My history with the Juan de Fuca Trail goes way back. I first did the trail 24 years ago with a bunch of older guys (in their 20’s!) when the trail first opened and it was my first backpacking trip. It was raining almost the whole time, we slogged through bog after bog and I was hooked. It quickly became a go to trail for my friends and I when we had a couple of nights to spare. As an older and then physically unfit man in my 30s looking to claw my way back into life, a woman I worked with told the story of a friend that had done the whole trail in a single day. We couldn’t believe it, but made it an unreasonable goal to pursue.

A group of us set out on a fateful day a few months later with an MEC day pack, a couple of Nalgene bottles, a water purifier and a bunch of Clif Bars. Two of the five of us completed the trail that day and learned a tonne of lessons. We didn’t know, at the time, that we had completed our first ultramarathon, as we didn’t even know what that was. Or about athletic boxer shorts. My cotton boxers rubbed every part of me raw and forever changed my relationship with that fibre. It was an amazing challenge and accomplishment that shifted our idea of what was possible. And set the stage for agreeing to try out an organized ultramarathon a couple of years later.

Since being more involved in running, we have done large sections of the JDF on a number of occasions, but only ran the whole thing one other time, on a beautiful summer day. It was still a slog, but we were so much better prepared and it was more joy than suffering, though with a bit of the latter hitting us towards the end. Kyle and I had shared a lot of time on the JDF, but had never run the whole thing before. In fact, it would be Kyle’s first time past Sombrio Beach. And this time, we decided to give it a go in December. We set a date, hoped that the universe would want it all to happen and, as is almost always the case, it did! We set out from town at 4:00 a.m. with coffees and overnight oats in hand, including personalized words of encouragement from my lovely wife Erin. By just after 5 a.m., we were ready to go under a night sky lit up by stars with not a car or other soul to be seen. So nice to have this trail to ourselves!

Our plan was to set an “all day” pace right from the start and enjoy a day on the trails with no time pressures. Not bringing a watch really helped with that. The first 2km had us down at Mystic Beach enjoying a beautiful moon and perfect weather conditions with clear skies and no wind. The trail conditions were unbelievable for this time of year. The next section to Bear Beach, at the 9km mark, passed easily, with the deep bass of large swells hitting the caves below keeping us company. A few trees were down, usually in relatively inconvenient places like bridges. Though there always seems to be a way through these obstacles and today was no different.

We hit Bear Beach hoping for an early morning bear (of all my times on the trail, I have seen one on the namesake beach only once, but it was a spectacular encounter). Instead we were greeted with first light, a massive mudslide on the beach that had taken out a huge section of forest, revealing the sandstone cliffs below and leading to another fun and technical passage through a tangle of fallen trees as the tide slowly moved in.

The section between Bear Beach is long and generally arduous, but with the sunrise revealing beautiful views from the trails along the bluffs and our “all day” pace, we were in a total groove and loving life. Easy on the ups, fun on the downs and gliding along the rolling sections. The piece of trail from the Mystic Beach to Sombrio may be the most beautiful trail running on Vancouver Island for the richness of the colours, the variety of views and the perfect mix of technical and highly runnable sections. So much fun!

We hit Chin Beach, at the 21km mark, with high tide fast approaching, though still took time to enjoy the beach and take some photos on what was a truly unbelievable December day in these parts. As we hit the far end of the beach, which is impassable at certain high tides, our only concern for the day was realized. We had hit this spot right before high tide and waves were crashing against the rocks and small sea caves standing between us and where the trail re-enters the forest. We had a choice to make. Wait at least an hour for the water to recede, or go for it and prove the impassable passable. After some scouting, we chose the latter. We made it around the first point relatively safely, with a bit of dry land in a sea cave that was still dry. After that, we weren’t so lucky, but committed. In thigh deep water, we raced for the safety of the trail re-entry point, each taking a couple of waves to the chest. Man that will wake you up!

We were feeling pretty amazing as we tackled a short, but challenging section from Chin Beach to Sombrio Beach, at the 29km mark. The longest hill on the whole trail is in this section and has humbled each of us on a number of occasions. Not today! Our pace had us more than half way up the hill before we realized what we were doing. A little grind later and we were on a short section of rail grade trail that took us to the best descent on the trail. A mildly technical, twisting forest ridge trail drops you right down to Sombrio Point, the perfect place to take in the power of the ocean and have a snack. The “whirlpool of death” carved out of the rocks was going strong and huge ocean swells were spraying water above the cliffs on either side of us. Truly spectacular…

The section from the point to the beach is a non-stop view, with the beach stretched out before your eyes, waves crashing against cliffs below and a huge waterfall tumbling down into the ocean waves across the small bay. The beach itself is a long, local surfing beach so always has people about and today was no different. We watched surfers catching waves and winded through tents before missing a turn and ending up at the river. Normally crossable with ease, the waters were running quickly and we didn’t want to turn back so we attempted to cut through the salal. No dice. We waded down a small stream and then waded through the ice cold river about 50 metres downstream from the suspension bridge, which is one of four on the trail.

At the end of Sombrio Beach, you have about 17km to go. And topographically it is the easiest of the whole trail. But it is also the least travelled and, as a result, the least maintained. The other challenge with the topography in the fall and winter is that the more gently sloped ravines result in more deciduous trees and therefore carpets of leaves that extend in all directions and obscure the trail. Happily we are able to locate trail features that guide us through these sections.

This section of trail is also significantly wetter than the first section, resulting in bog after bog after bog after bog. While there are branches, steps, bridges and side trails that help you around the worst of the mud, it made for slow going. And the bridges were so wet and coated in organic matter at this time of the year that attempts to run on some of the boardwalks were more likely to lead to falling than making up any time.

We slogged through, slowing down considerably, but appreciating the many spots where we emerged from the forest for beautiful sections along the shore. Including some views of Botanical Beach, our final destination! We hit Botanical Beach right about when we though we would in planning the day and arrived at the trailhead mere minutes after our ride! So good. Erin, her Dad and the kids had travelled out to pick us up and get us back to the trailhead 47km away.

We stopped for an absolutely outstanding experience at the Renfrew Pub, where warm staff, delicious food, virgin caesars and stories of the day had us so grateful to live where we do. We were back at the China Beach trailhead in the same dark we had started earlier in the day and the stars were again absolutely beaming down on us in celebration of another outstanding day in the life of a Vancouver Island trail runner. And Kyle had knocked another trail off the bucket list…