Thrasher Cove to Gordon River
I woke at 4:30am, peeked out my tent as the morning was about to start. I put on my warm layers as it was cool then went out of my tent to take some morning pictures. What a wonderful breezy morning! Was nice to hear the waves and birds.
After taking a few morning photos, I then went to the outhouse, washed up, then I started to pack my things. At 5am, I went around Lalit, Josh, Thery and Karlie, and Quynh’s tent to give them a wake up call as put plan was to leave right at 6am.
As the sun began to rise, undimming the sky, and lights shinning through the openings of the clouds, it produced an orange and yellow colour, so awesome that I stared at it for 30 minutes. It was a perfect mother nature moment. While we were having breakfast, the sky was so beautiful.
We slowly packed up our things and chilled a bit before leaving Thrasher to Gordan River which was our final destination. After everyone was finished having breakfast, we left at 7:15am. So up the ladders and into the forest we went. Gaining 100m of elevation then descended down towards the fork to Gordan River.
In about 1 km, we reached the fork to Gordon River at 7:48am. We took a quick 2 min water break. Then off we went on our final 5 km hike to Gordon River.
We hiked the forested trail that was mainly up and down for the most part. Some hikers we met along the trail said the hike is difficult from after the 52km mark. But we found the trail to be moderate going over alders and logs, crossing wooden and log bridges, and climbing ladders. Some parts of the wooden bridges were out of shape and need repairs but we managed to get pass them.
The thing that we notice was the km marks seemed longer. As there seem to be a discrepancy between the marked km trail compared to my Gaia GPX. Anyways, we just wanted to get the last stretch done, so we just focused on hiking at a steady and normal pace.
After hiking for over 3 hours, at 10:30am, we climbed down the last ladder which was completely vertical. We were so excited that we hurriedly climbed down. Success, we got to the trailhead of Gordon River which was our end point.
There were 4 other hikers at the trailhead waiting for the ferry. The yellow marker was raised to alert the ferry from the other side of the river that we were ready to be picked up. We patiently waited for the ferry with other group of hikers.
12 minutes later, the ferry arrived and dropped off a fresh group of happy hikers who were starting at Gordon River while we hopped on the ferry back to Gordon River Registration Office. Ferry ride was 10 min ride. We hopped off the boat, and hiked to the Parks Canada Registration Office.
We were all so happy and glad to have fully completed WCT. After sign out at the Parks Canada Registration Office, we went to out car which was across from the Registration Office. We unpacked and cleaned our gear, ate snacks and hydrated up. We even took a nice hot shower at the shower facilities which was 1 loonie for 5 mins. I took a 10 minute shower and felt very refreshed. The others did the same.
At 12:30 noon time, after packing everything into our car, we drove back towards Nanaimo and stopped at the Sawmill microbrewery in Chemainus for a nice warm lunch and craft beer. We were all so looking forward to it. As we ate and drank, we shared our favourite moments and pictures of WCT.
After spending 6 nights and 7 days hiking and camping WCT, Thery, Karlie, Quynh, Lalit, Josh and I thought we would have disagreements in this trip but it turned out that we all got along very well and got to know each other more. WCT definitely was an unforgettable experience!
