My west coast adventures continued last week with a 4-day trip to Tofino.
Kyla, a great friend, lives in Victoria, BC. So when I had signed up for SeaWheeze this year I mentioned to her that I could extend my trip and come see a part of her world and she jumped all over it. We talked about spending time in Tofino before showing me around Victoria and plans were made.
I met Kyla in 2012 at the Olympia in Vegas. We were both sponsored by the same supplement company and we fell into friendship then. We mentioned Tofino plans to our Magnum teammates Holly & Heidi and they were game to join us. Sunday morning after the SeaWheeze half marathon I met Heidi & Holly at the Ferry to Victoria and we were on our way. I hadn’t seen Holly (on the left in the picture below) since the Olympia in Sept 2012 and I met Heidi (on the right) for the first time. Thankfully to social media I feel like I spend a portion of my day with them every day!
Kyla picked us up and drove our cute selves all the way to Tofino. We stopped on the Malahat for my first view of Vancouver Island. My breath stopped. I am always amazed by views of oceans & mountains so this was a double whammy.
With tons of pee & coffee stops we made it to Tofino late in the afternoon and stopped by Long Beach to take it all in.
We were staying at Kyla’s friend’s house which had amazing views of the water & mountains surrounding the quaint town. Our only activity for the first day was a quick jaunt around Rainforest Trail.
We had a big day planned for Monday so after grocery shopping for food for the week we hit the hay. The next day we drove down to the Water Taxi to get us over to Meares Island so we could tackle the Lone Cone Climb.
We were told it would be around 2 hours up and 2 hours down. The climb was grueling. It was technical with lots of scrambling over roots and rocks and over fallen trees. The trail was really well marked with pink tape and there were several ropes to help over treacherous terrain. Despite being a hard hike it was one of the highlights of the trip.
Inside the trail it got quite muggy and I had to contend with overheating which brought on several MS symptoms. This included a numb right leg & balance issues. We made it to the top and the struggle was so worth it. The view was absolutely gorgeous.
We waited for the clouds to clear to really enjoy the view. Took the standard shots for social media and to remember the moment and then headed back down! I grabbed a nice walking stick to help with my balance issues and made it down just a bit slower than the other girls. I’ve realized I need to invest in walking poles now to stay epic.
We changed into our bathing suits and headed over to Chesterman’s Beach. This beach was definitely my favourite. It was less crowded than Long Beach but just or if not more gorgeous.
After playing on the beach and taking lots of fun shots we headed back to our condo for dinner and then raced back to catch the sunset.
Every morning we’d even do yoga at Chesterman’s Beach in the fog and it was probably my favourite part of the trip.
Specifically because I got dog kisses!
On our last full day in Tofino we headed over to tackle the Bomber Trail. This was such a cool hike because one it was a bit muddy and I love me some mud and two it was just freaking cool to see the old bomber crash. The plane was so eery but so cool at the same time. I was definitely grateful to read online that all 12 passengers survived the crash.
We couldn’t be in Tofino without attempting wetsuit surfing so after the morning hike, we headed over to North Chesterman to meet our instructor from Surf Sisters. The white water was super easy to surf in. We had an amazing instructor who taught me things I haven’t yet learned in Nicaragua or DR. The waves were pretty short so if you didn’t attempt to pop up right away you basically were standing on sand already. It was easy to walk out to catch waves and the wetsuits they gave us kept us nice and warm.
We came, we yoga’d, we surfed, we hiked, we laughed, we slept and we grew a little closer together as friends and Alpha Females. All weekend we posted pics to Instagram with the hashtag #alphafemalewknd. Now we have an annual tradition to continue!
I highly recommend you add Tofino to your travel bucket list!
