Fall is my favourite season

The tittle sums it up well, fall is indeed my favourite season and with the wonderful weather that we have been treated to over the last few weeks it quickly erases any rainy days of the past. With cool, dry temps and gorgeous fall colours it is the perfect time to spend as many hours outside as possible. Riding, running, hiking, climbing and trying to use my camera as much as possible... Which is always not as much as I hope for. Anyways I hope everyone has had as good of a few weeks enjoying the outdoors as much as I have because soon there is going to be white gold all over the ground!

Frontenac perimeter trail fkt

As I sit on the couch with a bag of ice on my right ankle from a little sprain on yesterday's trail run listening to the rain falling outside I ponder the idea of writing about the new fkt that I set on the Frontenac perimeter trail last Friday.

I made the 2.5hr drive down the beautiful park and was welcomed by warm sunshine (which would come later as a hot sun) and beautiful fall colours. The day was almost perfect. The trail was mostly dry and only had moderate leaf coverage (which would lead to a few stubbed toes and eventually 5 black toe nails). I loaded up my pack with enough food for 5hrs and enough water to get me to the half way point where I would purify two bottles with aqua tabs for the 2nd half of the run. I went out at a good pace and in a counterclockwise direction. I did the first 11km in just under a hour, knowing that the next 10km we're going to be slightly more difficult technically. The open sections of the trail along the south and east were apparently only 25 degrees Celsius but the lack of cloud cover made the day feel like a hot July afternoon. I was felling great and having a blast. Again the fall colours made the scenery most pleasing on the eyes. I passed the odd hiker and always tried my best not to startle them as I approached. I made it to the approximate half way point, where I will fill my bottles with very questionable drinking water. I popped one aqua tab in each 700ml bottle and with a quick shoe lace tighten and check of the map, I was running again only being stopped for exactly 3 mins. Now I have had trouble in the past dealing with aqua tabs and there effect on my stomach. The directions state that one Aqua tab is to be used in 1.5-2L of water. I had no option but to use one tab in each 700ml bottle making the water very potent. I still had one more bottle to get me to hour three and only needed the two purified ones for the last 15km. Like I said before, it was hot out and I was drinking allot of fluid. After waiting 45 min for the bottles to purify and once my third bottle was empty, I had no option to start drinking the water that I knew was going to make my tummy grumble.

I was aiming for a time in or around the 4hr 30min mark. I needed to average 10km/hr for that. Coming into the last 15 km I knew that a time very to close to my goal was indeed going to be attainable. In a fight with my stomach I pressed on keeping the pace as high as I could. "Light fast feet" I would tell myself over and over again. "Light fast feet", only 10km to go! I was starting to really feel the side affects of the sun and luckily the last stretch was fairly shaded. I kept running literally and crunching the numbers in my head. "Come on Eric, almost there. Keep the feet light and steps quick". I knew that every step I made was one closer to the trailhead and my car which was the gateway to the chip truck parked in the town Syndeham. 

I had run the trail in the spring of last year and was still familiar with many of the sections I was passing. I knew I was getting close an upped the pace hoping to get in under the 4.5hr time... I hit the final one km and let it all out. 3min km's to finish a splendid day on the trails. I passed the trailhead with a time of 4hr 31min and 20sec. I was close enough to make a smile and with nobody around I could finally let the pee out that I had been holding for the last few hours... :)

Frontenac is truly a beautiful park and if you have not visited it, you very much need to make the short trip to spend some time there! 

Photos and a brief trip report from La Cloche trail Killarney July 2013

Late July, Eden, Rambo (our dog) and I hike the La Cloche Trail in Killarney in a clockwise fashion over 3 days and 3 nights. Well I guess it is technically 4 days but we didn't start to noon the first day and we were out by early morning on the fourth day, so I will call it 3 days because it is just shy of 72 hours.. :) 

The first day we left the George lake campground and hiked up through the crack along Killarney Ridge to H45 on Bunnyrabbit lake. We were there in around 6 hours and the gps read 18.45km with 610m of elevation gain. We also ran into a big bear along the portage before Heaven Lake. The bear was BIG and did not care that we were there.

Day two we hiked from Bunnyrabbit all the way over to Shigaug H31 including Silver Peak.  The GPS read 25km and 1100m elevation gain. We were 8hrs and 10min for this section.

Day three was the longest day distance wise. We Hiked from H31 on Shigaug lake all the way to H6 on Cave lake. The GPS file read 31km and 750m elevation gain. Our time was 10hrs on the dot.

Day four was short at only 2hrs and 7.5km with 200m elevation gain. 

Although this was my fourth time around the wonderful park it was however my first time backpacking it! The three previous times I had run the trail and was not able to enjoy the true beauty that it is. This time was perfect! No visit to Killarney is complete without a stop at the fish n' chip bus on the water, what a treat!

Enjoy a few of the photos.

Photo TR

85km, 16500ft ascent and descent, all on some very stout terrain. Here are a few pics from our trip.

North Rim and Long Range Traverse Gros Morne National Park

Here is a pic of the 3 day route that Eden and I completed last summer. If you are a good hiker with strong navigational skills then this route is attainable in 3 days. If you would are planning on doing either the north rim or long range and want some more info or beta on or route choice, let me know. We were told that the north rim was horrendous tuck bushwhacking, we experienced max 70-90mins of tuck.... We also chose a completely different route then the park suggested. I found the north rim to very enjoyable and the wilderness we were immersed in was amazing!

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.