Tuesday, May 25, 2010

From the WET coast to the DRY interior (Jug Island to Stein Valley)






JUG ISLAND WITH FRIENDS 
As my favorite running partner (my husband) is out of commission due to his foot, I am left to get my long runs in with some great running friends.

THE ROUTE
This was a solid 3.5 hr run starting at Buntzen, over the hill to Sasamat, then over another hill to Woodhaven lake (swamp), down a beautiful trail by the name of 'springboard' to Belcarra. I suggested we run a couple of blocks to the start of Jug Island trail cuz it is well worth the 3k run down. 
                                                                                                                  Lovely forested path

It was beautiful!! Probably not too smart as I was still hacking with bronchitis, and struggling to keep midpack- but worth it.  We took the road back to Sasamat as it was only planned to be a 3 hr run. My footpod told me it was a solid 19 miles. Nice.  



Stretching on the beach

MEANWHILE, BACK AT HOME

Jim was busy doing his own endurance event called home renovations. 12 hrs of drywalling- yuk!
Poor Jim.

DRIVING TO DRY LAND
SKIHIST
For Victoria day long weekend we were dying to get away from the Vancouver rains.  Not wanting to battle traffic to the Okanogan, we chose to hit another 'desert belt' farther north- Lytton! 20 deg C or more and sunny!! Great campground called Skihist to hang out at .  You are perched way up top and can watch the trains go by. Quite enjoyable.
What was very cool was there was an explosion of spring flowers and flowering cactus's in the area.  There was a 5 mile loop to hike, but of course that wasn't enough.... so we looked for more.
THE STEIN VALLEY DELIVERS!!!

After a freaky tiny ferry ride over the raging Thompson river, we drive about 4.4kms up a road to the park entrance.  We instantly fall in LOVE with this place

1. The trail is relatively flat ( and runnable! )
2. there is ALWAYS a fresh water source as the trail is alongside the river!
3. There are many beautiful campsites along the river!
4. The trail goes a good 70 kms ! and shoots you out Pemberton way.
As we had our 13 yr old and dog, we only did 10 km out and back.


Jim and Timber along rockslide


My 13 yr old I renamed 'Princess Rawhide" for toughing it out. She was tough as nails... but she never broke one!


I CAN'T WAIT TO GO BACK AND EITHER DO A 50 K OUT AND BACK OR, A 'FAST PACK' WITH AN OVERNIGHTER....Now if I could just convince some of my friends!!

Well, back to Renos, back to Reality...
Till the Next adventure!

Heather




1 comment:

EricG said...

Looks like some amazing places to hike and run. If Jim's foot is still bothering him when he is finished with that project we have some work to do around here too:) Feel better soon Jim. Peace E