Taiwan and Hong Kong Photos

Here is the link to my trip photos. It will take me longer to put words down, but will try to do it over the weekend.

Return, Rest

I'm back from my trip to Taiwan and Hong Kong, and will be posting details of our Trailwalker 100k and a photo gallery in the next day or two. It was an incredible trip, with so many vivid memories floating through my brain right now it is hard to capture it all in my still-very-tired state.

After three exhausting races in the past four months, I'm enjoying a few solid days of rest and then will be starting to think about what races I want to do next year. Generally I'm looking forward to some snowshoe races this winter, and definitely a 50 miler (or possibly two) next year, along with some 50k's and who knows, maybe even the odd road race to try to work on some leg speed a bit. It's fun to think of the possibilities. Mostly I just want to get in some consistent training, build the volume, and resume the workouts where I left off two weeks ago.

From this on the MacLehose Trail, Hong Kong.....

.... to this my first day back to work.

Happy Thanksgiving to all our U.S. friends.

Half a World Away

GULP!!

I'm heading out for Taiwan and Hong Kong later today.

Our Trailwalker 100k (on Nov 18th) team number is 1000 (easy to remember), and there may be live tracking. See link from this page (part way down).

Deb cooked up this brilliant poem for me after I asked her about her success at sleeping on long flights.

Super tired I must be,
Before I can catch any zee's.
Movies till my eyes feel sandy,
Not tired yet?
How 'bout some brandy!


When you arrive at point B,
Do you want to be awake or sleepy?
With the local time
On your watch and brain
The trip should be sublime.

I'll try to post pictures and some words while I'm away, and will be back in Canada on the 21st. Looking forward to snowshoe running season after soaking in a big dose of heat while away.

Jones Creek - New Trails!

On Saturday we did a trail run at Jones Creek Trails, part of the St. Lawrence Islands National Park. The park is made up of 20 islands and various mainland parcels stretching from Kingston to Brockville along the St. Lawrence River. Jones Creek has a network of 16 km of singletrack trails that are extremely well-marked and maintained. The trails are very technical with rocks and roots, and with the fallen leaves it was a bit tedious in sections. It was fun exploring along winding creeks and ridges, all under an incredible variety of tree types. We're planning on returning in the winter as the trails would be perfect for snowshoeing.

We found these trails on the website Explore the Arch. You can find detailed maps of many local trail networks on the site, along with tons of useful information and inspiration for future outings.

Jones Creek access point off of the Thousand Islands Parkway at Mallorytown.

Another beautiful autumn day in Canadian Shield country.

Leaves everywhere! We'd like to move into that cabin.

A meandering creek seen from a ridge-top lookout.

This guy looks right at home here.

Very long bridge spanning marsh and creek.

Across the Parkway from Jones Creek Trails. The land on the far side is NY.

   

Another Fall at Frontenac

Snack Cakes Anyone?

Next up on the race calendar is the big trip, with a big race.

I am still recovering, and am getting a little frustrated because I'm mentally ready to train, but it is hard to train and recover at the same time. Hopefully by next week everything will be further along.

In the meantime, I'm starting to think more and more about TrailWalker, and looking forward to meeting the half of our team who I don't know. From emailing, I think we're all going to get along just great and have a lot of fun. (You know, in a painful, sleep-deprived, glycogen-depleted kind of way.)

Since it will be Deb's 40th birthday on race weekend, and she is our intrepid leader, our team name is fittingly Lil' Deb and the Snackcakes...with the rest of us being Deb's Snackcakes. Kristina came up with the following names for us:

Deb - Lil' Deb
Kim - Honey Buns
Kristina - Fancy Cakes
Me - Nutty Bar

Kim has set up a Facebook page for us, and the race site provides a donation page for our team, with all proceeds going to Oxfam. If anyone feels inclined to contribute to this great organization in our name, we would all greatly appreciate that. (Note, the funds go directly to Oxfam, they do not in any way fund our race/trip.)

Deb is working on getting shirts for us, with a logo that Kristina is developing. It will be fun to have a team shirt to inspire us.

All three of my teammates were in Hong Kong last weekend for a training trip to check out the hardest parts of the trail. It sounds like it is going to be a hot, humid race, so we'll have to load up on electrolytes, changes of clothing, and body glide.

As for me....I've been de-conditioning while I pamper sore feet and hips, rapidly acclimating to cooler weather, and I still haven't tried out the hiking poles. I better start getting my act together.

100 km Maclehose Trail, Hong Kong

Finally, there is a TrailWalker event in Canada now. It's on the Ganaraska Hiking Trail in Ontario, and will be in its second year in mid-July, 2012.

Near North

We spent last weekend up near Sudbury for Taylor and Kim's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and the natural setting suited the extremely outdoorsy and athletic couple perfectly. Everyone had a great time. The leaves have already turned up there, and we had the opportunity to carve out a couple of trail runs while we were in the area to enjoy the rugged beauty.

Here are a few pics of the running parts of the weekend, featuring Grundy and Mashkinonje Provincial Parks. The parks are in the category of Near North, and it sure felt a lot more north than we are (in a good way). Grundy had a couple of very pretty short loops that were perfect after a long day of driving to stretch out the legs and back. Mashkinonje is a new park, and the trails are still so untrodden in some places that the moss underfoot was inches thick. My shoes sunk in like it was snow. I felt kind of bad for stepping in it, but it was a treat to run in such a single-track heaven. Justin joined us for this run, and we all had a lot of fun. Neither park was very hilly like nearby Killarney Prov Park is, which I was happy about because I'm not quite recovered enough for that yet.

Beaver Dams Trail, Grundy PP

Swan Lake Loop, Grundy PP

Swan Lake looking very pretty

Mashkinonje Provincial Park Trails (Click for high res version)

Justin and Derrick cruise through the moss on Heron Trail, Mashkinonje PP

Bogalicious

Moss or snow?

Peeking out at the West Arm of Lake Nipissing

They aren't currently trail running, but I couldn't resist.