West Coast Trail: Thank Yous

I'm home.  The pack is hung up.  The boots are scrubbed and airing out.  The gear is cleaned at stored for the winter.  My feet are slowly becoming less tender. The vids are edited and posted. It was the biggest and most challenging adventure of my life so far.

And so, it's time to send out the thank yous notes to those people and organizations that made this expedition a success.

To George: For saying "we're doing this" consistently, thank you.

To Owl Magazine:  For running an article on the West Coast Trail that I read when I was 12 and thought "I want to do that", thank you.

To Uncle John:  For both having done the trail when I was a teenager, thus proving that it was real and possible, and for loaning me your pack for as long as I want/need it, thank you.

To Rick McCall: For proving that that a desk job is not a valid obstacle to fitness, and for the use of the Gators (which saved me about a million times), thank you.

To Darren Carlyle:  For agreeing to drive us to the trailhead, despite the excessive wear and tear on your van, thank you.

To Marcos Bernal:  For tirelessly encouraging me to video everything, thank you.

And finally, to Cascade Designs, makers of MSR gear:

Dear Sir/Madame,

I have just completed Canada's West Coast Trail as the first major expedition for the Geek/Outdoor blog "Nerds in the Wild" (http://nerdsinthewild.blogspot.com).  Partly as a coincidence, and partly due to availability through the local MEC store here in Victoria BC, our team was equipped with MSR Hubba tents, MSR PocketRocket stoves, and a MSR Sweetwater water filter for our expedition.

I'm writing to you today to thank you profusely for the quality of this equipment.  The tents were light, warm, rugged, waterproof, easy to assemble and disassemble, and the easily fit back in the provided tent bag day after day on the trail.  The stoves were simplicity and durability in a whisperlight package, and cooked our meals quickly and evenly.  And the water filter proved up to our video-game-weakened digestive systems' rather high standards for water quality.

All in all, our gear worked flawlessly, and when we realized it was all MSR gear, we knew we had found a quality line of products.  We will be using MSR gear whenever possible in the future.

Thank you again for helping to make our expedition such a success,
James Wilson
Nerds In the Wild.