Weekend in Yoho

Yoho is one of my favorite places! It's dramatic. It's different. It's outrageously beautiful.

In 3 days I got rain, sun, sleet and snow. I also got turquoise lakes, glaciers and waterfalls! The scenery was out of this world, but the company was especially stellar. I got to enjoy some quality time in this beautiful place, with friends Holly and Tannis. We ran. We relaxed. We repeated! Here's a preview:

Sulphur Mountain Run

After all that talk of Bearanoia and Bigcataphobia, when I left my house on Wednesday night for my run, this greeted me at the trailhead:

HA! It's not every day that a cougar takes down a deer right in my backyard, so Parks Canada was definitely being cautious when it issued this little friendly warning! I made the climb up Sulphur Mountain on this cool spring evening and it was the perfect temperature. Sulphur is tough, tough, tough. I wonder when it will ever become easy! I also have realized that I have been not running up and down mountains, nearly enough these days because I was a heavy breathing, sweaty, hot, mess. But it was still fun! There was nobody up there and it sure was pretty....

Just a quick post to say have a great weekend, I am off to go camping for the first time this season and am excited just to be hanging out in the great outdoors! I'm planning on running of course, but I also packed my novel and my comfy chair.

The weekend has become a tradition of mine. The first weekend that the campground opens I like to go up for a few nights to kick start summer! It is also happens to be the longest day of the year on Saturday and it is friend Hollys' birthday! Lots of good reasons to go camping and running and relaxing.

Weekend Report - Sunday

I woke up on Sunday morning, confused and groggy. I had the best night's sleep and was startled by the golden orb outside my window. What is that golden orb in the sky? After days of grey and rainy, yay for sunshine! We had a couple of friends from Calgary come and stay with us last night and on this morning, we slept in and then went out for some exercise! The boys went for a road bike and the girls went for - what else - a run! My friend Stephanie has lost some weight, is looking fit and healthy, is damn entertaining and is running strong!

We went out for an hour on the Leslie Backyard Tour. The most scenic trails within 30 minutes of the back door. We ran past the spot where the elk had me pinned and gave my 3 trees a little thank-you-pat! However, I forgot the camera on the AM run, so I'll have to settle for the memories....

We whipped up a big lunch and had COFFEE after realizing that Keith had accidently brewed up DECAF for breakfast. We all wondered why we were feeling so mellow and sleeeeeeepy!

After the coffee and the huge plate of pasta kicked-in, we said good-bye to the friends and I decided to go for a bonus run. A big bonus run! Keith was off to Canmore to go to a Show and Shine Car Show, so I thought I could get a lift and run home. There is a fantastic trail that runs between the Bow River and along the base of Mount Rundle, all the way to Banff called the Rundle Riverside Trail. I haven't been on this trail in about 8 years and the last time was on a very long and traumatic mountain bike ride. I think it was about 18 km's back to my house point to point.

You start at the Canmore Nordic Centre and you finish at the far corner of the Banff Springs Golf Course. The Rundle Riverside trail is a popular mountain bike trail and a pretty popular trail if you are a bear moving through the Bow Valley. For some reason today, my spider senses were tingling and for most of the run, I had Bearanoia.

Bear-anoia!

Yes, it's like paranoia, but different. I get it occasionally when I run through the dark woods by myself and today, I had it bad! Maybe is was because I saw 3 black bears from the car on Friday and did I mention, 3 grizzly bears and one blond black bear from the car on Saturday? Or maybe it was all of the scat? Or was it that the only cyclists I ran into had seen a couple of bears only one hour earlier? Either way, this girl was running through the woods irrationally scared to the point of Bearanoia. But apart from that...it was a sweeeet run!

Poo

Banff is that way!

Heading out on from the Nordic Centre, on the Banff Trail, I could not believe the fantastic job they have done revamping the trails! The Nordic Centre is in the business of producing some future Olympians and they have been upgrading the facility for the last two years. When I started out, I headed out on an asphalt trail that was for roller-skiing. There were lots of young athletes gliding through the forest, it just seemed so weird! Roller skiiers in the forest in the mountains? Bizarre. After that, the only people I saw were the 3 cyclists who had seen two black bears.

She'll be comin' round the mountain - Mount Rundle

The trail was in fantastic shape! Everything was a shade of "new leaf green", the trail was dry, the pine needles on the forest floor were soft and squishy underfoot, but the roots made you pay attention! It was dark in the forest and with my Bearanoia growing, I was glad to finally come out into the open and was rewarded with some great views of all the classic Banff landmarks!

Mount Norquay Ski Hill in the distance

Helllllo Elk! You can't bitch stomp me on that side of the river....

Cascade Mountain looking sooooo pretty

Calypso Orchid

Dead thingy

Weekend Report - Saturday

After sitting in a car for 6+ hours the day before, I had a little energy to burn and needed to get out and run, run, RUN!

I had decided earlier in the week that I wanted to do something a little different and came up with the idea of a Bike and Hike. My friend Steven promptly replied that he "doesn't hike" so I had to rename the event a Run and Ride if I was going to recruit any friends at all. Either way, I was excited all week about going up into Yoho National Park for the day to see just how much snow is still out there!

The plan was to ride our bikes up the Takakkaw Falls access road, which is still closed for one more week before opening for the summer season. Then, we would go for a run and enjoy some Yoho trails, with the once-in-a-season luxury of being the only people on the trail! I had thought that our trail run might be limited to the Little Yoho Valley trail, because of the possibility of deep snow.

The ride was only 12 km and it was fun to ride our bikes all the way to the base of Takakkaw Falls! Usually, this exact spot will receive 100's if not 1000's of visitors every day in summer. We just rode our bikes straight up the pedestrian pathway and got to be some of the first visitors of the year!! I was giggling thinking of all the people that are usually on this path as I road my bike.

Miles, The Bikes and Takakkaw Falls!!

The Road

The road ride was a pleasure. We could hop off our bikes to check out the views and take joy in riding on the wrong side of the road! There were massive mounds of Grizzly Bear shit to slalom through. The road has been closed since September, so if a bear shat on the road way back in September its' scat was still around for us to enjoy on this June day!

There was a LOT of bear shit. We laughed at the idea of possibly having a bike crash because of a bear-shit-skid. Sorry, no photos of the massive dumps that Grizzlies take. Maybe it was Sasquatch shit??

We also saw a lot of marmots! Big, fat marmots with their high pitched whistles. We had definitely disturbed their little Marmot world that had been quiet for the last few months. They weren't shy either.....

Yo....Fat Boy!

Skinny White Boys

The bike ride didn't take long and we soon ditched the bikes to enjoy the great trail up the Little Yoho Valley. The river was raging and soon I had christened the run/ride: "Le Tour de Water Falls." When we passed the first sign to Point Lace Falls, the boys looked at me funny when we sailed past the turn-off. I told them, "Don't worry, there will be other water falls!" and there were! Case in point - Mike and Miles checking out an un-named falls:

Then there were more......

After enjoying some cruisy single track with great river views, the trail jumped back into the forest and began climbing towards Yoho Glacier. This time last year, the snow was quite deep in this forest section and I had to deal with some serious post-holing and mud. This time, we just had a few snow patches and some winter deadfall. No problemo!

When you pop out of the forest, this is the view that greets you! Some fantastic high alpine glacier geology, with the layers of rocks sort of looking like an ocean frozen in time. I don't know anything about glaciology and geology, but this place certainly feels ancient and is beautiful.

The out and back towards Yoho Glacier is awesome.....but you don't get to see the Glacier! You have to climb higher up towards the Iceline Trail to see it in all its' glory. We will have to save that one for a later day in summer once the snow melts. Anyhow, after visiting Yoho Glacier I realized that a longer trip was going to be possible because the snowpack that I was expecting, just wasn't there! Yay! We got to enjoy the trail up to Twin Falls and the Twin Falls Chalet, before returning on the Marpole Connector, through an un-named boulder field. Fun-fun-fun.

Le Tour de Waterfalls - Twin Falls

Le Tour de Goofball - Leslie

Mike rockin' the boulder field

In the end we ended up running a fantastic 26km and having a great day. No rain, no post-holing and no bears! Wooohooo! I can't wait until next weekend, the campground at Takakkaw Falls is opening and I plan on being there for summer solistice!

Weekend Report - Friday

Roadtrip!

On Friday, I enjoyed another whirlwind road trip from Banff to Cranbrook to visit my Pa in hospital. I drove 3 hours, to visit for 1 hour and then drove the 3 hours return. Phew. The trip was totally worthwhile, but the day was a write-off. However, as with all roadtrips by ones-self, I did get to ponder many different random ideas in my brain along the way....

On the drive through Kootenay National Park, I was again treated to a wildlife show. Last week, I caught a glimpse of a cow moose and her baby and a black bear. This week, I saw 3 bears and a mountain goat! The mountain goat was a very cool thing to see. Usually, they are high alpine critters. This goat, was obviously an unusual guy because he was all alone and down at quite a low elevation. He reminded me of a gorilla: he was all shoulders and could move like a monkey. He was white, hairy, huge and totally out of place! At first I thought I was seeing a Yeti or the Abominibal Snowman but, d-uh, it coudn't be! Afterall, I was heading into interiour British Columbia which is the home of the Sasquatch and not The Yeti. No Kootenay Sasquatch in his right mind would put up with some white-hairy-monkey-man stealing his show.

Anyhow, I digress. While I was driving, I did have some random thoughts to share with you on how things are different in the National Park as compared to interiour B.C. As I was leaving the National Park driving through the town of Radium, I found myself in a traffic jam because there was a herd of Bighorn Sheep taking a detour down the middle of the highway! Shortly after leaving the National Park, there were a few noticable differences that drew my attention. Firstly, I noticed the clearcuts. Yep, those big giant ugly swathes across the mountains, just scream: You Have Arrived in British Columbia!! Next, there were signs and billboards everywhere, each designed to provoke, sell or just entertain.

The first sign I noticed read: Jesus is Lord of This Valley! Shortly after that, the road crosses through a First Nations Reservation, where a sign at the local race track proclaimed: Indian Outlaw Racing! Hmmm.....why do we bother being politically correct, anyways? The next sign proclaimed: Steak Buffet! Damn, I want to go to any restaurant that features All-U-Can-Eat Steak!

The next 20 signs were for new property developments, because the entire province of B.C seems to be for sale. All of the developments had creative mountain names like Wildstone, Copperstone, Sandstone, Flintstone....with a side of Serenity Ridge, Rocky Ridge, Eagle Spirit and Spirit's Reach. One of them proclaimed: Take Ownership of Your Vacation!!

If I was a property developer, I would definately create a name for my luxurious resort property using the formula of a animal name, a geology feature and some other word to best describe the place. For instance, let's use Bear, Knob and Big. You could buy a property at Big Bear Knob! How about that? Hmmm. How about, Spirit Cougar Crack? Stoned Moose Crack? MooseStone Bluffs? So much fun and oh-so-many options.

Anyhow, this is supposed to be a blog about running and my Runner's Brain was pondering many different future routes, runs and destinations while driving by a plethora of trailheads and beautiful places. Unfortunately, I was just driving by! But the exciting thing is: it looks like summer is finally here! I drove by many gorgeous places and trailheads and all-of-a-sudden....the snow has receded and all of the trails are becoming passable! That doesn't mean "dry" by any means, but passable and open are a start!! I can't wait!!

Evening Run with Rockstar

My husband is a rockstar.

I love my honey. He has always been fit, and he is just a little dude, but for some reason, his body likes to hold a little extra love. That's O.K with me! But, in the last 3 months he has dropped almost 20 pounds and all of a sudden, he is fast. With me training for the Ultra distances, one thing that has happenned is I seem to have lost my speed! I am slow. So it's perfect. I got slower. He got faster. Now we can run together!!

Many photos of our evening run and Keith's arse:

I made him stop to take a photo of me. He doesn't like to lose momentum. He reluctantly stopped. Thanks, Keith! I needed a breather.

Weekend Report

Since the fantastic wedding last weekend, I have been sick. Just a little cold, but bad enough to prevent me from doing anything ALL week!! On Saturday morning, after reading Olga's blog
I decided to suck it up and go running. Olga had a cold last weekend and Olga, being Olga, decided that a weekend run was a far better thing to do than be sick. She sounds like a "suck it up" kind of gal. So I did. Suck it up. And run.

It was raining sideways, about 3c and an all-round nasty morning! I was going to kick that cold's ass.....but of course, it kicked mine. I met up with Steve and Mike and we drove up to the Johnson Canyon area for a little spring exploration. We parked and ran from Moose Meadows, avoiding the canyon and the people that would be there. Instead we stomped through the forest and climbed up and over to the Inkpots and ran up Johnson Creek. This area is primo Grizzly Bear habitat, but no signs of the critters.

I was hacking and spluttering and expelling a lot of GOO, but hey Olga would do it and I needed to get OUT-OUT-OUT!! The run was a wee bit more challenging than usual and all I saw of the boys were their ass ends for most of the 3+ hours. I just sucked it up and ran. The weather improved and the temps were actually great for running! I am so glad I went out - it remains to be seen if this was smart or not, but we shall see. In the mean time, I am drinking a lot of herbal tea and still sniffling....

The Run.....

Puddle Hopping Guy
The Inkpots

Fresh Tracks

Johnson Creek

Calypso Orchid

My Muddy Feet

On Sunday, I got to enjoy a drive to Cranbrook to visit my poor Pa, who is there in the hospital. It is 3 hours, but I got to drive through Kootenay again (see the last entry on Nipika with the dumb-asses) and it was quite stormy, dramatic and gorgeous!

This is Columbia Lake, yes, this lake is the SOURCE for that wee little river that runs through that wee little gorge and empties at Astoria, Oregon. Isn't it pretty?

I was got to drive through the Kootenay National Park in the evening and there was nobody on the road except me and the critters. This guy crossed the road in front of me and then scratched his back on a sign post. I couldn't help but stop!

B-Bear

Numa Falls, Kootenay National Park

Vista Lake, Kootenay National Park