Ottawa Citizen.com reports on hikers who got trapped in sea water and driftwood along the West Coast Trail. They were crossing a surge channel when a rogue wave came blasting through.
Seconds later they were thrashing around in the churning water, buffeted by huge pieces of driftwood.
The wave was tossing around huge tree trunks and snapping them as if they were matchsticks, said Tim Kniffin, 28, of Chicago, also a theology student, and the Petersons’ cousin.
Kelsey Peterson was wedged between two logs and Kniffin feared she would be crushed.
“I just thought this could be it and I was amazed that life had been so short,” he said.
As luck would have it, one of their group managed to find his way back to a trail and go for help. The rest had to be winched out by rescue helicopter.
I am just back myself from another part of Pacific Rim National Park and heard a lot about this while out there. Very scary, those rogue waves. While kayaking in the Broken Group and hiking about the islands we could see first hand what the ocean can churn up. Glad to hear now on your blog they are all well. They have quite a story to tell other than just being on the West Coast Trail during its 100th anniversary.
DSD
There have been a number of evacuations off of the WCT already this year. Most of them due to inexperienced hikers being where they shouldn’t be. Scary experience which could have been avoided by by taking the highly recommend forest route to avoid this specific large surge channel.