La Cloche Trail 9hrs 25mins 45sec.

I finished running the La Cloche trail yesterday just before 5pm. For those of you who have hiked the trail, you know how rugged the terrain is. The trail measures 80km in length and just under 8000ft elevation gain/loss. It is one of the hardest trails I have ever done and is probably one of the hardest trails in Eastern Canada!

We drove up wednesday night making a stop in at to pick up a pair of new kicks to use on the trail. I was previously planning on running it in a pair of New Balance Minimus but after much pondering I decided I needed a last minute switch to something more substantial. I went to to see what they had. I was set on a pair of Salomon's as they fit me well and were the only shoe company that I would toss on strait out of the box and run 80 of the most gruelling km's in. I grabbed a pair of Salomon Crossmax in men's size 9.5... I wore them around the house for a few hours and decided that they were probably going to be to small, especially once my feet start to swell during the run. Size 10 it is.

We arrived in the park just after dark with a full belly of good old Swiss Chalet.. topped off with a pumpkin spice latte (skinny) from Starbucks. PS. There is now a Starbucks in Parry Sound! We set up camp, packed our packs, made a few last min changes to the set up and hit the hay. It was way too short of a sleep before we woke with sound of the dreaded alarm...5:45am and it was still pitch black out. Gah. We had a slow morning with a relaxed breakfast and two rounds of brew. We would be thankful of that slow, chill morning 8 hrs later.

We set out with a comfortable pace. We were going to be running the trail in a counterclockwise direction and it was going to be wise to get the most technical sections out of the way early on, when the body and mind are still fresh. We made it through the crack in 59mins and felt great! We stopped for about 5secs to check the views and with the next cairn in sight we ran on. We were deciding if we were going to run Silver Peak or not. Silver peak is technically a "side trail" and therefore not part of the trail proper. We hit the cut off for SP at around 2hrs 45min and opted to just put in a good time on the trail without a added difficult section to a already difficult technical trail. We made excellent time from SP through the La Cloche range. We hit the other side of the range at around 6hrs. It was a weird day for weather, as we had rain, sun, hot and cold temps. We were fortunate not to have rain while were running on the compact slippery section of quartzite rock.

With the biggest climbs and most technical sections behind us, we upped the pace a bit as a sub 10hr time was now in sight! We hit campsite H16 at around 7hrs24mins and filled the bottles with water and tossed in some aqua tabs. At this point in the run I was feeling better then I ever have and my running partner Ryan Atkins was feeling the effects of 60km's of one of toughest trails in Canada. We had discussed earlier in the run what to do in the last quarter of the trail if one of us was feeling better then the other. We concluded we would part ways and the one feeling better run ahead and put in the best time that they could. With that in mind, I was feeling good and handed him my cell phone (in case of emergency) and hammered the last 20-22km. I felt great running the last section of the trail. I kept on expecting my body to surprise me, but it just functioned as I had hoped. I had calculated in my head a finishing time of 9hr 33min, but I was very surprised to see the trailhead come so quickly! I had a time on my watch of 9hrs 25min 46sec.

It wasn't even 5pm and in what most peoples day's work timeframe would be, I hammered a 80km trail. So Cool! I then turned my butt around and started back to meet Ryan. There was no celebration at the finish, no banners or crowds of people. It was only a few campers who looked at me very strangely. On the way back to Ryan I decided I would walk and then pace with him back to the finish. I met him shortly after I had a little black bear bluff charge me! He was small and looked like last years cub. He walked out of the forest onto the trail and then ran ten steps towards me and stopped all puffed up. I got into my attack pose and ran at him yelling as loud as I could. He turned and bee lined it through the thick forest. I met up with Ryan and we ran back to the trailhead where we had clean water and towels waiting for us. Ryan crossed the bridge in a time of 10hrs 45mins! It was his first time on the trail and he did amazing! It was my third time running the 80km obstacle course and I knew what to expect. He didn't.

We then hopped in the car and hit the road home. A quick stop in at the restaurant in French River for a burger and fries and with our bellies full we relaxed as the sun dropped and we made our way back towards the suburbia concret jungle.

Logs Rocks and Steel

I had a great weekend of playing "racing" in the muskoka district this past weekend. The sun was shinning and the temps were perfect.

I had wanted to do the Adventure Race "Logs Rocks and Steel" for the past few years, but the event always seemed to conflict with other races I had committed to. This year my intention was to race the 85km Adventure race on the Saturday and then race mtb Provincials on the Sunday...

Saturday was a fairly early morning with a 530am alarm. I woke still full from last nights pizza a la Metro. I stuffed some cereal in my mouth and washed it down with some random java found in the mystery container in the cottage... mmmmmmmm....

The race started at 8:07am and since I hadn't sat in my 78lb 17.5ft Boreal kayak in almost 2.5 years, I figured I better give a test paddle before I raced. Ha I did a quick 100m out and back and everything looked good to go!

We started the race with a 14km paddle, which I quite enjoyed (insert sarcasm). I am not a paddler and never have been. I am as good of a kayaker as I am a swimmer... I don't float and mainly choose to doggy paddle. After what seemed like a good chunk of time I checked my watch and sunk deeper in my boat as my stop clock had 7min4sec on it... I was in for a long 14km paddle. We had 3 portages of roughly 300m each. The first one I carried my boat. The second I carried it halfway and then seeing everyone else drag their boats, I dropped it to the ground and proceeded to slug the 78lbs of plastic along the dirty rocky trail. I ended up paddling most of the way around a few other guys in similar boats as mine. Plastic, slow and heavy. It didn't mater how hard I paddled, my boat only goes so fast. So I then proceeded to check out a few of the small granite cliffs and wonder if anyone has climbed the few small routes that I could see.

I finished the paddle 21min behind the cigarette boat (seemed fitting) Jakob Van Dorp. He was a crazy fast paddler! I have never seen someone on a dinky little boat go so fast! He was also the 2009 and 2010 champion so I had my work cut out for me come bike and run time.

I hit the familiar feel of my Trek Top Fuel and pinned it. I had roughly 55km of rad mtbiking ahead and some serious time to make up. I was given'er all head down and stuff when I noticed I made a wrong turn... crap. Backtrack to where I was supposed to be and giver again with the head up, not down. I knew some of the trails that we were racing on and I got a little to comfortable with where I thought I was and just made a wrong turn onto the running section of the course. It was a great day outside and with a abundance of trails everyone was sure to make a little navigational error at some point during the race. Besides who doesn't like doing a few extra km's of wicked trails?

I got back into my rhythm and after about 1hr 40min I finally caught the cigarette boater. He had made a u-turn and backtracked to make sure he was on the right trail. We road together for 2 mins and then it was time to pin it again. Getting towards the end of the mtb leg of the race, I hit the deck (granite rock) hard. I cut my hands up badly and couldn't see where all the blood was coming from. It didn't hurt that bad, so I kept on. I finished the bike feeling good and switched into my runners and was on my way for the trail run section.

The run was fun. It was a mix of forest bushwhacking, rolling hills, creek crossings, fast single-track and pure wilderness. I kept getting a terrible stitch and it was probably due to the still digesting 3/4 pizza I mowed last night...gah. It was hot running out in the open on the barren rock, I was getting hard to drink because I felt bloated and full. During the creek crossing I stopped both times for a quick swim and a refreshing cool down.

I finished the run feeling hot, tired and in 1st place. I had a big smile on my face, or at least it felt like I did. It was a super fun day of racing with some good competition. It was a amazing event and I highly recommend it to anyone!

Here are a few photos from my support team (Eden and Rambo). Rambo is my puppy.

Bruce Peninsula National Park

Here are a few photos from out Backpacking trip to one of Ontario's gems, Bruce Peninsula National Park. We spent 3 days hiking most of the northern Escarpment on some of the most beautiful trails in Ontario. We started the trip off visiting friends in Collingwood on Saturday evening. Sunday we drove up to the northern Peninsula and I went for a solid 3hr trail run on the rugged terrain (wow...). After my run we humped our packs and hiked the few hours into our first campsite of the night. It was the farthest away site that you could get in the park. We were actually somewhat "out there" and after a car ride of ranting about how bears won't be a issue this far up the Peninsula.. we had a bear wander right up to us while we were watching the sun set. I chased the bear down the beach tossing rocks at it and getting to within about 15-20m from the bear before it really decided to run. Needless to say it was a restless nights sleep and we were thankful we had the new pup "Rambo" to guard the tent during the night. The next day we hiked north up the Escarpment to our next site which was also down on the Bay. We were about 4.5hrs on the trail. The campsite in Stormheaven was truly amazing! It is definitely worthy of a return trip one day! The third day we hiked the shorter walk back to the car and drove into Tobermory where we treated ourself to fish and chips capped with a ice cream cone. Well worth the trip!