Wednesday, September 20, 2023 Staging

Michelle had detailed instructions on how to get this trip rolling. She set it all up, but is now on the JMT (VVR tonight). Her reservations for the JMT fell on the same dates as this WCT hike and she chose to go with her friends to California instead of the wet coast of Vancouver Island. 

Malcolm and I hung out at his house all morning, eating breakfast, talking, doing last minute chores at his house before vacating it for 10 days. He spent an hour doing his workout routine on his equipment upstairs. I read and did some yoga. 

Bones called about noon to say he was in the emergency room with stomach pains and would not be coming. He had passed a kidney stone a few days earlier and was concerned he was passing another. The CAT scan showed no further stones, just packed intestines due to the opioids he took for the kidney stone pain. He called again about an hour later to say he was back on the trip and would meet us at Malcolm Jr's house about 1:30pm as previously arranged. 

At 1:20pm we headed for his son’s house to pick up Malcolm Jr and Bones (his brother in law). En route we decided to go back and get Malcolm’s microspikes for the slippery logs and stone beaches. We picked up Bones and Malcolm Jr, then realized we had not brought the peanut butter chocolate shake mixes (MichellShakes) for Bones. We had put them in a cupboard when we heard he wasn’t coming and had forgotten to bring them back out when his condition proved to be only constipation. We scooted back to Malcolm’s house to pick them, then left town and headed north on I-5 towards the Canadian border. There was no wait at the border. The border agent expressed a bit of envy when he learned we were off to hike the WCT and wished us good luck. We were soon through and on our way to the Tsawwassen ferry terminal. 

We were a bit ahead of schedule. We stopped at a Walmart to find a cash machine so we could each get some Canadian dollars. My debit card would not work. I tried a few times. No good. We walked across the parking lot to a burrito shop for a late lunch. Excellent. Then we were off to the ferry dock, arriving an hour and a half before sailing as requested by BC Ferries. I called GESA about my card not working. They said I had to inform them of travel plans out of the country to be able to use my debit card for cash. The call lasted about 25 minutes. I was told all was ready to go. I tried again. Nope. Rejected. 

We drove onto the ferry about 6:00pm and had a nice 2 hour boat ride to Nanaimo. Once on the island, we drove to our hotel, the Inn on Long Lake, checked in, then scooted out to A&W for a quick bite to eat before going to bed. Overall a good day.