Hello All - it’s GREAT for not only the team but also for us support to hear from so many of you.  The team loves all of the posts!  Please keep it up.

Now for the long over do update.  They cruised on their bikes from TA5 Carbella to TA7 at Otter Creek.  They crashed there for a couple of hours - they got the motorhome, Eric and Mary in their car, and I slept outside - it was fabulous!  I woke them up at 2:30am fixed them some coffee and off they went (they had already filled up when they had arrived 2 hours before).  They had an incredible bike through some tough dirt roads with huge rocks - but gorgeous.  They dropped their bikes and headed off for a 30 mile trek.  The guys that were manning the check point had seen 5 bears in 2 days!  I was hoping our team would be so lucky - they weren’t - didn’t even see a squirrel.  The “back breaker” as John called it took them approx. 28 hours.  They did sleep up at check point 17 as many of you know.  They did some amazing things.  They had to cross a number of talus fields while heading up and over the ridge.  Mary said it was the scariest thing she’s ever done and Bobby helped her step by step.  They also crossed many freezing streams.  Other teams had reported seeing an avalanche down the opposite side of the mountain - glad it wasn’t in the path of the teams.  Our team finally came WALKING, not limping, in at 9:30am this morning.  They were in fantastic shape.  We retaped Mary’s feet in a couple of places and everyone else’s feet are looking great!  They filled up on pancake pigs in a blanket, chef boyardee pasta, and Jason added 2 bowls of oatmeal (so, Michigan supporters, I’m feeding him well!).  They also had coffee, water, and gatorade.  Tonight’s dinner is pizza - special request from the team. Eric found a pizza place that has Chicago style pizza so he brought that - I know they’re pedaling hard for that reward.  When they left for their bike they were in great spirits and feeling good.  14 team have now withdrawn or gone unranked (one team member had to quit) - I can’t even begin to tell you all how proud I am of this team.  They rock!

Ok, we’re waiting for the team to arrive now - should be in soon and I need to prepare!  I’ll try to get more details posted soon and answer the questions!

 

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This entry was posted on Saturday, June 28th, 2008 at 11:45 pm and is filed under Primal Quest. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.