Point is located at the midpoint of this section and I would say that the terrain on either side of Owen Point is wildly different. On the north side, where we started, you’re mostly hiking across a large rock shelf. I’ve never hiked anything like it before, so it was a very cool experience. Overall, I thought the shelf was fairly easy to navigate, but there were a few tricky sections where we had to return to the treeline to get around a surge channel. Adriana was nervous, but we both agreed it was easier than navigating the muddy forest route.
We arrived at Owen Point with lots of time to spare! It was here that we were most satisfied with our decision to hike along the beach. Owen Point is very beautiful and I can see why it’s a staple of the trail. It’s a breathtaking stretch of coastline and there are a series of caves and tunnels located at the point. It was a bit busy because the hikers coming the other direction were arriving at the caves at the same time as us, but it didn’t detract from the experience.
After Owen Point, the terrain turns to giant boulders, by which I mean rocks the size of cars. There’s no obvious trail to follow, pick any route and scramble across the rocks as best you can, creating your own route parallel to shore. The largest boulders were closest to Owen Point, but I found they got smaller and easier to navigate the closer we got to Thrasher Cove.
We crossed a small beach where we decided to take a break for lunch. We learned the previous day that it is important to take time to eat, but we took a shorter break than normal because we weren’t sure how long it would take to navigate the rest of the boulders. It was around this time that the sun came out, further improving our spirits. Neither of us had been enthusiastic about putting on wet clothes in the morning, so we’d both started hiking in our rain gear, with nothing underneath. Once we hit the beach, I changed back into my wet underlayers in hopes of drying them out. It was a bit cold at first, but it dried a lot faster on my body and by the time we reached Thrasher, I was pretty much dry.
It ended up being a faster walk to Thrasher than we thought and we arrived with time to spare. All the other hikers that had started with us had decided to get up even earlier to hike all the way to Gordon River. It’s only another 6km from Thrasher to Gordon River, which is certainly achievable, but made more challenging by the fact that the last water taxi to Gordon River is at 3pm. Adriana and I were skeptical that we could make the water taxi (we wouldn’t have), so we committed to staying the final night at Thrasher.
It ended up being a great decision! The guys and their sons were the only others from our original group to spend the night there, so they arrived first, followed by us. We weren’t used to being early to camp, so we had our pick of campsites. We chose a lovely beach site and proceeded to spend the rest of the afternoon building the most epic camp! All our things were still wet, but it was quite windy and the sun was out, so we figured it was the perfect opportunity to dry out our gear. We constructed a large clothes line and hung up pretty much everything in our packs. It all dried over the next hour with the exception of our hiking boots. It was so nice to relax in the sun on the sandy beach, I honestly felt like a completely new person!
I understand why people wanted to rush to the end after the long day of rain, but I don’t regret taking our time. I never hear people talk about Thrasher Cove, I think it’s just one of the necessary campsites where people stay, but it ended up being one of my favourite! The guys got a campfire going (we didn’t bother because we didn’t want to deal with wet wood) and invited us to share theirs, so we lay our boots next to the fire and managed to get those almost dry by morning too. I think the opportunity to stay an extra night at Thrasher gave us the chance to recoup and unwind before finishing the trail. I feel like it gave us time to process the previous day and it was really nice to end the trip on a high note. We had lots of time to enjoy each other’s company and it was a lovely way to end the trip.
The following morning we only had to do 6km through the forest to Gordon River. We knew there wouldn’t be any scenery and we expected there to be a lot more mud. After talking to the northbound hikers, we were thrilled to learn that this section of trail wasn’t overly muddy, it just had a lot of elevation gain and loss. At this point, we’d take anything over the mud, so we weren’t intimidated by a little bit of a climb.
There were several ladders going up from the beach and we wound our way through the forest for several hours. It was different terrain than the other sections of trail, but we were honestly thrilled not to have to slog through the mud. We were excited to finish the trail, but enjoyed the last couple of hours hiking. We hiked mostly alone for the first couple of hours, before we started crossing paths with hikers starting the trail. The trail felt easy to us after everything that had come before and it was fun to compare our experience against the new group coming in.
I could definitely have done without the day of rain, but honestly, I wouldn’t change it. I feel like rain is a quintessential part of the West Coast Trail and almost no one is lucky enough to do a trip without it. We only had to deal with it for one day, so it was still possible to recover. I can’t imagine how people function who get caught in a full week of rain. I feel like the risks would have been a lot higher hiking every day in the rain because everything gets damp and it gets harder to start a campfire (if they’re even permitted).
The trail wouldn’t let us go without one final challenge. The last ladder from the trail to the beach is very long and pretty much completely vertical. Most of the ladders were inclined and my stomach jumped into my throat when I looked over the edge of the last ladder. Adriana knew I was nervous going down, so she went first and instructed me not to look. I talked myself down like I did on all the other ladders, but I was relieved to place both feet on the beach. Even looking at the photo of the ladder, it’s pretty intimidating. I’m not sure what I’d have done if I’d had to start with that ladder, which is arguably the scariest one on the trail!
Unfortunately we missed the water taxi by mere minutes. It runs every half hour and it was pulling away from the beach as we climbed down. We took the opportunity to eat our lunch and have one last drink of electrolytes before the boat returned at 1pm to bring us to Gordon River. We checked out with Parks Canada and bought a few souvenirs. I did my best to take a sink shower at the Pacheedaht bathroom – there are actual showers, but they’re coin operated, so I had to be content with the sink shower.
We didn’t have a ferry booking, so we stopped into Port Renfrew for a second lunch before hauling ass to the ferry terminal. I thought we might get stuck waiting a few sailings, but it was a Saturday evening and we got on almost right away. I enjoyed a big burger on the ferry and Seth picked me up on the other side.
So overall, I’m thrilled that I’ve finally completed this trail. I can see why the West Coast Trail is the most popular of Vancouver Island’s coastal hikes. It’s hard to rank them against each other when they’re all so different, but I think I did like this experience better than hiking the Juan de Fuca Trail and the North Coast Trail. It might be related to the fact that I was more prepared for this trail and had a more realistic idea of what to expect. I was wise to approach the trail with a slow itinerary and despite spending more time on the trail, my pack was significantly lighter than when I did the other two.
I would absolutely recommend this trail to experienced hikers, but I’d recommend newbies to try other trails first. If you’re a local, definitely do the Juan de Fuca Trail. If you’re not from BC, try and do other multi-day trails in varied terrain before attempting this one. It helps to be dialed into the gear you’re carrying in your pack, to know that it’s been tried and tested. I don’t think I will ever do the trail again. We really had great conditions and I feel like it was a once in a lifetime experience, but it is challenging and I wouldn’t be in a rush to repeat it.
But if you’re up to the challenge, definitely go for it! This is a world-renown trail for good reason. I loved it!
