Stage One, The 75km West Coast Trail

Let me just start by saying one thing, Carlos Castillo is THE MAN, and none of this would have been possible without him!

The idea was hatched over a few beers in September 2006. A group of us had just run the 47km Juan De Fuca Trail, with times ranging from 7.5-9 hours. We unanimously agreed that the JDFT was a killer...and yet we all discussed what we could do to make it tougher?
How about an out and back? Boring.
What about linking it to another trail?
Then someone mentioned the 75km West Coast Trail, which finished just down the street from the North end of the Juan De Fuca Trail. There was a paved road connecting these two and the total distance added up to 130km.

The West Coast trail is a classic West Coast hike and is internationally known for it's high level of difficulty. There are dozens of hikers rescued off of this trail annually with numerous injuries and ailments, and the one season rescue record topped over 100 people!
With steep ladders, cable car water crossings, deep mud, rocky rooty trails, and lengthy beach sections, the West Coast Trail stood alone as a test of your trail running prowess. To tack on another sole destroying 53km after this...well that sounded like a great idea! We all planned to come back and give it a go in 2007. After some further research we learned that these trails had never been successfully run end to end before. A few groups had attempted it, but without success.

Follow this link if you are interested in the rest of the (rather lengthy) story, http://garyrobbins.blogspot.com/