Girls Gone Wild: Adventures in Jasper

Postcards From Berg Lake

This past weekend, I rallied the troops and came up with 5 fantastic gals to join me for a weekend trail running adventure in Jasper National Park. I've got to say, organizing women is like herding cats - but the end result was an awesome weekend of Girl Power.

This particular weekend was a tasty sandwich loaded with meat, extra cheese, guacamole and a slathering of Adventure Sauce. Our weekend included a bonus loop, a Grizzly Bear and for a grand-finalee: a heli rescue. That was a first.

I got 3 great days under my belt:

1. Parker's Ridge with Suzy, with a bonus ridge scramble. Awesome.

2. The Skyline Trail with Suzy, Monica, Libby and Nadya complete with a bonus loop and a Grizzly Bear, for as total of 50k. Even more Awesome.

3. Berg Lake Trail. No bonus loop, just a big crash. Not So Awesome.

Up until the moment of The Crash, there was fun to be had. Classic Berg Lake scenery had us all blissed out. We were having a virtual Love-In of the sweet trails and beautiful mountains. The Berg Lake Trail was blowing our minds and there were smiles and incredibly scenery around every bend.

Ruuuuun! Leslie, Runnnn!

Liza, Libby and Leslie, Lovin' It.

Glacier-Fed

Valley of a Bazillion Falls

Children at Play

Mist on Mist

Let's Go That-Away

Liza Pye

Berg Lake

Nadja and Liza

Classic Kinney Lake

The "Let's Go That-Away" photo was taken minutes before the Divine Ms. Libby took her Dramatique-Ankle-Turning-Sack-of-Potatoes-Bail-of-the-Year. Really, her accident couldn't of taken place in a better place. We were 22km into the wilderness, but fortunately we were about 5 minutes from the day-use shelter at Berg Lake. The warden station was another 1.5km away, with an emergency radio located on sight. We quickly determined that her sprain was severe and there was to be no possibility of walking out for 22km on her ankle. So we called for a helicopter ride. Did I mention Libby is deathly phobic of flying?

Bag o' Icy Delights

Libby was joking through the whole ordeal, but we were all quietly bummed for her beyond words. We got to run the 22km out, while Libby got a terrifying heli-flight and an ambulance to Jasper.

Back in Jasper

The prognosis was a torn rotator cuff, a 3 degree sprain and a bone chip in her ankle. After dinner, we hit the road for Banff and got home at 1:00AM in the morning making for a long, memorable day.

My life is currently a whirlwind of time and space. Hopefully, I'll get some photos up of Parker's Ridge and the Skyline - it was so awesome, but I'm currently short on time. Maybe if I didn't run so much, I'd have some spare time!

On a side-note: Keith is currently riding his bike through the wilderness of Alberta and B.C and having the time of his life at the Trans Rockies Bike Race.

He's had cell service periodically, so I've heard from him almost every day. He's just finished Day 4 with his partner Jill - it was almost 8 hours in the saddle. Today's stage featured mud, gorgeous scenery and a hail storm. Jill has been posting to her blog and you can follow along on the Trans Rockies website for race reports, results and pictures daily. On Friday, I'm going to make a random appearance on top of Jumping Pound Ridge to cheer on the cyclists, and give my honey a big smooch of Congratulations. Trans Rockies Bike is epic beyond words: the days are tough, hard and long for all of the athletes, but even longer and tougher when you're in the mid to back of the pack. I'm so proud of him for making it to the start line.