Best hikes, treks, tramps in the world.
Backpacking on Vancouver Island: The Essential Guide to the Best Multi-Day Trips and Day Hikes, was selected top guidebook at the 2024 Banff Mountain Book Competition.
Author Taryn Eyton.
I’m spending most of the year on Vancouver Island myself and can heartily recommend the destination and this guidebook.
In fact, the West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island is our #1 hike in the world.
If you’ve never hiked temperate rainforest, plan a trip to Olympic National Park in Washington State.
There’s MUCH to do including some terrific coastal hiking.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
West Coast Trail is our top hike in the world.
Click PLAY or watch a 1-minute preview on YouTube.
Challenging in many ways.
So much VARIETY in pristine Canadian coastal wilderness.
Mystic dawns and mind-blowing sunsets. Hidden pocket coves and weird coastal geology.
You’ll never forget the West Coast Trail.
Read more on our WCT information page.
Trip report by BestHike editor Rick McCharles
Click PLAY or get a glimpse on YouTube.
MacMillan Provincial Park is a 301-hectare (740-acre) provincial park in British Columbia, Canada. Located 25 km (16 mi) west of Qualicum Beach and 16 km (9.9 mi) east of Port Alberni, the park straddles Highway 4 and the Island Rail Corridor in central Vancouver Island.
The park is home to a famous, 157-hectare (390-acre) stand of ancient Douglas fir, known as Cathedral Grove, which draws visitors from all over the world.
… the only highway-accessible protected old-growth Douglas-fir forest in British Columbia.
In 2007 Cathedral Grove made the short list on CBC‘s competition Seven Wonders of Canada.
My video includes parts of both loops. AND some shots outside Cathedral Grove, in the Provincial park.
I stop every time I drive highway 4.
Dozens of times, so far.
It is a fantastic short day hike.
Hiking in the rain can be miserable.
AND hiking in the rain can be wonderful.
You can hike the Pacific N.W. every day of the year. BUT many of those days will have a threat of rain.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. The joys and challenges of … wet weather.
TIPS:
Having tried many systems over the years, I’m happiest now with …
No blisters. The shoes dry quickly. )My feet do get wrinkled after a couple of hours, however.)
If the rain really starts coming down, I’ll add an inexpensive Frogg Toggs waterproof jacket on top.
Since I bought a Hyperlite 3400 Windrider backpack, I’ve not used a pack cover. It’s quite rain resistant. Everything inside is protected from wet and water.
Check this REI post – How to Go Hiking in the Rain
Of course if lightning and thunder threaten, take shelter immediately.
Camping in the rain is definitely more challenging.
related – Miranda has some thoughts on Frogg Toggs. 😀
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Challenging. Terrible weather.
Swarming with sandflies.
But beautiful.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
I met Blake and Eli cycling the Tuscany Trail in Italy.
World travellers, they’ve been living and working online from locations like Hawaii, Australia, Bali & Thailand.
Living the dream.
Click PLAY or watch one of their hikes on YouTube. Subscribe to the channel if you enjoy it.
Kalalau is one of our Top 10 coastal hikes in the world.
Hole in the Wall, a short day hike, is a is fast becoming a major attraction for the Vancouver Island community.
The hole is all that remains of a decades old water line.
Click PLAY or watch my 2023 video on YouTube. At dawn I had the waterfalls to myself.
Check in at the Port Alberni Visitor Centre for directions.
Parking can be difficult though the trail itself is only an easy 1.3km return walk.
Rather than following the normal route as posted on AllTrails Port Alberni Hole in the Wall, I walked instead from an industrial park end of Sherwood Road.
Definitely muddier and less traveled, I did find it interesting. Nobody else parked there.
Here are the rough trails as shown on Maps.me.
Click PLAY or get a glimpse of my 2021 hike on YouTube.
The Caribbean is not at all considered a hiking destination. But Lonely Planet does recommend these trails.
Details – The 5 best hikes in the Caribbean
Of those, we’re most interested in the long Waitukubuli Trail, officially opened in 2013.
Click PLAY or get a glimpse on YouTube.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Solo.
Approximately 800km / 500miles
She saw no other hikers outside the 2 provincial parks.
There are multiple route options, but here’s the gist.
Carly Wiechnik:
The two higher elevation mountainous sections, the Beauforts and Strathcona, can be snow covered until the end of June, and snow can begin to fall again around the month of October.
A thru-hike might take a month (fast) to six weeks (slower), which can easily fit into the window of July-September.
The best month to hike would probably be August, as by then the snow is mostly gone in the higher elevations, precipitation is low and it is warm and dry. (However, campfire bans are common around this time to prevent wildfires). Coastal trails are also less muddy. …
Resupply: A cool thing about the VIT is that it goes straight through towns at reasonable intervals, so it’s easy to hit up a grocery store every 3-6 days …
Vancouver Island Trail: Recap (and Tips!)
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