Sunshine Coast Trail: My Longest Solo Backpacking Trip

Having completed the Juan de Fuca in 2021 and the West Coast Trail in 2022 with a great group of girls, tackling the Sunshine Coast Trail seemed like a natural next step.

180km in 10 days. Doing the SCT solo in September was my penultimate backpacking trip this year... and even in a full blog post, I have no idea how to summarize the adventure.

There's so many stories I could tell: coming up with the over/under on how many times I would cry, how eventful and hilarious Day Zero was, carrying all 10 days of my food, having a couple of wonderful trail families, making the last minute choice to hike 35km with 1500m lost and 1600m gained in a single day, PTSD from mice in huts, chatting with local climbers at a trailside crag, watching humpback whales swim by camp at sunrise on my last day, and throwing my pack down and immediately bursting into tears of disbelief when I successfully reached the end of the trail.

Sarah Point Hut, the northern start of the Sunshine Coast Trail.

Lovely window views of the ocean from upstairs in the Sarah Point Hut.

A lovely trail family formed for the first three days of my hike.

Looking out over Powell Lake from the top of Scout Mountain.

Room for one tent at Tony’s Point on Powell Lake.

Incredible views from the summit of Tin Hat mountain.

Balanced my phone for a summit selfie on Tin Hat Mountain.

If you look carefully, you can spot Tin Hat Hut down below.

A cloud inversion at Walt Hill Hut, one of the most incredible sunrises I’ve ever seen.

Balanced my phone again for an epic sunrise summit selfie at Walt Hill Hut.

Day nine selfie, and you can see how empty my bear can is now.

One last selfie after 10 days and 178 kms of hiking.