Columbia River Trail

Definitely one of the best early season trails in the Kootenay's, especially if you are trying to pack those Km's in and not put the legs through too much trauma, you have to get out and Run the Columbia River Trail from Castlegar to Trail on the east side of the river. You have the option of a one way 22km run or an out and back as far as 44km. If you start from the Trail end you get off the dirt track/road faster onto the single track- maybe 3km. From the Castlegar side it is maybe 4km. But those sections are just as nice and add to the overall experience of the day. After all it's only March and you don't have to run on any paved road or snow.
Since I needed a good amount of Km's I parked near the Castlegar airport and ran the 8.5kms to the trail head, which I would have hated, but hey I was elated to be out there for the first longer run of the season. I was surprised to see so much snow on the side of the road....Hmmmm....
3km into the trail or 12 into the run I hit -well- a lot of snow...I grunted through for about 4km until it finally opened up into beautiful dry single track for pretty much the remainder of the run.
I finished the 33km run meeting my family at the pool in Trail.
I think with the weather this week, even those snowy sections will be either gone or no big deal by the weekend.

If I was lucky I got this 6" strip, but mostly not for 5km

 

The trail just opened up- yes I was very happy!

 

Pilot Bay

There is not much more than I can say than some of the trails at Pilot Pay are in absolutely perfect running condition. Not that I have suffered through the winter like Carolyn and others who put in mammoth 5 hour runs on mind hurting roads or what ever they can find, but it was so much fun to be back on real running terrain. The upper part of the headland trails are not free of snow yet, but the whole shoreline trail out to the Tipi Camp and sections of all the climbs are good to go. We ran from the ferry out to the trail head, along the shoreline trail to the Tipi Camp, climbing up the trail from the Tipi Camp for maybe another km then the same way back to the ferry. It works out for a perfect 23km 3 hour easy run and times the ferry departure back to Balfour perfectly.

I'm probably going to run out there once a week for the next few weeks leaving on the 6:30am ferry which would put you back in Nelson by 11:30am so if anyone wants to go, let me know. you can run whatever distance you like at whatever speed as its an out and back...

March 16th a group of us will be running the Columbia Trail from Castlegar to Trail, so if you are interested in this or have any questions, let me know...It is one of the best early season trails around and hard to believe most people have never even been there...It's really easy on the legs and follows the river with beautiful views.