The North Coast Trail Hike- Planning

The "Goose Spit Grind"- 600 steps for conditioning

Many people who are into backpacking or long hikes have heard of the West Coast Trail along the southwest coastline of Vancouver Island.  My hiking partner, Brian, did that hike 25 years ago with his stepson.  One day near the end of March, this year, Brian phoned to ask me if I wanted to hike the North Coast Trail this summer.

I said I would get back to him after I did some research.

I discovered that, in a number of ways, it compared to the West Coast Trail in that it is a coastal hike (albeit on the opposite end of Vancouver Island), similar in length of time to hike, distance, difficulty, climate and terrain.  After the hike, Brian told me that is was actually more difficult than what he remembered of the West Coast Trail.  Mind you, 25 years ago Brian was 39 years old.

Since the West Coast Trail opened in the early 1907 as a means of rescuing the survivors from ship wrecks, a number of improvements have been made for hikers.   The North Coast Trail officially opened in May 2008, and it is still very rugged.  Signs and directions are almost non-existent along the Trail.  Many sections of the trails, inland from the ocean, are steep, including 90 degrees vertical.  Ropes are provided for climbing up and down the steeper and muddier sections.

The Research

I have nurtured a dream about hiking the West Coast Trail so this seemed like a good opportunity to have a comparable experience.  Based on the research I did that showed the similarities between the two Trails, I told Brian that I was 'in".

I pored over half a dozen blogs written by people who had hiked the trail.  You can find those blog links at the bottom of this post.

I searched for what to take for a week-long hike.  I started a list of what to bring, listing items by category: Clothing, Hiking Equipment, Safety and First Aid, Food, Toiletries, Eating Utensils, etc.  Go HERE to read the list.

Planning

Although Brian and I had not determined an exact date to leave, I started to assemble items from my list in piles in a spare room.  I bought different sizes of zip-lock plastic bags from the Dollarama to contain items in the same categories.  The Zip-lock bags would keep items dry and prevent odors that might attract wild animals.  Grouping these items in the Zip-lock bags made it easy to organize and pack / unpack.

Throughout the planning, although I was very excited about doing the hike, I was also apprehensive about not being fully recovered from a two-year knee injury-- a torn meniscus.  Until six months ago (Fall of 2013) I still had trouble walking more than a block without considerable pain.   From a class with a  chiropractor in a half-day seminar ("Human Anatomy") I attended at the local Elder College, I learned that through "proper loading" there is less stress on the joints.  When walking or sitting, proper posture reverses what causes the pain.  It took me about three weeks to rid myself of the majority of the pain that I had had for the previous year and a half.

Conditioning

During the period of time I was recovering from my knee injury I was not as physically-active as I had been when I prepared to run half-marathons, etc.  So, in order to get in shape for the hike, I did the following:

• for four months, I rode my bike about every second-day, working my way up to distances of 110 km
• worked out with weights weekly on 16 different weight machines.  Towards the end I was doing 1000 405-pound leg presses in one session, and near-maximum weights on the other machines (20 reps each)
• I discovered a 600-step hill run nicknamed "The Goose Spit Grind" that I ran-walked up and down (total 1200 steps) building up to about 12,000 steps at one go.
• I did Yoga stretches
• about a week before I completed a 23 km hike in our local mountains with a 15-pound backpack
• I did my usual dog-walk 4 or 5 times a day

Priorities:

The Dry Run with the Full Pack about 2 weeks before

Because it rains a lot along the North Coast of Vancouver Island, the forest floor never dries even in relatively draught-y conditions that we experienced this summer all over Vancouver Island.  It is important to have boots, gaiters and outerwear that is waterproof and breathable.  Boots that are properly-fitting go a long way -- no blisters, waterproof, sturdy enough to balance the heavy load, and walk over/up/through all the varied rugged terrain.  I wish I had known more about the boot requirements.  The ones I had were not comfortable enough and they weren't totally water-proof.  Beware: While a lot of boots are rated as water-proof, when you are slogging for long distances through mud and rain, you almost inevitably find out that they aren't water-proof.  If I were to do this again, I would get something like this.  (These are the boots my friend and other hikers had the good fortune to be wearing).  On the other hand, I ordered a pair of $5 gaiters off EBay from China (cost $60 locally) and they did the trick fine-- water-repellent and breathable.

The Blogs I Followed:

North Coast Trail - day 5  Boring Art, Boring Life: North Coast Trail - Summer 2014   don't hike the North Coast Trail  The North Coast Trail
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Anything mentioned in this blog that is of a "health or medical nature" is the opinion and/or experience of the blogger and not an endorsement or a cure. Please see your trusted health professional.