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Intermediate wilderness: B.C.'s Juan de Fuca Marine Trail teeming with wildlife and scenic vistas
By JOEL CONNELLY 
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
SOOKE, B.C. -- The old trail down to fabled Sombrio Beach, on Vancouver Island near the mouth of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, used to test the truism that pain is a necessary prerequisite to pleasure.
The path was steep and muddy, descending about 400 vertical feet through the slash of a gawdawful clearcut. The beach, however, was a fascinating environment of sea caves and tide pools, with gray whales often swimming in the strait and sea lions noisily romancing on offshore rocks.
The Sombrio Beach experience has lately been spruced up. The beach is roughly the midway point in British Columbia's new, 30-mile-long Juan de Fuca Marine Trail, which begins at China Beach near Jordan River, and extends west to Botanical Beach near Port Renfrew at road's end.
A well-graded gravel road leads partway down the slope. The trail has been rebuilt, and passes through young forest that is hiding scars of the clearcut. The painfully cold sensation of wading the mouth of the Sombrio River at low tide has been replaced by a suspension bridge. The provincial government will soon begin removal of ramshackle hippie cabins along the beach.
One squatter, who says his name is Doug, notes that "the same thing happened across the way" at Shi-Shi Beach on the Washington coast. Shi-Shi once boasted shacks, wood carvings and such offbeat residents as Freedom, a young man who believed in being free of all clothing as he combed the beach. The area was likewise cleaned up after it was made part of Olympic National Park.
Some may lament the changes. Still, the Juan de Fuca Marine Trail is a sublime addition to the Northwest's opportunities for wilderness experiences.
Beaches and headlands teem with sea life, the product of being scoured daily by powerful tidal currents, and bashed by Pacific storms in all seasons. The trail features ever-changing perspectives of the Olympic Peninsula across the water. "It's a great place to look at the United States," jokes David Anderson, Canada's fisheries minister and a longtime Victoria politician-conservationist.
The trail is a product of necessity as well as idealism.
Beyond Port Renfrew, in Pacific Rim National Park, the 50-mile-long West Coast Trail has achieved such popularity that bureaucrats have moved in to control it. Parks Canada has instituted a reservation system. The number of hikers is limited to about 8,000 during the five-month season (May 1-Sept. 30) in which the trail is open. A non-refundable $25 (Canadian) fee is charged to make a reservation, and a $70-per-hiker trail-use fee is charged.
The Juan de Fuca Marine Trail is a welcome alternative. Unlike the West Coast Trail, which passes through remote and roadless wilderness, there is easy trail access from Highway 14 at four points. It is entirely possible for non-hiking spouses to drop their mates off on a Friday afternoon at the Botanical Beach trailhead, enjoy civilized pleasures in Victoria or Sooke, and pick up the trekking party two days later at Sombrio Beach a dozen miles down the coast.
The trail is a key component in the B.C. government's Commonwealth Nature Legacy, a series of new parks announced in conjunction with the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria. And the creation of a Juan de Fuca Marine Park is part of a wider effort to preserve key unspoiled places all along the heavily logged west coast of Vancouver Island.
The lower part of Vancouver Island is one of the fastest growing areas of Canada, and a lifestyle centered on nature is a prime reason why people come here. Peter C. Newman, an eminent Canadian journalist who moved from Toronto to Vancouver Island's Deep Cove, has credited his new living environment with producing "heightened sensitivity and an ability to see the world freshly and vividly."
The newly protected places, where one can get such fresh perspectives, range from close-in Tod Inlet near Victoria to such remote settings as Battle Bay and the Tahsish River on northwest Vancouver Island, cathedral rain forest whose natural inhabitants include wolves, bear, Roosevelt elk and chinook salmon.
The Juan de Fuca Marine Trail offers what might be called intermediate wilderness. The trailheads are well signed. An espresso stand sits five minutes from the Botanical Beach trailhead at the far end of the trail. But signs remind visitors that this is bear and cougar country. The point is driven home by fresh bear scat near salmonberry bushes.
Botanical Beach is known for a series of flat sandstone shelves. A vast number of pools are exposed at low tide. "It is like a huge, sunken natural aquarium," said Patricia Thomson, a Vancouver-based river guide and naturalist who loves the area. She has been lucky enough to find an octopus in one of the pools during a very low tide, and revels in such sights as ospreys and eagles diving for food.
The sea world of Botanical Beach includes a wonderful array of sea urchins, purple sea stars and small crabs. A tide table is absolutely essential to enjoying this beach, and planning your trek down the trail to the next natural wonderland. As on the Olympic Coast, visible across the water, it is possible to get cut off by an incoming tide or be dangerously exposed while rounding a headland.
An enjoyable first day on the Juan de Fuca Trail should be spent exploring Botanical Beach, and nearby Botany Bay, and then pushing a few miles down the coast to the camping area at Providence Cove.
An early morning start is recommended on the second day, since the next stretch is renowned for the opportunities to see marine mammals. Harbor seals bear pups in the Parkinson Creek grotto, and sea lions often bask on ledges just offshore.
Sombrio Beach is the place to spend night two, perhaps scouting around for a bit of privacy away from the area of squatter cabins. The trip so far makes an ideal weekend trip, and one suitable for young children.
The 18-mile trek from Sombrio Beach to China Beach is a bit more challenging. The trail is newer, muddy in places, and there are some steep ups and downs getting over and around creeks and headlands. Tidal awareness is an absolute necessity. Between Sombrio Beach and Zin Creek, the trail opens to a beach walk that is cut off at high tide. The two campgrounds at Bear Beach are divided by a section of trail that is impassible at high tide.
The east end of the trail is boulder-strewn China Beach, near Jordan River, beloved by surfers during rough weather. "It is one of those magical places where, as you walk through the trees, you start to hear the pounding of the ocean long before you see it," said Shirley Barrett, wife of former B.C. Premier Dave Barrett.
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