About the West Coast Trail: Vancouver Island’s West Coast is renowned for the rugged scenery, and the West Coast Trail is a large part of the reason why. Protected within the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, the trail wends its way 75 kilometres across steep headlands, through valleys, over rivers and along expansive stretches of surf-battered beach. Frequent boardwalks, bridges, stairs, ladders and even cable cars are the human elements where otherwise hikers must simply push through steep, rocky and occasionally boggy terrain when the beaches run out – as they often do. Low tide ensures a much greater option of beach routes. The reward for the effort of completing the trail is the opportunity to drink in the richness of the outer Vancouver Island coast, and there is no other place quite like it.

About this mapsheet: This mapsheet covers the West Coast Trail as a hiking resource, and expands the coastal route into a regional overview including Nitinat Lake and Carmanah Valley, for those who want to turn a trail hike into a larger exploration of the region. But it is also a marine mapsheet to facilitate a coastal transit as part of the Wild Coast marine mapsheet series that when complete will provide an unbroken overview of the entire British Columbia coastline. As such it is part of the hybrid Wild Coast marine and trail mapsheet series. It should be coupled with Mapsheet #213 West Coast Trail South to complete the trail in its entirety.

The mapsheet layout: The main map sheet covers the West Coast Trail from the Pachena Bay (Bamfield) trailhead through to Carmanah Beach. It also includes the Bamfield area and trails to Keeha Bay and Cape Beale. The map also covers the interior of the region to cover Nitinat Lake and the third possible access to the coast, the community of Nitinat. The reverse trail planning information, details of the trail by segment and details of the larger region including Carmanah Valley and Bamfield.

The mapsheet construction: The mapsheet is created by Wild Coast Publishing using some of the latest technology available to provide a high-quality printed image on waterproof/durable synthetic polymer stock. The stock is picked as the best for the purpose, and is significantly thicker than most papers at 10 mil weight.