I didn't want to do the Four Cities run, too much road, that's what I thought when I first saw the event on Club Fat Ass. But sometimes just because you don't want to do sometime at first, doesn't mean that you should do it because later you might be glad that you did it. That's how I felt about this event. And really the first 55k-ish doesn't really have too much road and takes you to some wonderful trails and neighborhoods that I would not have ever discovered. I didn't end up doing the exact route but was majority on the planned route.
The day started with hopping a ride on the first Skytrain out of Surrey to make it to Science World by 7. I think I might of been the last person to show up, with my 20lb bag of supplies for the day, just the basics like: Jelly-bellys, sweet & sour chicken, a few energy bars and oh yes a little flask of Baileys.
The group started out of Science World, the route snakes along the water's edge all the way to Stanley Park. From there a couple trails to take me to the Lions Gate bridge. I've crossed that bridge once on a bike but it's way better on foot and actually scarier then the bike. I also got to see not one but two Jaguar E-types, plus another old classic on the bridge at once. What are the odds?
Once over Park Royal, there was a deer just wondering the streets but I wasn't on the road for long before I got on to a trail along the water that was going to take me over to the Capilano River.
From here things just when slowly all the way up to Cleveland Dam where I came in with Tannis, who I've been playing leap frog with so far. From here it was a short trek up to Grouse Mountain, took the BCMC up and bagged Grouse in the process. A few pictures and back down to got to see more deer.
Down Mountain Hwy, I was figuring out how much longer I should continue. I was feeling great and I was planning on doing Van100 next weekend so I figured I should quit while I was ahead. I decided to make it down to the Ironworkers bridge and catch a ride home. But even at this point, it was going to be awhile. So naturally I stopped off at the picnic bench along the service road, I had some sweet & sour chicken while some misquotes had some spicy brown dude.
I made like hay and bailed, made way way down through Lynn Valley, looking at the time, I aimed to make Distance Runwear before closing for the wonderful aid station that was set up. A push for the last 3-4k was worth it to get me there with minutes to spare. I had some coke and thanked Dave for keeping the store open and made my way to the liquor store down the road, where my extraction team pulled me out. GPS gave me 49k with 1400m of elevation gain, not bad for an outing.
Michel, thanks for putting together this wonderful route, I will definitely have to add the Burnaby Mountain section next year.
