Crossover Event July 23^rd by Jordy Ydse

Now I have only been home a few weeks from cycling in Asia and this was my first big outing of the year and the first chance our team for the 2005 Raid was able to get out and test each other, see how we mesh.

Here is an update of the event, organized by Tom Jarecki of Ecospirit and a fellow Adventure Racer. 

First off I will say that 5am comes early when you go to bed at 1am. This is how I started Tom Jarecki's crossover event and the coffee was brewing, all about the morning cup of joy.

Having one of my Raid the North teammates Will pick me up in North Van, we make our way down to Deep Cove for the 6am meeting time. Meeting there was Dean, Megan, Will and I (www.secondwindracing.com) for the Raid route and on the other side we had Tom, Kyla, Adam and Natasha (the latter two) from Ontario I believe. They came out west as the play ground is much better. Get to get introduced by Kylaand Tom as well, very ambitious couple.

Once we are there Tom makes everyone go through a gear check as you would at any race, we had a couple of forgetful ones but we let it slide, or I will say Tom did. We then proceeded to discuss the plan for our day and what Tom had planned for our Raid team, getting our UTM cordinates from Tom and having Will plot our course on the map. We then swapped some car keys and took the Raid team to Squamish, while the sea2summit group started in deep cove.

Once we were in Squamish we got set quickly and set off for the first leg of our day, the trekking and navigation course. We started making our way around the front of the Chief and then up along the river at a good pace. Was not so long before we were in a little area of swamp right near the SW front of Squaw mountian, located behind the Chief. Check point 1.

From here our first check point we were to make our way up the south mountians (?) in a some what dense brush. At one point we were climbing up some 15-20 cliff covered in moist, dewy moss, took some team work to get everything done right there and safely I might add. Again we are trekking up, gaining in elevation through the dense bush.

At some point in this time during this part of our trek Dean starts reliving our Raid race last year, when we had trekked through a wasp nest and both suffered multiple stings. No lie, as he spits those words from his mouth ouch, jump, ouch, jump again, then we start running. I can not tell you how many stings Dean got but I got stung 5 times in that one pass. Keep pushing forward, upward and in no time at all the pains are gone. We are now following a creek from the cliff we climbed up and no sooner does my pain pass when I get one more sting for good measure, about 20-30 mins after the first assault. Those bastards!

We nicknamed Will the excavator, as he lead the way up through the bush at quite a great pace passing through anything and everything, setting a good rate for which all of us have to follow. I will take this second to add that Will was the only one with pants, sorry bud.

Nice, found the road or a path at first which very quickly lead to the road. From here we start a run for the cars, down the logging road some 2000 feet of elevation descent or more. This will take us to the climbers parking lot at the base of the chief where our cars are with the bikes. About 2/3 or 3/4 into the run I started to lag as I got some beauty cramps and the running legs were not all there. The cramps are more then likely coming from my early morning coffee intake, not so smart.

At the cars we set the bikes up and gear ourselves for leg 2 of our day, the bike ride from the parking lot to the north tip of Indian Arm. Not before loading up on some food, fuel for the body. HHMMM Good!

From the park lot it was a slow and relatively steep climb with Megan demonstrating how she climbs those hills, paced, determined and very nicely! There was some great views and after a good chunk of time we hit our summit or high point for climbing, here is where the steady long downhill starts and it is very bumpy. Stopping first to fill our bottles at a nice creek, ice cold the way it should be. Not a 100m from our water source we see Sea2Summit team and stop to say hello, this takes some time as Tom is having to rebuild his rear tire with ducttape. Such a nice job, that he would make Red Green proud. Imagine!

At this rest point we saw two black bears not 40 feet up the hillside but it was not long before they went running off, all these freaky human folk riding out here. On our long downhill we take turns getting flats, seeing how I had one on the uphill, Dean got one first on the descent. Once fixed we caught up with Megan whose tire strangely popped as she sat waiting for us, hhmmm sounds funny. On the very bumpy creek crossings my bike was taking a beating with no rear suspension, this lead to my second flat for the day near the base of the dowhill. Oh when will it end, 1.5 flats in 5 months of Asia and two in a few hour span of B.C. riding, good to be back.

As we got to the bottom of the descent I saw a large cougar walking the road so we all stopped, then riding on around the corner our cougar was still on the road running away from us, spitting up dust with every step of those huge paws, so of course we tail her. Some 300m down the road she finally jets into the bushes and we slowly peddle by, all looking for her but knowing she is gone for good now. Such a beauty and I believe it was everyone's first cougar except mine.

At the 2km marker we stop and start our search for the boats because this is where we are told to look. It takes us some time to figure out that it just does not seem right that the canoes are 2 km from the arm itself, especially after we roamed to the river front where Will spotted a river Otter. Checking the river again we saw areas that you are sure to portage, does not seem right. So we make our way slowy and in pairs to the head of the Arm canvassing for our markers, now Dean spots the boats right in the best spot possible. So we eat, disassemble our bikes and load them into the boats, setting ourselves for the start our 3 hour paddle home.

Along our boat journey back I count a number of 8 seal heads bobbing and watching us before swimming off. Near the end of the journey I also spot a black goat on a cliff side after some rocks tumble down and splashed 15 feet to my right. Was he aiming is my question?

We pulled into the docks just before the 3 hour mark of paddling but at the 13.5 hour mark or close to it we were all happy to call it the day. Under three hours is a great time, as I have paddled the Arm many times in a kayak, always getting around the same time when pushing. There on the dock is Tom and Kyla to cheer us in and help us unload the boats etc, as well as answer the questions of the onlookers who are curious and then astonished that people volunteer for such things. Once standing there it got cold fast as it was now near 10pm and we were wet.

Each Leg has it's own story ranging in Time and Distance.
Leg 1 was an estimated 12km trek/orienteer, Leg 2 was a 40km bike ride up and around the area of the Chief And squaw mountian and Leg 3 was a 18km paddle back to Deep Cove.

Adam and Natasha ordered a pizza and we all snacked on the warm pavement of the parking lot, thank you for the grub as well as the heated asphalt, you did that right? Then we made our way to the Seymour Pub for a happy beer, nice and cold like it should be. Tom's recovery secret.

Many thanks to you Tom for a fantastic day, always a treat to do something you plan out and never without stiff legs the day to follow. Thanks for the shoes as well, even though the sizing was off by a wee bit.

See you in Nelson :)

Jordy