Yes, I said the North Coast Trail, not the West Coast Trail

Being a recent transplant to British Columbia, most people seem to assume I've made a mistake when I mention we're planning to hike the North Coast Trail. "Don't you mean, the West Coast Trail?" is a common response. To be fair, I hadn't heard about the trail, which I've learned just opened last year, until this past spring when one of our hiking buddies mentioned it...and I thought he'd made a mistake, too.

We're lucky enough to be hiking the trail with a friend who's already completed the trip and most of our planning has been left up to him. He is a cartographer, which was a great boon in helping us to understand how the days would play out. I've posted a small snippet of the awesome map he's created (above) that outlines how far we will travel each day, which campsites we will be shooting for, where the water sources are and other handy details.

Cape Scott + North Coast Trails

Total distance: 65km + 8km for a possible side trip to the Cape Scott lighthouse
Number of days: 7
Number of nights: 6
Entry: Shushartie Bay
Exit: San Joseph Bay

After trying out the package dehydrated menu plan on our last hiking trip (four days on the Juan de Fuca) we're opting for more 'real food' this time around. We will bring a couple of those meals, nothing beats their convenience after all, but most of the meals we'll be eating will be our tried and true favourites with a couple of new recipes thrown in.

6 Breakfasts:
4 x oatmeal with dried cranberries, cinnamon and nuts
2 x instant grits with cheese

7 Lunches:
Assortment of jerky, nuts, tortillas, hard tack and fruit leathers

7 Dinners:
2 x dehydrated dinners - we picked up Mountainhouse Beef Stew and Turkey with Mashed Potatoes, which are our favs of the packaged dinners we've tried
2 x cous cous with nuts, lentils and dried fruit
2 x pasta with pesto, sun dried tomatoes and dried peperoni
1 x chicken soup with dumplings

We're also bringing an assortment of snack bars, Gatorade power to mask the taste of our iodine filtered water, and tea and coffee.

As much as this sounds good to me right now, I know my mouth will be watering for french fries by the last day...I hope Port Hardy has a good burger joint.