“Can’t get through the trees …”

This is what Kim said as we surveyed the broken running trails east of Campbell River in the middle of Vancouver Island BC. As part of a 3-hour training run in preparation for an upcoming marathon (Bizz Johnson in two weeks), a small group of us headed up here for a few days to get in some serious running (others were doing serious salmon fishing).

After studying various maps, Doug dropped us off at a trailhead (really a fireroad) and we made arrangements to meet more than 3 hours later there or to call if we were lost. Which we did get.

The weather was cold and we were each carrying camelbaks with water and some basic supplies; it never warmed up but it never rained either!

We had a running plan which got shot to hell as the fire roads, logging roads, trails and ATV roads never really showed up as they should, so we just made our way along and went to a bunch of dead-ends. Hence the tree story.

We got to one section that just ended at a massive treeline. Rather than backtrack we tried to get through. Once we hacked our way through the trees, we ended up in a massive thick brush section made up of brambleberry and blackberry bushes that went on for a hundred yards or more. She said something like “No way through the trees” and that became our “running joke” for the rest of the day

As we do (it had been since she had been up to Seattle visiting friends in June or so) we talked about everything from our work and personal lives and life in general. At one point I said, “we haven’t seen any wildlife yet” and shortly thereafter we ran right into a herd of buffalo – probably 40 or 50 – behind a gate that we needed to get through. Needless to say, we turned around there!

When you run with someone, you always find things about them you normally would not. We were talking about her upcoming high school reunion and she happened to mention that she really partied a lot. I said, “really, really?” – because she does not look like the “type” – if there is one.

Kim went on to tell me that in high school and college years that she went to more than 100 Grateful Dead shows and experienced – er – all kind of things. This killed a bunch of time including my one lone story of going to one Dead concert with my one DeadHead friend Eric, I’ll never forget the experience, it was wild.

The net of the day, besides being a great long run in the wilderness, was the realization and understanding that life takes you on many long runs and sometimes they end up at dead-ends or at Dead concerts and given that we all end up dead in the end, we should all massively enjoy our time on this planet. You’ll never know where the twists and turns of the journey will lead you – sometimes you’ll see buffalo when you least expect it, and sometimes you won’t be able to get through the trees and need to take another route you did not expect to take.

One more long run tomorrow and then a long 250km drive to Victoria to pick up a floatplane service back to Seattle and the office on Wednesday. Using this time as a personal offsite has been useful to put everything in perspective and staying centered!