Vancouver Island Quest
Mission acccomplished, Jen's getting a well deserved rest
Jacqueline Windh / 29.08.2009
It turns out that, after I parted ways with Jen, Norm and Don on the West Coast Trail, they did make it to the Nanoose Rapids ferry crossing before midnight. But in the dark, they did not realize that the ferry driver had stayed up waiting for them just a hundred or so meters across - apparently he stayed up til 2 in the morning. But they didn't know that he was there, in shouting distance, so the three of them huddled together under (or perhaps on?) their single space blanket until light. They lost about 6 hours here...
The roughest part of the trail was still ahead of them. They made it out, to Gordon River, around 10pm - about 14 hours later than the time they'd been hoping for. Jen was set on making her 4-day deadline to reach Victoria - which by then was less than 8 hours away - and she and Norm were keen to just keep moving. So they barely rested at all here, and opted to hop on the bikes rather than run the Juan de Fuca Trail, and rode in to Victoria. They arrived in the dark around 5:40am, just a few tiny minutes over the four days - what an impressive journey!
Congrats to Jen, for having such a dream and then making it happen. Congrats to everyone else who was a part of this - especially to Jen's partner Norm Hann who, although obviously extremely fit, has never done a multi-day event like this, and who ended up doing the entire journey save for the first 10 or so hours with her.
I've posted a 10 minute video of the sections that I accompanied Jen and team - biking from Port Alberni and then the first part of the West Coast Trail. Check it out, it's kind of fun: <a href="#" onClick="javascript:newsitewindow('http://tiny.cc/sV5hP')" class="main">http://tiny.cc/sV5hP</a>
SleepMonsters
