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Grouse Mountain to top of Grouse Mountain, 18+ Km
Perfect weather for a training run on Mother's Day, 10C at the start and about 15C at the top of Grouse and sun all the way. This was also the first weekend with the Grouse Grind being "officially" open, and the masses found their way to the mountain but fortunately after our 8 am start. 44 runners (including 5 race committee members) showed up early for the 8:00 am trail briefing and another 4 runners were late but caught up with the pack for a total of 48 runners on the training run. The BP trail from Grouse to Mountain Hwy was in great condition with almost no mud on the trail. Just before Mountain Hwy, we found a one-man crew "Peter" for the NSMBA who was about 200 hours into his solo trail improvement project "Armouring" the trail. This is a system of putting the flat surfaces of the rocks facing up to make an amazing flat surface to run or bike on. At the big decision point at Mountain Hwy, 42 turned left up Mountain Hwy to summit the mountain and 6 returned back on the BP to the parking lot. My personal opinion was that it was easier to run up Mountain Hwy and see the views than to go back on the BP. Better food options at the Top too. We really appreciate the work by Craig arranging for Mountain Hwy to be plowed all the way to the top. Our run was in doubt earlier in the week but the training run gurus were hard at work finding a solution to the snow on the last 3 km of Mountain Hwy. After the plows had cleaned the road, there were still sections of snow over 6 ft high on both sides of the road. Sections of the road were like a narrow tunnel thru a snow bank. Upon arrival at the Top of Grouse, we had to navigate our way thru the Disneyland size crowds that had brought the whole family up the Skyride for Mother's Day. But we succeeded in finding Canada's largest slices of pizza and at $4.25 a real bargain. The 8 minute ride down the Skyride was a little disappointing since some of us had invested over 3 hours to get to the top.
Greg White
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