Distance: approx 60km / 37 miles
Elevation Gain: 1800m / 5900 feet
Start Line: BC Ferries' Earls Cove Terminal
Aid Station 1 Distance: approx 23km
Aid Station 2 Distance: approx 44km
Finish Line: Village of Sechelt
Base Camp: Sechelt Elementary School

We headed up the road from Earls Cove Ferry Terminal, and went left off the highway for 1Km, North Lake was on our left.  As we climbed the dirt road,  you pass by North Lake.  You climb through the rainforest to Klein Lake  Park and then roll into a singletrack trail that leads to some fantastic views of Ruby Lake and Sakinaw Lake below.   Then we made our descent into Ruby Lake Resort through the Iris Griffith Informative Center.

We also, as we had gone through the weeks found that we had a similar pace to the same group of riders.  There was “Belgian Bart”, some other Belgians from a group of 22 or so riders that had travelled together to enjoy the adventure.   There was also Marie, from Canada, and Greg from Idaho. This day we would see one of the Belgians and Greg at Aid 1. 

Getting to Aid 1 at 23 km wasn’t so bad.  It was fairly hot and sunny and really a pretty nice ride.  As we rolled through the aid station we refilled water bottles, grabbed some food, and headed across a clear cut.  Normally that would be bad, but it afforded us an amazing view of some of  the waters we had travelled through on our ferry rides throughout BC. 

This was the day Kathy hated the most.  I didn’t mind this one but stay tuned b/c tomorrow was the day I hated the most!  Anyhow, we made Aid 2 by 1 minute.  If you don’t make the checkpoints they take you out on the truck and you get no belt buckle (another item Kathy coveted and ultimately earned!). 

ADDING A PARENTAL RATING HERE FOR "USE OF LANGUAGE" - PG13....

Anyhow, our arrival at Aid 2 was heralded by cheers and congratulations of “you’re the last group that gets to keep going”, “you made it!”.   Here’s where I’m going to quote Kathy’s ride report, “I think this was the day we made the cut off at Aid Station 2 by 1 minute!!! Geez!!! We finally pull in and there was Greg from Idaho. Greg was slumped in a chair saying he didn’t want to go on. He was tired and done! He kept insisting the medics just drive him to the finish. He said, “Just let a cougar descend on my ass and put me out of misery! You’ll find no defense marks on that cougar’s face.” I busted a gut laughing. Susan and I urged him on, “Come on! Come finish with us. You came this far and you’ll kick yourself if you bail now.” He was still whining when Susan brought my bike over to him and pointed to my motivational sticker which read, “Don’t be a pu$$y!” He was shamed into riding with us.” 

Of course the Aid station folks, including Hilary to whom we chatted with daily joined in to help shame Greg into getting back on his bike.  So he did and rode off with us for the last 16 Km that would take us home to our tents in Sechelt.   We stayed together for a little while and I snapped a pic of him as he navigated a low bridge on the trail.  Stupid camera – not fast enough to snap a second pic of Kathy right behind him.  We stayed together for awhile and then broke away (can’t remember why).

What I remember about this day were 2 switchback climbs and a climb that was what would be an awesome, bermed downhill course.  Through that climb we were saying stuff like “nice that we could break in their downhill trails”.  One of the other climbs was just off the road and more of a multi-use trail where those pavers made the corners sticky, otherwise the gravel/sand would have made them tough to climb b/c they were steep.  The other set I remember was just long, undulating and really steep and felt like it went on forever, here’s where I’d look down at Kathy below me and say things like “I hate you!”, or “that suitcase you wanted so bad, it’s stupid”, and then I’d laugh and blame her for getting me into this mess.  Now, don’t get me wrong, mixed in there was a ton of sweet single track and some great descents and it was another beautiful day.  The trails really just can’t be beat.  Gotta love riding in BC.

When we finally got into the finish line, Sara was there and we told our stories of the day and waited for Greg to finish and congratulated him when he did.  He looked a little worse for wear from the experience but he wasn’t dying, injured, or irreparably damaged so we were excited that he was going to get a finishers belt buckle.   

Kathy took off to her hotel and  a good meal, Angela found me, and we took off to get grab some food too.  At this point I was craving protein and was thankful that there was salmon for dinner.  I think if there hadn’t been a good chunk of protein like that I probably would have walked into town to find some.  There were lots of vegetarian options in the food throughout the week but if you only eat fish, the protein sources were pretty lean. Yeah! Salmon!

Here’s the video for Day 4…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7Tfybltjgg