Continuing on from Part I and Part II, on Day 4, we had a big hike up and over Deer Pass to access the southern part of the park. It has been relatively cool in previous days, but the weather was starting to get hotter. We got up early to say goodbye to Siwash Meadows. Fortunately, we didn’t see any bears while we were staying in the meadow, but I did see 2 deer. On the first morning, I saw a doe staring at me while I made breakfast, and on the second morning, I saw a buck prancing through the meadow! Brandon wasn’t lucky enough to see either, but being at the base of Deer Pass did live up to its name.
The day started with a river crossing. Once you cross over from the meadow, you start a pretty steep climb up through the trees. We ran into our mountain biker friends again when they passed us on the trail (the first rider got spooked by Brandon and thought he was a bear), otherwise, we didn’t see anyone on the trail again that day.
I didn’t mind the hike up through the woods. There’s shade and I didn’t find it too painful. Eventually you pop out in the sub-alpine and continuing climbing until you get into the real alpine. We stopped for a break to take advantage of the shade, since the rest of the pass is extremely exposed. Deer Pass is much more rugged than Lorna Pass. Lorna Pass was a gentle uphill over established trail, while Deer Pass had a lot more switchbacks and exposure to steep run-out zones. There was one part of the trail that was a little confusing because there seems to be have been a small slide that covered the trail and we had to navigate across it.
We were much slower hiking up Deer Pass. In some ways, it’s more scenic. The summit is much more rugged and there’s a gorgeous meadow down in the valley, but you also feel much more exposed. We had to layer up because it started to get really windy and we crawled up some of the steeper sections. But I still really enjoyed it! I think I liked Lorna Pass a little better than Deer Pass, but both are really striking sections of the trail. I love being in the alpine and it felt really rewarding after a lot of forest walking!
Eventually we reached the top of the pass and it’s an incredible feeling crossing over to the other side. The Chilcotin mountains are quite barren and eroded, but when you summit the pass, you can see a whole new mountain range in the distance. They are more characteristic of the rest of the mountains in southwest BC, in that they are less eroded and have glaciers and snow-capped peaks year round.
There’s a little tarn at the top of the summit, which supposedly can be used as a campsite, but it’s extremely windy and exposed up there, so I wouldn’t recommend it. We sheltered behind some bushes to eat lunch, but it was pretty chilly and we put extra layers on for the descent. The descent is a lot more like Lorna Pass, it’s a gradual downhill through the meadows, with a gorgeous creek flowing through it. I’m sure the mountain bikers bombed down a lot faster than we did, but we definitely enjoyed the scenery more!
You stay in the alpine for a few kilometres before returning to the trees. The hike gets really steep again and we climbed down through the trees for what felt like forever, but was in reality, only a few kilometres. Once you reach return to the valley, it’s a short walk to the first of several lakes. All of the lakes have established campsites, and we planned to stop at the first one, Trigger Lake, for the evening. In total, we only hiked 12km, but it took us most of the day.
Trigger Lake is really beautiful and a deep blue colour. Unfortunately, it’s located right in the middle of a river delta. We were the only people at the campsite again, but at least this one had an outhouse, bear cache, and picnic table. We decided to take turns bathing in the lake. There’s no beach and the ground looked pretty muddy, but I found a small rocky section that I thought looked okay.
I knew it would be cold, so I decided to enter the lake at a run, which was a mistake. It turns out, the rocks almost immediately transitions to mud and before I could stop, I was knee deep in it! I more or less collapsed into the water to get my feet out of the mud, but it was hard to bathe while treading water. I eventually went back to shore and almost got stuck in the mud again while walking in. It was so gross; I can still feel the phantom plant life clinging to my toes!
So I would NOT recommend Trigger Lake for swimming. I got an inreach message from Seth, letting me know that the Northern Lights might be visible over the next two nights. I had a look for them when I got up to pee overnight, but I was so exhausted, I didn’t really look too hard. Like with my last post, I have so many photos from this section of the trail, so here’s a few more of my favourites! Continue on for Part IV.
Continuing on from my blog posts about Portugal, we had a lazy morning in Lisbon and treated ourselves to brunch before starting the second part of our trip. We had ~2 weeks and decided to each pick a location to visit for 1 week. Emily’s choice was the Azores, which is a group of Portuguese islands in the middle of the Atlantic. They seem to be a popular vacation destination among Europeans, but I don’t think the rest of the world has really discovered them yet.
In contrast, the other popular Portuguese island is Madeira, which is located off the coast of Morocco. Me and Seth had an awesome time exploring Madeira in 2012, but the rest of the world has discovered it now and it’s heavily over-visited. That’s not to say the Azores isnt’t a popular destination. We visited in the tail end of shoulder season, so it was still busy without being overly crowded, but we could tell the tourism was about to pick up.
The Azores are made up of several islands, each with unique features to explore. We opted to visit Sao Miguel Island, which has the largest city, Ponta Delgada, and seems to be the hub. It’s a direct flight from Lisbon (2.5 hours) and we arrived around 3pm. If you stay in Ponta Delgada, you might be able to get away without renting a car, but I definitely recommend it. There’s limited transit and the easiest way to explore the island is by car.
We picked up our car and were immediately intimidated by the narrow streets. The highway system is pretty good, but the town streets are extremely narrow, so be prepared to drive slow and stop frequently to let other cars pass. We opted not to stay in Ponta Delgada and had a nice B&B booked in the tiny village of Porto Formoso. The Azores are very hilly, with lots of steep roads. Our B&B was located on one of these roads, but had the most beautiful view of the beach from the balcony (see above)! It’s a gorgeous location and I’m glad we decided to stay there.
We didn’t have too long to settle in before driving to the nearby town of Ribeira Grande to stock up on groceries. We found a nice restaurant near the beach and had dinner while we watched the sunset. It was a beautiful day, but we were quickly distracted by the menu. The Azores is known for its seafood and we intended to take full advantage of that fact! We were advised to always get the special because that is generally the freshest fish. In this case, the special was a spread of 3 grilled fish and vegetables to be shared between 2 people. It was absolutely delicious and we added a plate of limpets as a starter. I’ve only ever had limpets in Madeira (it’s a shellfish) and they were as good as I remembered.
Since the Azores are located smack dab in the middle of the Atlantic, the weather can be pretty variable. The key to a successful trip is to do your best to try and plan around the weather. The island has installed webcams at all the major viewpoints so that you can check the visibility before visiting. We knew our first day was likely to be the best weather of the trip, so we had to decide what to prioritize. I was most excited about Sete Cidades, so we decided to do a road trip to the west side of the island on Day 1.
It was a beautiful blue sky day, but there were some clouds hanging around the Sete Cidades viewpoint, so we decided to hit up some other attractions on the way over. The island isn’t that big (it’s maybe ~2.5 hours to drive lengthwise), and there are frequent pull-outs on the roads for visitors. We stopped at several viewpoints along the drive and had our first proper stop at Ponta da Ferraria.
Ponta da Ferraria is a rocky point on the west end of the island that has a salt water hot spring at low tide. The hot spring naturally flows into the ocean and when the tide is low enough, it turns into a big hot pool. Low tide was around noon, so we arrived at 11am and did a short walk down to the pool. It’s all black volcanic rock in this area and there’s a small inlet where they’ve installed ladders to climb down. It wasn’t busy when we arrived, so I’m glad we went early because when we left at noon, it was very crowded.
This is the only salt water hot spring I’ve ever visited, so it was a cool experience. It’s a little more chaotic because of the waves. The rock naturally acts as a barrier, but the tide still sloshes you around a bit in the pool. But it’s great for temperature control. It’s very hot near the inlet, and cooler as you move out towards the ocean. We soaked for a while and then continued on our adventure for the day.
After some more viewpoints, we stopped into Sete Cidades town for lunch. Since Sete Cidades is one of the main tourist attractions, I thought the town would be a bustling touring trap with lots of shops and restaurants. This was not the case as all. There’s only really 2 restaurants – the one in town is highly rated, but was full – so we opted for the restaurant on the lake, which is scenic, but very poorly rated. Mostly it’s just very busy, so it’s not great service, but it is what it is.
Sete Cidades is essentially a giant crater with a series of lakes inside it and tons of viewpoints around the perimeter. I really wanted to hike around the rim of the crater, but it’s a long hike without 2 cars (~20km), so we opted to sample a little bit of everything in Sao Miguel rather than go all in on one hike. But I still think about this hike, so I might have to go back for it one day.
After lunch, we drove up out of the crater to visit Miradouro da Boca do Inferno. This is probably the most iconic viewpoint on the island, and it was my favourite part of the trip. It’s a short hike to the viewpoint, and you can stop at Lagoa da Canario along the way. As a heads up, none of these lakes are really swimming lakes, so plan to do your swimming at the salt water beaches. The view from the Miradouro is absolutely incredible and we hung out there for a while before continuing our tour.
We visited a few more viewpoints and then drove to Mosteiros for the rest of the day. It’s the most westerly town on the island and we spent time at Mosteiros Beach in the late afternoon. It’s a gorgeous black sand beach and to our surprise, the water was quite warm! It was only ~18-20 degrees while we were in the Azores. We thought it would be a bit chilly, but it’s so humid on the island that we were still sweating every day. Likewise, we thought the ocean would be too cold to swim in, but it was comfortable, you just have to be wary of rip tides at a lot of the beaches, so we stuck to the shallows. We finished the day with another seafood dinner and then returned to our B&B for the evening.
On our second day, it was pretty cloudy in the morning, so we did a short walk to the Porto Formoso waterfall and to check out our local beach – Praia dos Moinhos. There are tons of beaches all over the island, but we were definitely partial to ours, which is one of the better swimming beaches because it doesn’t have a ton of surf. It was totally empty in the morning.
Our next stop was Caldeira Velha, which is a natural hot spring in the middle of the island. This was the one thing we should have booked in advance as there is timed entry to the pools. We paid for entry later in the day and visited Salto do Cabrito, which is a popular waterfall nearby. Everyone parks at the top of the canyon and walks down, without realizing you can drive almost all the way to the waterfall, so that’s a tip if you visit.
After Sete Cidades, the viewpoint at Lagoa do Fogo is probably the next most popular viewpoint. It’s near the hot spring, so we decided to drive up and hope for the best. It was still pretty cloudy when we got there, but the clouds moved around a lot and we caught a glimpse of the lake. It wasn’t ideal conditions, but we were happy with what we saw. I’d recommend hiking down to the lake, which is a short walk, but we didn’t have time before our hot spring entry. We were able to drive up to the viewpoint, but during the summer months, they close the parking lot and you have to take a bus shuttle to visit after June 1st.
The Caldeira was really nice – it’s located under the forest canopy and there’s 3 hot pools cascading into one another, plus one cold pool with a waterfall. It’s great for hot/cold therapy and we switched back and forth between the two, enjoying our hour lounging in the pools.
But our favourite part of the day was returning to Porto Formoso in the afternoon to go to the beach. The clouds continued to hang around Lagoa do Fogo, but it was a gorgeous day along the coast (a common phenomenon on the island). It’s a sandy beach, with a few beachgoers, but overall, it was pretty empty throughout our trip. We spent the rest of the afternoon lying in the sand and swimming in the ocean.
We returned to the B&B and enjoyed a bottle of wine on the balcony before walking to the only restaurant nearby, Mare Cheia. Porto Formoso is tiny, so I definitely would not have gone to this restaurant if it wasn’t a 5 minute walk away, which would have been a real shame because it was the best food we had on the island. We ended up eating there twice!
Once you’re seated, the waiter brings out a platter of raw fish to show you everything fresh that they’re serving for the day. It’s fantastic! So me and Emily each picked a fish and then they grill it fresh for you! We got the limpets again because I’m a little obsessed. It was worth it and these were even better than the other restaurant. It blows my mind that the limpets are like $20, but you get 2 dozen of them! It was a perfect end to some pretty perfect weather. Check back next week (Part II) to hear about some of the less than perfect weather!
The Sunshine Coast Trail has been on my bucket list for several years and I finally hiked it in its entirety this past summer. You can read my trail blogs starting with Part I, but I also wanted to create a guide to accompany those posts for anyone thinking of doing the trail. I think this is a great trail for thru hikers because while it is long (180km), it’s not life-altering long (like the PCT). But it is still long enough to require considerable advance planning, so here are some things I learned while planning the trek:
Experience/Fitness Level
The first question to ask yourself is whether you have the experience and ability to hike a trail this long. My longest trail prior to the SCT was 85km, but I’d hiked that distance on 3 separate occasions, so I felt confident that I could attempt 180km. Compared to other popular thru hikes in BC, I would say that the SCT is actually a bit easier (comparing to hikes like the West Coast Trail), but that it shouldn’t be underestimated. I was able to hike at a much faster pace on the SCT than other coastal trails I’ve done, but there is a lot of elevation gain throughout the course of the trail, so you definitely want to be used to climbing mountains before you attempt. However, there are lots of exit points on the trail if it becomes too challenging and the huts can make things more comfortable for newer hikers. That said, if you’ve never backpacked before, get some experience on shorter trails first, or plan to section hike part of the trail instead of the whole thing, because there is a big difference in difficulty when you have to carry all your gear with you, especially on a long trip with heavy quantities of food!
The Trail
The Sunshine Coast Trail is 178km long on paper, but a bit longer in practice. There have been many re-routes and trail changes throughout the years, so while there’s 178 trail markers on the trail, they’re not all actually 1km apart from each other. I clocked 190km on my GPS when I did the trail. The most notable section is from Tin Hat to Lewis Lake, which is 2-3km longer than indicated, so prepare for slightly longer days than anticipated. In addition, I tracked a cumulative elevation gain of 7500 metres over the course of the trail, so be prepared for a lot of uphill (and downhill if you have bad knees like me).
The trail starts at the far north end of the Upper Sunshine Coast, known as Sarah Point. It’s approximately 50km down the Malaspina Peninsula to Powell River and then the trail meanders through the mountains for another 130km to the trail end at Saltery Bay. The half point of the trail is at Tin Hat Mountain, which is largely regarded as the best viewpoint on the entire trail. There are lots of access points along the trail, but the two easiest are in Powell River (km 50) and Lang Bay (km 150). If you’re section hiking, I’d plan to hike one of these 3 sections, and if you’re thru hiking, these make good resupply points (more on that later).
While you can hike the trail in either direction, the majority of people go from North to South. The trail is set up for people hiking this direction so the trail markers will all be in order. Sarah Point is considerably harder to access than Saltery Bay, so it’s recommended to start at Sarah Point so that you can walk on the ferry when you get to Saltery Bay at the end of your hike and not have to coordinate transportation. For more detailed information about the entire 178km trail, pick up a copy of Eagle Walz’s book, or check out the SCT website.
Time of Year
Time of year can also play a large role in determining when to hike the trail. If you don’t like crowds, then you may want to avoid the summer months and hike in the Spring or Fall. Summer can also be extremely hot and a lot of the streams can run dry in August, making it more desirable to hike in the shoulder seasons. The benefit of hiking in the summer is that you’re likely to have the driest weather, so if you don’t like hiking in the rain, this might be the best option for you, though the heat can be exhausting.
The challenges with Spring hiking are that if you go too early, there may still be snow on parts of the trail and you’re more likely to encounter rain along the trek. Whereas in Fall, you won’t encounter snow unless you go really late, but the streams are more likely to be dry in early Fall and you’re more likely to get rained on in late Fall. I wanted to do the trail in June, but I ended up doing it in August (when it was very hot) and early September (when the streams were mostly dry). But I didn’t encounter crowds during either time.
Getting There
Getting to the Sunshine Coast was probably the biggest challenge for me and was the most considerable cost of the trip. If you’re going with a group and have more than 1 car, it’s relatively easy, but if you’re alone or don’t have a car, it’s a bit more challenging. You’ll have to either drive or walk on two different ferries (Horseshoe Bay to Langdale and Earls Cove to Saltery Bay) and prepare to shell out $100+pp to take the shuttle to the trailhead. Saltery Bay and Powell River are accessible by transit, but the trailhead at Sarah Point requires 4WD to access. If you have 4WD, that’s great, if not, make a booking with the Sunshine Coast Shuttle. Here’s the options I’ve identified for getting to the trailhead:
Drive yourself (1 car). Park your car at Earl’s Cove and walk on the ferry, then get the SCT shuttle from Saltery Bay to the Sarah Point Trailhead. If you want to drop off resupplies, then drive on the ferry instead and park at Saltery Bay once you’ve dropped the resupplies and catch the shuttle. Once you finish the trail at Saltery Bay, your car will be waiting for you!
Drive yourself (2 cars). If you have a rugged 4WD with high clearance, you can park one car at Saltery Bay, drop off your resupplies, and drive your second car all the way to the trailhead. If not, drop off your resupplies and catch the shuttle from Powell River to the trailhead. Collect your car at Saltery Bay at the end of your hike and pick up the other car.
Take transit. You can walk on both ferries and there is a connector shuttle that runs between the two ferries in the summer. It runs every day except Thursday, but it only goes once per day. Once you get the second ferry to Saltery Bay, you can get the shuttle to pick you up and transport you to the trailhead, or you can take the city bus to Powell River, drop off your resupply, and then get the shuttle to the trailhead. This was what I did on my first attempt.
Fly. There are several airlines that fly direct to Powell River, but I recommend Harbour Air because it flies directly to the Shingle Mill Pub, which is one of the resupply locations. So you can drop off your resupply when you arrive and then arrange the shuttle to the trailhead. The downside is you can’t fly with fuel or bear spray, but you can purchase both from the shuttle company. This was what I did on my second attempt.
All of these options assume starting at Sarah Point. You can walk off the ferry at Saltery Bay and start from there, but it’s better to take the shuttle for drop off rather than coordinate a pick-up time when you might not know how fast you’ll be hiking. Unless you plan to camp at Sarah Point on your last night and get picked up in the morning.
Itinerary
Once you’ve established you’re ready to attempt the trail, itinerary becomes an important consideration. You can hike the entire trail in one go, or you can make a couple of trips to complete in section hikes, or even day hikes if you’re ambitious and comfortable with trail running. I decided on one big thru-hike, but circumstance forced me to complete it as two section hikes. You want to be realistic about your abilities when deciding how many days to allot for the trip. Because it’s a long trail, there’s a tendency to want to do a lot of kilometres, but consider whether this will be enjoyable over an extended period of time. If you’re hiking solo, it may be easier to hike longer distances, but if you’re in a group, you will naturally need a slower pace. If you don’t have lightweight gear, also consider that packing 3-8 days of food will present a considerable challenge.
Campsite choice is also an important consideration in determining your itinerary. Are you flexible in where you camp? Are you comfortable staying at tent sites, or do you only want to stay in the huts? Either way, plan to bring a tent because the huts can fill up on summer weekends, though users are supposed to prioritize space in the huts for thru-hikers. Determining how many days you have available for the trip can help you determine your itinerary, just make sure to leave enough time for travel to and from the Sunshine Coast as getting to the trailheads can be somewhat tedious.
Campsites
You don’t necessarily need to pick exactly where you’re going to camp in advance when you draft your itinerary, but it’s good to set some goals so that you can assess whether you’re ahead or behind your targeted pace while on trail. I decided on 10 nights on the trail and planned my itinerary around that. I generally had a target that I wanted to reach every second night and I was flexible on the opposite nights based on how I was feeling. I wanted to stay at Tin Hat Hut and Walt Hill Hut because I heard they were the most scenic, so I set goals for when I wanted to arrive at those locations. It’s also good to know if there’s any sites you want to avoid, so you can plan around that. For example, I really didn’t like Homestead Rec Site or Lewis Point Rec Site.
Definitely pick up a copy of the SCT guide when assessing where you want to stay. Some campsites are more rugged than others and they don’t all have bathrooms, water sources, or bear caches. Water sources are important because if you stay at a campsite without one, you will have to hike with extra water. Likewise, if you’re staying at sites without bear caches, you’ll need to put extra consideration into how you’ll protect your food. See below for more information on both of these items. Even if you plan to stay only in huts, I still recommend bringing a tent with you because the huts can fill up on popular summer weekends. However, if you’re hiking in the off season, generally you’ll be okay. I’m told the huts were extremely busy in 2021, but when I hiked the trail in 2022, they were virtually empty, both in August and September.
Gear
Gear is a favourite topic of any hiker. You don’t need expensive gear to go backpacking – I hiked with cheap gear for years and did just fine. But prepare yourself for the weight of it. I’ve invested in some really lightweight gear over the years and it really paid off for me on this thru hike. I was able to hike longer and faster than if I was using cheaper, heavier gear. In some instances I sacrificed comfort for this (a smaller sleeping pad, only the essentials for clothing, a non-freestanding tent), but the comfort of the lighter pack was more than worth it for me.
Fortunately, the SCT is not an alpine hike, so generally you can get away with cooler gear. I always bring a lot of warm gear when I’m going to the alpine, but this wasn’t needed on the SCT, especially in the middle of summer and with the huts. Plus, if you’re doing the hike with a friend, you can share gear to lighten the load. A few things I would definitely still bring include trekking poles, bear spray, and all of the 10 essentials, especially an inreach (or satellite device) and a GPS (or a large power bank for your phone).
Food
Food is one of my favourite topics when it comes to thru-hiking. Some people get really into calorie counting for a big hike, but I’ve personally never found this was accurate for me and resulted in carrying way more food then I needed. If you’ve done some practice hikes, they should give you a good idea of how much you will generally eat and then plan for slightly larger portions sizes or extra snacks since it’s a long hike. Personally I prefer to bring larger meals in lieu of extra snacks. Generally you will get hungrier the longer you hike, so plan for a bit extra towards the end of the trip. Always bring an extra day of food on a trip of this scale in case of emergency.
I’ve been getting really into dehydrating and I prepped my entire menu for 11 days using my dehydrator. You don’t need a dehydrator to do a multi-day trek, but it can significantly lighten your load. The average person carries 2lbs of food per day, but I was able to get my weight down to just over 1lb per day (12lbs for my 11 days on trail). The easiest way to shed weight is through dehydrated/freeze dried meals. I dehydrated my own, but you can also purchase them from a large suite of options at places like MEC, though these are often a little bulkier and very pricey. Before I got into dehydrating, my preference was to stock up on simple grocery store items like knorr sidekicks, of which there are lots of rice and pasta options, or easy dinners like ramen. The trick is finding some way to add protein. Tuna packets are a good option, but a little heavier than dehydrated proteins. Famous foods carries lots of freeze-dried options.
Resupplies
Resupplies go hand in hand with food. If you’re fast, you can probably carry all your food from the start, though carrying so much food weight may slow you down. The two easiest resupply points are the Shingle Mill pub in Powell River and the general store in Lang Bay. Shingle Mill is right on the trail, but Lang Bay involves a 2.5km road walk each way. Because of this, I opted for just 1 resupply at the pub. I carried 4 days of food at the start and then picked up 7 days of food from the pub. Another option is to pre-arrange a drop-off from the SCT shuttle company at any point where the trail crosses a road, but this is a pricey option, so I didn’t meet anyone who utilized it. Both the pub and the general store will hold your resupplies free of charge.
Other Considerations
Water Supply – No matter when you hike the trail, water supply requires constant thought. Not every campsite has a water source, so you may need to carry extra water with you if you plan to camp at one of these sites and you need to know where your last reliable source of water is before you get to the campsite. When I hiked in early August, the majority of streams were still flowing, but when I hiked in early September, almost every stream was dry. This meant that I had to get almost all my water from lakes and ponds, meaning I often had to carry extra water and that a water filter was extremely necessary to purify my water. Streams are a higher quality source of drinking water than lakes or ponds, so plan accordingly when choosing your water treatment system. At times I carried 4-5L of water with me depending on my campsite and last reliable water source – 5L of water weighs 11lbs, so it’s a significant addition to your pack!
Bear Caches – Not every campsite has a bear cache. Most of the huts have them (but not all) and most of the tenting sites don’t have them. Pending on location, it may be very difficult to create a bear hang, so it’s recommended to bring either a bear bin or bear bag on the trail. Everyone has different opinions on bins vs. bags. Personally, I think a bin is the safest option, though I opted for the bear bag for weight reasons. It’s almost impossible for a bear to walk off with your bear bin, but it can walk off or crush your food with a bear bag, so I still tied mine to a tree even though it’s made of kevlar and supposedly bear proof. It was never tested.
The Road Goes Ever On 