Cypress Top Look­out (Sky­line Trail) to Deep Cove, 33 km

What do you get after ded­i­cated months of train­ing and a strong desire to toe the line at the Knee Knacker in July

? For some people, you get the desired result. For others you get pain and anguish.

We met at Deep Cove on a slightly cool morn­ing to pre­pare for our car­pool to the Cypress Top Look­out. It was another beau­ti­ful day in a long string of mostly sunny and very warm days. The day before had been hot so a tem­per­a­ture that was a couple of degrees cooler was very welcome.

Once we got up to Cypress Moun­tain and assem­bled for the run brief­ing I counted around 70 people. We would start the day with the Sky­line Trail that is some­what well used but has fallen into dis­re­pair with many blow-downs and new branches to block your way. And there were a couple of very sketchy bridges that I’m sure would not have held up well with more than 2 or 3 people run­ning across. I had been on the trail the day before so I gave a fairly thor­ough warn­ing to every­one and I didn’t hear of any casu­al­ties along the route. Once we came to the BP Trail it was clear and quick as usual. But of course it’s still a long down­hill run to Cleve­land Dam from the bottom of the Holly­burn Chute where the two trails meet.

As I was making my way down I met up with Glenn who had kindly driven some run­ners up to the start point and then he went down to Cleve­land Dam to do a shorter one hour run. Not long after he passed me going up the trail. Then he zipped by on the way down. Looks like he’s ready for another indi­vid­ual strike at the 24 Hour Relay next week­end. Good luck Glenn.

I also caught up with two other run­ners that were clearly expe­ri­enc­ing the ‘pain’ part of train­ing. For­tu­nately one of them had been able to call for a ride and the two of them went back by car together. It’s a drag but sprains and twists and sore ten­dons are a real­ity when you’re on a tough course like the BP week after week.

By the time I chat­ted with and gave free advice to all those run­ners I found myself way behind the others. It was quiet at Cleve­land Dam so I got my bottle refilled and only had to hold my ground against a big dog at the water foun­tain for first dibs. It was then up to Grouse for a mêlée with the Grinders and a steady run to Lynn Valley where I had planned to finish for the day. Only one inter­rup­tion I found was at about 20 min­utes into that sec­tion. There were two hikers, hus­band and wife I think, who were look­ing for the BCMC. “Old or new”, I said. “Ummm”, I got back. “If you don’t know then you best go back to the begin­ning and take the new one”, I offered. He was already sweat­ing a whole bunch and they were clearly not famil­iar with the area. I hope they made it to the top okay before sundown …

I saw a couple of other run­ners I know, Ran K. being one. He was doing the run from last week (Grouse to Old Buck Return), per­haps for the second time because he loved it so much I’m assum­ing. And just before I got to Moun­tain High­way a woman caught up with me that was lead­ing her group of six. They appar­ently started up on Holly­burn by the Ranger Sta­tion. She was very curi­ous why they hadn’t crossed paths with us before that time. But she and I even­tu­ally fig­ured out that we had dif­fer­ent start­ing points so all made sense.

I fin­ished up my second of two big runs this week­end by stop­ping at the pipeline bridge by Lynn Valley Road. Sur­prised at how good I felt I was happy to walk out to home from there and give my legs a chance to rest finally. But I wasn’t happy to see Bill D. sit­ting at the side of the road. Jes­sica was there with him and I felt like some­thing was up right away. And it was. Bill did in his ankle while coming off the steps of a bridge. From his story I got the feel­ing his foot moved seri­ously in a way it wasn’t intended. I saw them leave in a taxi and didn’t envy Bill in the least. This one’s gonna leave a mark for sure. Bill was kind enough to send me some pic­tures later. Just imag­ine a purple base­ball on the side of your ankle. Yup, that’s about all you need to know. Double ouch and a bagful of anguish.

So I won’t be sur­prised if our group is a bit smaller next week for the First Three Quar­ters run. We’ll be meet­ing at Lynn Canyon and car­pool­ing to Nelson Canyon Park. Find­ing the start of the Knee Knacker is a very minor chal­lenge and park­ing should not be a prob­lem even though you may have seen some strange goings on at the high­way there. There are instruc­tions to the start at Nelson Canyon Park here. Please come well pre­pared for this run as you will be out for a very long time and can’t get more water until Cypress Bowl. If the weather is inclement then bring extra cloth­ing. It can be cold, wet, and very mis­er­able. This is not a Sunday walk in the park although the snow is likely to be less of an issue than usual with all the hot sunny days lately. Bring lots of water, food and patience. And once again, please plan to stick together with at least one other runner. This is not an easy route to follow. I hope you are still paying atten­tion since you won’t have to pay for park­ing this time around.

So, we’ll see you at Lynn Canyon at 7:30 am on Sunday June 21 to meet for car­pool­ing. The park­ing lot is usu­ally open but, if not, please meet right out­side the gate and be mind­ful of the sleep­ing neighbours.

Craig Moore
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