Camping Trip to Alberni Valley

I wanted to find out how it would be to camp out of the Nissan Pathfinder, so packed up enough food and gear to last most of a week and drove up to Port Alberni. After looking at an outboard motor for 'Drifter', I headed over to the base of Arrowsmith, which is accessed by driving up a couple of logging roads that branch off the main highway 4 near Alberni summit.

The hike up started inauspiciously when a doberman attacked me on the approach trail and got its teeth into my leg. The damage was minor - torn pants, bruising, and a couple of teeth punctures but it put me in a sour mood for a few hours. I found out later that the same dog had attacked another hiker and a dog that day. The judges route is steep and quite eroded in places - a victim of the popularity of climbing Arrowsmith as this is the only route that is non-technical and hence used by everyone and his dog. There was low cloud as I approached the summit and limited views to the west with none to the east.

View looking back the way I came up from summit of Arrowsmith

Camp set up on a logging spur road.

That night I set up camp on a disused logging spur and found that making supper on the fold out shelf and later sleeping on the platform, with everything shut up and cosy, worked out very well. I used magnets to attach screens to two windows to reduce condensation and keep the car ventilated.

The next day I packed up the full backpack with tenting gear and added some food I could eat without cooking and headed up to the Cokely Arrowsmith saddle - the same place where a year ago Rani broke her leg. The clouds were still low and visibility not ideal. The trail, although steep, was much more pleasant than the Judges route and I saw only a few people that day - and no attack dogs. I set up camp just above the saddle on a plateau that overlooks Jewel Lake. I then hiked over the 'Bumps' to get to the base of Arrowsmith, which I climbed up until my nerves got the better of me about 100 feet from the first summit.

View from the plateau where I camped with Jewel Lake below

Walking back to the campsite over the bumps, the clouds swept in and obscured everything. I lost the path on one bump and made one and a half circuits of the summit I was on before finding it again. In the process I climbed down and back up a couple of cliffs and ran across either a grouse or ptarmigan (which I understand is a type of grouse anyway). The bird had a brood of chicks - 6 or 7 in number - and I felt very guilty for disturbing their warm nest in this bleak and windy place.

Spot the bird

And spot the tent

I retired to my own nest and read a book for the afternoon, occasionally glancing out to see if the cloud showed any signs of lifting. It got worse however and eventually the inside of my 20+ year old tent started to resemble a steaming kettle, with wind-driven cloud boiling in under the fly and rain dripping through from above. Around 6 pm I capitulated and packed everything up to head back down to the comparative luxury of the truck, driving this down toward the highway and parking on another spur road with a level patch for camping.

The next day after a short hike along Roger Creek, I drove the 80+ kilometers of dusty logging roads to Bamfield and Pachena Bay. I have been to Bamfield on three boat trips over the last 15 years but had never driven in. Now I remember why. The road is actually passable for a low clearance vehicle driven with caution, but there is a continuous danger, not so much from the logging trucks and road making equipment but from small pickup trucks driven by people who, I would guess, commute into Port Alberni or further. These trucks would swing into view, often in a full 4 wheel skid around a steep bend going 80-100 kph on a road whose 70 kph speed limit was in places pretty optimistic. The road is also very dusty and I spent a lot of time breathing recirculated air.

Buoys mark the entrance to the trail at Keeha Beach

Pachena Bay has a campground run by first nations and is also where the west coast trail starts or ends. I walked along the beach and paralleled the trail for a portion enjoying tide pools and lovely views out toward the open Pacific. From here I drove to South Bamfield and hiked out to Keeha Beach - which was where Rani and I had intended to camp last year before she broke her leg. The trail has been described on various Internet sites as being muddy and rooty and much more difficult than its 3 km length would indicate. It was not too bad on the day I hiked it, but the portion near the lake was quite overgrown and very muddy in places. The roots and mud make it very hard to get into a regular walking pace as you seem to be always stepping up or down. There is much boardwalk and corduroy road on the trail but much of it is old and a bit rotten or disrupted. The trail could certainly do with some attention from the National Parks folks (it is part of Pacific Rim park).

The only other hikers in front of me , a group of 4 adults and a child, turned back near the lake, so I had the beach to myself. It would be a lovely place to spend the night. I chose to do it as a day hike and spent a couple of hours walking it end to end and investigating the camp sites and facilities (including a composting toilet) in case we do this as an overnighter some year.

View to the west from the trail head at Keeha Beach

Curious tree growing from an old log on the Keeha Beach trail

In all the trip was a successful one and a good trial of the minimalist SUV camper setup. The sleeping arrangements will be a bit cosy with two of us I think, but certainly adequate for a weekend getaway or even a week or 2 of camping.