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.

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!

Great Range Traverse (winter version)

Saturday we hiked/ snowshoed/ climbed and glissaded the Great Range Traverse in the Adirondack's. Here are a few of the stats and some photos from the trip.

Team: Ryan Atkins, Matt Farquharson, Keith Iskiw and myself.

1) 38.89km

2) 10978ft elevation gain

3) 4200 calories consumed

4) 12hr 5 min 58 sec total time

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!