I caught up with Jen and Norm as they biked through Port Alberni, en route from the high country of Strathcona to Bamfield, the start of the West Coast Trail.<br />
<br />
As I had suspected from the SPOT data, they (Jen, Garth Campbell, and Jen’s partner Norm Hann) hit some really terrible weather up in the mountains of Strathcona - the fog and generally poor visibility hampered their navigation, and they lost about an hour and a halk due to a missed turnoff and then a lot of backtracking. Then the driving rain slowed them down, and had them emerge at Mt Washington Ski Resort cold and exhausted.<br />
<br />
Jen’s mom, Bonnie, was waiting for them up there. Jen is really excited about her mom being on her support crew - after all of Jen’s international races, it is the first time her mom gets to see what she actually does first-hand. Bonnie, for her part, is really excited to be a part of this, too, and proud of her daughter - but it is really emotional for her at the same time, worrying, and witnessing Jen’s pain - as I realized when asking Bonnie some questions about it, and she was moved to the edge of tears!<br />
<br />
Because they had taken an alternate route through Strathcona, the team had to navigate unscouted logging roads through to Port Alberni, which involved a bit of route-finding and backtracking as well. Norm chose to ride this whole section with Jen, too. They were hurting by the wee hours, almost falling asleep on their bikes, so stopped for an hour’s sleep just outside of Port Alberni.<br />
<br />
The support crew picked me up around 8 am in Port Alberni, and I joined them for the drive out to Bamfield - Jen and Norm accomplished this approximately 85 km ride, along hilly and washboardy logging roads, in about four and a half hours - to just make the compulsory West Coast Trail orientation session at 1 pm. <br />
<br />
Norm would continue on the trail with her, joined by Victoria ultrarunner (and good friend of Jen’s) Donald Peterson, and me - for as far as I could get with them and still be able to turn around to get back into Bamfield by dark. Check my next report to see how that went....
SleepMonsters
