too lazy to come up with a title

Last weekend should of been called, redo weekend. I prepared all my gear and nutrition on Friday night, ready to tackle Saturday's run with a new group that I have not ran with yet. I was invited by Tamara who I met at North Shore Enduro.

Side note, not really necessary I just want to wine, I do mean wine not whine :)

I have always noticed that my runs suffer when I do not sleep well and Friday night was an awful sleep. So what happens when you can not sleep properly the night before, yes you are correct my son, you have trouble getting out of bed in the morning.

Saturday morning, I jumped out of bed, running really late, no time to do anything except grab my nutrition & liquids out of the fridge and leave, grabbing breakfast along the way. I looked at the time, it was going to be close. I rush all the way to Nelson Creek and even took the toll bridge. Stupid toll, but at least it saved me time and I was only like five minutes late.

I was fine for first thirty minutes or so, but slowly my feet started feeling like lead. When I finally caught up to the group, I had let them know not to wait, I was not doing good. They all sprinted away, while I slowly kept making some progress but I was just not enjoying myself. So what happens when you are miserable, you quit. I made it about five kilometers into the Knee Knacker course in a whopping hour-forty-ish.

Only good thing was, I did not have any issues on the downhill, it took a hour and a quarter to get back to the car. When I got back to the car I started looking for some solid food, realized I forgot it at home, in the fridge. That could of been a really bad day if I kept going. I went home took a shower and wallowed in my own pity party.

Later that evening Gareth asked if I wanted to join for the same route, I had to politely decline since I figured I would be suffering, I should just go on my own. I did the smart thing and went to bed early.

Guess what, going to bed early and getting an awesome night's sleep helps a lot. I decided I was going to go conquer Black mountain, I knew there would be three friends on the mountain and I knew what time there were starting. Unlucky for me, by the time finished breakfast and getting ready, I was cutting it close if I wanted to start before them.

I was parked and on the trail by half past seven. I knew this is when the prey was meeting at Cleveland Dam to drop off a car. I sent them a text, letting them know they were being hunted.

Although I did not actually lose any weight overnight, I felt light on my feet. I made decent progress on the up hill. Hiking most of it with only a few sections of what can only be described as a slow, no slower, jog. I made it to my quitting point from yesterday in less than a hour and a half so I feeling good about myself. I was thinking they should be catching up to me soon, and I kept looking over my shoulder.

Then it dawned on me, I would make the worst hunter ever, I told the prey that I am hunting them, I am ahead of them in my bright neon yellow Frosty shirt and bright green shorts. They are going to spot me from kilometers away. Then there are my noises that I like to make that I am sure that they would recognize.

But never mind the details, I was determined to scare them. I marched onwards to Eagle Bluffs. Here I made a quick pit stop for food and a couple pictures. I was up in the clouds so did not get a view but did see a sign I have never seen. A couple friends were eying my food but I told them sorry not for you.

Where I came from

A friend trying coming for my food

No time to waste, the prey were slowly closing the gap and I kept wondering where they were. I passed the Donut Bluff trail where I think I will need to check this out one of these days, maybe take up some donuts. I had to keep looking behind me to see if anyone would be catching up. There were a couple groups heading towards Eagle Bluffs, I hope they weren't expecting a view.

As I was getting close to Black, I was hearing a lot of people and there was a couple big groups. I was going to break here but too many people, although the view was nice.

Beautiful view of the Lions

The world just disappeared

There is Vancouver somewhere down there

From here is where things got interesting. I made my break spot, Cabin Lake. Here I stopped off, had a sandwich and rested for a few minutes. I was only there for a seconds and I hear two women coming from Black. I knew there were no group that was just two women that I passed so I kept listening and then I hear a guys voice. I can't make out what they are saying but it was definitely a guy with two gals heading towards me. It had to be Nancy, Kyndra and Gareth. I kept listening. It felt they were taking forever but I think voices can just travel out there. I was not sure how long it would take so I decided to keep moving but kept my eye and ears open. I covered maybe a hundred meters and I finally make out a voice, it was Kyndra. I decided to hid behind a bush, I could not risk them spotting me.

I felt like I was waiting forever and then I heard runners closing in on me. I can make out human bodies coming towards but could not tell how was leading. As soon as they get to the bush I jumped up and yelled, "JR CHICKEN!!" I think I gave them all a heart attack, but it was only mild compared to later. :)

I still was not sure if I would be going all the way to Cleveland Dam with them but I said I would follow all the way to the lodge. Nice short downhill and I was moving the fastest I was all day, I figured this should be a good way to finish the day. We made good time all the way to Hollyburn Mountain, well, they were making good time, I was dilly dallying far behind.

Running in Hollyburn, far ahead

Now comes my fun part, we hit the Hollyburn chute and I decided to see what it is like to fire a bear banger. I pulled out the pen, preloaded of course, and all I can say it happened so fast, I was laughing pretty hard and it was loud. All three of them stopped in their tracks, worried there was a bear, um I might not get invited again. Safe to say they were scared, within three hundred meters, we ran into a very large group of people with the guy asking, "Did someone hear a loud bang?"

Gareth chimed in with, "it was that guy"

Me, "yep that was me, have a good day, the bears will now stay away"

About a couple kilometers from Brothers Creek, everyone was stopped. I initially just though they were waiting for me but it turned out Nancy hand a bit of a wipe out.  She is okay just a little bruised, but we did tape up her finger, duck tape, the solution to everything.

Now for all my horsing around, mother nature decided to take her vengeance out on me. By the time I made it down to Brothers Creek and up the very steep other side, my body was done for. My feet have not been this sore for awhile. So while they waited I did my walk / slow jog / walk and then walk some more. I finally got to Cleveland Dam, headed back to Nelson Creek to grab our cars and to home we all went.

Home was nice, I showered, shaved (shhhh do not tell anyone, I want them to be surprised) and slept. Well I did barbecued up some chicken and feasted before going to bed. Well technically it was more like passing out on the couch. Lucky for me I did not sleep for too long since I had plans for the evening. I ended up at Chuchill's Cafe & Bar in North Van for Holly's birthday. It was the an awesome finish to an awesome day, minus the last four-ish kilometers of pain.

Note, there may be more mistakes then usual. I'm tired and going to bed, need sleep for this weekend's adventure, same brown channel, same brown time.

The boys are back... at Elkcoholic Mountain

It is a wonderful Saturday morning and I am feeling a little lazy since the alarm already went off, what feels like hours ago and I am still in bed. I hear knock, knock, knock come from my phone. I knew who it was and hoping that he was not already here. I look at time, only five twenty-seven, is he already here? I read the text, “want any beers” a sight of relief, I've still got time. I responded with, “maybe one” but seriously does he even need to ask, after all we were heading to Elkcoholic Mountain.

I jump out of bed, already thirty minutes behind schedule and furiously start getting ready. The weather was looking nice outside so I put on my bright green shorts and gray Frosty shirt should keep me cool and keep the sun from burning me. I was smart enough to pack up the essentials the night before but still have to get some food ready. So I put on an episode of How I Met Your Mother and started with my nutrition for the day. On today's menu, a couple of fruit pouches from the baby food section, quinoa energy balls and a BBQ chicken warp. (yes I failed again at being a vegetarian but for goodish reasons). As I put the warp aside to cool, I realize that I am running out of time and Dustin will be here soon, so I started getting things out for breakfast when the phone rings.

I answer, “are you here already?”

Dustin, “nope, I'm at A&W, want anything?”

Me, “shit, just about to make breakfast..ummm, fuck it, bacon & egger with a hashbrown. Thanks buddy”

A sign of relief that I have everything ready and don't need to worry about breakfast. Just as I finish cleaning up, I hear Dustin pulling up in the back. I run down to the garage to let him in.

Dustin, “can I borrow your flask?”

Me, “of course, what do you have?”

Dustin pulls out a bottle of Glenfiddich.

Head up to the kitchen to get the flask filled up and have our breakfast. As soon as I was done eating I decided to make a couple extra sandwiches for the day. Doubled check our bags to make sure we didn't miss anything and we piled into the car and hit the highway towards Chilliwack. The drive was uneventful as there were many police type people on the road pulling over speeders, of course I never speed so I had nothing to worry about.

By eight in the morning we were parking at the trail head, already there were 3 other cars there, wondering how many have spent the night up on Elk. The air outside was crisp as we start heading up, which did not last long. I was all warmed up within a couple minutes. Just ahead of us were a couple of guys who started maybe 5-10 minutes ahead of us, but in no time we closed the gap and passed them. I marched along to the service road while Dustin sprinted up the hill. I could hear him yelling down at me.

Dustin, “Jr where are you?”

Me, “I'm down here, you're up there”

At the service road there were several vehicles parked up there also. I guess there are more then I originally though. We continued along the way with little peeks towards the valley and every once in a while I hear something like, “come on jr, pick it up” Our usual time up to the mountain is between a hour and a hour-fifteen and today we were at the flag within a hour-ten. Chilliwack search and rescue was there; we did not bother to investigate what happening, since we were at the top of Elk and it was beer o'clock.

Looking towards the West

Chilliwack Search & Research, checking out the valley

We slowed our pace at this point as it was time to celebrate, thanks for the beers Bayly. (I found out on Sunday that although Dustin took credit for bringing the beers it was Bayly who bought them) And of course Dustin pulled out the scotch. We meandered along the trail talking about the old times and planning new adventures. Until we got to the false summit of Thurston, here we spent a bit of time fiddling with my camera and fueling up.

Looking South East, just after Elk Mountain

Climbing toward Thurston's false peak

Elk Mountain, far right peak just behind the trees

Mount Thurston on the left just above the white stuff

Looking down the steep slops of the ridge

After the false summit is where things started to get interesting. The snow began to get deeper, with a hard icy layer on top and a soft powder layer below. As you can imagine what that was like, every step was a mystery. Sometimes sinking ankle deep, sometime knee deep and the occasional falling in. We continued on until we arrived at a beautiful viewpoint where we flatted out the snow and sat down for some more fuel and to assess the situation. It was nice in the warm sun, with mountains as far as the eyes could see. As we were decided if we should continue, neither one of use really wanted to turn around and unless it was unsafe, we saw a decent route and marched forward. 

Snow field fun

Marking our own markers for the return route

Snowshoes would of been a good idea

Dustin far behind for once

We continued on at a slowish pace, there was not much to tell since we were just route finding in the snow between sections of the trail that were on the south side of the ridge. It took us a mind blowing two hours thirty minutes to cover just over three kilometers and make it to Mount Thurston. This is where Dustin decided for both of us that it's time to head back. To be honest, I was ready to head back also but did not want to let Dustin know that.

On the way back, we bad good time since we had tracks to follow and knew the deep sections, were made it back to Thurston's false peak which had more humans on that peak then I have ever seen. I usually see only one other human on this peak. But no time to chat, we were almost out of food and still very hungry. We kept up a decent pace between running and walking.

Our own trail markers

My surveying the situation pose

Somewhere in that snow field is our footprints

If you look carefully you can see our route

Almost back at Elk, time to pick up the pace

As soon as we got to the Elk mountain flag, we picked up the pace downhill. Dustin had the hard decision of waiting every little bit for me or run down to the car and wait a long time :)He choose the former. I had a tough time getting up to speed with a little bit of pain in my knees. I switched between walk and run, but by the time we hit the service I was getting a little little frustrated with my lack of speed. But I kept on smiling, even when we passed a couple going up asked, "How's it going?"

I responded with, "can't complain"

Dustin chimed in with, "don't listen to him, he's been complaining the whole way down."

Now I was starting to get mad, and in getting mad I thought of this image:

So I followed the advice of the internet got mad that I was tired and hit it harder, and to my surprise the knees were not giving me any issues any more. On the way down we ended up running into a group of friends from work that did Elk and there we a large group of ladies near the end which I greeted with, "Hello ladies" as Dustin and I raced to the race. First on to touch the car wins, guess who won, yep Dustin. In just over hour and a half we made it back to the car, our total time was just under 5 hours. We stopped off at White Spot for some much needed food and headed home to call it a day.

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Sunday morning the alarm goes off at five and I am thinking, can I stay in bed for a little longer? No not today, I hand an ambitious plan to to a lap or two of Diez Vistas. Funny thing about plans as you'll soon see.

Getting ready was easy, I had everything prepared the night before pizza and a veggie warp. Today I was going light, waist pack with two handhelds. Quickly had a liquid breakfast (leftovers from a failed attempt at using liquid meal replacements for trail running), made my fruit smoothie and hit the road.

I was at Buntzen Lake by eight and got a prime parking spot just in front of the trail. I started off slow with slow jog all the way to the south bridge before starting the climb up to the first vista. As I started to climb, I could feel I was dehydrated from yesterday's adventure and I was already struggling. I decided to just take the day as it goes. About forty-five minutes into my day, I hear voices above me. I decided it is time to pass this guys ahead of me. It took me awhile before I got a glimpse of one of them. I just put my head down and power hiked until I caught up to them just as they were about to stop and take a break.

One of the guys asked me, "where you here last weekend?"

I could not remember at the time if I was I responded with, "probably"

I wish them a good day and head over to the first look out point. It was just a quick stop before I continued on to the first Vista. There I stop to have my wrap and some water, but before I knew it; I finished all my food and was still hungry. So I made the smart decision to call that my breakfast spot and time to head back. It was a relaxing thirty minutes to myself up there. Then I suspected that people would be up here soon enough so I started to make my way down.

Sure enough within ten minutes, I came across a couple of runners. I took it leisurely all the way to the spot where I passed the guys and picked up the speed. I was able to maintain some solid speed all the way to the power lines. There is a trail marker there that says Buntzen lake, sixty minutes. I am thinking, there is no way it would take that long to get to the lake, so I timed myself. It was an easy eighteen minutes to the lake and twenty-three minutes to the car. That was the end of my day. I headed home to have some liquid refreshments.

My morning view

About an hour later

Breakfast spot, the first Vista (I think)