More than 300 km behind her in her first 24 hours...
Jacqueline Windh / 25.08.2009
So far, Jen is on schedule - she has finished her 300 km bike ride from the Cape Scott to Buttle Lake, in Strathcona Park, and is now on the trails, ascending into the high country. She'd been hoping for good weather for this day in particular, because she plans to link some of the trails in this remote park via a cross-country alpine route, in order to continue in her generally southerly direction. <br />
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Tracking her progress via SPOT satellite (which is functioning just great), it looks like she has made the decision to try the alternative route - so weather must not be so great up there. She was going to set out from the far south end of Buttle Lake and take the Flower Ridge Trail, then route-find across to the Red Pillar Trail, and come out on the north side of Great Central Lake. However, she has set out from a point further north on the lake - looks like she is aiming for the Augerpoint Trail and then route-finding up to Forbidden Plateau, to come out around Mt Washington. Latest points look like she's backtracking a bit - I hope she can find the route OK.<br />
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I can also see from the SPOT points that she made great progress on the bike - enough so that she was able to stop for about 3 hours, from 3 to 6am, on the side of Buttle Lake, in Strathcona Park (I know she was motivated to push on the bike, in order to get this forced rest stop, because she cannot do the hike in the dark).<br />
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I'll leave for Port Alberni shortly, and will see Jen some time in the wee hours as she bikes through to Bamfield. The forecast is for sun tomorrow, as I head out on the West Coast Trail with her. I'll report back here as soon as I can from that, at some point Wednesday night.<br />
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You can follow her progess online by SPOT: <a href="#" onClick="javascript:newsitewindow('http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0m1oL5bgiKigW4Qx9jjSarBy037H0o13h')" class="main">http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0m1oL5bgiKigW4Qx9jjSarBy037H0o13h</a><br /> (you may have to paste this link into your browser to make it work - I can't seem to get it to click through directly)
SleepMonsters
