The northern Yukon’s vast Peel watershed, with its eight premiere navigable rivers, offers some of the finest wilderness paddling and hiking in the world – a claim we have no hesitation in making. Still a mystery to most people, this country has a fascinating natural history and human story, which together offer the attentive wilderness traveller an unmatched northern experience. …
Perfect weather on the beach … yet I had to be at the trailhead by 1pm to catch my (prescheduled) Trail Shuttle out.
I tried to enjoy the final few hours, as best I could.
It was time to go.
This had just been left ashore. Is it a Salmon Shark?
Given time, I would have hidden myself above and taken video of whatever scavenger arrived first.
At exactly low tide, the sea stacks were dry. And very pretty.
Accessible by car, families with kids were day tripping to Josef.
I sent them running to see the “shark”. 🙂
I washed up in the estuary. And left the beach.
The signage is great on this adventure. No GPS or compass needed, really. But it would have saved time to have all water sources listed by GPS coordinates .
Cape Scott Trail parking lot.
Obviously, the girls had arrived before me.
We were somewhat stinky after 7days in the wilderness. The girls had swum in Eric Lake, however. Respect.
Unsurprisingly — for me — I found there was no water at the parking area. 😦
… It was another km walk to wash up in a creek. And change clothes.
Our Shuttle arrived, right on schedule. We were only 64km away from civilization!
Doh! We broke down, half way.
Our rescuer was paid in Halibut!
We did make time to visit the famous Shoe Tree.
One of the girls donated some sandals.
Elated to be finished, we chowed down in Port Hardy. I had Halibut & Chips and big waffle cone ice cream.
The girls and I said our farewells.
In bed at the hostel by 7:30pm. Somewhat sick in the stomach. (bad water?) Somewhat exhausted.
Mornings are often foggy on this coast. It burns off after a couple of hours on a sunny day.
Here’s a fog bank, for comparison, dissipating later in the day at Nel’s Bight.
Departing Nissen, you find that your North Coast Trail is now also the older (1973) Cape Scott Trail. In much better condition.
Very cool. Unique, so far as I’ve seen, is this broken up wooden ship hulk, sunk as a breakwater, slowly being overgrown by vegetation.
The Earth reclaiming. 🙂
From 1897 until 1910, Danish settlers tried to establish a fishing community near San Josef Bay. Due to the harsh climate and lack of governmental support, the community failed …
… another attempt was made at Hansen Lagoon, similarly failing by 1917. Alfred Spencer, the last resident, left in 1956.
Some artifacts can still be seen in the park, including a three-metre-tall granite tombstone, several corduroy roads, many ruins (that look like anonymous mossy mounds), and rusty farming implements. …
Of those relics, the most impressive to me is this crude tractor abandoned jammed between trees near Hansen Lagoon.
Nel’s Bight is gorgeous. My favourite stop. The most popular beach in the Park is reasonably easy to access from the parking lot. No need to hike the NCT to get here.
I set up my tent early in the day, for the first time. And walked the 2km long beach barefoot in bright sunshine.
I’d pushed to get here early to have time to side trip to the Cape Scott lighthouse. (minimum 13.6km)
It’s a pretty, varied and well maintained trail. I love log bridges made of materials available on site, this style in particular.
Some find the manned light house a bit of a let down. It’s immaculate, however.
The weather was marvelous. With views over to the island north of the north tip of Vancouver Island.
The letdown is the location of the light station, far from shore atop a hill. Somehow it’s not as exciting as those on the West Coast Trail.
Locals love grass fringed Guise Bay en route.
And unique Dune Neck to Experiment Bight.
Natives formerly dragged their boats across this sandy stretch rather than risk the circumnavigation of Cape Scott in dangerous seas.
FEAR the WOLVES
By the time I got back to the tent, it was late. I was tired.
My food, as always, was carefully locked away in the campsite cache.
🙂 Fortunately, I’d found stove fuel left behind by departing hikers.
😦 Unfortunately …, there was a pack of wolves close to the water source at Nel’s beach.
Why?
They were feasting dawn and dusk on a sea lion carcass dead directly in front of the Ranger’s cabin. Here a photo I took the next day.
The water — however — was close to the Ranger’s cabin, as well.
So wolves, be damned. I marched directly to get water. The beasts dissolved into the trees.
…
It was quite dark by the time I finished dinner. Instead of cleaning the pot, I used an old trick — filling it with sand and sea water. That prevents critters from coming to visit during the night.
But the tide was low. I had a long walk barefoot to reach the surf.
When I turned around, there was the alpha wolf, about 25ft away. They’d trapped me!
I SHOUTED. I raved. I waved (my pot).
I grabbed KELP and snapped it like a WHIP.
The wolf mother finally realized I was some madman. And finally trotted off with her brood. … At least my THEORY is that this is a mother with young ones. Some speculated the leader is the Alpha Male with 3 or 4 followers.
Here’s a wolf, perhaps the same wolf, on the same beach Aug 10th, 2012, a month before I was there.
It was much, much later before I realized she was only coming out to see where I dumped leftovers in the sea.
Wolves almost NEVER attack humans. The are among the least threatening beasts anywhere for their size and strength.
The Vancouver Island Wolf is a subspecies of grey. They will attack dogs and, indeed, there were at least two dog encounters this season in the Park. Don’t bring your dog here.
Their main prey on this Island are Columbian black-tailed deer and Roosevelt elk. While I was on the Trail, one hiker captured video of a wolf chasing a deer through the surf.
A short day planned, still I packed up early. Left my backpack with the kayakers. And headed out to explore Cape Sutil off-trail.
From high vantage I saw the girls finally arriving.
Sutil Cape is impressive. I got far enough to see this bird rock.
Bird life?
You spend a lot of time with seagulls. I did see a few distant bald eagles. And visited with a few ravens. But not as many as on other west coast hikes.
I was surprised to see two loons on the ocean at one Bay. I thought they were exclusively fresh water.
The flying highlight for me was the Steller’s Jay, Provincial bird of B.C.
There are entertaining to watch.
Walking is easiest on the rugged coasts of Vancouver Island at low tide.
Tidal pools on my trip were good, but not as good as I’d seen on the WCT or Juan de Fuca. Nor are there as many. The highlight for me was colourful starfish.
There are dozens of assistance ropes hung to assist on steep sections. But the ones everyone remembers best are these.
At times the grade ranges from 70 degrees to vertical. And they are LONG.
This excellent video — shot by another group earlier this Summer — at 3min 8sec gives you a good idea of what the ropes are like. That’s the worst the trail throws up to challenge those afraid of heights.
Ropes are mainly needed for descent. I tended to avoid them on the climbs. Roots are better and more stable.
Those folks were crazy to take dogs out there, by the way. 😦 A really bad idea with so much wildlife here. At least 2 dogs have fought with wolves this summer.
We were tremendously LUCKY with the WEATHER. Seven days, no real rain. Coastal hiking is paradise when the sun is shining.
This helicopter fly-over Shuttleworth Bight gives you a good idea of the wonderful terrain.
A hiker in Alaska’s Denali National Park photographed a grizzly bear for at least eight minutes before the bear mauled and killed him in the first fatal attack in the park’s history, officials said Saturday.
Investigators have recovered the camera and looked at the photographs, which show the bear grazing and not acting aggressively before the Friday attack …
A state trooper shot and killed the male bear on Saturday.
The hiker was identified late Saturday as Richard White, 49, of San Diego. He was backpacking alone along the Toklat River on Friday afternoon when he came within 50 yards (50 metres) of the bear, far closer than the quarter-mile (0.4 kilometres) of separation required by park rules, officials said.
… For three miles, the Tuolumne River curves lazily through meadows like a time-lapse video of a cat on a sunny windowsill. Then it perks up and dashes over a series of cascades and waterfalls, terminating at Glen Aulin …
I left a Summit Stone in this rock formation, a short scramble from Kearsarge.
Onion Valley to Kearsarge is one of the most popular day hikes in the Eastern Sierra. You can start high, driving up to over 9000ft.
Gorgeous climate. Perfect weather day-after-day. No bugs. Excellent footing. The Eastern Sierra truly is one of the best hiking destinations in the world. 🙂
besthike.com 