Holiday on the Run!

Summer holidays! The most wonderful time of the year. Endless blue skies, flip flops, beach umbrellas, tan lines and slushy margaritas...these are a few of the things that spell summer to me. Summer also means taking off in our 23-foot Airstream trailer for several weeks, weighed down with bikes and kayaks in search of adventure and new landscapes to explore.


This year, summer also meant fitting in a few holiday runs into our biking, kayaking and road schedule. Here is a brief summary of our 25-day holiday on the run which took us through the Southern Interior of BC, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Alberta.

Wood Lake, Winfield, BC, July 18th


Running time: 35 minutes
Wildlife Encounters: zero


It was an overcast morning, not quite what I was expecting for my first vacation run in the Okanagan but I was eager to try out my new “barefoot” running shoes. After a little barefoot research, I fully expected my lower leg and feet to feel a little stiff and sore in the beginning, so I set out on an easy, flattish run through the neighborhood near our campground. The run was basically uneventful, except for the stiffness in my calves which began about 20 minutes into the run. Both calves were so stiff and sore the following day, I could barely walk, let alone run. Time to get out the bikes!


Kettle Falls, Wa, USA, July 21 and 22nd


Running time: 35 minutes/45 minutes
Wildlife Encounters: 4 deer, 1 eagle, chipmunks, rabbits, lake birds.


My stiff calves healed quickly after a day or two of soreness and I was eager to run in this scenic area of Washington State. The path I took both days ran along the grassy shores of North Roosevelt Lake which is contained within the upper Columbia River gorge. The first morning was cool and peacefully quiet. The shorelines of this vast lake are prime breeding areas for fish, birds and other wildlife as is the surrounding Ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir forest. I was eager to see if any wildlife would be revealed to me as I ran. About 10 minutes into the run, I was rewarded with the spectacle of a doe and three young fawns springing joyfully across the meadow in the early morning haze of sunshine. The views across the lake were beautiful and I was feeling quite blessed to be running in such a pristine setting when I got the eery feeling I was being watched. As I scrambled over a large fallen tree obstructing my way and glanced upwards, I found myself eye-to-eye with a large bald-headed eagle. Now I’m no stranger to eagles, in fact many inhabit my own neck of the woods back home, but when one looks you square in the eye and questions your very “being” in its own domain, there is no denying the feeling that you are in the presence of a higher power. The eagle graciously allowed me to pass by and I felt elevated, indeed I soared through the remainder of the run until once again both calves began to seize up and I decided to play it safe and walk back to our campground.


The stiffness in my calves only lasted the day and I was able to run again the next day.


Patti and Alan’s Cabin, Whitefish Lake, Montana, USA, July 26th and 27th


Running time: 50 minutes/43 minutes
Wildlife Encounters: 3 deer


I found myself running the first day late in the morning, it was overcast and grey, which pretty much described me after very little sleep the night before and more wine than I could obviously stomach, but what’s a vacation without a little carousing? Surprisingly, I could still actually move my feet and managed to run the entire route of Lion Mountain Road all the way to the main highway in Whitefish which was hilly at times. As much as my outer senses were dulled from the alcohol the night before, I was still consciously aware of the very real possibility I could very well meet any one of the alleged wildlife inhabitants in the area, such as mountain lions and bears.  However, a doe and two fawns were the only animals to cross my path the first day and the large predatory animals I was anxious about remained just a fantasy of my wild imagination.


Only my left calf felt a little stiff during this run, it’s possible my right calf was still just too intoxicated to feel anything.


Later that evening, back at the cabin and sober once again, Alan told me how he had received a letter from the “meter reader” earlier in the spring which stated: “unable to read meter due to bear sleeping on deck”. After hearing that story, let’s just say my run the next day was pretty much a dead sprint to the highway and back. Looking forward to next year and more of Alan’s stories.


Glennifer Lake, Spruce View, Alberta, July 30


Running time: 75 minutes
Wildlife Encounters: Rabbits and an assortment of feathered creatures.


My biggest memory of this run is the sky. It was vast and the bluest of blues (must be why Alberta is called big sky country). I had great ambitions this day to run to the tiny nearby hamlet of Dickson, but somehow got lost in the maze of avenues and drives that make up the lakeside golf resort of Glennifer Lake. When I eventually found my way out of the resort and on to the main road, I had already been running for a frustrating 25 minutes. But once outside, the views were incredible: big sky and golden fields of Rapeseed (canola). An assortment of birds flitted here and there through the peaceful countryside and I felt I could run forever. 


Lacombe, Alberta, August 2nd


Running time: 50 minutes
Wildlife Encounters: Zero


Our next stop was Lacombe, Alberta, where we were visiting and helping my mother-in-law with a big move to a new house. Lacombe is a vibrant community situated in the heart of Alberta surrounded by parkland and nature reserves. I carefully plotted a running route on Google Maps Pedometer (mapping application) the night before and set off early in the morning once again under big blue skies. Unfortunately, Google Maps was not very accurate and half way through my run I had to devise a new route. I wasn’t exactly lost, but I missed the quaint and historic downtown altogether and never saw even a smidgen of wildlife, but I did encounter a number of friendly Albertans (with big hats) and surprisingly overly-courteous motorists.


Kelowna, BC, August 6th


Running time: 80 minutes
Wildlife Encounters: Horses, chickens and quail.


We arrived at our agri-tourism farm late in the afternoon and set up our campsite for a few days of fun in the sun. Our campground was a small, working agriculture operation tucked into the pastoral landscape of north Kelowna. Our campground came equipped with beautiful scenery, an apple orchard, chickens and a 70-year old “barefoot” running guru. We first met Lou when he pranced barefoot into our cocktail hour freshly back from a 60-minute run. Lou was a striking vision of a toned and tanned middle-aged adult who looked like he had just stepped out of the pages of Mother Earth News. Then he told us he was 70 years young, and that he often ran 100-mile races, barefoot, and had even walked across hot coals in his bare feet. He told us of his 90-percent raw diet and that he never wears sunscreen as it clogs up his pores.  Of course I was interested in the barefoot aspect of running having just purchased and broke-in a new pair of Merrill Barefoot Gloves and before I knew it, Lou had skipped off to his trailer and was back in a flash with a half-a-dozen books on barefoot running which he had recently ordered from Amazon. The books were thrust upon me, no doubt for a weekend of reading and research (just what I wanted to do on a hot sunny weekend in the Okanagan). Just when I was thinking Lou was about to “move-in with us”, he skipped off to get his beauty rest before the day of biking and running he had planned for himself the following day.


The next morning, feeling both humbled and inspired by the 70-year old Lou, I set off uphill to run up a storm. I passed beautiful farms ripe with strawberries, fields with horses and an occasional vineyard. I heard peacocks in the distance, but wasn’t able to find them and I was even chased by a brazen little quail, possibly a hen protecting its young. But when the downhill part of my run seemed much longer than I had anticipated, I realized I was lost...again! (Seriously! What is with Google Maps?) Fortunately, what was left of my sense of direction was able to eventually get my hot and sweaty self back to our campground where I found Mark just about ready to make a call out to search and rescue to find me. It was an interesting consummation of my vacation runs.


It’s been a few days now since we came home tanned and refreshed from our adventures on the road. Coming home is always a bitter sweet time for me, running the full gamut of emotion, missing the nomadic life of waking up in sunny new places but loving and appreciating the home which is my sanctuary from the craziness of the world outside. Summer definitely is the most wonderful time of the year for me, but still, there is no place like home.