Falling for Kilometers

The blogging activity has been low, but the physical activity has been high. Check it!

• Two Ultimate Frisbee Games : Run – 4 km
• Thanksgiving Week-end Hike at Rushing River: Hike – 4 km
• Run with Sista Shauna in Kenora: Run – 4 km
• Run with Hubs Jeremy in Winnipeg: Run – 4 km
• Cottage Week-end Hike of the Ski Trail: Hike – 3 km
• Bike Loop with Heather, Chris, and Jeremy: Bike – 13 km
• Suspension Bridge at Nuntimik & hike to Sturgeon Falls: Hike – 3 km
• First Ladies Ultimate Game: Run – 1 km

Monthly Total: 57 km

Jeremy at Seven Sisters Falls Dam. Sweet Water Power.

Suspension Bridge modeled after a bridge in New Zealand. Lake Nuntimik.

Very cool Sturgeon Falls that are also Rapids. A new happy place.

Sweet September

Walk: 17 km – Run: 8 km – Bike: 4 km – Hike: 9 km

Monthly Total: 38 km

Bonus Activity: Yoga, Ultimate Frisbee

I feel like I’m stepping into a confessional – and I’m not even Catholic.

Bless me Internet, for I have sinned. It has been 23 days since my last blog post.

I am being cheeky, but I have honestly missed updating my 8 Thousand baby. I have been tracking my kilometers behind the scenes and what lovely kilometers they have been! There have been walks through the park, fall ultimate frisbee games, hiking in the Whiteshell, and a tiny bit of biking.

Work has been exhausting, in a word. I officially start my new job after Thanksgiving, which is very exciting. However, there was a cold swimming around the office, which eventually caught me. I’ve been stressed trying to keep my account moving, while getting a coworker trained up to take it over. Then, I found out Friday I need to train a second person to take over a secondary account I previously owned. But, enough of the boo-hoos. Career and life has been sincerely exciting and fun! Not only that, but…

Jere and I celebrated our 1st Anniversary! We have been together for 10 years and have been happily married for one  year. How cool is that?! We celebrated with a long week-end at Otter Falls Resort. We had a view of a lake, a sauna, jacuzzi tub, fire place, Satellite TV, and a full kitchen to play with. It was all very dreamy.

This week-end, Jere and I are jetting out to Killarney to pick-up the Ranger. Big thanks to Scotty too Hotty – we’ll be a two vehicle family again! This is not to say that we don’t have fall biking planned.  I also have to figure out what I’m going to do for physical activity now that the weather is crapping out.

I hope everyone is well! Pictures to follow soon.

Trail Sherpa Interview

Since starting this blog, I have had the great privilege of meeting new people – of the “loving the great outdoors” variety. Tim Miner is one of these such people, who I was lucky enough to meet on Twitter. He is a master hiker in the Las Vegas area and has three main objectives: Leave a foot print (chronolgized his adventures for his little boy), Guide Fellow Hikers (take people off the beaten path), and Make New Friends (like yours truly!)

He approached me last week to do a Twitter Interview with him. It was a blast! He documented all on his website, Trail Sherpa. We covered all the topics including outdoor adventures, fitness, blogging, and inspiration. You can see the whole interview here. Very cool.

Check out Tim on Twitter (@trailsherpa) or his website (www.trailsherpa.com)! He is thee goods.

Fabulous Cottage Weekend

Hike: 9 km – Walk: 3 km – Run: 2 km

Monthly Total: 14 km

Our Ultimate friends, Peter and Heather, have a cottage at Seven Sisters Falls. They generously offered it to us this past week-end, as Peter had a climb/canoe trip in Northern Ontario planned (the legend himself) and Heather had to work (recently promoted).  Jeremy and I are but selfless people and felt it was our duty to “cottage sit” in their absence. Some might call us heros.

We arrived late Friday night and managed to get in without a hitch. It would be luxury living with running water, electricity and all that we are accustomed to. We settled in with an adult beverage and Iron Man on the big screen. I recommend this way to decompress to anyone.

We got up the next morning and Jeremy prepared us an excellent omelet breakfast to be enjoyed in the veranda.

Fueled up, we hopped on our bikes for a very hot ride down the Trans-Canada Trail towards Pinawa. The sun was shining and we had a great view of Natalie Lake for the first 4 kilometers. We entered the woods to find that the groomed portion of our adventure would end. Long grass and lots of water would be our nemesis. We attempted to ride and carry our bikes towards Pinawa, but the grass was relentless in our gears.

We back-tracked towards the highway instead. We met a friendly hiker who said it was “mostly dry”. We forged ahead, to find ourselves bush-whacking with our bikes through the trees to get around small ponds. I tore up my legs with sweet scratches and bruises. That’s cool, right? Jere had poison ivy from the previous week-end, so we ended up admitting defeat and doing a 180′ back to Seven Sisters Falls. When we got out of the woods, we dropped our bikes by the lake to clean the mud off our bottom halves.

(Author Note: Turns out Heather and Peter did do the whole trail. I want to grow-up to be just like them!)

We went back to the cottage to shower and play cards in shade. Dinner would prove to be a glorious BBQ salmon with asparagus and potatoes.  Again, we enjoyed it in the veranda.

That evening, we walked to the damn to see the sunset. Very pretty and serene with the sounds of rapid water.

Sunday, we decided to give the bikes a break and go for a hike instead. We did a 9 kilometer loop from Jessica Lake Lodge to Rainbow Falls. It did not get too remote, as we could hear activity on the highway and surrounding lakes. I attempted to obtain “Bold Points”, by cheerily greeting every human we came across. On our hike back, we took the highway and I threw up my arm in a huge wave to everyone who passed by. People were into it and happily returned my greetings. One guy even beat me to the punch! (Who doesn’t want to say “hi” to the smily couple?)

That night we had veggie burgers and enjoyed the night air. We played cards again and I’m pretty sure I came out on top. It’s a safe assumption.

Very fantastic week-end, filled with outdoor adventure, relaxation and amazing eats. Cottage TLC.

Minaki Hiking Adventure

Bike: 14 km – Hike: 5 km

Monthly Total: 130 km

Hiking was on the agenda for Saturday and Minaki was just the ticket. Eileen, Jeremy and I hit a 5 km loop, including the Purple Martin Trail and Ridge Run.

It was a super warm day with a little bit of cloud coverage. The trail started off with rock and tree, which had Jere and I daydreaming about biking the trail instead of hiking. This dream abuptly ended as soon as we lost elevation. Lots of water, lot of bugs, lots of drippy beads of sweat. Less magical, I must say. There were boards and logs layed out in both helpful and useless places. Booters for all!

We got hit with a light sun shower, which was refreshing. After a while, we began to climb again that turned back into rock and tree – my fave. We got onto the Ridge Run, which connected to the Minaki air strip. We were up high and had a groovy view of the horizon. There was rain and lightening in the far distance

with some low thunder cracks. A little unnerving, since we still had a ways to go. However, the storm stayed away and we treked on.

We got back to the car, swampy, stinky and sticky, but very satisfied. Our drive back to Kenora was highly entertaining with a huge light show put on by the circling t-storm. Apparently, it ripped Kenora apart! We were greeted with a fallen tree in Eileen’s yard. If we hadn’t already ventured out, we would have deemed it too miserable to go. Just goes to show…

We had a freakishly delish Atlantic salmon on the barbie, along with asparagus and potato salad. We enjoyed the eve with some vino, cards and good laughs in the screened in porch. It rained some more, which provided lovely background music.

All and all, I give the day more magical points, then icky points.

Ketchup from the Week-end

Bike: 16 km – Hike: 9.5 km – Run: 2 km – Walk: 1 km

Monthly Total: 265.5 km

Bonus Activity: Boot Camp, Camping, Climbing X-Large Hills to “Water” Washrooms

We had a fabulous week-end camping and Rushing River did not disappoint.

It all started on Friday where I rode my bike to my final session of MissFit boot camp. It was assessment day, to determine how much we had improved from the beginning. My best (and favorite) improvement was my run time. Four weeks ago, I ran the loop in 12:36 minutes. Friday, I ran it in 11:33. Some nice improvement, if I don’t say so myself!

We completed the assessment, did our last high fives for the session, and I hopped on my bike to ride home. (Fun Fact: I rode my bike to each and every boot camp workout – rain, shine or snow. Proud!) I had a quick shower, made myself presentable, and jumped on bike again. It was the official “Bike To Work Day” in Winnipeg and I was representing with the free t-shirt. Very warm day for biking, but I managed to clean myself up for a second time that day.

Friday evening, Mark, Alison, Jeremy and I headed for Rushing River. We got in late, set-up shop, and enjoyed a couple of bevies by the fire. Saturday, Jeremy treated us to a lovely fireside pancake breakfast. We then hit the trails. First we hiked the Beaver Pond Trail (1.5 km loop) which lead to the Granite Knoll Trail (5 km

loop). It is rated as “moderate” difficulty and was lovely.  It bordered Dogtooth Lake with a varied terrain of rock, hills, grass, and trees. We took a small break to enjoy some homemade power bars, compliments of Eileen. That hit the spot!

On Sunday, we hiked the Lower Rapids Trail (2 km loop). It flows around the Rushing River rapids, which gave us a great view of the water action. It had rained the night before, so there were many near slippages along the away. Mud bath anyone?

It was a great week-end that felt like we actually got away. There is nothing like nature to reset the soul. Here’s a picture from Sunday morning – sans shower and shave since Friday. Brilliant!

The Epic Hike: Hunt Lake Trail

Hike: 15 km – Bike: 4 km

Monthly Total: 133 km

We had the most fantastic, epic hike of our lives this week-end… thus far, anyway. Our hardcore buddy Peter invited a number of us to join him on the Hunt Lake Trail – only 4 of us were brave enough to accept his invitation. Peter, Christa, Chris, Jeremy and I all piled into the Alero Saturday morning and drove 1 hour to West Hawk Lake.  Peter’s girlfirend, Heather (also the captain of our ultimate team) would have joined us, however she was on call this week-end and playing Spongie finals at an godly hour. While Peter advised us to “wear good shoes” and said he was bringing a “polish sausage and lighter for lunch” – Heather also added such advise as “bring water, a snack, toilet paper, a light jacket, and dry clothes for the ride home”. She is such a dear!

We headed off, armed with Peter and his chainsaw, into the Whiteshell wilderness. Peter started off at a good pace, and we were thankful he was weighted down with some extra poundage. After 1 km, we veered off the beaten path away from the water. Our hike included everything – balancing on fallen trees to cross marshy wooded areas, trecking across beaver damns, and shimming along logs over running water. It was so challenging that it was distracting us from the fatigue – my kind of activity! Peter cutdown some fallen trees to clean up the trail, while Jeremy hucked the debris aside. (He was the only intelligent one to bring gloves. He loves trail maintenance!)

We looped around and reached the end of the Hunt Lake Trail with a lovely cabin, where we built a fire and cooked veggie dogs. We removed our hiking boots and dipped our feet in the cool, clear water. The Best! Here is a picture Chris took on my Iphone of Jere and I laying on the rock.

We bandaged up our feet, put our packs back on, and headed down the “established” trail. It was gorgeous! It had a fabulous view of water most of the way, and included lots of rock climbing and descending. It wasn’t the type of rock climbing that Peter is accustomed to – with harnesses and such – but there were rocks and there was vertical assent. There was an awesome breeze coming off the water, which was kept us going.

I had no idea such a trail existed so close to home and am so thankful to Peter for introducing it to us. We truly believe our 5 km training and bicycle commute helped us tremendously in this adventure. The 8 thousand kilometer challenge is starting to prove its worth already!