Backpacking the Kludahk (or "How to Stop Bushwacking and hike the Juan de Fuca Trail")
2006-01-08

A nice group of 6 headed off for the Kludahk Trail this weekend -- we almost found it too!

When I find out who sold the forests, there could be hell to pay. Many of the logging roads north of Sooke (and likely elsewhere on Vancouver Island) are under lock and key. There are beautiful hiking spots (ironically revealed due to logging) which have limited accessibility due to these stupid gates. Apparently someone has sold the harvesting rights to logging companies, and now the public isn't allowed to cross these areas. I suppose the government can sell the cow for a quick buck (if that's their strategy) -- but shouldn't the public have complete and unfettered access to crown land? I've never seen such a gate in the interior of BC -- one wonders why they are so popular here.

Anyways, one gate stopped us from a potential route, but we found another 20km north and we proceeded onwards with some weak directions. We got to a spot which appeared to be relatively close to where we wanted to be, and started bushwacking due north. An hour later we were defeated by very slippery shubbery, snowflakes, and impending darkness. In hindsight, if we had taken one of the other logging roads (to Wye Lake), we would have likely been met with an actual trail. We quickly decided to exodus down to the JDF Trail to the squatter's cabin to ensure we covered at least a little ground and wouldn't be able to call the trip an abysmal failure. In reality, it was far from that and it ended up an enjoyable time.