We stayed at an absolutely gorgeous Airbnb. It was my first time staying in one and I'm so glad it was a great experience. The Airbnb host, Jesse, drove us to the trailhead at Goderich Beach. The Bad Thing race has a different mystery start location every year, not at the actual trailhead.
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| The Start. |
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| Just after sunrise on Menesetung Bridge. |
The first section was on rail trail, during the race you take a more rugged side trail, but end to end means keep following the white blazes!
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| I am cow, hear me moo I weigh twice as much as you And I look good on the barbeque Yogurt, curd, cream cheese and butter's Made from liquid from my udders, I am cow, I am cow, hear me moo! h/t Arrogant Worms |
We met Steve, one of the Bad Thing organizers and Jesse's neighbour running to meet us. When Steve heard that we were running end to end, he provided maps, dropped water on the trail, AND drove Agnes' car to the finish so we didn't have to waste time shuttling cars. He ran with us for a couple of kilometres and took a few pictures:
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| A tornado went through this area a few years ago, and it is now known as FUF3. |
Selfie with Steve.
Since the namesake Bad Thing hill is actually an out and back off the main trail, we technically didn't have to do it, but Steve strongly suggested that we do, and hey, why not. Despite its name, it's really not much of a challenge, there are far worse climbs on the trail.
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| Bad Thing...all ~200 m of it. |
Bulldoggo chubbypants trying his
best to get down the stairs.
Next up was Benmiller Inn. I clearly remember the beauty of the reflection of the trees in the water and it was just as lovely as I remembered.
It is important to note that the trail was very well marked and maintained, which was a huge contrast after a summer of running the GVT, which is neither well marked or maintained. There were only a couple spots where we had to fan out to find a blaze, or backtrack a few hundred metres, but we never even had to use the map and most importantly, no bushwhacking!
At 30K, we reached Steve's water drop. Since it was a fairly cool day, we weren't in desperate need of a refill, but it was good to have the water anyways.
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| I really wished we had some Coke in the drop bag! Photo credit: Lori |
The next section up to 40K was what I remembered was the most difficult and it was just as hard as I recall. Narrow, somewhat technical singletrack, downhill to a stream water crossing, and scramble up the embankment to go up a really steep hill. Rinse and repeat several times. In 2017 it was way muddier, but it was still super slow, right at a mentally difficult part, about 2/3rds in.
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I'm certain many f-bombs
were coming out of my mouth.
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| a rather sad looking chäir. |
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| Trail apples are so delicious!! |
We ended up having to hustle in the final few kilometres to be done before sunset, as we hadn't brought headlamps. This was my first time running an ultra distance with Lori and Agnes, and we never ran out of things to talk about, but the conversation ranged from proper pronounciation of dim sum menu items to signs that a person is sleeping vs. dead in their car.
During the race, you cross the river to finish, but given the chilly temperatures we opted to take the dry route. The easiest would have been to backtrack to a driveway that led to the road, but what's the fun in that?
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| Agnes climbing. |
Photo credit: Agnes
Finally, the last victory 1K hike into Auburn. We ran the last 50 metres to the car and celebrated.
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| A celebratory shot of Wigle cinnamon whiskey from my mint green holo flask. |
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| "I'm not fat, just floofy." |
We recovered with beers at Cowbell.
And a hike down to the beach to gaze at the aqua waters of Lake Huron.
Effing awesome.
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