Silverking Loop

It's nice to be able to just run out the door and not have to venture off all the time.
After too many weeks of hills, I mish-mashed together as mellow of a 21km run as i could think of- the Silverking/Stanley trails, with a few hidden gems thrown in.
Although i do have some lofty goals for latter in the summer once the alpine clears out, it's nice to tapper the "Big Sunday" runs once and a while so I'm not hobbling Monday at work!
As usual, we had sun and rain (the hail waited for me to get home this time) all in the same day. One good thing with this weather is the incredible lushness and smells out on the trails. The above photo is a wonderful section of ferns- Liz thought she was back in the North shore of Van.

I love this mossy section of the trail approaching Cottonwood Lake.

Town to town this 21km loop only has 2,200' of gain/loss so makes for a great introductory trail run. It also helps those of us- such as myself who've succumed to smashing there toes on roots or rock and have to lay off those steep descents for a few weeks.

I thought getting away from Mt. Bike racing would alleviate those nasty falls, but i think i take more abuse trail running!

Fry Creek Trail Run

This past "Big Sunday's Run" as they are coming to be know, included four of us Nelson folk along with the ever keen Kaslo contingent for an incredible run of the Fry Creek Trail.

The run is an out and back- although can be done as a loop if you wanted to run down the Kootenay Joe road. We ran in the 12.5km rolling up trail to the back of the valley to a point where it starts it's major ascent to connect to the old 4wd track, then followed the the rolling down trail back to the car for a wonderfull 25km trail run.

Fry Creek Canyon looking across Kootenay Lake

The creek was ragging as the spring run-off was in full force. It actually provided a lovely natural air conditioning effect to make for a great run on a warn sunny day.

Bill Harbord ripping up the trails :)

Smiley Liz seams to be enjoying the meadow, the sun and the run

Lex and the dogs squeezing through the trail

It's hard to believe all the work that went into building the trail as it followed quite a tight canyon where the old time miners must have carved it right out of the rock.

We only crossed one big slide, that looks like brand new, along the trail. You really noticed the temperature difference here as you got a little away from the river.

Doesn't get much better trail running for me than this!

It actually surprised me that there was 3,300' of climbing as you never really had any sustained ascents, but it wasn't a fast running trail either. Maybe because you don't really want to wipe out if you can avoid it...Right Lex!...or maybe just enjoyed the incrediable beauty of where we live.

Not sure what the next organized run will be as Kokanee Glacier Park and 7summits are probably still 6 weeks out...I did run the Pilot Point trails in Crawford Bay last week and they are really worth the effort to get there- so good in fact I just might have to make another trip there soon as I didn't get the chance to explore all the loops...Hmmm next week? :)

Lex's Garmin information - http://connect.garmin.com/activity/90510646

Trail Races for 2011

Yes we have been a little slow out of the gate putting together a few trail running races this year- mainly because it is still snowing out there F#*K!!
We still plan on making two happen though- just later than we hoped for because of the trail conditions.

Our first race will be the 14km Svoboda trails, complete with a whole new single track section that should be completed in the next month. I was hoping for a June race, but looks like July.

The second race will be a "warm up" for those of you considering the 50km Kaslo Sufferfest- which I hope lots of you do, as it will be a fabulous course and a really fun event. The race will be in the Smallwood trails and will be an 11km or 22km loop. Again, the last section of this trail needs to be completed and is still currently under snow. The 22km loop (not sure of the exact distance until the trail is complete) will be a fabulous route- with only a few kilometres of logging road, some ridge top running with views of the Valhalla's and lots of cool forested trails I am really excited to run this course. Tentative date is the beginning of September- four weeks prior to the 50km Sufferfest race which makes it a perfect training run.

If you have any questions or are interested in the Fry Creek trail run June 5th you can e-mail @ randy@spearheadtimberworks.com

Kuskanax Trail Run- Nukusp, BC

After hobbling through the past week recovering from our 30km run through Kokanee Park bike trails (we ran Nutsack and Hitman loops), Lex and I decided to ease it up a bit with a beautiful trail run in Nakusp, BC. The trail is a great way for anyone to get into mountain running as it is an out and back for a total of 21km, or can be done as a 10.5km- one way. Either direction is fun, but is obviously a "rolling up" out of Nakusp and a "rolling down" from the Hot Spring road access.

I figure it could be a good excuse to get the family out too as they can drop you off at the beginning of the trail and continue on to the Hot Springs, while you run up to meet them...every one's happy then :)

There's 3,000' of climbing/descending on the 21km loop, but it really didn't feel that bad as they came in lots of little bursts.

We are trying to get out to other fun trails at least once a month to help us prepare for the 61km Earl Grey Pass Trail in August.

We are planning to run the Fry Creek Trail in a few weeks (June 5th or 12th), so if anyone is interested, let me know. It is an out and back, so you can run as far a s you feel like!....Randy

Randy's wednesday lunch run

Here's Randy's route through the lower Kokannee park trails.
http://connect.garmin.com/player/85019464

Updates are coming!

Springtime is here and Randy, Liz and I have been running the lower trails around Kokannee Park. Doesn't take long to hit the snowline. It looks like we will be putting a race on in the Smallwood Creek area not sure if we will have one or two races after that. Stay tuned for some epic training runs this summer in the Alpine so get off the couch and start training.

If you are coming to town and looking for some running companions or routes drop us a line.

Here's a shot of the cabin at Gibson Lake, scene of the awards at last years Kokannee Park run. Taken April 23/11

Thanks to our sponsors, Spearhead Timberworks, Snowpack Outdoor Experiences, Gerick Cycle and Sports and Whitewater Ski Hill. If you have a race that you want to publicize or want to be included on our e-mail list send us an E-mail. In a week or two some of us plan on running in the Smallwood Creek area so stay tuned for a date and time

Finally thanks to my partner in crime Randy Richmond............

Bill

Strong right to the finish!

Leonard left it all on the run course

Post race cool down with some Virginia's cooking

One of LV Rogers XC team

Congratulations to everyone who articipated in this yars Svoboda Trail Run. It was an awesome day with stellar perfomances from everyone.


Shawn DeGroot 1:03.40
Mathieu Page 1:05.04
Bowen Wang 1:05.50 Ran 8km’s
Mark Klan 1:10.41
Jamie 1:14.52
Guy Lupien 1:16.45
Lex Baas 1:16.55
Gregory Smith 1:18.14
Grant Nichol 1:22.30
Scott Spencer 1:22.36
Luca Sattler 1:24.14
Kiraya Spencer 1:25.58
Leonard Batubara 1:30.52 Fastest Indonesian finisher ever ( National record for this race)
Danica Long 1:32.48
Tyler Exner 1:33.31
Nico Boelter 1:35.39
Oskar Wuestinger 1:36.30
Kari Kroker 1:42.15
Nicholas Albright 1:42.15
BarryLipscombe 1:48.07
Young Jin Yu 2:06.48 Took the longgggggggggg way