Preview of Nancydeb’s blog at TravelPod. Read the full blog here: www.travelpod.com This blog preview was made by TravelPod using the TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow creator. Entry from: Sooke, Canada Entry Title: “A whale of a time hiking in Vancouver Island” Entry: “Juan de Fuca trail This trail was formed to celebrate the 1994 Commonwealth games and it follows the coast, in a slightly less extreme version of the more famous West Coast trail (which requires reservations). We only had the long weekend for it, so we limited ourselves to the most interesting 29 kms and gave ourselves time to enjoy the views. Our research had suggested that the trail was quite a tough walk but we didn’t find it so. On day one we left ourselves just 8 kms to hike, and it followed a trail soft with pine needles through giant pine tree rainforest. It was very green from moss, and cool beneath the trees. Difficult descents or crossings were made from steps cut into massive fallen trees. I think we found a cougar track in the mud. No cougars though, and no bears either, although we looked hard. The park makes great efforts to alert you to the possibility of finding bears and cougars, with catchy slogans like ‘a fed bear is a dead bear’ (not to mention ‘rodents can ruin your breakfast’). My favourite warning was on the bear cache – where it suggested referring to the website for more information. That’ll be handy. We had lunch overlooking a cove where seals (harbour seals I thought) swam sedately …