The field was smaller this time than last week,Danimal, FT and I started this wet drippy morning from China Beach this time to try and avoid the tide on Bear Beach.
The plan was that FT would run with us to Bear Beach and double back leaving Dan and I to continue, right on through to Botanical.
There were a few factors that made this run harder than last weeks.
1.) The rain the night before. We were wet from the getgo from the salal and the bushes, we were cold on the slower sections,(the beaches)
2.) The recent full Moon.(making the tides higher than usual.)
3.) The footing was more trecherous, what last week were small mud hollows became shoe sucking quagmires.(Dan sunk up to his knee in one spot!)
4.) The rain had turned some of the trail into clay, making the decents faster but somewhat out of control. Both Dan and I ended up on our asses so many times we were getting very "stained".
A combination of these factore, plus miss-judging the tide on Sombrio, led Dan to pull of the course.
I had puchased a couple of walkie talkies so we were able to make limited contact with FT who waited to see who came out of the bush at Parkinson Creek.
I saw FT first and refueled at his fun-mobile, told him to not move from there and to wait for Dan.
I was feeling pretty good as I knew that the worst was behind me, so I pushed on in the warm afternoon sunshine to the end at Port Renfrew.
10:21 for me. 40 minute slower than last week, but I had to bushwhack off the beach and find a washed out over grown bear infested bypass trail to get by the head land and back onto the JDF, North of Sombrio.
All in all we survived another epic trip to the Wild Wet Coast of VI!
Comments
Congratulations
Just found time now to read your accountof last weekends JDF Trail Challenge. Sounded a bit tougher than the week prior. Congrats for toughing it out, mud, bears and all.
Sounds like the weather is becoming unstable towards the weekend. Hope Des and Chris will have some sunshine!
Des, are you going to attempt North-South?
Cheers
Sibylle
juan de fuca
Hi Siyblle, We are hoping for sunshine. When I checked last sun and it forecasted 100% chance of rain for this coming sat ,we or aleast I was ready to bail. It now is only 10% chance so it's still on . But it the weather changes maybe not. Chris,Tim and myself are taking the 2pm ferry over to the island on fri.The plan is to camp at the china beach trail head and start running towards Port Renfrew at around 7:30 or so.With a planned finishing time of 8 to 9 hours if things go well.Of course if it dosen't go well who knows.
des
Round 3 of the Juan de fuca
Hi Carlos,
At least 3 more fat asses are giving the trail another go this sat.I was wondering if you think it's better to go from China beach to port renfrew or the other way.Also any other advice you can give would be great, seeing that you are the resident expert and a 2 time finisher.
thanks des
Go North to South...