Summitting Little White Mountain

On Saturday I run the 50 mile course of the Scorched Sole race in Kelowna. I've run the trails that make up the first and last 13 km many times, and have done the 13 km - 19 km section a couple times. But I wanted to summit Little White mountain to have that down to make sure I knew what I was up against. I figure why not considering I live in the city the race is in.

The course starts out with 9.7 km of trails that are pretty steep, (course starts at 470 metres elevation) but dry and with good footing. Followed by about 3 km along an old flat rail bed. Then we get to the Upper Crawford trail. (Upper Crawford trail starts around 1200 metres elevation)

The first 1.5 km are like above, dry trail. (In the picture is a hawk, my camera died the last time just before I could take a picture of the rabbit it killed).

Then up to the 19 km point is trails that are about half river runoff with boulders in it.

And the other hald is forest areas that was burned to a crisp from the forest fire in 2003.

Then we hit an area that was covered in snow just two weeks ago. So there is 1- 2 km of very solid muddy trail. (This is about 1700 metres elevation)

That is Little White mountain

Now we hit some snow, which there shall remain snow from 19 km or so until the peak of Little White which is 25 km.

Up we go.

Every third step I sunk knee high into snow.

The orange paint is markers for the course.

This is the Highland Trail that leads up to the summit.

At the Summit.

View from the Summit.

I think that's Crawford Lake in the distance. Which is part of the 30 km loop that is added onto the 50 km race to make the 50 mile race distance up.

The 30 km loop continues along that ridge. I didn't go there, but I imagine there will be more snow, rocks to be run on. The elevatioon drops down to 1600 metres at some point of the 30 km loop, and then back up to the summit to return back the way we came.

View of West Kelowna from the top, the trails we come up are viewable in the distance.

Don't need to worry about drinking water very much as there is plenty of running water along the course.

Back down we go.

If the river was any deeper here I would have crotched myself pretty badly.

Shoes are shiny and clean again thanks to the river.

Running down these rivers is so much fun!

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I don't really know what my goal is for the race right now. Run hard, run smart, pace myself so I have energy to run downhill strong the last 25 km, stay hydrated well, prevent my stomach from growling. That's about it really. In terms of a time... before I realized there was so much snow and mud on the course I thought I could shoot for around 8:30, but I don't see that happening now. Maybe 9:30 is a more realistic goal. Maybe my worst case time goal will be to finish before my Garmins battery dies which is around 10:15. We shall see. All I know is I'm gonna be so sore on Sunday, but oh man it's gonna be fun.

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Super Duper!!

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Nazzer