The run started with a relentless uphill from Deep Cove all the way to the Mushroom Parking lot. While it was a cold day for late August, we soon were hot and sweaty and I was happy not to have brought my jacket along. Lorraine and I soon fell into a nice rhythm and every once in a while we caught up with the group around Cynnimon, Craig and Carrie. Once past the parking lot we soon found ourselves on the very steep and technical Dirty Diaper trail.
I didn't realize that yesterday's Go Deep was only the second time I had run that course. No wonder I had to refer to my route descriptions a few times and at one point thought I was lost on Bridle path. Turned out Lorraine and I were on the right trail, but it sure looked different... Maybe it was all the blow downs from the winter storms or perhaps all the new bridges and steps built over the summer by the KK trail maintenance crew or the local mountain bikers. The trail classifications on Ned's and Dirty Diapers were quite funny. I prefer the green runs ;-)
Lorraine had a few tumbles, skinning her knees, smashing her food stash (a banana) and going over her ankle. Luckily, she was able to venture on, but we navigated down Neds with a bit more caution.
The Seymour Grind sure was much longer yesterday than I remembered and the sign for the Severed Dick trail (who names these trails...) at the top of the Grind was a welcome sight. Downhill from here...well almost. The rolling trail past Old Buck invited us to increase our speed - maybe a bit too early - as we slowed down the closer we got to Deep Cove. At one of the last bridges we got a good chuckle out of the reaction of a hiker to my iceberg blue Club Fat Ass shirt. The lady was going crossing the bridge when she recognized that she wore the same shirt from MEC and she called out, "nice MEC shirt, eh!" As I ran past her she read the logo on my chest and horror stricken, looked down at her chest...You could read her thoughts..."does my shirt say THAT and I haven't realized it?"
Finally at the Cove, we were welcomed by Rhonda and Cheryl (who took a bit of a short cut), Sebastien from Montreal, Craig and Carrie who had come in before us. My time was about 20 minutes faster than the last time I ran this course a few years ago.
The food (very delicious)and free beer at the Mosquito Creek Bar and Grill hit the spot....despite the waitress asking if we wanted the beer "NOW?"...it was just past 12:00 and I guess we didn't look like early afternoon drinkers ;-)Thanks Cheryl, for carrying on the Go deep tradition!
