Vancouver Island Trail (VIT)

The Vancouver Island Trail (VIT) is a new long trail through the spine of Vancouver Island. Previously called the Vancouver Island Spine Trail (VIST), the work on the VIT started in 2009. The southern section of the trail officially opened in 2019. Note 1

Parts of the trail also seem to overlap in some parts with the old Vancouver Island Backbone route.

Plan

The VIT is a hike we identified as a potential candidate to hike with our child, Toothless, in 2021.

For the 2021 hiking season we chose not to hike the VIT as we have prioritized hiking the GDT instead. We are interested in the VIT for another season.

Below are some posts regarding our investigation into the VIT do far.

GPS Tracks

The VITA provides GPS tracks, which are of varying quality.

Thru Hikers Sierra Mueller and North Ross on the VIT Hiker Facebook Group provided their own Caltopo from their thru hike.

I took both of these sources and detailed my own Caltopo. I poured over local trail maps, Google Earth and Google Maps to try to fill in the gaps. Where hotels may be needed for zero days, I also looked at AirBNB to find possible places to stay. So far I do not have the entire VIT mapped, only until Port Alberni.

VIT Posts

Other VIT Hikers:

Note 1: The history might be incorrect; but this is what I found in the media. The VIT website seems to lack a comprehensive history of the trail.