(aka “Blood Sweat and Tears”)
For those who know me, I’ve been getting more into hiking and backpacking recently. This weekend was supposed to be my first ever backcountry camping trip. After a potential Strathcona trip being postponed, Dan and I decided to go down to the Juan de Fuca trail and do a weekend backpack trip. We were going to camp at Sombrio Beach and hike east to Chin Beach for the second night.
Unfortunately everyone else had the same idea and Sombrio was insane. All of the good camp sites were taken already but we managed to get a spot on the far east of the beach near a nice cove. We would surely be above the tide line, and I had a tide table. We set up camp, ate a backpackers dinner, and settled in for the night.
I awoke around 1am to a huge rumble outside, opened the tent door to find the high tide reaching up to about 2 ft from our tent. Tents to the left and right of us already had water come up and surround their tent. I was so overwhelmed I promptly had an anxiety attack and poor Dan had to try to pull out all our gear and lift the tent onto a narrow grassy ledge on the edge of the sand (while I was rocking and hyperventilating). The moon was full and the whole beach was lit up in moonlight and mist as the ocean rumbled and crashed. We were up for another few hours as Dan walked the beach and helped others move their tents away from the tideline, and then settled in for an uncomfortable sleep on the tilted narrow ledge.
The next morning we chatted with our beach neighbours about how high the tide was and how many tents got wet. I started seeing eager hikers with full kit starting their trek and I felt a pang of jealousy. Even on little sleep, we could probably make it to Little Kutschie campsite, a mere 4km in the other direction from where we planned. Dan and I packed up and headed west. Unfortunately the ‘trail’ was a boulder beach which made for some tricky balancing with a full backpack in 30+ deg heat.
About 30 min in, I look over and see Dan fall horizontal, face down, hitting his head on a boulder. I balance over boulders as quick as I can to get to him and see him raise his head, holding his forehead with his hand. I consider calling for an SOS using the neato Garmin InReach device I just bought, but thank god his hat brim took most of the blow and he didn’t lose consciousness. But he sure did have a nice goose egg. We moved to the shade, sat a while, and made a plan to head home early.
This trip certainly didn’t go according to plan, and both me and Dan went through some ordeals (Dan is fine by the way). So should I give up this silly dream? I’m told no, keep going. I am just learning. Glad to get some tough lessons out of the way first.
sharyn 