Once again a brave group of adventurers strapped up their hydration packs, took one, possibly, final look at their vehicles and punched the start of their chrono's and headed into the deep dark woods of the west coast rainforest.
The start was delayed by about 30 minutes as Jeff, our play leader, made arrangements as to who was doing what with which cars at which end!
The weather is beautiful here in Leadville, Co. ALthough the air seems a bit thin for the few from sea level that are daring to run or crew the Leadville 100. Al Harman and Gilles Barbeau are going strong and looking good. I met them at May Queen which is mile 14. Al arrived at 6:18 (2hrs18min) and Gilles came in at 6:40 which was 4 min ahead of last year's attempt. When Gilles arrived, I shouted and cheered him on. I even cheered him on with a few Happy Birthdays since this is how he chose to spend it. The crowd had fun and cheered him on as well.
On Sunday I set out on an extreme route through the North Shore Mountains. The first thing I should say is that while there are sections of the Needles which I highly recommend - particularly the part from Lynn Peak up to the South Needle and the Hydraulic Creek trail down to the Seymour Valley Trailway which have been recently cleared and excellently flagged by some hikers who deserve major kudos - but that at this point I could not recommend this route in its entirety to anyone. The climb down to col from there and the climb up to the next peak are a worthwhile addition if you
Since I don't actually own any running gaiters (the kind that are light weight, easy to put on and off, repel dirt and dust and are the subject of Lucinda's request for stories, features and tweets), but only winter gaiters for hiking or snowshoeing in deep powder, my story (I do want to qualify for Lucinda's prize winning gaiters after all) deals with my need for gaiters
our photos from the race. We're planning on attending the Night Run on sat and are hoping Sibylle and Ean might allow us to play the DVD from the race on their TV. We couldn't carry our cameras the whole time and it's a beautiful area!
Sunday 2 August 2009... a date that will go down in the record books for my buddy Rick and me.
It started innocently enough. With just under a week to go before the STORMY ultras, we thought we'd get in a final shakedown run and bag a peak or two for credit in the 2009 Bagger Challenge.
If you are doing any serious trail running, you have either used gaiters or have seen other runners with gaiters. Have you tried to buy some and have them shipped to Canada only to find out it costs more to ship than the actual costs of the gaiters? Would you like to have a local alternative?
Sunday 2 August 2009... a date that will go down in the record books for my buddy Rick and me.
If you are doing any serious trail running, you have either used gaiters or have seen other runners with gaiters. Have you tried to buy some and have them shipped to Canada only to find out it costs more to ship than the actual costs of the gaiters? Would you like to have a local alternative?
