Day 7 – Iona to middle of nowhere – 40km
13 May
I should have guessed what the day would be like by the date, Friday 13th.
What was originally planned as a 60km day did not end up as such. The morning began at McDonalds thanks to lack of options at that time of day and my finishing all the cereal. About an hours drive back to our last stop and it was back at it. And by back at it I mean holy crap my legs were stiff. I ended up shuffling down the road for the first 10km until Mike and I decided that we had discovered a shortcut.
The short cut involved running on the train tracks across the bridge instead of carrying on up and around the top which we figure would save about 3 km. Well it was definitely shorter but the footing was so uneven that by the time I had crossed I had 2 new blisters, one that encompassed an entire toe! After draining them with the only thing available, nail clippers, I tried to get going again but found that I had only made the blister pain worse and so I had to hobble for the next 5 km until my feet adjusted.
This was when the real fun began. Google maps managed to take me down what it considered a perfectly normal road but what turned out to be completely impassable thanks to swamps. Not wanting to have to re-run my previous route, Mike and I drove around to the other side where the trail was supposed to meet up with the road and ran back along the train tracks to the previous spot. Again the train tracks played havoc on my feet but was mercifully short this time. And after a few kilometres the morning 20km was done and we were enjoying lunch which mostly consisted of the previous nights leftovers.
Unfortunately Google's directions had set us back over an hour and put the days third run in jeopardy. And Google wasn't finished yet. After starting the second 20km Google again had us turn off onto a dirt road. Looking at the map the route looked sound and held up well for the first little bit. But then, as before, the road started to narrow, turned into more of a path, and then became impassable for the support vehicle. I decided to continue on ahead and Mike was going to loop around to meet me on the other side. Seeing as there were some pretty large animal tracks that may or may not have been fresh (I'm not Mantracker) I took the air horn and Mike's phone which had better reception than mine.
I continued up the road which became narrower and narrower and wetter and wetter until it became and ankle deep swamp and essentially a dead end for anyone without a machete. So I had run about 4-5 km and now had to double back. This added yet more time onto this leg and there was not going to be time for a third run. Plus, I was now running in soaking wet shoes until I could get back to Mike, which did nothing good for my blisters.
Finally, mercifully, the second 20km was over, about 2 hours behind schedule and with 5 new blisters. The good news is I don't think there's anywhere else on my feet they can develop so I shouldn't be getting many more new ones.
We marked our finishing spot and drove to Antigonish, a small university town of 4,000 about an hour away.
Tomorrows route looks to be on more established roads so fingers crossed there are no similar surprises like today.
We've added a few videos to the blog so check them out, and there are more to come as soon as we can convince the computer to upload them!
What was originally planned as a 60km day did not end up as such. The morning began at McDonalds thanks to lack of options at that time of day and my finishing all the cereal. About an hours drive back to our last stop and it was back at it. And by back at it I mean holy crap my legs were stiff. I ended up shuffling down the road for the first 10km until Mike and I decided that we had discovered a shortcut.
The short cut involved running on the train tracks across the bridge instead of carrying on up and around the top which we figure would save about 3 km. Well it was definitely shorter but the footing was so uneven that by the time I had crossed I had 2 new blisters, one that encompassed an entire toe! After draining them with the only thing available, nail clippers, I tried to get going again but found that I had only made the blister pain worse and so I had to hobble for the next 5 km until my feet adjusted.
This was when the real fun began. Google maps managed to take me down what it considered a perfectly normal road but what turned out to be completely impassable thanks to swamps. Not wanting to have to re-run my previous route, Mike and I drove around to the other side where the trail was supposed to meet up with the road and ran back along the train tracks to the previous spot. Again the train tracks played havoc on my feet but was mercifully short this time. And after a few kilometres the morning 20km was done and we were enjoying lunch which mostly consisted of the previous nights leftovers.
Unfortunately Google's directions had set us back over an hour and put the days third run in jeopardy. And Google wasn't finished yet. After starting the second 20km Google again had us turn off onto a dirt road. Looking at the map the route looked sound and held up well for the first little bit. But then, as before, the road started to narrow, turned into more of a path, and then became impassable for the support vehicle. I decided to continue on ahead and Mike was going to loop around to meet me on the other side. Seeing as there were some pretty large animal tracks that may or may not have been fresh (I'm not Mantracker) I took the air horn and Mike's phone which had better reception than mine.
I continued up the road which became narrower and narrower and wetter and wetter until it became and ankle deep swamp and essentially a dead end for anyone without a machete. So I had run about 4-5 km and now had to double back. This added yet more time onto this leg and there was not going to be time for a third run. Plus, I was now running in soaking wet shoes until I could get back to Mike, which did nothing good for my blisters.
Finally, mercifully, the second 20km was over, about 2 hours behind schedule and with 5 new blisters. The good news is I don't think there's anywhere else on my feet they can develop so I shouldn't be getting many more new ones.
We marked our finishing spot and drove to Antigonish, a small university town of 4,000 about an hour away.
Tomorrows route looks to be on more established roads so fingers crossed there are no similar surprises like today.
We've added a few videos to the blog so check them out, and there are more to come as soon as we can convince the computer to upload them!
