Cape Scott Provincial Park 2015

This year's trip to the Cape Scott Provincial Park was quite different from any other that I have been on. The hike was much easier and we even had a rest day in the middle of our 5 day adventure. Three other people accompanied me on the trip: Helena the "organiz-addict," Ji-Won the "bear fearmonger," and Aaron the "west coast newbie." Aaron and I started our trip from Ottawa. We met up with the ladies in Vancouver and set off on our trip from there.

Initially, we intended to start at Port Hardy on the North Coast Trail, hike our way to the Cape Scott Trail, and complete both trails. After reaching the Cape Scott Lighthouse, we were to hike down south and end our trip at the southeast trail head of the Cape Scott Provincial Park. Due to an injury to one of our members, we had to cut our trip in half to just the Cape Scott Trail. It was reviewed by other bloggers as the more scenic route with better marked trails; water supply is known to be scarce in many parts of the NCT and there are longer stretches of inland trails.

Some parts of this trip was quite bland. We didn't really feel exhausted and we certainly had a large surplus of calories at the end of each day. Also, since we camped two nights at Guise Bay, the extra day of rest was relaxing yet monotonous. But monotony in nature is not always a bad thing; monotony can bring you special moments that would eventually become one of the most memorable parts of a trip. We tented every night right on the sandy beaches and a nightly camp fire was never disappointing. We also had a birthday surprise for Aaron on July 1st! Helena and I really wanted to plan this year's trip so that we could have our birthdays (June 13th and 14th) while on a backpacking trip but our schedules did not work out. Even though I was very jealous of Aaron, there is great satisfaction for doing something you really want for yourself for another person.

I think we somewhat needed a relaxing trip like this one after the amazing but extremely difficult Gros Morne adventure. I remember back in October (2014), Helena and I both thought that we would not want to hike for about a year. The trip to Newfoundland was very exhausting and were literally hiked-out. That thought did not last long for both of us though! We immediately started planning our next summer's backpacking trip by the winter of 2014.