Man trapped for hours in muddy Juan de Fuca Trail clay pit

Hiker Mark Junker, was stuck for two hours on the Juan de Fuca Marine Trail. Photo: Maeve Junker

A North Saanich man has a harrowing tale from the hiking trails that may save someone else from the same scary sinking feeling he faced last week.

Mark Junker, a 57-year-old experienced hiker, spent the better part of two hours trapped in the woods—stuck up to his hips in muddy clay before being rescued by hikers who happened by.

“I felt calm through the process,” he tells Capital Daily. “But I can say that at one point I started to shiver. And I was like, Is this shock? Or is this cold?”

On Thursday, Junker, an aircraft maintenance engineer with Vancouver Island Helicopters (VIH), and his 18-year-old daughter Maeve hiked the lower portion of the southern end of the Juan de Fuca Trail from China Beach toward Sombrio Beach. After spending the night at Bear Beach, Friday’s plan was to trek to Chin Beach, but approximately 20 minutes from their appointed stop, things got a little sticky.

It was 4:45 in the afternoon. The terrain was wet from recent rains and a little on the mucky side, so less than a kilometre east of Chin Beach, Junker decided to trudge on the flatter, seemingly more solid side.

“Second step in, I was like just sunk and it was truly very clay-like, and we're right mid-thigh, like instantly,” he says. “Top of the thigh, like crotch-deep, basically.”

Carrying 40 pounds on his back, Junker lost his balance, leading his second leg to follow into the soft, sinking clay.

He pulled off his backpack and tried to muscle his way out of the quagmire. “I thought, ‘Well, I'm going to pull myself out of here.’ And I started reaching over, trying to grab stuff—and it wasn't happening.”

Help Arrives I

Maeve watched in shock as her father lumbered but couldn't free himself from the thick grey soup. Within minutes, she was relieved to see two hikers happen by, offering to help.

“He's trying to almost pull me backwards,” Junker remembers of the first would-be rescuer. “And I mean, it was close to concrete, and it was very soupy on the top and just seemed like as I was digging down a bit with my hand, it would get a little thicker the lower I went. But there was no way he was pulling me out.”

Help Arrives II

About 15 minutes later, another couple came around and immediately suggested they use some wooden boards they had spotted a few minutes back, next to a recently repaired bridge.

Maeve and two others hiked back to pick up the planks—two by-eights and some that were possibly 12 feet long, her father recalls.

“So they quickly kind of set up around me and tried to basically pull me out in a collection of different ways with no success—there was no movement.”

Stymied by the clay’s grip, some of the hikers went ahead to Chin Beach to see if they could find help while Junker found warmth in a puffy jacket from his backpack.

Help Arrives III

About 20 minutes later, a half-dozen more hikers appeared, including a well-built fellow. “I mean, he was, you know, very fit, very strong, you know, just that real husky size," Junker says.

Surely this was the end of this awful, oozing odyssey, he thought.

“He grabbed me around my waist, I draped my arms over his shoulders,” as Junker describes it. “He is down in a squat position, tries pulling up at the point where I was like, ‘Something's gonna break here.’ And I just said, ‘No. Clearly, I'm not moving.’”

They tried using the boards for leverage but to no avail.

It had now been 90 minutes and it was decided they should call 9-1-1.

The operator stayed on the line keeping everybody calm for some time before connecting the call to Port Alberni RCMP, which began to formulate a plan.

Meantime, the rescuers were still at it with the wood.

They tried shoving the boards down by Junker’s sides, one person digging the clay, the other shovelling it out.

“I mean, I can see the sweat on their foreheads and I'm trying to help a little bit in front of me, but I'm also trying not to move or I'm going to get deeper.”

Freedom. Finally.

Junker was still thigh-high but hopeful when one of the helping hikers slipped in just past his ankle. “He couldn’t pull his foot out, but he needed another person to sort of grab his leg and pull,” Junker says. “And between the two of them, they got his leg free.”

The digging continued for another 20 minutes when one of them struck Junker’s boot which eventually led to them cutting the laces and painstakingly freeing the man one leg at a time.

Junker says there was a cheer of excitement and then one of the hikers “grabbed me around my shoulders and just dragged me back out of the hole.”

Junker contacted BC Parks, which immediately secured the area.

Province says it's not usual

BC Parks is an agency of the Environment Ministry, which in an email to Capital Daily said it was “the first report of an incident of this nature,” on the trail it had received.

“BC Parks regularly assesses the Juan de Fuca Marine Trail for public safety concerns and continues to invest in infrastructure upgrades along the trail,” the ministry said.

“The Juan de Fuca Marine Trail is a strenuous, multi-day hike in a rugged and isolated environment,” it said. “Hikers should be prepared for uneven ground and slippery conditions on muddy trails, wooden surfaces, boulders, and rocky shorelines."

‍

Mark Junker after being pulled from mud/clay pit. Photo: Maeve Junker

Could have been worse

Junker says many “what-ifs” have gone through his and his daughter’s minds since last Friday. “It could have gone so much worse if that crew and team of people weren’t there to help me and I just can’t say thanks enough to the entire crew and BC Parks for all they did, in cordoning off the area and for the entire team that went to the effort to rescue me,” he says.

“I was so fortunate for the group of people that came to my help and rescue.”

The province reminds hikers to consult the BC Parks website for park updates before hitting the trails.