Wildhorse Pass

We had an awesome run over the Wildhorse Pass to Ymir today. Carolyn Donnelly and myself left Mt. Station early this morning and ran the Stanley Loop out to the Nordic trails. It was a torrential downpour for the first hour, but as you can see from the photo below, the skies opened up so we were blessed with warm sunshine as we ran through the nordic trails. We were greeted by a momma Griz- standing up tall on two legs to have a better look at what was making all the noise as we approached it from 100 metres away. It happily scampered away with it's two cute cubs following behind.
We then met up with David, Sara and Kelly at the Clearwater trail head to start the climb over Wildhorse pass.
Everyone ran great as we topped out to begin our descent into the Wildhorse Valley and down into Ymir. We only had a little snow to deal with, but I warned everyone not to worry about dry feet, as we crossed numerous creeks.
It rained on us hard at times for the descent, but we were all having so much fun, I don't think anyone noticed.
From Nelson it was approx 38km and took just over 4 hours at a fun pace. From the nordic centre group it was approx 25km and around 2hrs50min.
I think it was Kelly's first 25km run and she was a star, easily staying with the group. So don't be afraid to join us for the next group run, probably in 3-4 weeks...I'll keep you posted.

                       Carolyn coming through the nordic trail just before we saw the grizzly

,

                                                            At the top of the Pass

                                                    Awe- nothing like a little adventure

                                                           Dry and happy in Ymir

The Vein Is Good To Go

I truly love this time of the year for running. The temperature is a perfect 12-16 degrees in the morning, everything is so intensely lush and you can be out on the trails as early as 5am- just you, your buddies, the dogs and whatever wild life you happen across. And raining out- who cares- makes trail running that much more fun. I just love falling asleep as it gets dark at 9:30 knowing I'll be up in 7 hours getting ready for a midweek run.
We headed out at 6am from Mt. Station where we climbed up "Honey Badger Don't Give no Shit" (I think the trail is actually called Badger?) but anything with Badger in it makes me think of the Honey Badger...See this link why http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r7wHMg5Yjg  
Up Shasta, then up to the Vein (still a little blow down) and then the 2,400' leg busting descent to the Rail Grade and back to Mt. Station.
Took us 1:55 to do the loop, a little hard paced, but it's kind of what we were looking to do.

                                                 Is Chris Rowat really now a trail runner?...Ran like one!

                                                           Lex, Chris and the dogs on the main descent

Wild Horse Pass Run

Next weekend we are going to run the Wildhorse Pass from Nelson to Ymir. If you want to run from Mt. Station in Nelson it is approx 37km or you can start at the bottom of the Clearwater nordic trail which cuts it down to 25km. From Nelson we will hit the Stanley Loop/Cottonwood trail out to the nordic trails. Then cross the Hwy and up the forestry roads for the long climb to Wildhorse Pass. The descent from the pass down into the Wildhorse Valley is all single/double track with a few creek crossings, which might be waist high, so you will get wet! Once you hit the Wildhorse Valley it is a gravel road down into Ymir. We usually hook up with a driver or two at the Ymir Pub for Lunch and well deserved beers. We can usually arrange to have the driver bring your dry clothes too. I am not sure until Tues/Wed if we will run on the Saturday or Sunday. If you are interested- drop me an e-mail...  randy@spearhead.ca

Sun Mountain 50km

                                                       Feeling pretty fresh at the finish

                                              Some fun Hillbilly tunes at the finish party

Wow what a fun race the Sun Mountain 50km was. It is near the town of Winthrop Washington about a 4 1/2 hr drive from Nelson. The race is a part of the Rain Shadow Running Series which has many awesome events all over the state. Carolyn and I headed down to meet up with her sister and my buddy from the coast and get a good run in as it is time to up the mileage a little. The weather was absolutely perfect- 18 degrees and a slight overcast. The trails were fast and flowing for the first 7-8km until the first of 3 climbs came at you. At the 12km mark I felt like I had run a long time and was thinking the next 38km were going to hurt. Shortly after I hit the first aid station and left it feeling like I hadn't even started running yet!...Running is a weird thing. All I know is, that you will inevitably go through many ups and downs, so just persevere during the lows and almost always you'll get to love life during the highs. At 40km the last and biggest climb of the day begun. Although I still felt great, I was careful not to blow up so close to the finish. I got up to the lookout feeling great and started the long descent to the valley bottom. The wild flowers were out in full force, I was picking runners off quickly, the finish line was coming up fast and I was feeling awesome...when i got to the bottom of the descent at 48km I think  I gave it a little too much as the last 2km uphill to the finish definitely hurt. Even though my goal of finishing strong wasn't exactly accomplished, I really had a great race finishing in 5hrs16 in 18th/100. Carolyn came in not too long after in 5hrs40 in 39th/100, but she looked as though she could have kept going. I would definitely recommend this race as the beautiful location, challenging, but not too challenging terrain and the time of year makes it worth the effort...

Well the snow is melting fast higher up and the alpine running is only a month or so away. We've been tossing out the Wildhorse Pass route from Nelson to Ymir as our next fun run, so if anyone is interested, let me know.

Pilot Bay 22 km results

Joly	Scott	1:57:00	22Km	1
Baetzel	Juergen	1:57:10	22Km	2
Kalabis	Sacha	2:07:30	22Km	3
Francis	Jon	2:09:50	22Km	4
Moore	Gerry	2:10:30	22Km	5
LeBlanc	Lisa	2:11:20	22Km	6
Smith	Greg	2:14:20	22Km	7
Baas	Lex	2:23:30	22Km	8
Donnelly	Carolyn	2:23:31	22Km	9
Weigeldt	Francine	3:33:00	22Km	10
Reusz	Aladar	3:33:01	22Km	11

Pilot Bay 12 km results

Paetkau	David	1:18:45	12km	1
Sander	Tim	1:19:00	12km	2
Moscalenko	Henry	1:22:44	12km	3
Uhrynuk	Denise	1:23:30	12km	4
Hausleitner	Doris	1:24:20	12km	5
Daczewitz	Kelly	1:35:40	12km	6
Khosla	Rahul	1:36:10	12km	7
Shippey	Wesley	1:36:50	12km	8
Ward	Peter	1:37:05	12km	9
Edwards	Liz	1:39:00	12km	10
Bouchard	Yogita	1:39:35	12km	11
Miles	Natasha	1:40:00	12km	12
Stamm	Doug	1:40:15	12km	13
Best	Sharon	1:45:10	12km	14
Dobell	Sarah	1:45:55	12km	15
Winters	Jill	1:46:00	12km	16
Baker	Robin	1:50:55	12km	17
Wolferburg	Sarah	1:50:58	12km	18
Williams	Scott	1:53:55	12km	19
Crooks	Catheline	1:55:19	12km	20
Weigeldt	Mark	1:55:20	12km	21
Hauck	Travis	1:58:20	12km	22
Ridge	Tobi	1:58:25	12km	23
Uhrich	Maureen	1:58:30	12km	24
Maytom	Barbara	2:02:15	12km	25
Bibby-Fox	Kathryn	2:02:16	12km	26
Baker	Sandy	2:06:20	12km	27
Baker	Kristian	2:06:25	12km	28
Goodwin	Kim	2:06:40	12km	29
Abraham	Marianne	2:10:00	12km	30
Jones	Gail	2:17:00	12km	31
McGillivray	Martien	2:17:10	12km	32
Brinkman	Irene	2:17:50	12km	33
Anderson	Fiona	2:17:55	12km	34
Makortoff	Willow	2:28:02	12km	35
Messinger	Laura	2:31:30	12km	36
Rykman	Kelly	2:31:30	12km	37
Danyluk	Carole	6:15:00 *	12km	38

Pilot Bay Trail Race Wrap up

 Thank you to everyone who came out for the Pilot Bay Trail Race. It was an amazing day as we had some warm sunshine, great trails and lots of big smiles. I really didn't know that the 10km route was  more like 12km until I ran and flagged it the day before the race- Really :)...
I'm glad you all rose to the occasion and challenge as everyone completed both the 12km and 22km  race routes- with big smiles too!
A big thanks to Sandra and Taz from the Tipi Camp who put in a lot of time to help make this race possible and to Liz and Janis who saved me from doing the registration.
The Tipi Camp is considering using this spring race as an annual, so let me know your feed back- both good and bad.
The best surprise was 33 out of 50 runners were female!!! It's great to see the girls out on the trail and rockin' it too!
We'll have a early fall race in Nelson to help those get ready for the awesome Kaslo Sufferfest the end of September as well as some organized fun run days this summer, so check back on this site in the "Up Coming Event" section.
I'll have the results posted Wednesday.

Scott Joly- Winner of the 22km race

Post Race burgers and drinks

Marianne with her faithful companion