West Coast Trail - Exhaustingly Breathtaking

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On July 22nd the 1st Oilfields Turner Valley Venturer Scouts & Rover Scouts headed out to the West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island for a 7 day trek. The Trail is 75km of mud, tree roots, beaches and ladders that stretches from Bamfield to Port Renfrew on the far west coast of Vancouver Island. This trip also helps these scouts towards their gold-level Duke of Edinburgh Award accreditation.

In spite of all of the prior preparation, the trip wasn't without its challenges. A vehicle breakdown in Revelstoke on the way there stole 24 hours from the travel plan, leading to an exhausted arrival in Port Renfrew and 3 hours of sleep before catching the 6:30am water taxi to Bamfield, and our starting point. Nonetheless, we overcame and arrived on schedule, after seeing whales, sea-lions and bald eagles on our trip up the coast.
For more information on the Venturer Scout and Rover Scout programs with Scouts Canada go to:
http://www.scouts.ca, and contact Debby Dyer at m_ddyer@telusplanet.net for information on 1st Oilfields Turner Valley Scouting. For more information on the Duke of Edinburgh Award, which is open to all citizens of the Commonwealth between the ages of 14 and 25, go to http://www.dukeofed.org.
Information and photographs provided by Shawn Rose. We encourage you to access our expanded, online edition to read more details on this exceptional excursion. Access is free by visiting www.gatewaygazette.ca and navigating to the “Readers” section through the main menu at the top of the site.