Sweet September

September has always been my favorite month of the year.  This year we were blessed with 2 crazy beautiful, hot warm weeks.  Since then, in a period of days the temperature plummeted, we got frost and then it snowed.  It was super late in coming - but the abrupt change of season has arrived. 

I got up to a few great adventures including an awesome night camping on shoreline of Spray Lakes and a quick jaunt up to the Buller Circuit.  I'd never been up North Buller Passs and I did the "bonus loop" up a peak with no name.  I named it Glory Peak because it was in fact glorious, and I could see the entire frickin' world from up there!

I've been distracted the past few weeks, namely because I've been working hard all summer and it's time for a bigger adventure.  Keith and I are heading off for 7 weeks in our new camper leaving tomorrow!  Yiiipee!  We're not taking our bikes this trip, just our running shoes.  We're heading back to Arizona/Utah, but we're going to take the long way through Washington, Oregon and Northern California.  We'll let the weather decide when and where we go - but we're heading South.

All of these photos are taken from my awesome day on Buller, what a great way to end the summer season.

 Happy Trails!!

Run in the Sun is Fun: the Emerald Lake Triangle

 Oh, Emerald Lake.  I love your sparkling waters, your surreal color and especially, your immediate access to stunningly beautiful places.  Heck, you even have a restaurant to reward myself with at the end of a hard, sweet day on the trails. On a summer's day, you are the bomb.  I always enjoy soaking my tired legs in your pristine water to recover from your glorious trails.  The Emerald Triangle is a classic:  from the shoreline of Emerald Lake you climb to Yoho Pass, across the Wapta Highline to Burgess Pass.  A long descent through a cedar forest takes you back to the lake to complete the loop.

 Classic Emerald Lake Shoreline

 Every year, the water changes it's course across the alluvial fan.

 I'm going there!  Mount Wapta Highline

 Heading up Yoho Pass

 

 Last chance to splash.  The highline is dry in August.

 Looking across at the President's Range and Emerald Basin

 High on Emerald Lake

 Pine Cones are Cool

 Nearing Mount Burgess

 Alpine Fireweed

 Burgess and the Kicking Horse Valley

 Emerald Glacier and the Vice President

 Looking back on the Highline

Happy Leslie

My Summer: Offline, Relaxing and Awesome

Hi friends! It's been an awesome summer and I hope yours has been as well.  I've been a busy girl and I've been content with burying my head in the sand and largely ignoring the rest of the world.  As such, I've spent practically no time on the computer, I haven't been phoning anybody and I've been filling the days and weekends with fun adventures.  It's summertime, my most-est-favorite-est time of year and as you know, I love to spend my time outside.  Keith and I bought ourselves a camper - and we've been out adventuring and traveling and enjoying a more leisurely pace.

It's been a different summer because for the first summer in 9 years, I haven't been doing my usual thing:  running on trails through the beautiful mountains of my backyard. While I've been plenty active by all standards, I've been limited in my ability to run partly due to injury and partly due to too damn busy enjoying life and doing other stuff to deal with it. It was sort of an accidental break from running.  Hopefully, I'll be back in the saddle soon because it's one of my greatest pleasures and I miss it dearly. Have no fear though, I have been running - it just hasn't been the all-day-mountain-epics that I love to do.  Slowly, I'm building up and getting stronger.  Patience.  And one foot in front of the other.

 I've missed you too, oh-wonderful-online-supportive-like-minded-adventurous-friends!  This blog was started to connect with all the wonderful peeps that I was meeting in ultra-running-racing world.  It was also started to share my beautiful backyard with you.

So here you go!  Some photo's from the best of Leslie's summer adventures. And bee-yoo-tee-ful places.

Oh, Montana.  I love you.  Lake Kookanusa is Awesome.  This is Keith, Anna and Myself at the Tour of Kookanusa - 130km of bike riding goodness off-the-couch.  Great camping, great swimming, great friends and great scenery around the Libby Dam just South of the border in Libby Montana.

Our new/used camper!  The Palomino.  She's been delivering us many weekends of adventures.  Keith gets early morning smooches from Anna and Stu.  We got a great night sleep and coffee in the morning.  Yay for 4 star camping!

Why Hello!  It's cousin Kyle, from Vancouver.  We had plenty of adventures.  On this day, we took the tandem out to Corey Pass Trailhead, ran to the trail, survived a vicious attack by hungry blood thirsty mosquitoes, hiked up and over Corey Pass and made it back to work on time.  Bam.  I believe I tired out young Kyle.

Kootenay National Park.  Oh, Kindersley Pass.  You are so beautiful that I had to come again and bring my friends Ellen, Magda and Skoki the Dog.  Skoki was very well behaved when we ran into a Grizzly Bear digging in the meadows.  Parks Canada put up a "travel in groups of 4" hiking restriction on this trail the day after we were there. 

I've missed my fabulous collection of ladies-who-run.  On this day, I got to connect with Nicki and Suzy who have been getting up to many adventures of their own!

It's exciting to see old and new friends get into trail running.  After 9 summers of trail running, adventure running and competing in the occasional race - it's always awesome to see the level of stoke of newbies and old friends alike.

Oh, Columbia Lake.  Yes, this is the source of the mighty Columbia River.  It's also home to some wonderfully scenic rolling mountain bike trails like the Spirit Trail. 

I love this photo.  This photo was taken in spring, only a couple of miles up the Spray River Trail right close to the town of Banff.  I've seen 2 Grizzly Bears up-close-and-personal this summer.  Seeing them is always exciting, terrifying and exhilarating simultaneously.  How lucky am I to live where I do? 

Lake Agnes and the Teahouse

The Lake Louise Teahouse Circuit is a true Banff National Park classic.  It's accessible, achievable and it allows new hikers to get a taste of the incredible backcountry scenery in my backyard.  I love these trails and I love seeing new people from all over the world enjoying themselves out on these trails. On this day, I had a great run up to Plains of Six, the Big Beehive, Lake Agnes and the little Beehive. 

Haaay!  It's Lake Louise.

From the most accessible trails, to the least accessible I love them all equally.  Indianhead Lodge is one of the most remote warden cabins in all of Banff National Park.  I got to explore brand new territory in a trip up the Clearwater River Valley close to the Northern boundary of Banff National Park with my most-reliable-and-awesome trail buddy Mike.

The Clearwater River Valley in the morning.  This is Clearwater Lakes where there were millions of hungry mosquitoes!  

Mike heading up to North Molar Pass - I love this place.  If you've never been, you need to go.  The meadows are expansive and amazing, as are the views from the top of the pass.  The above treeline hike into Fish Lakes is awesome.

Pipestone Pass is amazing!  The trail from Fish Lakes to Pipestone was one of the best surprises of the summer.  We were in awe as we meandered for close to 14km all above treeline blissed out on the views, the glaciers and the Awesome.

Mike takes great photos, yes?  This is me, running towards Drummond Glacier on the Pipestone Highline.

The Clearwater Valley felt remote because it is remote.  We had the place all to ourselves as well.  After Devon Lakes, we didn't see anyone else out there.  It's wild and wonderful.

We got rain, cold and mosquitoes on this trip but we still had fun.  We saw massive wolf tracks, bear tracks, cougar tracks and loads of deer, elk, moose prints.  Fortunately, our animal sightings were limited to only one moose - feeding in one of the valley level lakes.

Yay for visitors!  Lucky for me, I met all sorts of awesome people on the PCT - and a few of them came to visit this summer.  This is Cathe, aka. Pounce getting her hike on on the Helen Lake Trail.  We did a 3 day hike starting at Dolomite Pass and finishing at Mosquito Creek.  We saw a Grizzly Bear in the Siffleur Valley another wild and remote corner of our park that I had never been before.

Katherine Lake

So many adventures, so little time.  :) 

With this in mind, Keith and I have been busy plotting a few adventures of our own as well.  With the help of the Palomino, we will be heading off for a return trip to Southern Utah and the Grand Canyon in a month. We've got lots of ideas that we are putting into action and life really and truly keeps on getting better and better.  Stay tuned.

A Keith and Leslie Adventure - Part 2

Our morning in Escalante, began with a prompt soaking before we even made it out of town.  We ended up waiting out the storm at the local Subway - breakfast and a coffee for $3 bucks!  While waiting, we met an ultrarunner from Boulder, who was on his way home after doing the Zion traverse.  Naturally, he knew lots of our Boulder running friends.  When we finally got back on our saddles, there were lots of aches and pains and moans and groans all-round.  The off-the-couch bike tour was taking it's toll on our bodies. My saddle was killing me and Keith's knee was cranky so we opted for a shorter day.  It was a tough but enjoyable ride to Boulder, with lots more ridiculous climbing and descending.  The desert is not flat in this corner of Utah and our net gain and loss every day was off the charts.  We enjoyed a crazy white knuckle descent down the canyons to the Escalante River, followed by a climb back out of the canyon with a 14% grade. 

Going down.

Keith and the B.O.B

My Little Pony:  Rocky Mountain Hammer 29'er, with touring rims and tires  + 25 year old panniers.

In Boulder, the sun finally came out and we lounged at the Burr Trail Grill.  Finally, a place with beer!  The beer, sunshine, incredible food and coffee was just what we were looking for.  The huge Microbrew list and gourmet burgers hit the spot!

Our morning in Boulder, was a far more serendipitous than our morning in Escalante.  As we were rolling out, we spotted some other cyclists coming down the road fully loaded with gear.  I didn't realize how laden they were until I saw the massive Chariot and the small child perched in a seat on the back of the bicycle. Holy.  Crap.

Potty Break for Nesta.

Heidi and Steven were from Belgium and had just started their North American Bike Tour which will take them and their 2 year old Nesta across the States and to Banff, amongst other places. We decided to ride up the pass together and chatted the entire way with these awesome folks.  We learned that bike touring with a 2 year old requires patience, lots of breaks for play time and the occasional potty stop.  They carried all the things you would need for a 2 year old, including toys and a potty!  Heidi and Steven were bike touring veterans, and had ridden their bikes from Hungary to China on a serious adventure tour pre-Nesta.  We stopped for a longer than usual picnic and cracked out the stove to cook up some coffee, hot food and enjoy the mid-day sunshine.

 The climb out of Boulder was epic taking us up to snow line and over 9.000 feet.  I was impressed with our new friends, pedaling up the mountain loaded down with about 100 lbs. of gear each.  The subsequent descent down the other side was fun and gorgeous and we managed to dodge a few more thunderstorms before the sun came out to stay.  We rolled into the town of Torrey after a fabulous day in the Escalante Mountains.

Torrey is the gateway to Capital Reef National Park which I will confess, I had never heard of.  Yay!  National Park = guaranteed beautiful scenery.  The sun finally came out, we put sunscreen on those white Canadian cheeks and toodled along blissfully on roads devoid of traffic.

Just outside of Capital Reef, we were flagged down by a nice couple who were dry camping in their RV.  As we rode by they shouted:  WANT A BEER?  So we pulled over, thrilled by this unexpected stop. It was hot out and it was all a little shocking after our Days of Thunder to be dealing with heat and hunkering down in the shade.  Beer was in order.  We had a nice long break and visit with Peggy and Bill, 2 young retirees who had been living out of their home on wheels for a few years.  We discussed life, RV'ing and the realities of desert living and a life on the road.  Sign me up for a year or two in the future. From there, we cruised the final miles into Hanksville with a beer buzz.  Upon arriving in Hanksville, we met up with Andy at the campground.  We popped into the air conditioned restaurant for some ice cold cokes and a visit.  Andy was awesome and had been following the ACA's route across the States all the way from Tennesee.  We spent a fun night camping with him, socializing and drinking beers.

Leaving the dirty and dusty town of Hanksville, the scenery looked a lot like this:

Fortunately for us, it soon looked like this:

We had been steadily gaining elevation for 27 dry and dusty miles, before we reached the junction of Highway 276.  There, we ran into 3 young dudes touring on their bikes who were so exhausted and underfed that they could barely string together a phrase.  They said that they had been climbing and working hard all morning, having climbed out of Glen Canyon.  I was super stoked to find out that I would be descending for the rest of the day all the way down to Glen Canyon. Yippeee!!

The descent into Glen Canyon blew my mind.  In my Canadian Rocky Mountain brain, the word "canyon" conjures up images of a little rocky canyon with some green stuff growing and a creek running through it.  In this corner of the world, the "canyons" are Grand Canyon-esque:  massive abysses carved out of the earth.  We descended into the bowels of the earth for mile upon mile on this beautiful deserted road.  The road was empty and we had this beautiful place all to ourselves, stopping frequently to gawk and take it all in.  The landscape was littered with slick rock, red rock, box canyons and other mysteries.  We stopped for a lunch break in a little canyon and met some rafting guides, who told us there was running water and a little oasis right up the trail.  So we took a break and went for an hour long hike mid-afternoon.  It was great to get off the saddle for an hour.

 When we finally hit the bottom of the canyon, it was sweltering and surprisingly, Lake Powell was dry.  Clearly, they've been letting the water out of Glen Canyon to feed the unsatiable needs of California and Las Vegas.  I was surprised to find it so dry in the spring months.

 We had our first major bonk at the bottom of the canyon.  After all the excitement of the day and the heat we were tired, out of waster and still had to climb a few miles out to the Hight Marina campground.  After crossing the Dirty Devil River, the road looked like a wall in front of us.

When we arrived at the Hite Ranger Station, we polished off about 2 bottles of sweet cold water and then demolished a tube of Pringles as heavenly a pre-dinner snack.  The campground was empty when we arrived, but soon a camper van rolled in and parked.  We watched in awe as 2 middle aged ladies got out, set up a wheelchair and then proceeded to hoist the 3rd lady out of the van. After they got settled, we headed over to say hi to the neighbours.  The ladies were from Vancouver and had been having a blast traveling and camping all over Arizona and Utah.  They were only a few years older than us. The gal in the wheelchair had MS and had very limited mobility. There's no doubt her friends were dressing her, cleaning her and looking after her on this holiday. I asked her how she was coping with the traveling and she said:  

"You've just got to pull on your Depends and go!"  

Shortly after,  a solo cyclist rolled in and we met up with Steven, who was also riding across the States.  He was from Toronto, but lived in San Diego and was even more exhausted and dehydrated than we were.  We decided to join each other for some company in the morning and ride out of the canyon together.  The sunset came quickly, with the sounds of bird noises and then silence.  It was still plenty hot in the bottom of the canyon and we had the luxury of sleeping out on our bags with the tent wide open. 

Happy Keith, after a full day in the sun.