50 years on the Nitinat Narrows
Carl Edgar and his family ferry hikers across a gap in the West Coast Trail
Carl Edgar has been ferrying hikers across the Nitinat Narrows on the West Coast Trail for 50 years.Nicholas Allan/CBC
by Jackie McKay CBC News Jun. 9, 2025
Thousands of people hike one of Canada's most famous backpacking destinations on Vancouver Island every summer and all of them have met Carl Edgar, or at least an Edgar.
This year is Carl Edgar's 50th season ferrying hikers across the Nitinat Narrows at about the halfway mark on the 75-kilometre West Coast Trail.
His ferry service is the only way hikers are able to complete the full trail and the addition of a floating restaurant has made it a trip highlight for many. The business has become a way for Edgar to support and teach his family who will one day take it over.
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Carl is from the Ditidaht First Nation and grew up in the remote community of Clo-oose not far from the narrows.
He was 14 when he saw his first hiker on the West Coast Trail; he said he remembers it because it was the same summer Neil Armstrong landed on the moon.
'I used to be riding back and forth here going crab fishing and fishing on the ocean and I used to see people standing on a beach and I didn't know what they were doing here,' said Carl.
'I had a glimpse of the future because the hikers are never gonna stop."
The West Coast Trail was once known as the Dominion Life Saving Trail, used by survivors of shipwrecks along the west coast of Vancouver Island. The Juan De Fuca Strait, between Vancouver Island and the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state, was known as the "Graveyard of the Pacific," according to Parks Canada.
In the early 1900s, in addition to lighthouses, the Canadian government made lifesaving stations at Cloo-ose and Bamfield and upgraded a telegraph route that became the trail, with six shelters stocked with provisions.
'One part of the history is they didn't tell us that the local people here saved them, like my ancestors, my grandparents and their parents,' said Carl.
'They used to see these shipwrecked survivors and bring them ashore and feed them and dry them off and then they'd hike out, otherwise they wouldn't survive.'
The trail became recreational in 1973, three years after the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve was established along the coast. It passes through the traditional territories of the Huu-ay-aht, Ditidaht, and Pacheedaht First Nations.
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Ferry needed
Guardians from the First Nations work with Parks Canada to care for the trails and protect the land and visiting hikers. Edgar's brother-in-law, Gord Cook, was one of them, working the trail for 16 seasons starting in 2005.
'My dad did 1973 to 1981, so I'm a second generation worker on the trail,' said Cook.
'It's just like being a hiker; you get to see different beaches and camp, talk to people from all over the place."
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Nitinat Narrows is a tidal passage where Nitinat Lake meets the Pacific Ocean and it cleaves the trail into two parts. Up to 8,000 people hike the West Coast Trail between May and October every year and Carl's ferry service is the only way to cross the Nitinat Narrows without swimming.
"I used to see 40 Germans a day here back in the '70s and '80s and they're the only ones who would swim,' said Carl.
Carl has been running the route full time between May and October since 1975.
The original ferry crossing vessel was a dugout canoe that was upgraded with a series of outboard motors by Carl's father.
In the beginning, 'I got a dollar from each hiker,' said Carl.
His brother Phillip Edgar remembers when the price went up to $2.
'When I helped him I'd have a whole stack of two dollar bills at the end of the day,' said Phillip.
Carl says he now encounters second and third generation hikers.
'They come back and they say 'I hiked this with my father when I was 12 and now I'm 36 and I got my 12 year old,' and oh, I feel old then.'
Carl has countless stories of memorable hikers: a group who had made a device to carry a friend who was paralyzed down the trail; a couple who met on the trail, came back to be married on the beach near the Crabshack and years later did the trail again with their kids.
Among the more bizarre encounters, Edgar tells of a woman he picked up across the narrows sitting on a stool with an umbrella and a suitcase.
'She was sitting there and had a suitcase with wheels on it like going to the airport,' said Carl.
'I brought her across and she kept going.'
Building the Crabshack
In the early years he would sit in his canoe in the rain waiting for hikers.
'I used to say, 'I wish I had a roof and a heater and some hot food and it'd make life a lot easier,'' said Carl.
So he built what he always wanted.
images expandEvolution of the Crabshack over the years. The floating docks with shelters that are known as a haven for hikers was a dream of Edgar's when he used to sit in his boat in the rain. (Submitted by Shelley-Ann Edgar)
On a floating dock, he now has a cabin structure with a wood burning stove and a kitchen that has become famous for meals like the 'Nitinat Ultimate,' a $65 lunch of a half crab, lingcod or halibut, a fully loaded baked potato and a lemon wedge.
'The first year, when the cooking happened, we were just giving away part of our lunch,' said Leon Edgar, Carl's son.
He said word spread down the trail and they had more and more people asking for food.
Leon said eventually they decided 'We've got to put a price on this; it's becoming lots of work.'
The shack serves crab and fish freshly caught by the Edgar family right on Nitinat Lake.
'People are happy, we provide to the people and give them a little taste of some West Coast gold, we call it, having a fresh sockeye,' said Leon.
The hikers gave the business the name the Crabshack. Carl wanted to call it the Sea Level.
'Hikers weren't having it, nope,' said Carl.
'This is the Crabshack.'
Ferry stopped once in 50 years
The ferry service has only stopped running once during hiking season, and even then it was only for a couple of hours in June 1995, when Carl married his wife Shelley-Ann.
'We invited all the wardens and all the guardians and all the information people,' said Carl.
Shelley-Ann says sometimes hikers ask how they can get a job at the Crabshack but the only way to get a job around here is to be born an Edgar or to marry one.
On the dock today you will see three generations of Edgars. Shelley-Ann and Carl's youngest daughter Kristine (Krissy) Edgar runs boats and cooks meals, and Leon's 12-year-old son — one of nine grandchildren — is learning the ropes.
Carl's kids and grandkids are his succession plan and they've been in training their whole lives.
'Carl is carrying on the life skills and the teachings of his ancestors and the people before him, like fishing out here, learning how to run a boat on this lake, learning to run from this lake to the ocean,' said Shelley-Ann.
'He is teaching our children how to do that, and now our grandchildren are learning.'
Krissy said she's thankful for the skills her dad has taught her and that other people back home in Ditidaht First Nation haven't had the same opportunities she's had to be on the lake every day, learning to drive boats, and fish.
'I'm very proud of him that he saw a glimpse of the future when he met all these first hikers who came through,' said Krissy.
'I'm glad that he chose to stay here for his future, for us.'
Carl has taken a step back and jokes that he now has a crew running the place, leaving more time for him to chat to hikers and tell stories.
'I'm at home. I don't have to travel anywhere, and I get to work with my whole family,' said Carl.
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