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.

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.

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.