– Bill Collette is the Executive Director of the Alberni Valley Chamber of Commerce.
PORT ALBERNI – The Alberni Valley Chamber of Commerce recently hosted the Tri-Conic Challenge in Port Alberni – a 4-day weekend with a total of 14 different events to host and manage.
Funded in part by Canada 150, the weekend was a huge success for all! Highlights included our ‘Race the Train’ on Canada Day followed by waterfront activities all day long at our beautiful Harbour Quay area where many merchants reported having their best day EVER in sales. Awesome!
Day two of the Challenge included two amazing bike rides with the shorter distance out to China Creek Campground and Marina where our cyclists enjoyed some down time after the grueling ride out there on the Bamfield Road. They then were treated to a beautiful ride back on the Alberni Inlet by Action Packed Charters in their 12 passenger water-craft.
The bigger event that day was the ultra-grueling #gravelgrind up to Bamfield covering a full 90 k of dust, bumps, rocks and hills – many of them! Those folks came back to Port Alberni – also by water with most jumping on board the MV Frances Barkley. A few chose to use Action Packed Charters as they too helped us on that leg of the journey.
The final events happened on Monday, July 3 with four different swims in the fresh clear waters of Sproat Lake. We were thrilled to include 11 people from the Vancouver Open Water Swim Association eight of whom won a free trip over to Port Alberni courtesy of Pacific Seaplanes.
One woman who did the 4000m swim, exited the water telling all around her that it was the best open water swim she’d ever done in her 30 years of swimming! The events wrapped up at the beautiful lake front setting at Sproat Lake Landing and Resort where many awards and prizes were handed out.
The Chamber of Commerce thanks its many sponsors of the event and of course we acknowledge the support of Canada 150 who believed in our concept from the start.
