North Coast Trail
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Park: Cape Scott Provincial Park
58.0 km point to point.
Terrain: Very rough
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Shushartie Bay Trailhead: Shushartie Bay is only accessible by water taxi.
Facilities available at the trailhead include:
Cape Scott Trailhead: (567 km from Saanich Hall, 67 km on logging roads, 4wd recommended). Drive north from Victoria to Port Hardy (500 km) on highways #1 & BC#19. Just before arriving at Port Hardy take a logging road to your left and drive 67 km to the parking lot.
Note: It is 63 km on ACTIVE logging roads to the trailhead. Extreme caution should be exercised on these roads at all times.
Bus access:While there is no public bus to the trailhead there is the North Coast Trail Shuttle. In 2011 the one way cost was $75 per person.
Facilities available at the trailhead include:
Note that rental car insurance does not cover you on the road to Cape Scott, you would be liable for any damages to the vehicle. BCAA does not cover towing from Cape Scott, this can be extremely expensive (over $500) should you need to be towed.
| Backpack | Strenuous. | 5 days pt 2 pt. |
In addition to the BC Parks backcountry permits factor in the cost of the water taxi from Port Hardy to Shushartie Bay ($90/person in 2009) and the possible shuttle bus from the Cape Scott trailhead back to Port Hardy ($70/person in 2009). To avoid extra costs on the shuttle a single person could be designated to go pick up the car (this would leave the others out for 2-3 hours).
Due to the lack of water at Shushartie Bay the recommended route for this trail east to west (I.e., Shushartie Bay to Nissen Bight). The exit route is via the Cape Scott trail adding another 17km to the hike (this figure is included in the overall stats for the trail).
| Shushartie Bay | 0.0 km |
| There is no water available at this campsite. | |
| Skinner Creek | 9.1 km | 0 meters |
| Water is available. |
| Nahwitti River | 12.0 km | 0 meters |
| Water is available. |
| Cape Sutil | 17.7 km |
| Water is available. | |
| Irony Creek | 24.3 km | 0 meters |
| Water is available. |
|   | It is possible to camp at some of the pocket beaches between Irony Creek and Laura Creek. | |||
| Laura Creek | 36.0 km | 0 meters |
| Water is available. |
| Nissen Bight | 41.3 km | 0 meters |
| Water is available. |
| Trailhead Transportation | ||
| Cape Scott Water Taxi | (250) 949-6541 | (800) 246-0093 |
| Catala Charters | (250) 902-1031 | (800) 515-5511 |
View trail condition reports for this trail.