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Route: Vancouver Island Trail (BC, Canada)

Submitted by Waldo on Wed, 07/21/2021 - 12:02am
Location
British Columbia, CA
Distance
800 km
Description

The Vancouver Island Trail is an approximately 800km trail through the length of Vancouver Island, BC. The southern terminus is Anderson Hill in Oak Bay near Victoria and the northern terminus is Cape Scott. As of 2021 the trail is over 90% complete, but still includes some sections of bushwhacking.

The intention with this FKT route is to connect footsteps the entire way, There will be some sections of road and some bushwhack between trails. A few people have completed the trail this way already as a thru-hike.


This below intends to serve as an update to the previously uploaded FKT route from 2021 when the route was unfinished.
Updated May 10, 2026

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Vancouver Island Trail (VIT) is the longest hiking trail on Vancouver Island with a length of nearly 800 km. From Anderson Hill in Victoria to the Cape Scott Lighthouse on the northern tip of the island, VIT showcases spectacular west coast landscapes, Indigenous culture, and unique island communities. 

This is the most current end-to-end route connecting the official GPX files from all 7 sections of the trail, as documented by the Vancouver Island Trail Association on their website: https://www.vancouverislandtrail.ca.

In Section 7 (Port McNeill to Cape Scott) the path follows the "alternate road route" from Port Hardy to Shushartie Bay, instead of the water taxi from Port Hardy, so completion of the full route can be done 100% by foot. Details of this official "alternate road route" can be found on the VIT Association website: https://vancouverislandtrail.ca/section-7-port-mcneill-to-cape-scott/.

GPS Track
UPDATED ROUTE (2026) Vancouver_Island_Trail__Section_17_Anderson_Hill_to_Cape_Scott.gpx1.79 MB
Alberni-Cumberland-07-21_0.gpx1.22 MB
Alberni-Inlet-Trail-2020_0.gpx112.43 KB
Bonanza-07-21_0.gpx979.5 KB
Cumberland-to-Comox-Dam_0.gpx152.17 KB
Davie-east_0.gpx53.92 KB
Davie-west_0.gpx27.96 KB
Ida-Lk-to-Hwy-19_0.gpx219.57 KB
Log-Train-Trail-to-Mt-Irwin_0.gpx154.23 KB
Namgis-Section_0.gpx117.59 KB
North-Coast-Trail_0.gpx112.41 KB
Railway-to-Kilpala-Main_0.gpx74.3 KB
Runners-Trail-2020_0.gpx261.69 KB
Strathcona-Dam-to-Kokummi-Pass-07-21_0.gpx1.3 MB
Strathcona-Park-to-Dam-06-2021_0.gpx655.23 KB
Strathcona-Park-VI-Trail-route_0.gpx768.67 KB
TCT-Clover-Pt-to-Humpback-Res_0.gpx131.74 KB
TCT-Humpback-Res-to-Sooke-Lk-Rd_0.gpx240.27 KB
TCT-Sooke-Lk-Rd-to-Lake-Cowichan_0.gpx614.2 KB
Tuck-Lake-Trail-2021_0.gpx333.42 KB

FKTs

Comments

Waldo
Sun, 07/25/2021 - 10:07am

Hi, my trail name is Bare Necessities. I intend to set the self supported FKT for this trail as a northbound thru-hike. I will be tracking on a Garmin Inreach and can upload a full gpx or kml file of my journey after I finish. I will be starting in Victoria on the morning of July 26th 2021. I will connect my footsteps the whole way and will not skip any sections nor will I have any vehicle support. I will resupply food in towns and carry all of my own equipment the whole way. If there are any trail closures I will figure out road walks around them. I am hoping to finish in less than 20 days, but we will see what happens. Very excited to start this adventure!

Update:
I spent 17 days on trail, from July 26th in Victoria to August 11th at Cape Scott. Unfortunately, the Beaufort section was closed between Port Alberni and Cumberland due to high forest fire risk and so I skipped this section. I probably would have spent 3 days on this section, bringing my total days to 20. When I found out the section was closed I slowed down my pace to enjoy the trail more, but if I had still been going for an FKT then I maybe would have been a total of 17 days. Hopefully I will come back to this trail some other time to set the FKT.