Iroquoia Section of Bruce Trail

 So... my run partner and I have entered a race in Nova Scotia in August-Capes 100. It's 100 miles and we have 36 hours to complete it.  To train, we decided to do the Iroquois section of the Bruce Trail, it's the next one up from the Niagara section near where we live and is 120km long.  To prepare, we split the 120km into approx 30km sections and are completing one a week to familiarize ourselves with it since we've not run most of it. 

Week 1- Edge of Toronto Section to Blind Line and Britannia

Husband had his first day of work and needed to go to Toronto to pickup his laptop so he dropped us off at the north end of the Iroquoia section under a freeway overpass and headed on.  I, Run Partner and 3 other run club members headed off to complete 26km.  There was some road sections (1-2km at a time) and lots of great forest. It was shaded in the woods and had more pine than we have down at our end of the trail.  We had bridge crossings and used a lot of our water supplies because it was pretty warm and were glad one of the runners had brought us all Gatorade to keep in the car, Husband picked us up at the end, getting to the end about 30 minutes before we did. 

Week 2 was pretty tough-it was even hotter. Run Partner and I left her car at Sydenham lookout and got a ride with someone from the local run group to where we'd left off, at Blind Line. We ran 20km of roads (2-4k stretches), open farmer fields and were a bit disappointed after such a nice run the week before.  It really lifted our spirits to meet up with 3 friends to refill water, etc. and run the last 15km with them which was hotter but more enjoyable with more forest and shade.  Our friends all ran out of water and I got down to about a cup left which 2 of them shared while we waited for Run Partner and another friend who were 10 minutes behind us. 

After such a rough run we strategized. We decided we needed to try some things for Week 3.  That ended up being trekking poles, a new, bigger backpack for Run Partner and a way to make drinkable water from the little streams we were finding along the way.

Week 3 was just Run Partner and I.  They all said they had other things to do-mostly work, but I suspect we'd scared everyone off by now.

Week 3 was shady, forested with a little paved bike path and rail trail thrown in.  It was noisier-we were getting back into civilization and the section started off a little unhappily with an unexpected 1.4 km detour off trail and through side streets. Run Partner has hybrid shoes made for both road and trail that have more cushion than my strictly trail shoes, so she runs much faster than me on the road sections, then I catch up in the trail sections.  

Most of the section is in Hamilton, ON.  We discovered, many Hamilton residents like to use these huge metal staircases between trails as exercise.

One section of the trail was COVERED with these teeny tiny frogs!!

Sherman Falls

Run Partner makes it back to car

Week 4 everyone was energized over the holiday weekend and we ended up with 3 women 3 men. We all met up at the Grimsby Pool and took a van to where we left off.

The run started with pouring rain and being off course. We'd run about 1.5 km when we realized we'd seen no blazes (markers) for the trail.  After circling back and finding the trail, I analyzed the maps on the way home.  In week 3, we'd left a paved biking rail trail to join the Bruce for a pretty rough section (overgrown, moving rocks, etc.) when we got back to the trail we were so glad to be done and didn't really understand why we'd gone off the perfectly good rail trail and were almost back to the car, so we took the path of least resistance and finished. What we didn't realize was our little side trail excursion actually crossed the rail trail and took us to the other side of it. Rather than climb the huge bank of stairs at the start we should have rejoined the trail about 3/4 of the way up. Well, that's why we are doing these shorter sections.

After the rain slowed down, we had some forest to cover us from the onslaught, but then a breeze would catch and the leaves would drop all their water on us or we'd run through some undergrowth so basically we were drenched the entire 5 1/2 hours/30km this took us to run.

That being said, this was probably the nicest run despite being really wet.  We had great weather-low 70s and we were drenched.  There was only one long stretch of road near the end, there were very long stretches without crossing roads and a lot of it was across the middle of the escarpment and relatively flat, esp compared to earlier weeks.

Excepting this hill which took us up to the top of the escarpment. Once we were at the top, there was only one more down and up. Pretty good for 30km of trail.

We did not go in this creepy tunnel- it was at Devils' punchbowl which was actually quite dry.

My favorite part was Felker's Falls Conservation area

We made it to the end of the section, everyone accounted for.

Then all "bathed" in the splash pad at the pool which was too chilly for the day camp kids on the playground there.

We are planning to do the entire section in the next 2 weeks. There are a few planning details to work out, but no races between now and then.

Limberlost camping and race

 So, for the first time in 10 years I went camping this weekend.  Those of you who know me know that I refer to camping as "paying to be homeless."  The temperature was amazing, I went with people who know stuff and own camping stuff. Really the only downside was the bugs.  The tail end of horse or blackflies or whatever the painful biting flies were and the 5 gazillion mosquitos, mostly sunset to sunrise.  Since I'm an early to bed, early to rise type during the summer running months, I was mostly saved from the mosquitos taking all my blood. Which is good because I swell like crazy.

Limberlost Forest is a lovely private forest with miles and miles of trails open to the public for free 9am-5pm daily and open to camping.  When I signed up for this race in 2019, Running Partner had already done it previously and couldn't stop raving about how beautiful the course was.  When I signed up, she told me to (as is often how I get myself into these situations).  I was on the phone with her and explained, "but there's several distances-7km, 14km, 28, 42 and 56."  "the 28km" she says.  I signed up so long ago for this race I was still running in miles and didn't fully understand just how far 28km was.  When I told the running group they all said, "are you crazy? We are all running 14!" anyway... in 2019, someone had booked a lodge or Air BNB or something and was going to charge us $50 a night for an actual bed, so I figured it sounded fine.

Fast forward to this year and the lodge is not available. I figured I'd figure something out.  Then one of the other runners said, "you haven't booked anything? You better add the camping. It's only a few weeks out and you realize you can't find anywhere to stay that weekend-it's Canada Day weekend. And you can't beat the $12 a night price."  So I remembered I had a tent, sleeping bag and added the camping. I bought a sleeping pad off Amazon.  3 women (including myself) and 3 men from the group went.  The men had all camped before and had all the things. They planned meals and we all offered to bring various items and foods.  Running Partner had camped and loved camping but hadn't recently and the other woman had never camped.  

We drive the 3-4 hours north and are told to park and camp in a field in between two lakes.  We set up tents (including the club's huge shade tent) and set up 2 tables and all the cooking supplies and bring out the coolers.  The men did most of the cooking all weekend. Our new camper was amazed at what was happening. We were sleeping outdoors! We were cooking food!  In a field!  She was in awe of it all.

The race itself was a really beautiful course of 14km.  I figured it was going well when after my first loop a) I was about 30 minutes ahead of what I thought I'd be at timewise and b) I couldn't wait to run it again instead of dreading it.  I was really happy with my time, though I ended up having horrible leg cramps that started at my toes and moved their way up my legs gradually for the last 7km (so 1/4) of the race.  I actually ended up checking in with the medical tent afterwards.  We determined my electrolytes were good (it's all I'd drunk and I took about 7-12 ounces every 4-5k at every aid station-also, my stomach wasn't upset-my classic symptom) so he told me to keep moving for awhile and eat the lunch provided.  3 days later and about 50km of running later, there's a little twinge, but my legs seem to have recovered from whatever went on-there's some soreness, but no more pain or cramping.