Lambton Shores

Way back in the days of yore (2019), I saw a FB post that showed the largest collection of non Bruce Trail badges that I had ever seen. I have been working on collecting all those same badges since. 

The Lambton Shores trails are different in that there are 7 short trails to run, and 7 questions about each trail to answer. The map is a bit misleading in that it looked like it was possible to connect all 7 trails by foot, but upon Googling, it would probably be at least 50K of road running, so we drove, a much wiser choice. The easy/moderate/difficult ratings are from the brochure.

1. Mystery Falls (moderate/difficult)

📷Lori

The falls was very close to the parking lot, and the gorge was accessed via a rope down the muddy bank. All singletrack, somewhat hilly and muddy made this a slow go.

2. Forest Trails (easy)

Very very easy rail trail. Not much to write about. There's no forest, that's the name of the town.

3. Ipperwash Dunes and Swales (easy)

This was my favourite, with flowing singletrack through magical pine/cedar forests and multiple boardwalks across the swales. I guess we were busy running because I don't have a picture from this trail! The beach was just down the street and I did take a picture of gorgeously blue Lake Huron.

4/5. L Lake Management Area/Forested Dunes Nature Reserve (easy) << HECCIN LIES

These two trails shared the same street address and I thought they would be on the opposite sides of the road, but turns out L Lake is a very short loop and Forested Dunes branches off at the top of the L Lake loop. Forested Dunes is the red trail in the green boundary, which I promptly described as "sperm shaped".

The first couple kilometers were uneventful, leaf covered fairly flat singletrack. Then all of a sudden the trail vanished and we were in a hell of branches, brambles, mud, and murky puddles.

📷Lori
We were screaming non-stop F bombs at this point.

Bushwhacked to a bamboo grove that led to nowhere and tried to find our way out only to find that we had gone in a circle (the "sperm head"). No way out except back through the muck.

There is no trail.

6. Lambton County Heritage Forest (easy/difficult)

There were three trails here that were impossible to do all of without adding on a lot more distance by doing some out and backs, so we devised a route by running the outer perimeter. The parts that were easy was flat singletrack, and the difficult parts involved fairly major climbs up a ridge and then lots of rolling hills at the top of the ridge.

Carvings from a teaching circle near the trailhead.

7. Ausable River Cut Conservation Area (easy/moderate)

We headed to the final trail, that was only 2K long. Lori didn't bother carrying her pack and I switched to my short run Orange Mud pack. The first kilometer was really flat and we said, "this is not moderate at all!". It was the golden hour and the colours of the river were beautiful.

We saw a boy trying to push his bike up a huge sand dune and we were really glad that the trail stayed flat along the river. Then it happened.

With less than 1K to go, there was a ridiculously steep climb up a sand dune. I would say with the soft sand, and the angle of the hill, it was one of the most difficult climbs I'd ever done. Fortunately there was a chair to rest and enjoy the sunset for a few minutes before heading back to the car.

📷 Lori

I did it all for the cream puff

(with minimal apologies to Limp Bizkit)

I did it all for the cream puff
Come on
The cream puff
Come on
So you can take that cream puff
And stick it up your, yeah!
Stick it up your, yeah!
Stick it up your, yeah!

I signed up for The Bad Thing right when it opened at midnight, I heard that the race was sold out by 12:07. Crazy to think this is the last in person race of the year. Two major changes was that the race started at a park in Auburn instead of the hall, and would be out and back instead of point to point. I should have reread my old blogs more carefully, because both times I wrote that the worst part was between 30-35K on the p2p course and I trained crazy hills to prepare for this. Before the race, I talked to Hellen, one of the RD's and she said, "it'll be much easier without the up-and-down parts!" 

There was a socially distanced kit pickup, stayed relatively warm near the fire pits and was motivated by really loud AC/DC. The louder AC/DC is, the more motivating it is, because science. There were also two waves for each distance, and being a sloth runner, I was in the final wave. Before I knew what was happening, the first water crossing was there.  The water was so cold, it took my breath away. I made sure to wear shoes that drained quickly, and wool socks, so thankfully my legs and feet had feeling again after only a few minutes.

There was quite a bit of rain in the days leading up to the race, and the trail was quite soggy, so I kept my eyes down. After about 3K, I turned onto a road that was unfamiliar and also had no flags, but I figured it was a straight shot so maybe that was the reason for no markers? I probably should have backtracked, but DID NOT and came to a T where there were flags in both directions, so I turned right to keep the river on my left and to get back on course. Later, I suggested to one of the RDs that maybe a big arrow sign could be put at that junction and he said, "Patty, you've been running trails long enough and done this race enough times to know you should be following blazes." That was a nasty burn, but he was 100% right.

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I reached the turnaround point at 13K, maybe the wrong route that I took was longer, or maybe it was trail math, doesn't really matter. 

There is a row of apple trees that usually bear glorious fruit, but this year was slim pickins and thankfully I wasn't relying upon them completely for my race nutrition strategy.

In the second water crossing, staring at the fast moving water under my feet made me really dizzy. To top things off, I must've rolled my ankle on the rocks but couldn't feel it due to the icy water. I definitely felt it as the feeling returned to my legs and feet in the last 100 metres of road to the finish. I enjoyed this year's finish, as it was much less hilly and mostly downhill instead of the usual road grind.