It's a Magical, Mystical World

It's hard living and playing in the World's Finest National Park. Every weekend I'm faced with the same crisis - my poor little brain is working overtime with some serious decision making. The important, life altering question being: "Where Should I Run Today?" It's tough stuff, I'm telling you.

The joy of being able to run far, is being able to cram a LOT of good stuff into one weekend. :) Now that I'm back in the saddle, it's game-on.

On Friday, I was excited to be taking Keith to visit Mystic Pass. It's a beautiful place, an incredible wild pass and a long enjoyable day at 40km with a "bonus loop" to Mystic Lake. A few years ago, I couldn't take him to visit my beautiful places because it was just to far for him to walk or run in a day. It's exciting how things have changed. And Mystic Pass really is the Magical Mystery Tour. Or a Magical Mystical Place. Well, really it's just a damn gorgeous high mountain pass which I really love.

Climbing!

Gateway to Mystic Pass

High Alpine Bliss

I love this place.

There are large parts of this run that are run in the forest - 40 Mile creek is 14km of drudgery but Mystic Pass is so worth it! That's the benefit of running versus hiking, you can blast through the less-than-exciting bits to get to The Goodies. I had never been to Mystic Lake before, I've run by the turn-off every time, exhausted, tired, lazy or running from the Grizzly Bears in my head - so this time I'd made sure to stop. It's was a pretty little lake and I'm glad we stopped.

End of the Day - skipping down Mount Norquay Ski Area

The next day the plan was to do the "3 pass Epic" from Highway 93 to Sunshine Village. It's only 35km - but it's slow moving with the 3 major climbs and all of the good scenery to distract you. Keith decided to take a miss - the boy was tuckered after our big day and we want to make sure he stays strong and healthy for the upcoming Trans Rockies Adventures!

The last time we did this run, was during on Day 4 of the B.U.T.T Epic - a 5 day run I pieced together last year. This year, we did it in reverse order starting with the 10km climb to Ball Pass and the 1000m of elevation gain. Phewph.

Hanging Glacier on Ball Pass

Jen, taking it all in.

We zoomed down the other side, enjoyed some nice runnable single-track and some man eating mosquitoes on Haiduk Lake before beginning the climb up Whistling Pass.

Haiduk Lake

Fortunately, the mosquitoes were the only signs of wildlife we saw all day. No bear scat, the footy prints and no grizzly bear diggings. Heck, we hardly saw any people!
As this run was a point-to-point we organized a "key exchange" with a group of friends. Voila! We meet in the middle of the trail, exchange keys and continue on our merry way. No car shuttling or mooching of a lifts required.


Just before climbing Whistling Pass, we ran into our friends - 7 of them, complete with 2 dogs. It was momentary mayhem on the trail before we parted ways and set off up the pass.

Jen and Ed, climbing the snow on Whistling Pass

Whistling Pass

After cresting the pass and having lots of fun descending down the other side, we did a bonus loop to Scarab Lake. It's a stunning place and the trail was blanketed in Glacier Lilies. Our wild flower season has started, with the arrival of the Glacier Lily and the Alpine Anemone - the high alpine crocus. The flower season might be a little late this year, but of course will depend on the amount of continuous sunshine we get.

Calm.

Scarab Lake

From there, a storm chased us up and over Healy Pass. Healy Pass is a popular day hike and we saw exactly zero people there. We were 3 for 3. Three incredible wild mountain passes and Zero people.

Ed, Jen and Mike flying down the singletrack of Healy Pass

On the other side of Healy Pass - me met up with Keith and Angela who had ran up to meet us. Just as we met them, the rain hit and we got soaked. We finished the day running pretty darn fast, gravity assisted of course. Still, this girl was tired with 75km on my legs in 2 days. By the end of the run, the sun was out again and it was warm enough to soak the legs in Healy Creek.

Angela

For a grand finalee, we met up with Tina Lewis and Charlie Nuttleman of Boulder, CO on Sunday for an easy run on the Lake Minnewanka shoreline. It was the perfect run to stretch my legs out and the rolling shoreline trail was great for socializing! While out on the trail, we ran into 3 groups of people who I knew. It's always funny when that happens. As one of the closest trails to Banff, it's popular with the locals. Surprisingly, there weren't a lot of people out there on this beautiful day.

Charlie, Keith and Tina

I'll admit to feeling tired by Day 3, not a lot of Oooomph in my stride - but the scenery and company more than made up for it. Aaaaah. Banff National Park. You are so immense, awesome and magical. Shall we get together again next weekend?

Back in the Saddle

Oh yeah, that's the smile of a girl back in her happy place. I relaxed well for 12 days and didn't even attempt to do, well - anything. That's what recovery is all about right? This wasn't an "active recovery" this was more like "eat, couch and relax recovery". It was awesome. While I didn't miss the running, I sure did miss the mountains. So, on Friday I laced up the trail runners and headed out for 3 hours of leisurely cruising on some mellow trails around Banff, to work out the cobwebs. It turns out there weren't any cobwebs - my legs felt great and they wanted to run.

Johnson Lake

So, on Saturday I went for a another run. It's finally summer in the Canadian Rockies. It's the time of year that I live for, when you can finally access the high country for a mere 3 months. Of course, summer in the high country means that on this particular day, we got snow on Deception Pass. No worries, it was still beautiful and you can always dress for the weather. I was in the company of good people and I was running. Running!

Deception Pass, Skoki Backcountry

Melody, in her Happy Place

Ptarmigan Lake

Redoubt Mountain

Angela, Myotis Lake

Skoki Mountain

Zigadenus Lake

Needless to say, I was pretty stoked to be out there. The legs felt good, my energy was great and the scenery was awesome. My mind is working overtime with future high alpine running fantasies. Soon. Soon.

After a most fantastic day, the day got even better. There was a concert in town to celebrate Banff National Parks 125 Anniversary. So, even though I was filthy from a day on the trails, I pulled on my jeans and wooly base layer (I wouldn't stink, right?) and strolled 5 minutes to the show. It was the best $12 I've spent in awhile because I got to go dancing for an hour and a half to Spirit of the West! In my own backyard! If you're Canadian and you're my age, you know ever word to every Spirit of the West song. There was something absolutely magical about the evening, the music and dancing with Mount Rundle in the background.

I was having a complete love-in with all-things-Banff.

So naturally, I had to go visit one more pretty place before my weekend wrapped up. I met up with a new friend, Nadja - and we headed up Corey Pass in less than ideal weather. For a weekend of crap weather, I sure had a good time.

I love my backyard and I'm back in the saddle. Giddy-up!