THE CAPE SCOTT TRAIL

The Cape Scott Trail

Where is the Cape Scott Trail? The History of the Area. The Trail Dan's Trek Second Time Round

How Do You Find It?

The Cape Scott Trail is situated at the extreme northwest tip of Vancouver Island in an area which has been set aside as a provincial park. From Victoria you take the #1 Highway to Nanaimo where it becomes the #19. From Nanimo it is a 390km (242 mile) drive to Port Hardy. As you are approaching that town, you will see the left turn to Cape Scott indicated on the road signs. At that turn you will enter onto a gravel logging road which will take you another 46kms (28 miles) till you reach the settlement of Holberg. Holberg and the San Josef radar station are the two most northwestern points on the island that can be accessed by automobile. At Holberg you turn right and carry on to the end of the road. There you will find the San Josef Bay campground and the entrance to the Cape Scott Trail. Keep an eye out for a special monument known as "The Shoe Tree" which you will pass en route. If these instructions sound like you are being sent to the corner store it is because the highway system on the island is fairly simple and the turn offs are well signed. It is hard to get lost.

The History of the Trail

In 1896, Danish settlers from Minnesota attempted to establish a farming community on Cape Scott. They dyked, cleared and cultivated the land and raised cattle with some success. At that time there was no road in from Port Hardy so the area was very inaccessable and the cost and perils associated with getting their products to a market proved to be insurmountable. The violent storms and treacherous seas made life hard and among the "sights" that the modern trekker keeps a look out for are the remnants of wrecked cargo ships which dot the coast line. A kiosk now marks the former site of this community and there are relics of old buildings, dykes and farm equipment still in evidence.

A lighthouse was constructed on Cape Scott in 1960 and the present trail leads from the radar station at San Josef's Bay to that lighthouse. The 21,849 hectare park was set aside in 1973.

THE TRAIL

For most travellers who have come from down island, the first night out will be spent at the San Josef camp site which is located right at the trail head. This is a standard widerness camp...there are out houses and fire pits. It is situated in the woods on the banks of the San Joseph River. The only thing exceptional about it is the wild life. I have never encountered so many mosquitoes in one place in my life. They were so thick it was hard to eat without risking inhaling one of the little blighters. Bring along lots of mosquito repellant. You will need it to survive your night here. The hike from the trail head out to Cape Scott is about 24 km (15 miles). The route followed is in the forest though there are fine beaches at Nels Bight, Nissen Bight and Guise Bay. These Bays are generally reached by leaving the trail and walking a kilometer or two towards the coast. Most hikers go as far as Nels Bight on their first day and set up camp there. The trip from there to the lighthouse is a 16 km (10 mile) return hike and can be done as a day trip using Nels Bight as a base camp.

Cape Scott has the dubious distinction of having the highest annual rainfall of any place on the North American continent. Annual precipitation is between 300 and 500 cm and prolonged sunny periods are a rarity. Translated into practical terms this means bring rain gear.....skip food if you have to, but make sure you have waterproof bags to pack your clothes and sleeping bag in, a waterproof fly for your tent, a small primus stove, sealed hiking boots and REALLY GOOD rain gear. You will read more about all of this and see some pictures of how the stylish hiker dresses if you carry on reading.

Dan's Trek

One evening in the summer of 1990 Dan and I were enjoying a quiet evening at home when we were joined by my brother-in-law, Wayne. He was wondering if he could borrow some item of equipment we had since he was planning to leave the following day to go to Vancouver Island and do the Cape Scott Trail. He started telling Dan about the hike and as he did so enthusiasm grew. A couple of beer later it had been decided that Dan would join Wayne on the trek. Dan hit the larder and began packing. He had an old trapper Nelson left from his hiking days in the seventies. He began loading it. Thick steaks came forth from the deep freeze, a cast iron frying pan, eggs wrapped in paper towel and carefully placed in a coffee pot, bacon, canned beans, a couple of bottles of wine, fishing tackle, including lead weights.... In a matter of hours he was packed and ready to go.

Five days later he returned. He had lost six pounds despite or perhaps because of his ample supply of groceries. He talked in favourable terms about the time they'd spent recovering from their hike at the camp site at Woss Lake and a day trip they had taken to St. Joseph’s Bay but his commentary on the Cape Scott Trail was not likely to get him space in one of the Tourism B.C. publications. Three words loomed large in his descriptive narrative.....mud, roots and rain. He assured me I had not missed anything, that there was nothing much to see, and that the hike just involved slogging through scrubby forest up to your knees in mud.

I thought perhaps his experience had been coloured by his lack of preparation and his oversize pack but a survey of the literature on this trail would seem to confirm his impressions. The Vancouver Island Park Guide describes it in these terms:

The 30km trek into the Cape Scott Lighthouse weaves along an almost always muddy trail through forests of cedar, hemlock and spruce before opening onto a muskeg world of stunted pines, bog plants and carpets of sphagnum moss.......Visitors to Cape Scott Provincial Park should come prepared for wet, windy weather, muddy trails and the challenges of wilderness travel.

Have the pictures loaded? Good...then you are ready to see Dan slogging down the trail...no that is not an apartment size fridge he is carrying on his back.

This is the information kiosk that marks the site of the failed Danish farming community.

Since an increasing number of tourists are now showing an interest in our wilderness trails many of them have been upgraded. I thought maybe I should check for some more up to date information on the Cape Scott Trail. I searched it on Alta Vista's Net and found the following entry from Gerry Groneburg, dated July 18th ,1997.

I just finished hiking at Cape Scott - one of the wettest trails around. two feet of water on the trail, logs where floating in it.

What can I say? We're famous!

Our Next Trip to Cape Scott

Yes believe it or not we went again the next year. This time Lois and I came along. The guys PROMISED us good weather and we certainly started out in the midst of a long hot spell. We made the drive up island and arrived at the San Joe camp site around dinner time. I set up camp that night with a scarf tied over my nose and mouth to keep from inhaling mosquitoes. The company was good though and the weather was grand so here we are our first morning.

This is Lois and I on the Cape Scott Trail in the summer of 1991. Are you surprised we went? Note the size of our packs. See our smiling faces.

The reason we could afford to be smug was that though we had entered onto the Cape Scott Trail we were not planning to hike out to the lighthouse. We were going the other way....an easy 3km hike on a nicely groomed unmuddy trail down to San Joe Bay. We were planning to spend the day lying on the beach while Dan and Wayne went fishing. All I have in my pack is a snack, some sunscreen and a good book. This was our destination.

This is a Portuguese Man of War we found on the sands there.

This is a beautiful beach and it is readily accessible. If I were to go there again, and I may, I would make camp down there since it is well worth the short hike in and the sea breezes deter the insect population.

It was a lovely day but some people don't know when to leave. That afternoon we went into Holberg and stopped in at the Scarlet Ibis Pub. As luck would have it the proprietor was being very vocal about some fresh caught salmon she was canning somewhere in the back recesses of the kitchen. Before long the guys were back there admiring the catch and chatting up the locals who knew where to go to find these beauties' next of kin. We left that afternoon and took another short drive to a nearby bay which will remain nameless. We had been told there were camping facilities there and indeed there were but we did not know until we arrived that the camp had been set up entirely by the people who used it...they built and cleaned the outhouse, they cleared the sites and they piled firewood. We were intruders but were given a phenominally warm welcome. We were immediately invited to share Barb and Mike's camp site because though they were leaving their travel trailer parked there, they were going to be heading back into Holberg that afternoon to be back at work the next day. By the time we had our tent set up, there was a freshly barbecued salmon on our picnic table, shortly thereafter a pan full of fresh caught crab in black bean sauce appeared from another camp site and someone else dropped in with a few beer. The sun shone brightly. Doesn't this sound idyllic?

Bernie was going to take Dan and Wayne out and introduce them to the "big ones" at 5:00 the next morning. They left. Lois and I slept on.....by about seven I was peering out the flap of my pup tent at a soggy, foggy looking dawn. Lois, ever the shrinking violet, stuck her head out of her tent and called over to Lou and Dave in the next camp site, "Is the coffee on?" Well it was and so taking that inquiry as a subtle hint they invited us over. We sat huddled around their fire drinking their coffee. By noon it had started to rain. The men returned. See our happy pictures of camping at Cape Scott.


I am wearing my own rain gear but just to be on the safe side I have Dan's on as well.	Lois is a bit of a city slick....but what the heck, if an umbrella and garbage bags work for you, go for it!

Now you must understand this was just normal rain. It wasn't till around bed time that it got serious about it. At that point it began to demonstrate the "torrential rainfall and gale force winds" that the north island is famous for. We were set up in tarp city...we huddled together with tarps overhead and attached to every available vertical structure we could find as we tried to form primitive walls and deflect the sheets of rain that were coming at us on a horizontal plain. When dark fell Dan and I crawled into our pup tent. Wayne retired to his only to find that Lois, the spineless character that she is, had sought shelter in someone's motor home. I felt quite noble having been offered similar accommodation and rejected it in favour of this chance to prove I was a real camper. We got into our sleeping bags....mine was wet. I was sure of it. I told Dan....obviously our tent was leaking. He patted over his side and said the tent wasn't leaking but maybe one of the streams of water that was dividing in the middle and skirting our tent had made its way over the lip of the door. It was pitch dark. The wind was howling and the rain continued in its relentless effort to equal the record it set in Noah's time. Dan left our primitive shelter and on his hands and knees, using a little garden trowel, he began digging a moat around the circumference of our tent. He got back in. I could still feel water coming in on me. He said it wasn't. I said it was. It is meaningful interchanges like this that really cement a marriage. He gave me his gortex jacket. I took a couple of plastic garbage bags and my own jacket and swathed myself, sleeping bag and all in these. With every gust of wind the edges of the tent lifted but in time I fell asleep. The storm had subsided by the time morning broke and we were able to properly assess the state of our gear. My sleeping bag was not wet....not at all. Yet I had been so sure.....

Will I go Again?
Oh quite possibly. Why? Well it is the kind of experience that builds character and strengthens your relationships.

It also gives Wayne an excuse to take more photos. Oh yes, I mustn't forget. There is one other reason.

Sign My Guestbook View My Guestbook