Tales of Trails, Mountains and Rocky Roads

When first moving to Canada back in 2012, I remember asking a friend what hikes I could safety do without having to worry about possible bear encounters. In hindsight, that is a pretty naive question - there are bears here in Alberta, and whilst you are unlikely to see them every time you set foot on a mountain trail, there is still a possibility that you could see a bear any time, any where. Of course, I was a newbie back then, and two hikes were recommended due to being popular - Prairie Mountain and Moose Mountain. The former is a short but steep hike, the other - Moose Mountain - is longer and more drawn out. Since that day, I have ascended both mountains more than once, and whilst the possibility of a bear encounter is still there, I'm not quite as anxious about it as I used to be. Living in Leduc, it's not quite as easy to do regular ascents of these two mountains like I used to do when living in Calgary, and nowadays, I have to plan ahead rather than just heading up ther...

 I first ran the Sinister 50 miler back in 2023  as preparation for The Divide 200. I'd done lots of hill running, I'd been out to the mountains to get some elevation training, and I felt confident of a good run, setting a goal of a 12 hour finish and came away with a 12.03 and a place on the podium. It was a tough race with plenty of climbing on some pretty technical trails, but I absolutely loved it and had every intention of going back. One year later I did go back, this time to tackle the 100-miles, but unlike the previous year, I had barely done any trail running let alone lots of hills. 2024 saw me DNF at the 100 miler, simply because I went into the race completely unprepared. Last year, I did the 50km event and once again, it was extremely tough with tons of climbing considering this is one of the shorter distances available. I think it took me 8 hours to complete - maybe a little longer - but despite it taking much longer than I had anticipated, I felt like I'd had...