Getting lost on the West Coast Trail took me 4 hours to backtrack

I was hiking the West Coast Trail in BC last month and missed a crucial tide chart note. The map said a section was passable at low tide, but I got the timing wrong by about two hours. I ended up stuck on a beach with rising water and had to backtrack over slippery rocks and through thick forest. What should have been a 45 minute stretch turned into a 4 hour ordeal just to get back to the last campsite. Has anyone else had a major timing mistake with a coastal route like that?

4 comments

4 Comments

grays131mo ago

Honestly though, isn't getting a bit lost part of the whole adventure? @the_troy might have a point about the time, but that's just how it goes on those trails, lol.

betty_wells13d ago

Four hours just to backtrack? That's not a little lost, that's a whole other hike!

blair_taylor321mo ago

But is it even that big of a deal?

-1

the_troy1mo ago

Four hours seems like a long time to just backtrack, lol.