West Coast Trail Tips #5-What to Bring
West Coast Trail Tips #5-What to Bring
West Coast Trail Tips #5-What to Bring
Taking a hiking adventure on the West Coast Trail is a great way to experience the real Pacific coast. But coastal hikes can be grueling and difficult. The weather is precocious, the ground conditions can be extremely variable, and the terrain can be hazardous. Making it through can be by sheer brute will, but the gear you take can help ease the way.
There are four important gear groupings to look at when you are planning. One area covers the gear for the time you are traveling. The second area covers the gear for staying in camp. Next, we have the area covering gear for the kitchen; and finally, we consider the clothing that you bring to deal with the changeable weather.
The Travel Gear
Travel gear includes the pack, the boots, the gaiters, the hydration system, and the pack cover. The pack is best if is an inside frame, fully adjustable, waist-belted expedition pack. If you have several people with larger packs, you can probably get away with a 60 liter pack, but on a 6 to 8 day camping tour, you need some volume. Make sure you get the pack fitted for you by someone who knows how to fit it and adjust it to you. Don't take it for certain that an employee of an outdoor store actually knows how to fit a pack, even they say they have been trained. If you have any experienced hiker friends, as them to show you how to fit it properly. A good fitting pack, properly adjusted makes sure you waste little of your energy. Conserving your energy on the hike lessens fatigue and decreases the chance of accident and injury.
The most common injury on hiking trips are blisters, and the most common cause is poorly fit, poorly maintained, or not-broken-in hiking boots. For the West Coast Trail and BC hiking on the coast, you need rugged, expedition hiking boots. The trails are rugged and the packs heavy. You need to make sure that the boots you have fit the bill. Because the trails are most often muddy, gaiters are a major help in keeping feet dry. In mud, the wetness does not get through the gaiter, even if it is over the boot top. When you have standing water of 3 to 5 inches and mud up to the knee, gaiters are critical.
Water is vital to life, and beyond blisters, the most common injury on a hiking trip is dehydration. The absolute, most critical factor to incorporate into your hydration system is accessibility. Accessible water will be drunk. Even if you don't take a filter or purification system, you need to have the water accessible. The filtration system is also very important. New gravity feed filtration systems are fast and easy. They are worth researching.
The Accommodation Gear
At the end of the day, you need shelter and sleeping gear. There are some great lightweight tents now on the market, ranging from about $200 to $600 for a two-person, three-season tent. Some tents are great, but a real pain to put up. If you get one of those tents, make sure you know how to put it up in wind and rain to keep is as stable and dry as possible.
Your sleeping gear contains your sleeping bag and insulating mat, as well as any bag liner you have. On the west coast, the damp air can make anything wet. Down bags lose their loft and warmth when they get wet. Keeping your bag dry is critical, especially in the shoulder seasons when the temperatures are lower. If your bag is GoreTex, you will not have to worry, but they are expensive. A synthetic fill bag or a hybrid bag are better choices. A heavy, -20 C is not needed. You can stay with a lighter 0 C bag on the coast. It rarely gets below freezing. Your insulating mat can be a foam pad, a standard Thermarest, or derivative, or one of the ultralight sleeping pads, also made by Thermarest.
The Kitchen Gear
The most critical considerations for your kitchen, other than the food, are that the stove works, works without a hitch, and is repairable in the field. And you also need to make sure you have your fuel when you leave. Do not count on hooking on a campfire: some beaches do not have enough wood. There are very good, light stoves on the market. It is easy to get one that is light, functional, and dependable. Liquid fuels may seem heavy, but they are refillable. Propane containers are heavy and are supposed to be refillable, but there are a lot of them that get thrown away.
Cooking pots add weight. Only take the size you need for yourself or your group. Plan on one pot meals, and limit the amount of cutlery. Coffee press lids for drinking bottles make great French press coffee, without having to carry a separate pot. Make sure you take the lid and have a good handle or pot grabber.
The Clothing
Clothing needs to be insulating. The prime mantra is, "No cotton!" Cotton dries slowly and does not insulate. The most effective way to think about your clothing is to think like an onion, with layers. Despite this Shrek-ly advice, layers increase the adjustability of your clothing options dramatically. The best fabrics are wool and fleece. New merino wool products that are thin make great base layers. Putting thin layers of fleece over top help maintain warmth.
Being on the "wet coast," good rain gear is necessary. Check your gear for waterproofness before you leave. It can be light, as long as it is definitely waterproof. Combining some fleece covered with rain gear breaks the wind and maintains the heat better inside the garments. Rain gear is effectively another warmth layer.
Combining the clothing with the travel gear, the placement in the pack is important. Thinking in terms of systems helps. Have systems like, "quick warmth for stops" and develop it with your clothing and pack to always have some insulating clothing near an easy pack opening, and by leaving a space by the opening for putting the clothing back. Dromedary hydration bags with the hose run out near the face and a gravity filter back beside the bag is a "hydration system." A systems approach helps with consistency and so, it helps with safety and security. We can't go into all gear options, but you can uncover more details with a bit of research.
The gear you bring to a hiking tour of the West Coast Trail is important. The quality, usability, and the weight are important for getting from one end to the other as easily as possible. Researching great gear and investing in quality are worth it when taking on a challenging backpacking hike like this. Using a good tour company helps relieve some of the research time because they will help you with the details and give great suggestions for what to bring and the quality to consider.
To learn more about hiking trips on the West Coast Trail, visit www.coastalbliss.ca where you will find this and much more about adventure tours and BC coastal hiking.
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