A mini trail adventure

I was heading up to Orangeville to pick B up from Grandma Camp and planned to run on ORMT beforehand.  On my way to the trailhead, I saw a stile and a sign.

The Stile of Opportunity

I had to stop for gas, so I googled Humber Valley Heritage Trail to make sure it was long enough for my planned 14K, downloaded the app (free!!!) and set out.  I decided to head north first.  The first couple kilometres were really overgrown with tall plants and grasses, so it was very slow going.  The runnable parts were beautiful, peaceful forest.

Clearly, the map showed a left turn at Duffy's Lane, but I saw blazes to the right.  I went left (north) anyways, and the blazes resumed north of Old Church Road, heading into Albion Hills CA. Having run in Albion Hills recently, I knew it would not be too hilly or technical, although I don't think my route today took me on any of the same trails from the race.  I did find, The Best Trail Name Ever:

WOO WU!

I turned around after 5.5K, but took the road back to the car because bushwhacking once through those tall grasses was enough.

Heading south, it was pleasant going for almost a kilometer, when the trail came out to the edge of a large field, and I lost the blazes.  I started running around the perimeter of the field, and I thought I was on that stubby penis outcropping as shown on the map, but my Garmin info shows I was north of there.  It was really hot in the sun and I was close to my distance, so I turned back to the car.

Well worth the adventure!  My favourite thing about this trail was how quiet it was, I'm sure it's not very well known and will be good for long runs because it connects to ORMT.  I will be back soon for an end to end adventure!

post run blueberry pie.

Iroquoia Trail Test, 2017 edition

WHYYYYY do I keep doing this race every year? 4th year now.  I guess it's because it's a good late summer race, and it's nice to have company instead of grinding out long miles solo, and it's close to home.  At least this year the weather was far more comfortable than in 2015 and 2016.

This year's race fell on my cutback week, so I could sign up for the 18K and just add on a few more kilometres, instead of grinding through the 34.  Greg signed up for his usual 7K and we got there early to see the 34K people off.

Grace, Bogdan, Greg, me, looking spiffy in our Burly gear!

It was 7:58 and I thought I had 15 min to do a nice leisurely warmup..Greg said, "that's gonna be a really short warmup." "what?!" "the race starts at 8." "?!?!???!!!!"  There was an email sent out the night before with last minute instructions, including the start time change.  It should have been written in bold, flashing, red font but I just skimmed the email and didn't notice.  

I barely had time to recover from the shock when the race started.  Ran my own pace, got stuck in the bottleneck singletrack down to the canyon and opened up on the gorgeous flat at the bottom.


I knew I wasn't last, but there was a guy in front of me, mostly walking, and I thought I really should be in front of him.  I put on a surge on the wide doubletrack section and passed him.  Then came the nasty technical singletrack.  There were 2 girls, whose running pace was definitely faster than mine, but kept stopping (selfies, taking gels).  I guess they didn't know there was a lookout point and an aid station less than 1K ahead, but I'd pass while they stopped and then have to stop and step aside on the narrow singletrack to let them pass.  I don't mind doing this once, but I had to stop at least 3 times for them in the span of about 1K and in that time, walking dude had almost caught up to me.

Fortunately, on the second loop at the bottom of the canyon, I saw Robin and chased after her for about a kilometer, and I never saw walking dude again.

I was feeling pretty tired coming out of the canyon for the final time, there was a guy taking pictures yelling "GO BURLY!" and introduced himself as a fellow member.

Photo by Neil.

Finally, it was nice to see that Greg had stuck around waiting for me..I don't look terribly overjoyed, but I'm sure it's better than how I looked finishing the 34K last year.