Thursday, December 27, 2012
XC Skiing
We have been fortunate enough over the last week to be able to slide skis on snow. I just purchased my season's pass at Dagmar and hopefully the winter is kind to all nordic skiers. Happy Holidays!
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Silver Peak Killarney Provincial Park
Last week Ryan Atkins and myself decided that we should make a quick trip up to Killarney before the Holiday season. We were unsure of the weather and the snow conditions so we kept our route options open until we arrived to the park.
We hit the road around 530am and hoped to be at the park around 10-1030am. We had a uneventful drive up there and were greeted to having the entire park to ourselves. We parked our car in the access parking lot that is the trailhead for hiking into "the crack". We loaded the packs and we were on the trail for 11am sharp and we were treated to 5-10cm's of wet snow with lots of wet puddles under the surface. We opted to wear our Salomon Speedcross shoes with a gaiter, as we knew that no matter what we did we would end up with wet feet. We made it the 4 km to the top of the crack in around 1hr and we had a spectacular view of the surrounding landscape. For some of you who know my relationship with Killarney and especially the La Cloche Trail, which is 78km long and circumnavigates the majority of the park, I have only ever run this route and never hiked it! Running it a total of 3 times over the last few years, I was always unable to really slow down and enjoy the beautiful park stacked with big ridge views so rare in Ontario. We had no intention of lolly gagging, but in any measure it was refreshing to see the park from a hikers perspective.
We were hoping for sunny blue skies that would really bring out the blue in the lakes that make the park so famous for. We only were fortunate over three days to have 10 to 15min of sunshine and for the majority we had to settle with thick clouds and fog. We hiked along the Killarney ridge section soaking in the gorgeous views along the way. We came up on the campsite on Heaven Lake and tossed around the idea of making camp here, it was only 245pm and we decided to keep hiking until dark. We made our way over to campsite H38 on Silver lake and arrived around 505pm. We set camp, made dinner and were in bed by 630pm. After the lights went out, Ryan was asleep in 6 seconds flat and I was not even done zipping up my sleeping bag and I was treated the pleasant sound of logs being milled, or snoring. I kept hearing the plastic ground sheet rustle and just put past the idea that it was the wind... That is until I turned my headlamp on! There was mice everywhere! I have never seen them this bad. I have spent many nights out under the stars and I have never ever seen this many little rodents so persistent to get either our warmth or our food. I had a rough nights sleep with a consistent waking up from the little critters crawling around me, or on me. At one point I looked over at Ryan and managed to see one little mouse crawl right out of his sleeping bag and over his head! What a night!
After assessing the conditions we decided on a plan for the remainder of our two days in the park. Tomorrow (or day two) we would leave our packs in camp and hike up to the top of Silver peak (4km from camp) and back to finish packing up and make our way roughly 10km back along Killarney ridge. until we either found a nice spot to camp or we ran out of daylight. The plan sounded good to me! Silver Peak in these conditions would be a fulfilling 3 days.
The next morning after breakfast we made our way from camp to the summit of Silver Peak at 539m. From camp H38 it took us just under 90min to get to the socked in rime ice covered summit. We were hoping for good views and there was none of that. Although it is only 539m above sea level, it is 362m above Georgian Bay, so it can make for some bad weather. We left the summit and made it back to camp in just over a hour. We loaded our packs and hit the snowy trail following our footsteps we had left the day before. We made it halfway along Killarney Ridge and at around 4pm we arrived at H49 on Little Superior Lake, we decided to call it camp for the night. We set up the tarp, laid out the sleeping bags and made our delicious dinners. Not log after the sun set we decided to climb into the soon to be warm sleeping bags and as usual Ryan was snoring before I was even in my sleeping bag! I brought along my little ipod nano incase I needed some distraction during the 15 hours without daylight. I listened to cbc radio one, all the while I could hear and feel what we had encountered the night before, mice. No way not again I thought, how could this be? Never have I encountered mice situations like this before! I kept turning the volume of the ipod up hoping to drown out the sound (and feel) of the little critters crawling around all over us. At around 730pm and after a solid 60min sleep Ryan awoke to the pleasant sound (or feel) of the little buggers in all of our gear. We tossed out a idea... We were only 8km from the car and it was only 730pm... Hmmm. We could potentially be to the car for 10-1015pm. We decided to break camp quickly and hike out to the car.
The Section of trail separating us from our car was one of the more technical sections on the La Cloche and we were going to try and hike it not only at night, but in winter with very slick conditions. We enjoyed the hike along the ridge, stopping to soak up some of the views of the big dark sky above us. We made it to the crack faster then anticipated and would soon be on easier terrain. We descended down off the ridge and through the crack unscathed and really enjoying the hike we just did. We marched the last 4km to the car and set up a rodent free camp in the confines of a metal car. We had a solid yet cool sleep in the motor vehicle and just after 6am awoke and made our way slowly back to civilization. It was very refreshing to get out in the wilderness for a few days and especially as we are approaching the holiday season. For me it makes me feel not only recharged but more appreciative of the friends and family close to me.
Here are a few pics from the trip. Enjoy.
We hit the road around 530am and hoped to be at the park around 10-1030am. We had a uneventful drive up there and were greeted to having the entire park to ourselves. We parked our car in the access parking lot that is the trailhead for hiking into "the crack". We loaded the packs and we were on the trail for 11am sharp and we were treated to 5-10cm's of wet snow with lots of wet puddles under the surface. We opted to wear our Salomon Speedcross shoes with a gaiter, as we knew that no matter what we did we would end up with wet feet. We made it the 4 km to the top of the crack in around 1hr and we had a spectacular view of the surrounding landscape. For some of you who know my relationship with Killarney and especially the La Cloche Trail, which is 78km long and circumnavigates the majority of the park, I have only ever run this route and never hiked it! Running it a total of 3 times over the last few years, I was always unable to really slow down and enjoy the beautiful park stacked with big ridge views so rare in Ontario. We had no intention of lolly gagging, but in any measure it was refreshing to see the park from a hikers perspective.
We were hoping for sunny blue skies that would really bring out the blue in the lakes that make the park so famous for. We only were fortunate over three days to have 10 to 15min of sunshine and for the majority we had to settle with thick clouds and fog. We hiked along the Killarney ridge section soaking in the gorgeous views along the way. We came up on the campsite on Heaven Lake and tossed around the idea of making camp here, it was only 245pm and we decided to keep hiking until dark. We made our way over to campsite H38 on Silver lake and arrived around 505pm. We set camp, made dinner and were in bed by 630pm. After the lights went out, Ryan was asleep in 6 seconds flat and I was not even done zipping up my sleeping bag and I was treated the pleasant sound of logs being milled, or snoring. I kept hearing the plastic ground sheet rustle and just put past the idea that it was the wind... That is until I turned my headlamp on! There was mice everywhere! I have never seen them this bad. I have spent many nights out under the stars and I have never ever seen this many little rodents so persistent to get either our warmth or our food. I had a rough nights sleep with a consistent waking up from the little critters crawling around me, or on me. At one point I looked over at Ryan and managed to see one little mouse crawl right out of his sleeping bag and over his head! What a night!
After assessing the conditions we decided on a plan for the remainder of our two days in the park. Tomorrow (or day two) we would leave our packs in camp and hike up to the top of Silver peak (4km from camp) and back to finish packing up and make our way roughly 10km back along Killarney ridge. until we either found a nice spot to camp or we ran out of daylight. The plan sounded good to me! Silver Peak in these conditions would be a fulfilling 3 days.
The next morning after breakfast we made our way from camp to the summit of Silver Peak at 539m. From camp H38 it took us just under 90min to get to the socked in rime ice covered summit. We were hoping for good views and there was none of that. Although it is only 539m above sea level, it is 362m above Georgian Bay, so it can make for some bad weather. We left the summit and made it back to camp in just over a hour. We loaded our packs and hit the snowy trail following our footsteps we had left the day before. We made it halfway along Killarney Ridge and at around 4pm we arrived at H49 on Little Superior Lake, we decided to call it camp for the night. We set up the tarp, laid out the sleeping bags and made our delicious dinners. Not log after the sun set we decided to climb into the soon to be warm sleeping bags and as usual Ryan was snoring before I was even in my sleeping bag! I brought along my little ipod nano incase I needed some distraction during the 15 hours without daylight. I listened to cbc radio one, all the while I could hear and feel what we had encountered the night before, mice. No way not again I thought, how could this be? Never have I encountered mice situations like this before! I kept turning the volume of the ipod up hoping to drown out the sound (and feel) of the little critters crawling around all over us. At around 730pm and after a solid 60min sleep Ryan awoke to the pleasant sound (or feel) of the little buggers in all of our gear. We tossed out a idea... We were only 8km from the car and it was only 730pm... Hmmm. We could potentially be to the car for 10-1015pm. We decided to break camp quickly and hike out to the car.
The Section of trail separating us from our car was one of the more technical sections on the La Cloche and we were going to try and hike it not only at night, but in winter with very slick conditions. We enjoyed the hike along the ridge, stopping to soak up some of the views of the big dark sky above us. We made it to the crack faster then anticipated and would soon be on easier terrain. We descended down off the ridge and through the crack unscathed and really enjoying the hike we just did. We marched the last 4km to the car and set up a rodent free camp in the confines of a metal car. We had a solid yet cool sleep in the motor vehicle and just after 6am awoke and made our way slowly back to civilization. It was very refreshing to get out in the wilderness for a few days and especially as we are approaching the holiday season. For me it makes me feel not only recharged but more appreciative of the friends and family close to me.
Here are a few pics from the trip. Enjoy.
Monday, November 12, 2012
Raid The Hammer 2012
This year was my second year attending the Raid the Hammer and it was a blast! This years course was much flatter then last year and it seemed to me that the course layout was more diverse. It is always fun getting bused out to a location and racing back to the finish line, point to point style. I was teamed up with two fit lads, Jack Van Dorp and Ryan Atkins. I have raced and trained with Ryan a fare amount and although I had never teamed up with Jack I was sure we would be a contender in the front of the race.
The racers were loaded onto busses and transported out to Mount Nemo where we would be starting the roughly 27km journey back to the finish line. We Started around 9:15am and the 3 of us went right to the front of the group trying to stay in front of any bottlenecking that may occur at the first few checkpoints. Every team had in their own minds the order that they wanted to hit the first few checkpoints and it is always neat to see what other racers plan for their route. We found the first few points with ease and soon after that we split up to enter the matrix section of the course. There was one checkpoint for each team member to get and I took checkpoint "C" in Nemo north. I found that point easily and after punching my card I started to put the card back into my map bag while I was running back to the checkpoint where I will meet up with Ryan and Jack.
I was not paying as much attention to the footing and the terrain that I was negotiating as I should have because I was fiddling with my punchcard. Then, I tripped in a fence that was flat on the ground and I went down very hard. I didn't even know what happened. All of a sudden I was down on the ground in a pile of rocks with a severe lump in my quad. It was about the size of a grapefruit cut in half and hurt like hell. At first I thought it was my kneecap, but I quickly ruled that out. I laid there for about 30secs trying to regather myself and I figured it must of just been a bad charley horse. I applied direct pressure and tried to get the muscle to relax... There I was laying in a pile of rocks, less then 20mins into the race and I was already hurt. I got up and hobbled on my good leg for a few minutes slowly introducing weight and some speed to the painful leg, I needed to stop being such a wimp and get on with it.
I had a brief minute where you start talking to yourself and try to get motivated. It was coincidentally Remembrance Day and I had to think about all of the hard times that our Veterans must of endured while at war. I imagined that I was now running with a serious wound and that I was in battle. It sounds pretty cooky, I know but it really put the situation into perspective. Most of us have no idea what it was like to be part of a world that was at war. The suffering that our grandparents had lived through is incomprehensible for our generation and here I was playing running in the woods with a leg that sort of hurt and it got me thinking about how bad it must of been to be at war. In the end the right quad wasn't that bad. Today (monday) I went to work and yes it still hurt a bit but it was really fine. Back in the forest and back to my leg..., I had not stepped in a grenade or I had not been shot and I was by no means running for my life. What I did have was my remembrance day moment, it was far from silent but to me it was a moment that gave me a shiver down my spine. I would like to say that I am very grateful for how good of a lifestyle that we have today, but the truth is that it is hard to be grateful when we only have a 1min of silence once a year to remember our Veterans and all that they suffered for us. It was moments like this that really get to me.
Okay so I am way off track.... I ended up making my way to the checkpoint where I met Ryan and Jack waiting for me. Little did they know all that had just gone down, in real life and in my head. We hit the next few checkpoints bang on and hit the road section with only one team ahead of us, Canyonerro. We hunted them on the road section and with Jack setting a blazing pace we managed to catch them as we entered into the forest. We hit the next couple checkpoints with them and made our way onto the bruce trail. We were on the bruce trail for a few km's before entering the next section with a bunch of scattered checkpoints. We were being chased by some very good teams and we needed to minimize our navigational errors, because we were making a few. Ryan, Jack and I are all fast runners and not strong Navigators. We would loose time every checkpoint and have to make it up by running faster to the next one. We were all running very well together and managed to enter the last few road sections as the leaders of the race. We held onto our meagre lead all the way to the finish.
I know all 3 of us had a great time and I look forward to racing with these guys again. What I took from the event was something unusual. Sure there is the obvious, a great event with a amazing course. Everything from the race organizers to the race volunteers, it was top notch. What I took from the event was what I had mentioned above. That moment running through the forest with a sore leg where I was able to imagine being someone who we are now remembering.
Thank You Veterans!
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Western Uplands Trail Algonquin Park Trip Report with Photos
Last weekend I hiked the Western Uplands trail in Algonquin Park. I hiked it in a counterclockwise direction completing the blue, yellow and red trails. I had my dog Rambo with me and we were destined to have some serious solitude. The weather was sunny on Friday, cloudy/ rainy Sat and Sunday. We left the car at the Hwy 60 parking lot at exactly noon and we headed to Clara lake 23km away. We passed two backpackers leaving the parking lot and then shortly after that a family of four headed for Maggie lake. We made good time arriving at Clara at 5:15pm. We had not seen anyone in 4 hours and we had the entire lake to ourselves. It was a gorgeous evening and the colors were in full swing. We made camp, ate dinner and took some photos before heading to bed around 7:45pm. There were tons of strange noises that night... I think the "whacking" we heard in the forest was a Buck deer or a bull moose hitting it's antlers against a tree...? The massive splashes we heard sounded like something large jumping in the water right outside the tent. I never could figure out what that one was.
We awoke around 7am to grey skies. We had a quick breakfast, packed up camp, took some morning photos and hit the trail for 8:30am. Ahead of us we had a 31.2km day on trails that I have never previously been on. The northern part of trail was slightly overgrown and was made worse by the tall wet brush I was walking through. The trail also had allot of leaves on it it and that made it harder to follow. There were a couple of super neat beaver dams that you have to ford en route to Saturday's night camp on Rainbow lake. We made it to camp at 3:20pm and with a light rain set up the tent, had dinner and got ready for bed. The campsite on the point was the best of the three site options on Rainbow lake and once again we had the place to ourselves. With it raining out I contemplated carrying on to a open site farther down the trail or even to the car (would of made for a 50+km day). I decided that since I already had the tent up that it was probably best to just get a goods night sleep and a early start tomorrow morning. We hit the hay around 6pm and woke up 2hrs later once everything was now pitch black outside. It was a super quiet night with the only sounds being the rain on the tent and the wind in the trees.
I woke up 3 minutes before the alarm sounded at 6:12am to a dark foggy morning. It was cold and damp. After a bowl of oats and a cup of coffee I packed up the gear and tent and set off at 7:20am on the 19.4km distance to the car. We got soaked. The trail was wet with all the foliage we touched getting us wetter and wetter. Luckily there we were on our way out and there was warm dry clothes in the car waiting for me. We had a very quiet peaceful walk out. The foggy morning mixed with the beutiful fall colors made it surreal! We hit the car and the busy parking lot at 11:15am. I had no idea where all the people that were parked were at? We seen some people also just coming out from Maple Leaf lake and a few other hikers but that was all. It was one of the best weekends for fall colors and one of the best fall seasons in years and I seen only a small handful of people out there and most were close the the parking lot. Before I started the hike I was sure that it was going to be a busy trail and I was very wrong.
The western uplands trail was all in all a great weekend. I have wanted to do it for some time and I wouldn't of changed anything. Below are a few photos I have picked out of the many images I took. If you want more info on the trail or the gear I used please feel free to contact me!
We awoke around 7am to grey skies. We had a quick breakfast, packed up camp, took some morning photos and hit the trail for 8:30am. Ahead of us we had a 31.2km day on trails that I have never previously been on. The northern part of trail was slightly overgrown and was made worse by the tall wet brush I was walking through. The trail also had allot of leaves on it it and that made it harder to follow. There were a couple of super neat beaver dams that you have to ford en route to Saturday's night camp on Rainbow lake. We made it to camp at 3:20pm and with a light rain set up the tent, had dinner and got ready for bed. The campsite on the point was the best of the three site options on Rainbow lake and once again we had the place to ourselves. With it raining out I contemplated carrying on to a open site farther down the trail or even to the car (would of made for a 50+km day). I decided that since I already had the tent up that it was probably best to just get a goods night sleep and a early start tomorrow morning. We hit the hay around 6pm and woke up 2hrs later once everything was now pitch black outside. It was a super quiet night with the only sounds being the rain on the tent and the wind in the trees.
I woke up 3 minutes before the alarm sounded at 6:12am to a dark foggy morning. It was cold and damp. After a bowl of oats and a cup of coffee I packed up the gear and tent and set off at 7:20am on the 19.4km distance to the car. We got soaked. The trail was wet with all the foliage we touched getting us wetter and wetter. Luckily there we were on our way out and there was warm dry clothes in the car waiting for me. We had a very quiet peaceful walk out. The foggy morning mixed with the beutiful fall colors made it surreal! We hit the car and the busy parking lot at 11:15am. I had no idea where all the people that were parked were at? We seen some people also just coming out from Maple Leaf lake and a few other hikers but that was all. It was one of the best weekends for fall colors and one of the best fall seasons in years and I seen only a small handful of people out there and most were close the the parking lot. Before I started the hike I was sure that it was going to be a busy trail and I was very wrong.
The western uplands trail was all in all a great weekend. I have wanted to do it for some time and I wouldn't of changed anything. Below are a few photos I have picked out of the many images I took. If you want more info on the trail or the gear I used please feel free to contact me!
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Logs Rocks and Steel 2012
Yesterday was the 2012 Logs Rocks and Steel adventure race held at camp Pine Crest in Torrence Ontario. The forecast was for heavy extended periods of rain... The night before the race we were woken up a few times to the sound of torrential rain pounding the roof. Awesome! The course was on classic Canadian Shield and with lots of exposed granite it was sure to be naturally armoured pretty well against the 50+mm of rain we received.
Last year I did the race as a solo and this year I wanted to do it as a two man team. I have been doing a fair bit of training with Mr Ryan Atkins and I couldn't think of anyone better to team up with. We both are very well matched physically and Ryan would make a great teammate for a super fun event.
We started shortly after 8am on a 14km paddle with 3 portages. It was a 2 lap circuit of a semi wilderness paddle that had enough of a mix in it to keep things interesting. We are both poor paddlers and we knew to try and make the best of our weakest leg of the event. We finished the paddle in just over 1hr40mins and we were more then ready to get onto a much more familiar piece of gear, our bikes. I had my Trek top fuel dually all set and ready for the fun ride ahead. We started the bike leg with a solid tempo pace and both Ryan and I were having a ton of fun on the fast flowing technical double track type trails. Ryan was feeling really strong and I was not. Half way through the bike I was having a tough time matching his pace. I knew most of the course and we decided that I would lead the trail sections and that he would pull on the road portions. He did a excellent job getting my weak legs around that course. He suffered a flat at the bottom of the bike course and we lost about 5-6mins for the fix.. I started to get really cold while Ryan was pumping his 29'er tire up and I was happy to get moving again once we got the tire fixed.
We finished the bike section of the race around 2hr10mins and were ready for the uber fun 17km run ahead. We started somewhat slower and we upped the pace for the entire 17km run. We did the run in around 1hr 35min and we won the two man team category. The entire race we were chasing Jack VanDorp who managed to make us look like we were paddling a log in the paddle section of the race. He opened up 30min on us in the 14km... We knew we were both stronger on the bike and the run and we had to make as much time up as possible to try and catch him before the finish.. We ended up closing the gap down to 53sec at the finish line and we could hear the cheers of the people on the dock as we approached the final boardwalk before the last punchcard beep of the day.
Given the weather that had been dealt for the day it was a 10/10 race. The course held up so well against the rain that our bikes were barely muddy loading them into the van at the end of the day. A big thanks going out to Bob Miller for putting on a great event and for Trek bike Store Toronto for the perfect bike and to Muskoka Outfitters for paddles, boat and fuel!
Last year I did the race as a solo and this year I wanted to do it as a two man team. I have been doing a fair bit of training with Mr Ryan Atkins and I couldn't think of anyone better to team up with. We both are very well matched physically and Ryan would make a great teammate for a super fun event.
We started shortly after 8am on a 14km paddle with 3 portages. It was a 2 lap circuit of a semi wilderness paddle that had enough of a mix in it to keep things interesting. We are both poor paddlers and we knew to try and make the best of our weakest leg of the event. We finished the paddle in just over 1hr40mins and we were more then ready to get onto a much more familiar piece of gear, our bikes. I had my Trek top fuel dually all set and ready for the fun ride ahead. We started the bike leg with a solid tempo pace and both Ryan and I were having a ton of fun on the fast flowing technical double track type trails. Ryan was feeling really strong and I was not. Half way through the bike I was having a tough time matching his pace. I knew most of the course and we decided that I would lead the trail sections and that he would pull on the road portions. He did a excellent job getting my weak legs around that course. He suffered a flat at the bottom of the bike course and we lost about 5-6mins for the fix.. I started to get really cold while Ryan was pumping his 29'er tire up and I was happy to get moving again once we got the tire fixed.
We finished the bike section of the race around 2hr10mins and were ready for the uber fun 17km run ahead. We started somewhat slower and we upped the pace for the entire 17km run. We did the run in around 1hr 35min and we won the two man team category. The entire race we were chasing Jack VanDorp who managed to make us look like we were paddling a log in the paddle section of the race. He opened up 30min on us in the 14km... We knew we were both stronger on the bike and the run and we had to make as much time up as possible to try and catch him before the finish.. We ended up closing the gap down to 53sec at the finish line and we could hear the cheers of the people on the dock as we approached the final boardwalk before the last punchcard beep of the day.
Given the weather that had been dealt for the day it was a 10/10 race. The course held up so well against the rain that our bikes were barely muddy loading them into the van at the end of the day. A big thanks going out to Bob Miller for putting on a great event and for Trek bike Store Toronto for the perfect bike and to Muskoka Outfitters for paddles, boat and fuel!
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Great Range Traverse a new FKT
Friday afternoon Ryan Atkins and I drove down to the Adirondacks with the intention of burning alot of energy running and hiking the GRT. We made it to Lake Placid around 6pm after only a short 5.5hr drive from Whitby with minimal traffic and a quick border crossing. We arrived just in time to do some last min shopping and grab a burrito at a great little mexican place. We then found the trailhead parking just of route 73 and tried to grab some shut eye. We had some visitors and a little rain throughout the night and we were glad we decided to toss the rainfly on. We awoke to sunny skies and a parking lot filling up fast! We made some breakfast and had a cup of coffee before packing up our bags for the approx 6hrs effort that we had ahead of us. I opted to try some Clif Shot Blocks and GU Chomps for the majority of my calories. I had also included a few gels and started with a full 2L of gatorade in my hydration bladder.
We started the run shortly after 8am and the temperatures were already warm! We went out a a solid pace and never let up. We were not going hard as much as we were running/hiking efficiently and trying to make smart decisions. We hiked most of the climbs as they were to steep to run for extended periods of time and we ran the majority of the flats/ downhill portions of the traverse. We were having a blast out there! The trail is Uber technical and has 9500ft of elevation gain over the route. We had a much needed water fill up 3hr10mins in at a little creek at the bottom of Haystack Mountain. We sucked back as much fluid as possible and topped up the bladders before the last push up Hatstack and onto Marcy. We ended up summiting Mt Marcy in 4hr22min and were greeted by crowds of hikers on the summit all looking at us two fools that are running...
We had roughly 1hr35mins to get back down to the end of the route. We again didn't rush as the terrain would have not been that forgiving if you bailed or fell.. With the terrain slowly getting less technical as we descended we were able to up the speed the closer we got to the parking lot. We had another water fill up crossing the river on the way down and once going again we tried to keep the legs quick and loose. After a long pounding decent, we hit the final trail head parking lot in 5hr 56min 44sec. Beating the old FKT by roughly 13mins. We walked back towards the car, stopping to take a quick swim in the nice cool river. We made it back to the car unscathed and totally stoked on the route we had just run! We went into town grabbed a nice lunch and then made our way over to the Mountaineer were we drooled over all the amazing gear! We met Jan who was one of the staff that has also run/hiked the GRT in a very impressive time! (6hr40mins). It was a stellar store and the staff/ vibe was definitely core. If you end up in the Dacks you have to check out the Mountaineer!
Our plan for the next day (sunday) was to head over to Mount Washington in New Hampshire and run the Presidential Traverse. On the drive over we both decided we had a good day today running the GRT and that both Ryan and I were up for more of a easy day. We slept in the car Saturday night and awoke to grey skies and rain... Man were we glad that the day was only going to be a easier one! After a big hot breakfast we decided our route that we were going to take up Mount Washington. We hiked at a good pace up Lions Head and chilled on the summit a bit, trying to avoid the masses of tourists around and then we descended down Tuckerman Ravine. We hit the parking lot and talked to some trail angels that were very generous with a bit of tasty food for our trip home. We had a 10hr drive home and all in all it was a very solid weekend!
I am currently getting frustrated at my garmin gps unit as it is having a hard time uploading the files... Hopefully when Ryan gets on his computer tonight he will be able to have better luck then me. Once I get this issue figured out I will post the link to the gps file and I will updated the splits that we had on the key portions of the route.
We started the run shortly after 8am and the temperatures were already warm! We went out a a solid pace and never let up. We were not going hard as much as we were running/hiking efficiently and trying to make smart decisions. We hiked most of the climbs as they were to steep to run for extended periods of time and we ran the majority of the flats/ downhill portions of the traverse. We were having a blast out there! The trail is Uber technical and has 9500ft of elevation gain over the route. We had a much needed water fill up 3hr10mins in at a little creek at the bottom of Haystack Mountain. We sucked back as much fluid as possible and topped up the bladders before the last push up Hatstack and onto Marcy. We ended up summiting Mt Marcy in 4hr22min and were greeted by crowds of hikers on the summit all looking at us two fools that are running...
We had roughly 1hr35mins to get back down to the end of the route. We again didn't rush as the terrain would have not been that forgiving if you bailed or fell.. With the terrain slowly getting less technical as we descended we were able to up the speed the closer we got to the parking lot. We had another water fill up crossing the river on the way down and once going again we tried to keep the legs quick and loose. After a long pounding decent, we hit the final trail head parking lot in 5hr 56min 44sec. Beating the old FKT by roughly 13mins. We walked back towards the car, stopping to take a quick swim in the nice cool river. We made it back to the car unscathed and totally stoked on the route we had just run! We went into town grabbed a nice lunch and then made our way over to the Mountaineer were we drooled over all the amazing gear! We met Jan who was one of the staff that has also run/hiked the GRT in a very impressive time! (6hr40mins). It was a stellar store and the staff/ vibe was definitely core. If you end up in the Dacks you have to check out the Mountaineer!
Our plan for the next day (sunday) was to head over to Mount Washington in New Hampshire and run the Presidential Traverse. On the drive over we both decided we had a good day today running the GRT and that both Ryan and I were up for more of a easy day. We slept in the car Saturday night and awoke to grey skies and rain... Man were we glad that the day was only going to be a easier one! After a big hot breakfast we decided our route that we were going to take up Mount Washington. We hiked at a good pace up Lions Head and chilled on the summit a bit, trying to avoid the masses of tourists around and then we descended down Tuckerman Ravine. We hit the parking lot and talked to some trail angels that were very generous with a bit of tasty food for our trip home. We had a 10hr drive home and all in all it was a very solid weekend!
I am currently getting frustrated at my garmin gps unit as it is having a hard time uploading the files... Hopefully when Ryan gets on his computer tonight he will be able to have better luck then me. Once I get this issue figured out I will post the link to the gps file and I will updated the splits that we had on the key portions of the route.
Sunday, August 12, 2012
North Rim and Long Range Traverse
Here is the long overdue trip report for the North Rim and the Long Range Traverse In Gros Morne National Park.
This trip (honeymoon) was a combination of being a tourist and being a bit of a backcountry traveller. For this post I will keep it to just the few days we spent in the backcountry of Gros Morne National Park. We Arrived in the park on thursday afternoon after a long ferry ride from the mainland and we were slated to start our trek the next day. We both felt tired from the previous days driving from Quebec City and the lack of sleep on the ferry due to absurdly loud snorers and screaming and crying children. We only had 2 earplugs between the two of us and we did 2hr shifts sharing them. On the ferry ride home we would be able to get a cabin on the ship!. If I did the trip via ferry again, I would most definitely book a cabin!
Due to our tired bodies and minds we decided to take the friday to chill in Rocky Harbour and rest up before we hit the north rim on the Saturday. It was a good call we made because come saturday we were both raring to go! We booked our taxi to pick us up at the Gros Morne mountain parking lot at 7am as a early start would be mandatory. Our cab driver was right on time and he got us safely to the parking lot for the Western Brook Pond trail by around 730am. We took two photos and hit the trail at 740am.
It was a quick 30min to the junction where we go north towards snug harbour. We had a rather un-eventful walk into Snug except for two separate moose that we encountered. One was pretty close and the other was farther at around 50-60m. We made the roughly 8km into Snug in just under 2 hours. We had a quick snack and a pee and got ready for the long climb up to the top of the north rim. Now most people had warned us about the North Rim. Nobody had anything good to say about the route other then it was terrible and had tons of tuckmore, which is stunted balsam fir and spruce trees and that penetrating them is next to impossible. Think of it as trying to walk through a cedar hedge with a pack on...
Anyways we made our way up to the top of the rim in about 2 hours and had a quick lunch and a great view out into the Atlantic Ocean. We took a compass bearing and checked the gps to cross reference our intended route. I had opted for a different route then most other people have taken and I though it may avoid most of the horrendous tuck that everyone spoke about. We made quick time trekking across big open Alaska type terrain. We had very little tuck to navigate on the first day, with only about 1.5-2hrs of the nasty stuff. The rest of the first day was 5 star backcountry travel. No footprints, no people just Eden, myself and our packs. That is until we crested a rocky hill at around 5pm. We popped over the top and about 40m away was a very large caribou! It was massive! He was most certainly the dominant male in the area as he was about double the size I envisioned a male would be! If I had to guess I would say his weight was around 1600-1800lbs or about the size of one our two year old bulls. ( I live on a farm).
He did not seem to mind that we were there and just kept eating grass. We watched him for about 5 min before we thought we better leave him be. We made our way around the top of the hill and went on our way. We had dinner around 630pm and put the new Jetboil stove to the test! It worked flawlessly and we enjoyed our backcountry pantry thai dinners. We walked about 4km after dinner until we found a good spot to make camp. We dropped the packs at 830pm and we soaking up the views that only a handful of people see each year. It was breathtaking! We did 27.2km the first day from the parking lot. 8km of that was on trail and the rest was cross country trekking. We only had about 4-5km tomorrow morning until we hit the back of western brook pond and the start of the Long Range Traverse.
We found a small cliff to hang the food and hit the hay satisfied with day one. We awoke early and had some quick oats and coffee/tea and were packed up and walking by 730am. The next 5km was completely unreal! It was very hilly and the steep slippery grass slopes made for fun navigating. We found some good moose trails around the last few lakes and hit the end of the North Rim and the start of the Long Range Traverse by 1130am. We had been told to expect to take minimum of 3 days to do just the North Rim and we did it in less then half of that. We didn't crush the speed, we just kept moving. The total length of the North Rim clocked in at 32.1km. We had a bite of lunch, snapped some photos of Western Brook Pond and got ready to hit the much more frequently traveled route ahead. We were technically only 32-35km from the car and therefor almost halfway done!
We found a well used game/foot path and put some solid km's behind us. The views we out of this world! I have done lots of neat backcountry trips and this one definitely rivalled anything else. We met a group of three hikers at the campsite on Little Island Pond and chatted for 5 mins. Their packs were big any heavy and they were drooling over our minimalist loads. "You guys did what yesterday"??? "NO way!". We said our goodbye's and hit the trail. We aimed to get another big day in before making camp at Middle Barrens(or beyond) and hoped we made smart decisions in the navigating department. We found many game trails with fresh footprints going in every direction! It was very confusing with all the tracks leading in different directions. I decided to opt for my own route and disregard the human footprints. We made our way down to the abandoned ranger station at Hardings Pond and over to the camp platform at Middle Barrens. We found a party of 3 already set up there and we chatted for a quick 45 min... We had some snacks and realized it was only 445pm. Well we have tons of time to log more km's before making camp, so we decided we were going to try to push on to Green Island Pond before dark.
We left the 3 amigos at around 5pm and walked out of camp on what seemed to be a very well travelled trail. We walked up to the top of the big hill after the camp and decided that at around 6pm we would call it a early night and make camp. We found a great spot on top of the hill and had a nice pond close by. We had noticed earlier that day that the weather was turning from gorgeous sunny skies to grey and was getting worse by the hour. When we left civilization 2 days ago the weather looked good for about five days. Clearly things were about to change. We did about 23km the 2nd day and were at 50km total. We were now roughly 18-20km from the car we left as few days ago. We had nowhere to store our food for the night and since I had seen almost no bear signs, we opted to let the food bag stay in the fly of the tent. That made for a great nights sleep! I almost always am able to find a spot to hang food and with no big cliffs or trees taller then 8ft it was impossible to find a good spot.
We had light rain throughout the evening and into the night and awoke to grey skies and light mist. It was however looking like it was going to keep building throughout the day. After a quick Breakfast we were on the go by 7am and found day 3 to be equally as good as the first 2 days!. Eden was the wildlife spotter for the day. She spotted a big bull moose on top of one of the hills close by and she also spotted a lone caribou which ended up being a entire herd of caribou! We watched them for a few min as the equally did the same before they had decided that they had seen enough of us and wandered off. We had the rain slowly building and the terrain was getting quite slick and getting out to the car today would make life much more enjoyable as we both were excited to go up to the north end of the island and see Icebergs!
We went up one hill down a valley and then up the other side. We would get to the top of the next ridge or viewpoint and scope the next decent and climb. That went on for the majority of the day. The views are so stunning that it would be very hard to put into words. I took many photos and hope that the images help me remember what a special place this is. We finally made it to the last somewhat technical decent into ferry gulch which was made even more fun with the rain and mud. We hit the marked trail at around 1pm and snacked quickly before we headed off into the final leg of the day, 8km of marked trail to our car and dry clothes! I had contemplated a quick run up to the top of Gros Morne mountain but given the fog and the rain I opted out of that idea. I knew I would be able to come back in a few days and make a quick run up the peak.
We hit the car at 3pm soaking wet and ready to to go get some food and a shower. All Eden and I could do is think about the 2 parties of 3 people that were far behind us. We wished them the best to whatever this weather would bring. We went to the park office to drop off the PLD (SPOT) and chatted to the rangers for a bit, as they were amazed that we did both routes in about 1/3 the time it takes most parties. We also learned that the weather was here for the next 4 or 5 days and it looked as if we made the right decision to try and get out on day 3. We Checked into the hotel and had a shower and started to unpack. We laid out all the wet gear and relaxed! It was a trip that I had wanted to do for quite some time now and I very happy and excited that Eden not only joined me on this epic honeymoon adventure but that she crushed it! She matched me stride for stride and over the 69.95km.
After a visit up to St Anthony and Lans Aux Meadows we made our way back to the park and I did go for a run up Gros Morne Peak. I ran the 16km loop car to car in just under 2hrs in a time of 1hr57mins. It was Awesome!
This trip (honeymoon) was a combination of being a tourist and being a bit of a backcountry traveller. For this post I will keep it to just the few days we spent in the backcountry of Gros Morne National Park. We Arrived in the park on thursday afternoon after a long ferry ride from the mainland and we were slated to start our trek the next day. We both felt tired from the previous days driving from Quebec City and the lack of sleep on the ferry due to absurdly loud snorers and screaming and crying children. We only had 2 earplugs between the two of us and we did 2hr shifts sharing them. On the ferry ride home we would be able to get a cabin on the ship!. If I did the trip via ferry again, I would most definitely book a cabin!
Due to our tired bodies and minds we decided to take the friday to chill in Rocky Harbour and rest up before we hit the north rim on the Saturday. It was a good call we made because come saturday we were both raring to go! We booked our taxi to pick us up at the Gros Morne mountain parking lot at 7am as a early start would be mandatory. Our cab driver was right on time and he got us safely to the parking lot for the Western Brook Pond trail by around 730am. We took two photos and hit the trail at 740am.
It was a quick 30min to the junction where we go north towards snug harbour. We had a rather un-eventful walk into Snug except for two separate moose that we encountered. One was pretty close and the other was farther at around 50-60m. We made the roughly 8km into Snug in just under 2 hours. We had a quick snack and a pee and got ready for the long climb up to the top of the north rim. Now most people had warned us about the North Rim. Nobody had anything good to say about the route other then it was terrible and had tons of tuckmore, which is stunted balsam fir and spruce trees and that penetrating them is next to impossible. Think of it as trying to walk through a cedar hedge with a pack on...
Anyways we made our way up to the top of the rim in about 2 hours and had a quick lunch and a great view out into the Atlantic Ocean. We took a compass bearing and checked the gps to cross reference our intended route. I had opted for a different route then most other people have taken and I though it may avoid most of the horrendous tuck that everyone spoke about. We made quick time trekking across big open Alaska type terrain. We had very little tuck to navigate on the first day, with only about 1.5-2hrs of the nasty stuff. The rest of the first day was 5 star backcountry travel. No footprints, no people just Eden, myself and our packs. That is until we crested a rocky hill at around 5pm. We popped over the top and about 40m away was a very large caribou! It was massive! He was most certainly the dominant male in the area as he was about double the size I envisioned a male would be! If I had to guess I would say his weight was around 1600-1800lbs or about the size of one our two year old bulls. ( I live on a farm).
He did not seem to mind that we were there and just kept eating grass. We watched him for about 5 min before we thought we better leave him be. We made our way around the top of the hill and went on our way. We had dinner around 630pm and put the new Jetboil stove to the test! It worked flawlessly and we enjoyed our backcountry pantry thai dinners. We walked about 4km after dinner until we found a good spot to make camp. We dropped the packs at 830pm and we soaking up the views that only a handful of people see each year. It was breathtaking! We did 27.2km the first day from the parking lot. 8km of that was on trail and the rest was cross country trekking. We only had about 4-5km tomorrow morning until we hit the back of western brook pond and the start of the Long Range Traverse.
We found a small cliff to hang the food and hit the hay satisfied with day one. We awoke early and had some quick oats and coffee/tea and were packed up and walking by 730am. The next 5km was completely unreal! It was very hilly and the steep slippery grass slopes made for fun navigating. We found some good moose trails around the last few lakes and hit the end of the North Rim and the start of the Long Range Traverse by 1130am. We had been told to expect to take minimum of 3 days to do just the North Rim and we did it in less then half of that. We didn't crush the speed, we just kept moving. The total length of the North Rim clocked in at 32.1km. We had a bite of lunch, snapped some photos of Western Brook Pond and got ready to hit the much more frequently traveled route ahead. We were technically only 32-35km from the car and therefor almost halfway done!
We found a well used game/foot path and put some solid km's behind us. The views we out of this world! I have done lots of neat backcountry trips and this one definitely rivalled anything else. We met a group of three hikers at the campsite on Little Island Pond and chatted for 5 mins. Their packs were big any heavy and they were drooling over our minimalist loads. "You guys did what yesterday"??? "NO way!". We said our goodbye's and hit the trail. We aimed to get another big day in before making camp at Middle Barrens(or beyond) and hoped we made smart decisions in the navigating department. We found many game trails with fresh footprints going in every direction! It was very confusing with all the tracks leading in different directions. I decided to opt for my own route and disregard the human footprints. We made our way down to the abandoned ranger station at Hardings Pond and over to the camp platform at Middle Barrens. We found a party of 3 already set up there and we chatted for a quick 45 min... We had some snacks and realized it was only 445pm. Well we have tons of time to log more km's before making camp, so we decided we were going to try to push on to Green Island Pond before dark.
We left the 3 amigos at around 5pm and walked out of camp on what seemed to be a very well travelled trail. We walked up to the top of the big hill after the camp and decided that at around 6pm we would call it a early night and make camp. We found a great spot on top of the hill and had a nice pond close by. We had noticed earlier that day that the weather was turning from gorgeous sunny skies to grey and was getting worse by the hour. When we left civilization 2 days ago the weather looked good for about five days. Clearly things were about to change. We did about 23km the 2nd day and were at 50km total. We were now roughly 18-20km from the car we left as few days ago. We had nowhere to store our food for the night and since I had seen almost no bear signs, we opted to let the food bag stay in the fly of the tent. That made for a great nights sleep! I almost always am able to find a spot to hang food and with no big cliffs or trees taller then 8ft it was impossible to find a good spot.
We had light rain throughout the evening and into the night and awoke to grey skies and light mist. It was however looking like it was going to keep building throughout the day. After a quick Breakfast we were on the go by 7am and found day 3 to be equally as good as the first 2 days!. Eden was the wildlife spotter for the day. She spotted a big bull moose on top of one of the hills close by and she also spotted a lone caribou which ended up being a entire herd of caribou! We watched them for a few min as the equally did the same before they had decided that they had seen enough of us and wandered off. We had the rain slowly building and the terrain was getting quite slick and getting out to the car today would make life much more enjoyable as we both were excited to go up to the north end of the island and see Icebergs!
We went up one hill down a valley and then up the other side. We would get to the top of the next ridge or viewpoint and scope the next decent and climb. That went on for the majority of the day. The views are so stunning that it would be very hard to put into words. I took many photos and hope that the images help me remember what a special place this is. We finally made it to the last somewhat technical decent into ferry gulch which was made even more fun with the rain and mud. We hit the marked trail at around 1pm and snacked quickly before we headed off into the final leg of the day, 8km of marked trail to our car and dry clothes! I had contemplated a quick run up to the top of Gros Morne mountain but given the fog and the rain I opted out of that idea. I knew I would be able to come back in a few days and make a quick run up the peak.
We hit the car at 3pm soaking wet and ready to to go get some food and a shower. All Eden and I could do is think about the 2 parties of 3 people that were far behind us. We wished them the best to whatever this weather would bring. We went to the park office to drop off the PLD (SPOT) and chatted to the rangers for a bit, as they were amazed that we did both routes in about 1/3 the time it takes most parties. We also learned that the weather was here for the next 4 or 5 days and it looked as if we made the right decision to try and get out on day 3. We Checked into the hotel and had a shower and started to unpack. We laid out all the wet gear and relaxed! It was a trip that I had wanted to do for quite some time now and I very happy and excited that Eden not only joined me on this epic honeymoon adventure but that she crushed it! She matched me stride for stride and over the 69.95km.
After a visit up to St Anthony and Lans Aux Meadows we made our way back to the park and I did go for a run up Gros Morne Peak. I ran the 16km loop car to car in just under 2hrs in a time of 1hr57mins. It was Awesome!
Monday, July 23, 2012
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