A Weekend in Tofino with UVic Law

A couple weeks ago I wrote my first law school exam. It was my Law, Legislation & Policy midterm and while I was a little nervous, it was helpful knowing that it was a “help not hurt” exam. This means that if you perform better on your final exam, then your midterm doesn’t count.

This is what UVic Law does for all first year midterms, and I think this is a great policy. It gets you accustomed to writing law exams before they actually start to count for grades, so you can figure out what kind of studying and preparation works for you. I think the exam went well and it felt great to get it over with, but the real excitement was what came afterwards.

UVic Law has a tradition where every year, after the first round of midterms, a bunch of students do a road trip up to Tofino for a weekend of hiking and surfing (if you don’t know where Tofino is I’ve included a handy map for reference). This was something I had been looking forward to since the beginning of the school year, and it did not disappoint. It was a much-needed weekend of fun after studying for my first exam.

Our accommodations were beautiful cabins in Ucluelet, which were just steps away from an awesome hiking trail called the Lighthouse Loop. My cabin roommates and I did this hike on the Saturday, and were in awe of the rugged beauty of this part of the island.

The weekend we were there just happened to be “Halloweekend”, so of course we had to dress up. My cabin decided to go with a theme, and we decided on “crazy cat lady and her kitties.” I think our costumes turned out pretty well…

To make things even more awesome, there was an epic thunder and lightning storm the night of Halloween. It felt like the makings of a horror movie. Just think about it — law students spending the night in cabins in the woods, on Halloween, during a storm. Too perfect.

On our last day we did a walk in Pacific Rim National Park, specifically the Shorepine Bog Trail. The landscape on this walk was unlike anything I’ve ever seen. The trees were mostly tiny and warped, and it didn’t even feel like we were in BC anymore.

All in all, I had an incredible weekend in Tofino with my Law peers. It was a great way to unwind after the stress of our first exam, and also to bond with classmates. I’m looking forward to our next adventure.