I was coming into Vancouver 100 fatter, slower &
severely under-trained, with that in mind I decided to hike
majority of the trail and crawl as needed.
- Primary goal is to finish at
all costs, baring visible damage.
- Secondary goal is to
hopefully get around 28ish hours.
I had a later start
then I originally wanted, I was shooting for a 4-5AM start but
stomach issues kept me from leaving sooner. I was
still on the trail by 6AM and since this year
there is no official start, I was left to my own devices. I decided with 2 out and backs
starting for Skyline drive. Tackling the west first then the east.
Why you may ask, simple I don't have to the dreaded section between
Grouse Skyride & Skyline Drive at the end. I've suffered through that
section more than once. Plus easier access to help if needed for the
night section.
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| The sign that greeted me in the morning |
I was the only car at Powerline trail head at the top of Skyline
Drive, I parked in front of a promising sign, unfortunately the sign wasn't referring to the good kind of cougar. From here was a
relatively short hike up to the Baden Powell trail. I didn't worry about my pace at all from the
car to Grouse, I used that time to convince myself this was a great way to spend my weekend and to warm up, as soon as I hit the pavement to go down to
Cleveland Dam, I picked up the pace and all the way to
Cleveland Dam.
Once I got over to the other side of the dam, the relentless climb up to Hollyburn started, and my pace slowed down again. This year I came
equipped with polls to help me out on the climbs, poles are highly recommended. The whole climb up to Hollyburn was
uneventful with no humans to be seen and no creatures stirring about, well none that I could see.
It wasn't until I was on my way
towards Cypress lodge is when I started running into people, the
first 2 dudes I ran into were a welcome surprise, they were
doing the entire Baden Powell trail from Horseshoe Bay to Deep Cove and were also able to provide an update, they met Dylan on the
trail. That put a smile on my face, there was another person on
the trail to hunt down.
I
didn't waste any time on the way towards Black Mountain, I was
feeling great and making steady progress. From there I was on my way
to Eagle Bluffs, and guess who I ran into just as I was getting to
the bluffs, Dylan. We exchanged our day so far and wished each other
luck, he was also able to inform me that Sean was on his way up.
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| View from Eagle Bluffs |
I scrambled down the bluffs and I kept stubbing my toe and getting my
poles caught up; I was mumbling something like, why am I getting
everything caught up in the roots.
I heard a familiar
voice say, “because you're an idiot”
I reposed with,
“probably”
It was Sean, on his way to Cleveland Dam. We exchanged how our
day was going, which was slow for both of us. He though he was moving so slowly that I might catch
up to him on the return leg. Fat chance but would of been awesome to
pass him. Shortly after seeing him I was at the boulder field. I was almost at Nelson Creek but I knew it would take longer then I
wanted, I had to conserve my energy for the climb back up to Black.
When I finally got to
the parking lot the first thing on my mind was a change of socks and some food. I opened my pack and couple white
chocolate macadamia nut cookies popped out, I completely forgot I
packed these. After 8 hours on the move it's surprising what makes
you excited. I ate and relaxed for about 5 mins before heading back along the trail.
I slowly make my way
past Whyte Lake and start climbing up a steep hill, I see a group of
runners thundering down towards me. As I move over to the side to let them fly pass me, one of the runners was looking at me and slowing
down. It took me a few seconds to recognize who it was, it was Andy,
doing the reverse Knee Knacker, along with
Ultraveggie Marc and a
bunch of other people that I didn't either know or recognize. I was
seriously jealous of them, almost done and ready for beer o'clock. We
wished each other a good day and when our separate ways.
On the climb up back to
Black, I was starting to get worried about running out of water. I
had to keep checking to make sure there was water in my bladder, since both
water bottles were out by now. That climb took me a total of 4 hours
to get up to Black Mountain and I was seriously worried about making
to Skyline within the time I wanted to. By the time I was at the
Cypress Lodge, all I wanted to do was cry and not do Hollyburn. I filled up with some water at the lodge and finally provided an updated to friends and let Kyndra
know that I would call her once I get close to Cleveland Dam.
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| On my way down from Black Mountain |
Once I was on Hollyburn I was able to pick up the pace a bit, I power hiked most of the way down with some short sections of "running", using quotes because I don't think you can call what I did running. I made up a considerable amount of time but still not feeling too good. I called Kyndra and see if she could join me from Skyline and do whatever she could, kind of hoping she could do the full out and back with me. She took care of everything, I had a text within 10 mins saying Sean would be joining me from Skyline to wherever Kyndra joins me. That perked me up a bit.
By the time I got to Grouse, the gate was locked to the trail and I needed to go around the fence to get back on the trail, stupid Grouse. That wasn't a problem and it was also a good time to pull out the headlamp since it was dark once I got back under the trees. Lucky some of the markers are reflective so it was easy to follow the trail.
Just as I was arriving at Skyline drive heading down to the car, I see lights pulling up. I'm thinking it must be Sean, who else would be. He saved me a bit of time by bringing hot veggie broth, it was amazing. I grabbed what I needed for the out and back to Deep Cove and we were gone. After all the time I lost climbing Black I was just 30 mins behind schedule.
We chat chitted (yeah I flipped that, they're just words they don't control us**) along the way, mostly about this year's plans. One thing we did realize for both of us, if we weren't in the forest every weekend, we wouldn't have a clue about what we'd do with ourselves, probably fatter and lazier. My decision, is if I ever have a falling out with mother nature, is to become a hobo. Sometime during hte night, I learned that Kyndra would join me at Mt Seymour Road, but as we got closer to there, I kept having issues with wanting to throw up, especially while climbing. When just less then a km from Seymour Road, something finally came up, but only clear liquid.
We saw Kyndra and Greg waiting for us and they had coke and chips for me. I fueled up, and we were off now with a new pacer to get me home. By the time I made it to Deep Cove and did the out and back towards the gate at end of Panorama Dr and to the fire hydrant, I was ready to call it a day. At this point I believe I was only 45 mins behind schedule.
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| I'm actually trying to use the hydrant as a pillow |
I did the best I could with maintaining a pace but it wasn't going too well for me. We were at the 24hr mark about 100m from Mt Seymour Road and I was on the ground with sunlight starting to make an appearance. Kyndra got me my long sleeve shirt out of my bag and put it on hoping it will help warm me up. It didn't help a lot.
At this point it was so bad for me that Kyndra had to let Greg know not to go to bed, just in case I needed rescue. We slowly made it to the road and as soon as I saw the outhouse, my stomach said go to the outhouse NOW. I came out feeling a lot better but still weak, Kyndra was nice enough to get a bed ready for me on the park bench there. I rested for a bit and ate what I could.
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| Kyndra said I was alive but I am really? Hard to tell. |
We decided to see how I would hold up for bit before throwing in the towel. Surprisingly I wasn't feeling like throwing up as we approached Old Buck so we continued on. From going down Seymour Grind to Lillooet Rd, the time seemed to fly, well for me at least.
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| Somewhere between Hyannis & the suspension bridge |
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| Suspension bridge, everything was swaying back and forth by now |
By the time we made it to end of the line, I was just over the 27 hr mark with just over 6kms to cover. On my best day I would have trouble making that route in less than an hour but I felt 29 hours was still in site. Although my stomach had other ideas.
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| Someone is happy that we're almost done |
Every time I started to climb I felt like throwing up. It was awful but since I was so close there was no point to quit. By the time I was less then a km from my car, an entire team was assembled to pace me back: Sean, Nancy,
Phaedra, Greg and Dylan came out to see me to the end. It was an awesome feeling having so many people join me. All in all it was just an hour slower then last year but I did a much better job of pacing if it wasn't for my stomach issues for the last half I felt I would of been very close to my goal. I walked away without any pain or soreness the next day. Only thing would of been nice is to have taken Monday off to catch up on my sleep.
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| My friend to take me home |
Huge thanks for:
Craig, we
couldn't have had the same experience unless it was for our host and his idea for running the double. You can read more about the
creation of this beast here:
Kyndra
for everything she did, out of everything, keeping me alive is most appreciated. Greg for his driver services, sorry I screwed up your
sleep. Sean for giving up his Saturday night to get me to Mt Seymour
Road. Dylan for doing it the same day as me, it was nice to know
someone else was on the trail with me. Can't forget Nancy and
Phaedra along with everyone else who joined me at the end for the finish.
**by the way not my line from Dane Cook's comedy, referring to chat chitting.
