The creek had been dammed into a lagoon in front of the campsite making an excellent fresh water infinity pool with a fabulous view. There was also some fun “art” made of beach debris. We found a great campsite complete with a fire ring, cooking area and fishing net hammocks. We encountered our first old growth trees along this section – majestic! Eventually we emerged on the the beautiful white sand of Third Beach. Despite that, it had a lot of blowdown, roots and rocks making it slow going, especially with our overloaded packs! The trail from the Lagoon to Third Beach is just over 1km long, but it still took us about 40 minutes to hike. The trail was actually quite well marked with square orange markers and some occasional flagging tape. We also flew over other major landmarks on the trail, such as Calvin Falls. Soon we were looking down on a picturesque cove with a lighthouse – we were high above the village of Yuquot already, the end point of our trip. We flew down the length of the inlet away from Gold River towards Nootka sound. Our pilot was a willing tour guide and answered all of our questions as we chatted away through the headsets. Part of the allure of flying in to the Nootka Trail rather than taking a water taxi is getting the aerial tour of the trail from the floatplane and it did not disappoint. Having never flown in a float plane I was apprehensive, but our pilot’s take off was so smooth that we were in the air before we even realized it. The Air Nootka staff were very flexible and said since we were there early we could leave early – so much better than flying commercial! We booked a noon flight out of Gold River with Air Nootka, but managed to show up an hour ahead of schedule. To get to Nootka Island you need to charter a float plane, which was a new experience for us. Nootka Trail Day 1: Distance: 1.5km Time: 40 minutes Nootka Trail Day 7: Distance: Nil Time: Nil.Nootka Trail Day 6: Distance: 3km Time: 1.5 hours.Nootka Trail Day 5: Distance: 7km Time: nearly 11 hours.Nootka Trail Day 4: Distance: 12.5km Time: 4.5 hours.Nootka Trail Day 3: Distance: Nil Time: Nil.Nootka Trail Day 2: Distance: 11.5km Time: 9 hours.Nootka Trail Day 1: Distance: 1.5km Time: 40 minutes.Get ready for adventure with this checklist of things to do before every hike. Make sure you are prepared by bringing the 10 Essentials.
Nootka weather how to#
Learn how to Leave No Trace to keep the wilderness wild. Having spent seven days and six nights on the trail in September of 2011 with Greg and our friends D and B, I have to say that it was all that it promised to be. All of the research I had done on the trail beforehand suggested that it would involve lots of beautiful sand beaches, some rough stretches of trail over headlands, lots of wildlife sightings, and some great campsites. The whole hike is on Crown land and is not park of any park or reserve and is therefore not maintained. If you aren’t familiar, the Nootka trail is more of a route and runs roughly 40km along the west coast of Nootka Island, which is off the west coast of Vancouver Island. Ever since we did the West Coast Trail in 2004, my husband Greg and I had wanted to hike the Nootka Trail as it was rumoured to be like the West Coast Trail “used to be”: no permits, no boardwalks, no crowds.