It’s called the hike of a lifetime.

But this year, the hopes and dreams of about 7,500 people with reservations for the West Coast trail are at the mercy of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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In mid-March, Parks Canada suspended visitor services in all national parks, including the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve where the trail is located. Backcountry camping sites have also been closed.

Normally, the 75-kilometre backpacking trip through temperate rainforest and beaches on southwestern Vancouver Island opens May 1. This year, no one knows when it will reopen.

“We’re in a world where we’re taking the advice of public health experts and we want to make sure we’re making decisions to continue to limit the spread of COVID-19,” said Ed Jager, director of visitor experience at Parks Canada.

“I’m not really in a position to predict what the next couple of months will hold for us. We will really be relying on the advice and guidance of public health experts.”

Parks Canada had accepted 357 reservations, which generally represents a group of three people, for the month of May, he said.

Trail crews usually prepare the trail during March and April — repairing bridges and ladders, checking cable cars and cleaning up the trail and campgrounds — but Parks Canada spokeswoman Megan Damini said that work is not going ahead to keep staff safe from the virus.

“Given the current realities associated with COVID-19, this trail preparation work is not possible under physical distancing guidelines, and has been put on hold for now,” she said.

No decision has been made on when the trail will open, but Jager said it would “definitely be challenging” to open the trail for May 1.

“We want to make sure that we only open the trail when it’s safe for visitors and we want to make sure that all the Parks Canada team members doing the work to open the trail are safe and that’s much more complicated right now,” he said.

Valerie Burton is the administrator of the “West Coast Trail, beautiful British Columbia” Facebook page. She said some hikers with reservations for May 1 have cancelled their flights to the coast.

“Such a bummer,” posted Jesse Hebenton.

Others, with trail reservations in mid-May or later, are still in limbo.

In 2018, Burton did the trail with seven other women. Her father had done the trail 40 years earlier when the family first came to Canada and it had always been on her wish list. Burton, who was 62, trained ferociously, doing sets of 270 steps in Dover Bay, Nanaimo. But in the end, with a 40-pound pack on her back, she managed to complete only half the trail because she was thwarted by the mud.

“So my plan was to do it again this year with one of my sons because I would have a lot of support strength-wise. He could carry a little extra,” she said. “I’m very disappointed. Even though I’m very scared to do it again, I’m a bit of an andrenaline junkie so I’m always up to the challenge.

“I feel for the people who are having to cancel. There are a lot of people who come from overseas, a lot of people who come from Alberta and Saskatchewan, Ontario. This is sort of a once-in-a-lifetime epic trip for them.”

Cynthia Cole, an insurance adviser in Kamloops, and her husband have reservations to start the trail on June 21.

“I know a lot of people are cancelling already for the May and June dates,” she said.

“I reached out to Parks Canada and they said nothing has been decided yet so I’m holding off until the very last minute.”

The couple have been planning and training to do the trail for more than a year.

“It was our only big plan for the year. But now that this outbreak has happened it puts things in perspective,” Cole said. “I don’t know if we should even it is open. I know it’s gong to be amazing when we eventually do it. “

Like Burton, Cole feels badly that so many people have to cancel because they’re coming from abroad.

“We’re pretty lucky we live in Kamloops so we can make a last-minute decision if we need to cancel because we’re just driving and taking a ferry.”

Parks Canada has asked people not to cancel their reservations unless there are reasons — other than COVID-19 — to do so.

“If we decide we’re not able to open the trail, then we would cancel reservations and give refunds,” Jager said. “As soon as we have an idea what the delay will be, we will be informing the public and those people who have reservations.”

The passion of Parks Canada employees is to help people have these amazing experiences, he said.

“We certainly would like to make it possible for people to hike the West Coast Trail. We really do have to make sure that can happen safely, both for all the visitors as well as for our staff,” he said. “And that has to happen in the context of the work that we’re doing to limit the spread of COVID-19.”

ldickson@timescolonist.com