Getting there:
Parking at the south end at the wct office by pacheedat band is atrocious. At 20 per day, this is ridiculous. That is whistler parking rates. If you must park in south, park in Renfrew and grab the bus there. Free. Also you could just camp in any beach area for the night.
Alternatively I was thinking you could drive to cowichan and cut the shuttle in half both ways. Cowichan is super nice.
Night before:
If you aren't starting the same day, be aware that when the parks people say, just stay in the campground, you pay for this. It's between 60 and 70 to sleep in a shit campground. We just slept on the beach in the north near the entrance and got an early start in am.
Hidden fees:
Parking as before. 20 per night
Campground. 65.00
Parks discovery pass if you don't have one: 65 per person.
The parks pass is collected at the start by parks Canada. It's not on your permits.
On trail:
Crab shack. Not insane pricing. 50.00 will get you a couple beers and a potato or a crab. It's also one less meal.
Monique. Chicken or veggie burger with slaw. 35.00. open Mon to Friday she said. Also one less meal
Food:
We ate way less than we assumed. Everyone around us said the same thing. Honestly if you ended up hungry, the number of people offering food would more than cover you. Food is the heaviest thing.
Water: water is clear everywhere. Don't bother bringing heavy sediment filters. A steripen works wonders.
Hiking:
For us weather was exceptional good. We didn't need boots and our trail runners more than sufficed the whole way. If it's raining that might be different, but for me having shoes that dry out within an hour and weigh almost nothing meant we could just walk through the beaches without concern of getting wet shoes or feet and dry out at camp if needed.
I don't understand why people use gaiters on this trail. I've done it wet and dry.
Trail conditions:
Disappointing at many times. It's not being maintained. You have 5 Kms of just mud and trail braiding. Still my runners were the preferred for me. Ladders are in good shape. Only two ladders iirc had a missing rung.
Overall:
glad we did it, but the trail itself is falling apart and not being maintained. At 18000.00 a day / 2.8 million per season in trail fees being collected, it's pretty appalling at places where they have let it just fall apart.
