Sunday, 26 April 2009

Instead of a run, some of us went to Mt. Gardner on Bowen Island for a 17km hike. We had an amazing day for it and lots of great company! It was organized by a friend of mine, Mark, who runs Sea to Sky Expeditions - wilderness adventure tours.

This is the view from the top of Mt. Gardner, looking down at Snug Cove on Bowen and across to West Van and the North Shore mountains.

Yes, there really was snow! We hiked through quite a bit on the way down. This is Kelly, Joanne, and Trish.

Sunday, 19 April 2009 - Sun Run

Route: Most of us know the Sun Run route, so I won't describe it. However, not as many know about the pre-Sun Run route. That starts at Eileen Dailly, heads west along Pandora, through the PNE and onto Dundas. From Dundas to Wall St, up Clarke to Hastings and then to Howe and Georgia where the group meets. While on Hastings, be sure to say Hi to all the guys who wish you good luck in the race.

Distance: somewhere between 8.7-8.9km.

Weather: Great for a Sun Run day! No rain! 9-11C

Sunday, 12 April 2009 - Happy Easter!

Route: We ran from Eileen Dailly to the new trail under the sky train. We connected with it at Home Depot on Gilmore. We followed this east to Clark where we ran up to 6th Ave to Main and then along False Creek to the Cambie Bridge. We crossed the bridge and headed back along our usual route until Raymur. We zig-zagged north to Wall St and ran back to the centre. The big yellow blob at the end of our route is us doing a couple laps around the track to try to get a bit more distance in.
Distance: 24km

Weather: RAIN. RAIN. RAIN. RAIN. RAIN. 8C

Thanks to Jacquie who braved the rain and did bike support for us. And thanks also to the two Easter Bunnies who showed up at Timmy's!

Easter Sunday - 12 April

We had a great snowshoe trip to Cypress Mountain on Sunday (the 5th)! As soon as I get a chance to download my pics (or receive some from the other snowshoers), I'll post one or two. We enjoyed a nice walk to Hollyburn Lodge and back. A few of us headed part way up the trail to Hollyburn peak. However, we had to boot it down to make it back in time for some free pancakes, coffee, hot chocolate and sunshine! What a great day.

Next Sunday we are meeting at Eileen Dailly at 8am to do approximately 25km. Others will be going further and there will be some going shorter. There will be something for everyone, so we're hoping to see you out on Sunday! And maybe we'll see the Easter Bunny too... Bring your baskets to collect some goodies.

Snowshoeing on Sunday, 5 April

Have you seen the mountains? They look amazing!! It looks like it’s going to be perfect weather to head up to Cypress on Sunday for some snowshoeing.

Location: We will meet at Eileen Dailly at 8am to carpool up Cypress Mountain to the Nordic area. (If you prefer, meet us on the mountain at 8:45am in the Nordic area under/near the snowshoe tent.)

If you are uncertain about the weather, arrive at Eileen Dailly with your running gear as well so that you have the option to run from ED instead of snowshoeing. (I snowshoe in pretty much the same clothes that I run in, so it’s really easy to do one or the other without brining a lot of clothes along.)

Trail tickets: $10.

Snowshoes: If you do need to rent them, snowshoes and a trail ticket are $25.23 (plus taxes??). You may be able to borrow a pair from someone who isn’t going.

I will put together a couple of suggestions for routes – a hilly route and a not-so-hilly route, approximately 1-1.5 hours long. This is also Springfest – a fun day to thank the guests of the Nordic area for a great season. There will be free pancakes from 9am-11am. A perfect way to wind up our snowshoeing! :)