West Coast Trail – Fuel Options in Victoria

[Robb Rice]

Hi All,

I will be hiking the West Coast Trail (and most likely also the Juan de Fuca Trail) on Vancouver Island starting this upcoming Friday, and I have a dilemma with how to hand stove fuel.

I normally use a Caldera Keg setup (with either an alcohol stove or Gram Cracker stove with Esbit tablets), but the problem is getting the fuel in Victoria.

Since I can bring neither Esbit tablets or Denatured Alcohol on the airplane, I was planning on picking up some Yellow Bottle Heet at a gas station in Victoria.

So the question is (for anyone familiar with Victoria), do most all gas stations in Victoria (either downtown/harbour area or by the airport) carry Heet? And if so, what hours are gas stations normally open (i.e. are there any 24 hours ones)?

My problem is going to be that I land at 11pm at Victoria Airport, and then I need to be on a bus to the trail head the following morning at 6:30am. So not much wiggle room.

Any help/info would be much appreciated :)

EDIT: Apparently it is possible to check-in Esbit tablets on an airplane. I'll give that a shot…thanks Rand!

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