The Adventures of Roy and Royall Day 1 & 2

The Adventures of Roy and Royall
A Log of Our Father- Daughter Travels Over Two Weeks


August 3

We left from Calgary at 6:00 am on a Monday morning and took the Trans Canada Hwy all the way to the BC ferry terminal (of course making sure to stop at the Dutchmen Dairy in Sicamous, my Dad is an ice cream fanatic, for the best cheesecake ice cream I have ever had). The drive and ferry ride were so scenic that I barely cracked a book.



August 4


We spent the morning wandering around beautiful Victoria's downtown- the harbour, the legislature, and the museum. Then we picked up some last minute additions for our packs (neither of us ended up touching the gaiters we bought).

Both of us were craving fish & chips, and at the recommendation of a gentlemen working at a gas station we stopped at a local fish & chips joint called "Father's" in Sooke. The place looked like a dive (it really didn't have a hope of passing a safety inspection) but the halibut was fresh and yummy.


Once we drove to Port Renfrew we snuck into a West Coast Trail orientation late (somehow Dad smooth-talked the orientation leader into allowing it to count as our official orientation). Then the orientation leader delivered some bad news- the waiting list from the trailhead in Bamfield, the north end of the trail, was booked solid for at least two days. But she gave us another, more appealing option- she could sneak our names onto the list to start from Port Renfrew the next morning, despite the fact that the quota for standby hikers has already been filled for that day. Everything fell into place after that- we were able to switch our water taxi reservation, a local man offered to watch Dad's car at his place and to give us a ride to the Gordon River Ferry at the trailhead, for a reasonable fee of course, and we found a nearby campground.

We even had time during the day to explore China Beach, where we saw a whale, and to hike the botanical loop which connects the tide pools at Botanical Beach and Botanical Bay. We were disappointed that there wasn't nearly the amount of marine life that we had seen at Tofino eight years ago, but it was a good warm-up hike anyway.