NICOLA GILDERSLEEVE sets new SCT record and reports ALL SCT SECTIONS ARE OPEN

Nicola Gildersleeve from North Vancouver came to Powell River aiming to break the non-stop running record for the Sunshine Coast Trail. She and her pacers Shauna Connaughton and Meghan Molnar set out from the start of the SCT at Sarah Point on Saturday morning, September 6, 2014 at 8 am. They had been dropped off there by the Lund Water Taxi.

View from Feather Cove (at KM 4 from Sarah Point) of Desolation Sound and the Coastal Ranges to the northeast.

At the Appleton Canyon parking lot at KM 38, Shauna, Meghan and Nicola have completed about 20% of the run. They refuel and rest for a few moments while crew chief Peter Watson takes care of having everything at hand that they need to succeed.

View of Inland Lake from the vicinity of Confederation Lake.

From Inland Lake (elev. 100 m) to Eagle River - which comprised the night time portion of the run - Shauna and Meghan were spelled off by two Powell River pacers who had familiarity with the trail through there, and night time running experience. Joseph McLean ran with Nicola up to Confederation Lake (600 m) and down the other side to Fiddlehead Farm (100 m) where Alston Miller took over and guided her up and over Tin Hat Mountain (1,200 m), down to Spring Lake (500 m), on to Elk Lake (900 m), through the Smith Range and down from Walt Hill (1,100 m) where it finally had become day time again.

A view from Walt Hill on the SCT looking SE over some of the terrain it traverses. The descent from Walt Hill to Lois Lake is a 1,000 m elevation glide. From there the SCT ascends Mount Troubridge (1300 m) before dropping all the way down again to Saltery Bay on Jervis Inlet.

A good breakfast finished off with some yummy apple sauce and Nicola is almost ready to go.

And so is Shauna who will run with her for the last 45 km over the Troubridge Massif. A little more hydration and they will be off again.

The SCT follows Lois Lakeshore for nearly seven km. A few float cabins are permanently anchored on the lower lake. The hills on the right lead up to the summit of Mount Troubridge.

View south from the shoulder of Troubridge. Jervis Inlet in front of Nelson Island, to the left Sechelt Inlet fades toward the Tantalus and Caren ranges.

They've come over the summit of Troubridge now and are heading for Rainy Day Lake. There are about 12 more km to go from the Plutonic pole line. Still going strong, no time to chat, for sure.

At the support station just above Rainy Day Lake Meghan joins Nicola and Shauna again. Meghan had run with them the day before from Sarah Point to Inland Lake. Here they are running along Rainy Day Lake and are ready to turn up onto Blue Grouse Ridge.

They pause at the First and Last Bridge (depending which side hikers are coming from) crossing Saltery Creek, carrying on - now mere minutes away from the end of the run.

One more little hill to descend...

... and they break out onto the parking lot to cheers of crew and supporters.

Nicola grabs the display board of the SCT trailhead kiosk. Her work is done. The finish line. She did it... She beat the previous record by a staggering 10 hours. It had been set 10 years earlier by the only other recorded person (Ean Jackson) to have run the SCT non-stop. Nicola is only the second officially recorded person to succeed in running the SCT non-stop. Trail conditions have improved over this time, and it is better marked and more worn in, but not 10 hours worth. Nicola ran a blistering pace for such a technical course. It was Ean who encouraged her to do the run because he thought that of all the runners he knew, she was the one who could finish the run, and who could beat his time. A few others had sniffed at taking up the challenge over the years, but it took Nicola to do it. Congratulations, Nicola! What an astounding accomplishment.

Ah yes, almost forgot. We have to take a picture of the time: 33 hours and 50 minutes.  180 km non-stop running the SCT that twists through the temperate jungles, up and down the roller-coastal hills and valleys of the northern Sunshine Coast.

Alston came to celebrate Nicola's smashing success. He, and the other pacers and the rest of the crew played an important part. Donna Devine, Nicola's mother, poses with her and crew chief Peter Watson at the SCT trailhead kiosk. Nicola finished her run at 5:50 pm Sunday afternoon, September 7, 2014. All the ups and downs are behind her. The equivalent of about four and a half butt-kicking Marathons end-on-end. Wow. Now smile at that.

ALL CLEAR - SCT free to hike from Sarah Point to Saltery Bay

ALL CLEAR

After nearly 2000 man/woman hours of taking our chainsaws for "strolls" the volunteers of Powell River Parks and Wilderness Society (PR PAWS) and friends are happy to report that the winter's blown down trees, jungly patches of brambles and other obstacles have been removed from the Sunshine Coast Trail. Hikers can now follow the cleared trail from end to end. Of course attention still needs to be paid so as not to be inadvertently drawn off the trail by easy looking options, usually at road crossings.

Also around Tin Hat you have to pay attention because Western Forest Products (WFP) is building new roads in the general area and will be doing some blasting at various times, necessitating closing either the Tin Hat East Ridge, or the old Tin Hat road/trail. That means hikers have to take either the old road/trail if the East Ridge and the East side of Lewis Lake is closed, or taking the East Ridge option if the old road/trail is closed. 

The blasted rock can fly several hundred metres. Call Western Forest Products before setting out to make sure you know which option you must exercise (1)-604-485-3100, or the WFP road report at (1)-604-485-3132. 

The forest might get too hot and work will be shut down so there will be no road building or logging, meaning you will be able to use one or the other of the options that will take you around Lewis Lake, either on the east side, or the west side.

Confederation Lake to Vomit Vista Blowdown All Cleared

 

Looking northeast from Vomit Vista near Confederation Lake. Powell Lake lies down below in the middle distance, with the Rainbow Range rising behind it, and in the far distance to the right the South Powell Divide still displays a healthy cover of snow in the first week of summer.

Another view from VV in a more eastward direction: Tin Hat Mountain on the other side of Giavanno Valley.

Pat and Ron at a late lunch on VV. Now all the blowdown in this km-long section of trail is bucked, and the SCT is cleared all the way from Sarah Point to the a short stretch on lower Walt Hill where reportedly some intermittent blowdown will slow you down but not stop you from getting through and on to Walt Hill Hut on top. That blowdown is on the maintenance schedule and should be taken care of next week.

During our descent back down from Confederation Lake Bruce is enjoying a water break.

A couple of minutes later, just as we were getting ready to resume heading for the comfort of the Crummy we met a solo hiker going up to Confederation. Pedro is hiking the Sunshine Coast Trail solo and was at this point four days into his trek from Sarah Point, aiming to do the whole of the SCT in one go. Now that's rare.

East Tin Hat, Elephant Lake, March Lake and Elk Lake Updates

In the last 2 weeks we have opened up blowdown areas on East Tin Hat, and Elephant Lake as well as cleaned up the inside route of Elk Lake Loop. We also cleared blowdown on Rainy Day Lake to Fairview Bay Main and sections of the trail in the Smith Range.

 

Driving on our way to clear trail on Sunday we encountered a doe with its fawn sauntering along the highway to Saltery Bay. They were not shy at all.

  

The bear on the other hand turned away from 
 the side of the road where he had been foraging, and headed for the bush.

This is Elk Lake hut and it's now easy to get to from March Lake or from Granite Lake where the loop has been cleaned up and the blueberry bushes trimmed back.

Ron and Craig are on a mission: Day Two of clearing the rest of the March Lake SCT section. They have a sense they can finish it on this second outing. Two other members of the team were working on the northern section of the trail.

On another Sunday outing, Doug and Kate helped take care of the tangled mess of the East Tin Hat section, and went halfway down to Lewis Main at KM 5, putting up markers that had been far and few between. All better now. You won't get lost there now heading down through Pipes Canyon.

Yesterday, Ken and I cleared the Rainy Day Trail section and came across a trail closure warning that had been forgotten by the loggers after they were finished building road down below. It's all open now, and there is no more confusion. The way is free and clear down to Fairview Bay shelter.

East Tin Hat Ridge Trail - progress to date

Yesterday Don, Craig and I drove up Lewis Main to KM 10 where we turned left toward the end of branch L-2840A in Elk Cow Pass. There is a short and easy access here to the SCT at about the 640 m elevation. We bucked our way uphill along the east ridge trail to this viewpoint near KM 90 at about the 840 m level. We still have about one km left to clear out on the way up to the hut, plus about another km down from Elk Pass to Cranberry Pond. We hope to be back here in the next few days, and will provide a further progress report.

West Tin Hat Trail now open

Craig and Doug are standing at Haslam Vista. Below you see Haslam Lake and beyond there Texada Island and Vancouver Island in the haze on the distant horizon.

We cleaned out the upper half of the West Tin Hat trail section from KM 85 to KM 88 on Sunday, May 2, and with that the whole of the West Tin Hat trail is now open with all of winter's deadfalls bucked out with the chainsaw and removed. 

There is now only one short stretch of blowdown between Sarah Point at KM 0 to Tin Hat Mountain Hut at about KM 90. It is located just south of Confederation Hut where another tangle of blown down trees impedes easy hiking. We will take care of this remote spot in the coming days.

Many sections southward from Tin Hat Hut are already cleared. However, some that had been in the snow zone - and a couple still are covered by snow in the Smith Range and on the back of Mount Troubridge - need to receive the annual deadfall clearance treatment. So far this has meant many hundreds of trees across the trail, and likely means that a similar number needs to be bucked on points south. 

Please report any blowdown you encounter so we, the volunteers that keep the trail open, can get to that as quickly as our schedule allows. Thank you. And just in case you didn't know, no one is getting paid a penny. It's all volunteer work. We do get some donations that are for gas money, and a fund for building materials for another hut we are planning to build later this year or next. Today we are driving up to begin clearing East Tin Hat Ridge. I will report conditions on that side of the mountain soon. 

Further, the road/trail shortcut down from Tin Hat toward Powell River is closed for the summer and perhaps even fall due to harvesting activities. Hikers will have alternate access to the hut on Tin Hat via the East Tin Hat Ridge Trail, which we are hoping to open fully by the end of this week.