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Day
3 Walbran Creek - Cribs Creek (9 km)
Today would be an easy day for us. We only had to hike nine km on the beach. To
make it even better, we would have a cheeseburger for lunch! We got up at
6:30, repeating our not very efficient morning routine. It took us 2 hours to
get ready everyday. It would be totally unacceptable in Manhattan. But we
were on vacation.
For a change, the sun came out. It was warm and dry. I felt very happy
despite the fact that my feet had to go back into the wet socks and boots. It
was 8:30 a.m., we checked the tide table, and decided to wade across the
river and hike on the beach. It was so nice to walk on a flat surface. On
some parts of the beach the sand was tightly packed and was easier to walk
on. Some parts were loosely packed and it took us a lot more energy to make
progress. John taught me to walk in somebody else’s footsteps to save some
energy. But since we were the first pair to take off in the morning, there
were no footsteps for us to follow. We tried to walk on the coral shelf
whenever we could in order to save energy. It was a beautiful hike with the
Pacific Ocean crashing in on our left hand side and a temperate rain forest
on our right hand side. A coastal guard helicopter patrolling the coastline
flew over us once in a while. We saw some little crabs on the beach, and tons
of bugs hopping on the seaweed. There was some really weird looking seaweed
we saw. I could not believe we ate that stuff in our miso soup and salad!
An hour and a half into our hike, we saw a white lighthouse from afar. It
must the Carmanah Lighthouse. That was the half way mark of today’s hike. But
the very special thing about the lighthouse was that we would get
cheeseburgers near there. Every hiker had heard about Monique’s burgers. She
served burgers on the beach at Carmanah and some people described them as
“Burgers in Paradise”. I declared that I would have two cheeseburgers with
bacon if that was available, and would order another one for take out.
The biggest effort to make it to Monique’s burger place was the cable car at
Carmanah Creek. Unlike all the other cable cars that we had been on, this
ride was extremely long. I had to help pulling ourselves over to the other
side of the creek. I was outraged that I could not sit like a princess to
cross the creek. But... burgers ahead. I did not really complain!
We arrived at Monique’s restaurant, a single story structure with a wood
skeleton and transparent plastic walls and roof open to the sea. I went crazy
when I saw oranges and apples. John and I strategized our attack plan. We
would order a burger each, and we would order another one after we finish so
that we would have hot food all the time. We placed our food order. I
greedily sat down in a chair (wow!) and started eating potato chips and
drinking the sugar loaded Coca-Cola! John drank half a can of beer and went
off the fill up our fuel canister. We found out that morning we were very low
in cooking fuel and urgently needed some refill. Monique gave us a big can of
fuel to take whatever amount we wanted.
There were four other hikers in the restaurant. They all came from the
opposite direction. John and I were the first two made it to Monique’s from
Walbran on that day. It took a long time for us to get our food, but it was
good! I miss the taste of meat, especially after burning thousands of
calories each day. The burgers were hot and the cheese and oil were dripping.
Yummy! While we were munching, Monique started a conversation with our fellow
hikers. She was definitely a person with firm opinions. She believed the
attack on America on September 11 was not planned by the Arabs/Muslims
because those people were not smart enough to plan out such a complex action.
John tried to argue with her on this and I kicked him on his boots. I was too
afraid of upsetting her so that she would take our food away. I need my meat!
At this time, Catman and his wife came in. They ordered a bunch of food and
sat outside the restaurant. We went out to join them after we finished our
food. Monique told us stories about all the weird people that she met on the
trail over the past many years. Time flied when we were not carrying weight
walking. We finally picked up our stuff and headed towards Cribs Creek. Every
hiker that traveled the opposite direction described Cribs as a beautiful
campsite. I could not wait to see it.
We hiked with Catman and his wife. And I found out his name was Jeff and hers
was Elise. They were from Bellingham, Washington. They just got married and
hiking the West Coast Trail was part one of their honeymoon. Elise told me
that it was her idea to hike here because she thought marriage was a
difficult thing to get through in life, and hiking the trail together was a
symbolic tough action. I liked her sincerely when I heard that. Jeff worked
in a outdoor gear shop. And he had hiked in Nipal and many other exotic
places. He was cool because he knew everything about hiking gear. They had
double hiking poles and they moved on the sand as if they were skiing.
We arrived at Cribs at 3:30 p.m.. A few groups of hikers had set up their
tents already. The look and the behavior of the hikers hanging out on the
beach reminded me of backpackers on Thai beaches. We found our spot and hang
up all the wet items in the sun. Then we sat down on a log to examine our
wounds. John had a sore toe and a couple of wounded toe nails. I had a
serious cosmetic bruise on my right knee due to the wipeouts on the first
day, a couple of purple toe nails, and some blisters around my ankle (I was
wearing short running socks). Once we sat down, we could feel the pain in our
body. Every muscle from my collar bones to toe nails were sore! We walked
around the camp like old people and made a long moaning sound whenever we had
to stand up.
And guess what we did that night? Hang out with Gordon and Amanda by the camp
fire, of course. By this time, John and I, Gordon and Amanda, and the
newlyweds were basically seeing each other every morning and night. There was
no bear locker at Cribs. So we had to hang our food and garbage on the trees.
John had a freaky accident with the rope when he tried to throw it over a
branch. The rope swung around and made a dead lock on the branch five meters
above the ground. He tied our food on Gord’s rope and hoped that he could
untie the our rope the morning after when there was more light. We went to
bed at 10:30 p.m.. The waves were hitting the rocks loudly.
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