Arcly and Elo do the North Coast Trail (2015)

In early September Elo and I (and Nana) hiked the North Coast Trail (NCT) as well as Cape Scott. In total we did about 70km in 6 days, 5 nights.  Here is a quick and dirty overview.

1. "hike" actually means repelling down ropes and slogging through mud. 

Some days we averaged only 1km per hour. We hiked between 5-8 hours a day I think.

2. Voles are cute and probably really easy to kill. 

Wildlife photo taken on the North Coast Trail

3. Sometimes when it rains a lot, "creeks" are actually rivers. 

Irony Creek North Coast Trail

4. Weeeeeeeee. Cable cars are fun! There are two on the NCT. One on the second day and one on the fourth day. 

5. Elo proposed to me on the hike (not really). Turns out she is poor and can not afford a decent ring! 

Wedding ring or bowling rock. You decide 

6. Beaches are not actually nice to walk on and constantly threaten to sweep you into the ocean where you will die. 

From left: Elo, Arcly and Nana (yes those are our trail names)

Its worth noting here that Elo started off carrying 45lbs, Nana 42lbs and me 40lbs (actually 39.6 o_O). By the end I was able to shed 20lbs of weight in my pack. The strategy is to secretly start putting things in other peoples bags. 

7. When you are nervous about getting mauled to death, it is hard to take a good picture. 

Stubborn bear on the NCT would not let us pass. 

8. Sometimes it is sunny on Vancouver Island 

an Arcly

 but usually not for long...

Elo and Arcly right before a storm hits on the NCT

9. In conclusion, hike the NTC if you love mud and hate being comfortable and dry.




But in all seriousness, it was a great trip. I have never put my body through so much and I feel great now. The trail was often challenging but the evenings around the fire were so great. The stars were amazing and racing the tide (and a bear) was exhilarating.

Intertidal Chowder

Intertidal Chowder

In Early June I went to British Columbia to visit Elo. This is where we concocted the intertidal chowder. The recipes is quite simple. Collect debris that smells sort of icky in the intertidal zone when the tide is out. Put in pot and hope for the best.

Ingredients:
(serves 3 for dinner and lunch the next day on the ferry)

• More than two hands full of clams
• Some mussels (one hand full)
• A few oysters
• 2 red rock crabs (but dungeness would have been better...)
• 1 cup cream
• 2/3 cup reserved dead clam juice
• 1/2 pack bacon, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 stalks celery, finely chopped
• One pack of scallops you bought from the store because these are not easy to "forage"
• Some yummy new potatoes (1cm cubes)

clams, mussels and oysters

1.  Fry up the bacon. Once it starts to crisp up throw in the diced up celery and onions. Sweat them for a while then throw in the cubed potato.
2. Meanwhile murder all of the animals. (boil the crabs to death and the rest dies on the BBQ). Make sure to reserve the clam juice. 
3. Remove the meat from the shells and throw it all in a pot and add the cream and clam juice. Maybe add a dash of green at the end for some color. We used fresh picked chives and garnished with some dried sea lettuce. 

bacon, onion, celery and potato

 One reason we BBQed the clams was so that we could reserve the liquid (we put this through a coffee filter first) and rinse the clams. We did not care for sand in our chowder.

BC beer and intertidal chowder