Got a short hike on the Juan de Fuca trail organized last week. Fantastic. Some notes:

Weather

“Scattered Showers” to “”Mix of Sun and Cloud” are probably your ideal weather scenarios for the Juan de Fuca. The two highlights of that trail are the gorgeous giant trees and the Pacific itself. The trees will shelter you from rain showers and the ocean is at it’s best when viewed through patchy cloudy light and screens of blowing rain. Especially if there’s a good wind pushing the breakers up into silver-grey swells. Too much rain sucks, but you knew that. The point is, when you’ve got the ocean to look at some rain is better than none.

Access

Although the official maps all show official access at just a few places along the trail, pretty much every beach has a surfer trail running down to it from the highway. The creeks that run out to the coast are all signed where they cross the road, so you can tell roughly how far you’ve driven parallel to the trail by watching for them. Once you know you’re in the same area as the beach you want to get to watch for a trail and maybe a pull-off. Parking by the side of the road doesn’t seem to be an issue.

But if you’re going to get a freind with bad knees to meet you at a given beach, make sure you give crystal clear instructions about how to find the unoffical trail to that beach. Some trails are more unoffical than others.

Gear

Estimate 1.5 to 2 times as much fuel as you would normally ration for your trip if your camp stove leaks at the hose if it isn’t inserted into the stove just so.

My Sierra Designs Lightning tent continues to prove itself a classic trail tool. It sleeps two and seats three reasonably comfortably, sets and strikes in a flash, keeps the rain off good and doesn’t weigh but nothin.

photo: Mr. Timothy Irvin

I recommend a ukulele for any group of trippers larger than 1 person. I’m not sure exactly how heavy my Fluke uke is, but even with the carry bag it’s gotta be well under 2 pounds. Once everyone has learned enough chords (4 strings: easy chords to remember) to lead the squad through their favourite Neil Young selections, a uke is more than worth it’s weight and space in your packs.