B4B/15 Day2B: Through the Island Interior

Monday was a day that could easily be split into two parts: the morning ride along the Island's west coast rainforest in a cold rain, and the climb up and over the interior mountains through Cowichan Lake into Duncan under sunny, warm skies. The mountains that we passed through is known as the Seymour Range, part of the Vancouver Island Mountain Ranges.  (1)   

This was a complete transformation weatherwise, and everyone was, of course, happy to see the sun. About two-thirds of the week's climbing took place this particular morning, with most of the remainder on Friday between Powell River and Gibsons.  

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 It really was a dramatic change from just an hour earlier. The road was only a secondary road, and in certain places it seemed to be just an old logging road. The magnificent scenery definitely made up for the road conditions. We climbed steadily to the little pass where we had lunch, and then it was generally long, sweeping descents to Cowichan, and relatively flat from there out to Duncan, where a fabulous barbecue was being provided by New Life Church.

This photo, and the gallery below, provides a good idea of how rugged the center of Vancouver Island really is.

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The team at New Life was a fabulous example of the wonderful and generous people that host Bike for Bibles events throughout Canada. They are enthusiastic, skilled chefs and grill maestros and happy to have dozens of tired people stay over for the night! We are always very, very grateful to their dedication, friendliness, and last but absolutely not the least, their ability to provide tasty meals!

In this case, for myself, that meal included one incredible barbecued salmon burger!

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    RESOURCES:    
            1.    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour_Range