I had been planning to do the Juan de Fuca hike with my friend since last summer. We originally planned to go with both our husbands and potentially another couple as well. Now everyone expect my husband works shift work making organizing a trip was next to impossible with everyone conflicting, overlapping schedules. However, with a stroke of luck, I ended up getting pregnant last summer and having our sweet baby girl Emma in January. We now only had to find a time that worked for both my friend and her husband, as I would be on mat leave and my husband could take vacation. I knew that imy parents would love to take E if we decided not to bring her with us on the hike. In the end we decided to go in August this summer.
Jenna and I found a 3-4 day stretch were we could make this trip happen. Now I generally always thought that I would take our little nugget with us, yet, I didn’t want a 3-day trip to be the first one we did with her. I also wanted some time away from Em. I knew I need some adult time and time where I could focus on myself and my husband. Neither my husband or I have parents in the city, so we do not have the typical support system other families have with firist child.
My parents were more than happy to look after Em for the three days we would be hiking. Jake and I planned to extend our trip so we would spend time in Vancouver with my parents as part of a ten-day holiday this summer. This allowed us to drive out from Calgary to Vancouver. This drive was daunting idea – a minimum of 10 hours with a 7month old and a puppy. Are we crazy or just determined to continue to live our lives with a baby and puppy maybe a little of both? I decide to think about it until I really needed, meaning a few days before we left.
I spent the last month slightly apprehensive I would not have enough expressed breast milk for Em. My parents would being bottling her while I was gone. Em was eating every three hours working out to be 24 feeds in the three days. Based on the formula we use at work to calculate adequate nutrition: 100-150ml per kg per feed she would eat just over 100ml per feed; if we have 8 feeds a day. It worked to be around 2400ml of expressed milk I would need. Pumping sounds super simple; yes it is simple but also time-consuming. It also entails a little mental foresight and guesswork. You have time so there is some milk loaf feed but your body has enough to produce more for your baby’s next feed. I find one hour post works well. That being said I’m usually trying to put her down for a nap or running off somewhere but that is what I tend to aim for. I knew this was a lot of milk to pump and time to dedicate to it, at the end of the day I decided that if my parents needed to top with formula or do half and half mixture I was okay with that. Lastly, we needed to keep the expressed breast milk (EBM) frozen for the drive and time camping. EBM once thawed can only be used for 24 hours as per Alberta Health Services guidelines, it is a pretty universal guideline, however. A good cooler and a lot of ice did the trick. It is all the little things that you don’t normally think of when you want to go camping or backpacking without babies or kids.
The first time we went camping with Emma in July I naively or more tried to will that it would not be much harder, or complicated than when we normally go camping, or even at home with her. Not to say I didn’t think the experience would be different or issues would arise I just thought it would go relatively smoothly. We had all the Em’s essentials; clothing, travel bed, her little chair, diapers oh so many diapers, toys, blankets even a little floating for the lake. Em is a very curious little girl and she is always investigating everything around her. She had absolutely no time for sleep. This became our biggest and most consuming struggle for the camping trip. The tent was hot, and let in a lot of light, plus the new environment for her made it hard to get her down for naps and bedtime. We ended up having almost exclusively stroller naps, as well as later bedtimes. Naturally, after this trip, I was worried that the same issues would arise when she was with my parents and maybe compounded cause either Jake or I would be present. HoweIer, I was determined to not stress and enjoy our trip.
Alright, that was a bit of the backstory to our Vancouver and island trip with the family.
As a mom there are a lot of things that you are constantly thinking about, my brain is always multi-tasking, from feeding and nap times, do have time to finish a task before meltdown as well trying to keep up with pre baby life and responsabilities. I am sure that is where the whole mom’s brain comes from. Forget random words or are almost spacey at times because you simply can not retain all that information at one time. It is hard to be completely focused on the moment in front of you or even the conversation are you having. Being constantly told to be in the moment, you will never get these days, years back only adds to the stress and creates this insane expectation of being a mom or a parent As a parent you know each day and week is something to cherish. It creates more pressure to be everything and do everything at one time. Yes occasionally it is good reminder when you are struggling but the constant repeating of it to parents is not helpful. Letting some things go totally and focusing on your little one in front of you or partner or friend is important. Realisticly we are all human we multi-task, that is beautiful part of the chaos we live in. Circling back to our trip (see side track is real), I was counting down the days to some time when I focus on myself and my friends and partner for more than a couple of minutes. Yes of course I was going to miss little Em, but I also knew it was going tally good for myself and my husband.
We toke a ferry from Vancouver where my parents lived to the Island where the trailhead was. Once we arrived on the island we headed to the airport to pick up my friend Jenna from the airport. As it turned out Jenna’s husband was unable to come at the last minute for a few reasons. The airline somehow forgot to load Jenna’s backpack on the plane and it was not going to arrive for another 4 hours. We had a lot of time to kill in one of the tiniest of towns by the water. Honestly, this was a bit of a nightmare with our little E and puppy. Travelling is differently harder with her; I was using a lot of energy trying not to stress about E’s sleep schedule or lack of sleep. We managed to make the best of it and found some amazing fish and chips right by the ocean. We made the best of it and turns out it was not half bad.
We arrived at the China beach campground around 7 pm that night. My parents who were on the ferry with us headed to the campground right away and managed to get things set up for us. We got the travel bed set up and I was able to get E down for bed. The fact that it was sunset and much cooler than earlier in the summer, we were off to a much better start, it was very comforting. Emma woke up a few times that night to feed. Knowing I was leaving her for three days, and I wouldn’t get these perfect middle-of-the-night; early morning cuddles, made the tiredness of the middle of the night okay. Those cuddles will always be cherished.
We wanted to get an early start the next day, the first day of the hike. We had 19km the first day camping at Sombrio beach that night. From china beach campground (where we end the hike) to the start was a 45 minute drive. I breastfeed Emma twice that morning before we left for the hike, which was good for both of us. It was good way to say goodbye and keep up mu supply as well save some that expressed breast milk for my parents.
The hike started with many steep up and downs. It had all these big steps made from the rocks and roots, craved from the land itself. You were hiking through nature, it completely surrounded you, it felt as if you shouldn’t be there it was untouched in some way; because the there was so much growth and lush trees, roots across the paths and fallen trees used as bridges it felt as it we were battling against to make our way through at times. It was beautilful feeling. Our puppy started off by running back and forth along the trail with pure excitement after a few kilometers she settled into a nice pace besides my husband. This was relief to both us that she settled in, we worried she tire herself out. She is a stunning hiker, so elegant jumping up all the big rooted sections, and walking across the logs, running through streams. She loved it.
Around 4 hours into the hike; about 8km we decided to stop for lunch. We come to a section right by the ocean where we could sit on the rocky beach and enjoy some food. I brought out my pump, to keep my supply up throughout the trip. I was planning to pump and dump. As I started to get the pump set up, I realized I forgot the flange part of the pump making it completely useless to me. We had spotty cell service, and even though we felt we were miles into wilderness we were actually quite close to the highway and civalization. My parents were able to drop off the flange in a bear bin at sombrio beach. In the meantime time I decided to hand express. I never really done much hand expressing I was hoping it wouldn’t be to hard. I was engorged enough that it came out pretty easily. It felt a bit weird watching the milk run down the rocks to the ocean especially since the last month or so I had keeping very last drop for this vacation.
The rest of the afternoon we made slow progress with the roots, hills and the mud. All the ups and down without gaining much distance made it harder and longer than I expected; much like the firist part of West Coast Trail. The general lack of sleep and not having bene out hiking a lot this summer was catching up to me. It was 100% the least prepared I have ever been for a hike. Nonetheless, I love backpacking and it was great to get on the trails again. It was a wonderful feeling to have my brain back; I was so focused on my body that I was not thinking about Em (too much) and how she was doing. It was the most relaxed I had been in 6 months. I was still concerned about other things such as my supply issues and how we ally going to finish the hike, but it was a change in what the stressors were.
We made it to the beach we would be camping at for the first night around 630pm. The beach was already busy with other campers. It looked as if were a decent amount of other campers were surfers staying for a few days. We set up our tents and organized our belongings, made our dinner, which thanks to freeze-dried food these days it quite simple, just boil water and let sit. Camping on the beach is beautiful and comfy.
One of the major perks of camping on the coast instead of in the Rockies is the temperature is much more agreeable. It was much warmer at night in the tent, we also had an extra heater in the tent; our puppy was sleeping with us. I used my sleeping bag as more blanket in the warm weather. I always bring a change of clothes to sleep in for the night; most of the time long underwear.
The next day we woke up at 0600 and made our breakfast and coffee. We ate and drank as we packed up our tent and our backpacks for the day. Jake and I always keep our breakfast simple when backpacking; oatmeal with dried fruit, cinamon and brown sugar. We left the beach by 0830. We were told that this next section of the hike was the hardest. The morning was going by much quicker and more efficiently than the previous day was. There was a decent amount of mud still present on the trail even though it been dry and hot the past weeks. I can not imagine what it would be to hike through the roots and mud in a wetter season. I was getting flashbacks of when I did the West Coast trail with another friend several years ago and we hiked through knee high mud the whole way.
As the day continued, progress slowed and with 8km to go, our puppy started looking more and more tired. She was lying down everytime we stopped for water or a breather, and clearly not wanting to do much more hiking. The previous day was already the biggest hike we had ever done with her, not mention that we wanted her to do the same distance again today. With the pace we were hiking at, it was unlikely we get into Bear Beach before 1900. We were at the point if we needed to turn around for our puppy we would have to do so now. Further along there would be no exit point and it would be closer Bear beach than other campsites we had passed. As we were making decision we also had to think about the light, we were on the coast it was getting darker earlier. As a team, we decided we had two options to continue and risk our puppy becoming exhausted and not able to finish the 8km where we wouldn’t any exit point forcing us to camp in the bush off the trail along the way or head back the 4km to Chin beach (another campground). We agreed it was best to head back to Chin beach. We would get in to camp earlier with time to enjoy the evening and the sunset. The trip was a vacation, after all. We were able to drink wine, sit on the beach, watch the sunset, and relax as adults. We also made a plan to exit the trail the next morning to get back in time for our friend to catch her flight to Calgary. It was 100 precent the best decision we made and turned out to be a highlight of the trip. The sunset was gorgeous, pinks and oranges filled the sky and reflected in the ocean. Enjoying wine on the beach with a dear friend and my husband was such a treat, pure bliss to be preatnt in the moment, to enjoy nature, that off-grid feeling.
Luckily we still had patchy cell service and were able to get a text out to my parents letting them know the change in plans and new pick up location. We hiked out the next moring, it was short hike about 4 hours to the new pick up location. It was great to see Em again after three days. I had missed her more on the second night when we had more downtime. It was little conflicting because I was truly did enjoying the time away too. I know it was really good for the whole family. My parents had the best days with her taking her on walks and to the beach. My mom told me Em woke up at night at her usual times. She was a little surprised not to see me but settle once she heard my mom’s voice. This was a massive relief for me, that she slept well for my parents. I am typically the only one that gets up in the night to settle or feed her, I was unsure how she would do without me. Turns out great which is great. I feel much more comfortable about leaving her for an exteperiod time: WIN.
It is possible to keep doing all the things you love after you have children, they do not trap you, but rather teach you how to adapt and grow. The way you do the things you love may not be the same but they are more colourful and beautiful than before and maybe slightly at harder times. Yet there is so much joy in sharing what you love, with those you love.
