Trail good

The trail is in fine shape.
The several centimetres of fresh fluffy snow early today made for tough slogging--like running on sand. As the day went along the trail was packed by the high traffic and warming temperatures melting the snow slightly.

Cool nite

Another cool night on the trails.
Cool enough the snow was crunching under foot going up the Gulch.
Trail is snow covered on the Headwaters portion we were on. The conservation crew had been in again on their ATV and had packed a double track on the lower portion of the trail. There was lots of evidence of fresh tree trimming although it was dark enough when we were in, I did not let my eyes wander from my beam of light and where I was going.
Nice cool night for a run.

Trails better than roads

Apparently the trails were in better shape than the roads tonight.
There's three inches of snow in the bush of the light fluffy kind.
The snow did cause some problems on the ice beneath but should be a benefit when it becomes packed.
The moon was so bright it apparently was shinning in your eyes running from Headwaters Trail down from the field.
Unfortunately the snow did nothing for the driving.....

Trail running tips from runner Julie Fingar during TV interview

They finished in Hawaii!

Monica Scholz climbing into one of the aid stations.

Congrats to Charlotte Vasarhelyi and Monica Scholz who both finished the 100-miler at HURT and Phil McColl who finished the 100-km. (Unfortunately I could not find photos of the other two on the website.)Results can be found here.
Also finishing the 100-km was Fred Davis who regularly runs Sulphur Springs.

HURT Hawaii race page.

Did not seem as icy today

I can not explain it but conditions did not seem as icy today as they were yesterday.
COLD but not near a icy.

Conservation area guys did a great job of clearing trees on the upper portion of Headwaters Trail yesterday. Th only obstacle on the trail that I'm currently aware of is the tree across the trail from Martin's Road to the Gulch. There are still trees down on the trail down to Martin's Road from the Reforestation Trail but they are liable to alway be there since the conversation area does not really consider that area a trail.

From the other side of the valley.

News from the other side of the DVCA: Spring Creek Trail was fine this evening. Icy patches where the puddles usually are but they were small and easily rounded. Night is clear, moon is out. Nice time to run the rail trail. Bundle up!

From Isadora

If you were wishing to be somewhere warmer....

Monica Scholz, Phil McColl and Charlotte Vasarhelyi are all running in Hawaii.
You can find the webcast here.
You may have to hit your refresh button to get latest results.

Be Careful Out There!

The trail was exceptionally icy this morning!

The milder temperatures Thursday-Friday left some melting that the cold snap today promptly froze. It would be hard to describe where all the ice is. It would be probably be easier to describe where there was not ice.
There was a light coating of snow throughout the valley which early in the morning has obscured the icy spots. There was still a fair bit of traffic through the trails, but mainly walkers. There were spots where it was obvious someone had fallen.
Some sore of aid (screws in you shoes or Yak-Trax) is highly recommended.
There was a strong wind that dropped the temperatures due to wind-chill.

Good News

The conservation area crews were out on the Headwaters Trail and were clearing the trees down across the trail. It looked like there may have been new ones down in that section since I was in Thursday night but they were hard at work on them.

Warmer Night but.....

Warmer night tonight so the mud was back a little bit.
It was darker out since the skies were not as clear as last night.
The two-centimetres of snow that has been predicted was starting to sprinkle. I hear the weather forecast is calling for minus double-digit temperatures by Sunday.

Nice Night

Just back from a run on the western portion of the trail on a beautiful but cool night.
There has been a little snow fall since I was out on Sunday morning. Most of the ice is now covered with a layer that has some grip to it. There is a little (very little) on most of the trail and it was cold enough the mud was frozen almost solid, causing some ankle turning knobs to be stepped on.

Around the Bay Road Race

The Around the Bay Road Race is fast approaching on March 30.

I know many people train for the race along the trails in the valley.

The $55 early registration goes up Feb. 2 to $60.

You can register on-line at the ATB page here.

If you use the Running Room registration page, you receive a $10 gift certificate that offsets the cost of the $4 on-line registration fee.

Anyone can post comments

I have fixed the problem that only allowed people with Google gmail accounts to post comments.
Please let me know if anyone has problems at rennison.john@gmail.com

Cooler day, less mud

This morning was cooler then yesterday on the trail allow some of the mud to solidify and keeping shoes drier. Still a couple of areas with ice on the trails.

From Isadora:
Conditions today were amazing - but from the other side of the Rail trail: I ran from Warren park (~ km 2.5 of Rail Trail), Spring Creek Trail to Sawmill to Main Loop to Ski loop #1 to Monarch end-to-end. Effectively no snow, springy soft ground - almost melting- yet shoes came home clean. Positively bouncy!

Saw 4 deer. 2008 count now 5.

- Isadora

Good Luck Monica and Phil!

Monica and Phil are off to H.U.R.T. January 19 & 20.
Monica's doing the 100-mile, Phil the 100-km.
You can follow their progress at:
http://aditl.com/hurt/

Might have been a little under stated

My last post about trail conditions might have been a little under stated in the ice department.

Ninety-per-cent of the trail is clear or muddy but the first kilometre out from the pool centre parking lot is a ribbon of ice and tough to run on without screws in your shoes (or some assistance). The same is true of the first 300 metres off Martin's Road up toward the farmer's field on Head Waters Trail.

There is a a strip of ice on the trail leading to the Gulch off Martin's Road on the way back to the main trail to the parking lot and the Gulch is icy and snowy but has some leaf and pine needle cover for some assistance in the climb.

There are two trees down on the Head Waters Trail; one is just below the rise to Turner's favourite hill to climb and another after the junction on the round section of the upper portion of the trail. There has been a trail down on the section from Martin's Road to the Gulch for sometime and it is still there.

In the conservation area proper the trail is fine throughout. Someone has cleared any trees that were block in the trail (we did not go out the dog-leg to Turnbull Road this morning, we are getting lazy I guess).

Happy running! Will be out tomorrow again.

Sulphur Springs Trail Registration Now Open

The on-line registration for the Burlington Runners' 16th annual Sulphur Springs Trail Race 2008, May 24-25 is now open at:
https://www.onlineregistrations.ca/sulphursprings/

The race includes distances of 10 km, 25 km, 50 km, 50 miles and 100 miles.

A pdf of the race course map can be found here:
http://burlingtonrunners.com/sulphursprings/TrailMapandDirections.pdf

Hamilton Conservation Authority Entrance Fees

Here are the entrance fees for the Dundas Valley from the Hamilton Conservation Area website:
Fee per vehicle: $5.00
Per vehicle with horses, per horse: $10
Walk/Bike in per person: $2.00
Horseback access: $10.00

All the authority's entrace fees can be found here:
http://www.conservationhamilton.ca/parks/fees/

Message from Conservation Area Website about Water Levels

Information Bulletin - Jan. 10
January 10, 2008
Creek levels in the watershed remain higher than normal as a result of the combination of rain and the melting snowpack that has been occurring over the last five days.
In addition, Environment Canada is now forecasting precipitation amounts in the range of 20 to 25 mm overnight Thursday and into Friday.
Although no major flooding problems are anticipated at this time, higher than normal flows will result in dangerous conditions along all streams.
Please exercise extreme caution near all water bodies.
Adults are advised to keep children and pets away from streams at this time.
The Hamilton Conservation Authority continues to monitor stream and weather conditions and will issue further messages as necessary.

Trail not bad......

Wednesday, January 9 th's wind storm did bring down trees along the trail.
On Thursday I ran the western edge of the trail and found trees down in at least three locations.
Martin's Road has several trees laying across the road. They are blocking the road to traffic but are not on the piece of road we use. They are on the right as you come down the hill from the Reforestation Trail and emerge out onto the road.
There is a tree across the trail after you leave Martin's Road on the way to the corn field, before you come to the junction. It is right as you come up the small hill before a slight right turn to the junction of the loop on the upper part of the trail.
The tree is about knee-to-waist height (depending on your height) but is easily stepped over.
The trail was either muddy or covered in ice. Most of the snow is gone in the bush along this section of the trail.
There were two deer in standing on the trail in the middle bend along the corn field. There were four more standing in the field just as you turn left into the bush to head down the trail.