Day 1 Pachena Bay to Tsocowis Creek km 16

Day 1 was a 16 km hike to Tsocowis Creek (thanks to a tip from a southbound hiker from Chestermere). We got an early start, so early in fact that the scale wasn't out and we couldn't weigh our packs at the start of the trail. Jeremy saw a bear cub on the beach, but he ran into the forest before I saw him. The tide was out so we were able to cut across the beach thereby saving ourselves a bit of hiking through the forest.

 

 

 

The hiking on this first day was very easy and fun. We ate lunch on the spongy lawn of the Pachena Bay lighthouse. It is one of the few fully-manned lighthouses left in the world.
We watched sea-lions on some rocks for a while.

 Hammock at Michigan Creek.

The size of the trees on this trail never ceased to amaze me.

This was a dead whale on the beach. I actually walked right past it and didn't notice it. The wind was at my back and I couldn't smell anything until I turned around to go back and see it. P.U.

 We camped at Tsocowis Creek, km 16. It was a very nice "campground". Let me just say that camping in the sand gets old fast as does hiking in the sand. There were only 2 other campers there so we had the place pretty much to ourselves. Mickey and I swam in the falls. It was very "refreshing". There was a cougar spotted in the camp but we didn't see it. We might have seen the tracks though... Or they could be sea otters. Not an expert.

 

 

All the outhouses were second-story composting toilets with open air roofs.

Which kindof makes the can of Febreeze overkill. (When every ounce counts in your pack, who would pack that on the WCT???)

 The combination of falls, surf and mice kept me up most of the night. In fact, the mice ran around and up and down my tent all night long. At one point, I felt them run up my head on the outside of the tent. They were very numerous and friendly.

We saw an eagle at dusk out on a rock in the ocean and Julie got a few nice shots.

And my feet? They hurt. They are numb. You wouldn't think they could hurt if you can't feel them. Trust me, you can. Oh well.