There is a place not far from Vancouver where impeccable singletrack trails wind through lush pine forests, alpine meadows and lakes, and along a series of interconnected wind-swept ridges with spectacular panoramic views.

The Spruce Lake Protected Area in the South Chilcotin Mountain Range is located just 150 km north of Whistler, and 100 km west of Lillooet, B.C, an area which is nearly 72,000 hectares in size.

I was invited to tag along with friends Julie, Glenn, Ward, Jackie and Chloe for the August long weekend. The plan was to make the 5 hour drive on Thursday afternoon, then to run all day on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, returning to our campsite at the Tyax Resort each night. The icing on the cake was that we’d be taking the float plane from the lodge on Sunday morning and getting dropped off at Spruce Lake so that we could run out.

The Sea to Summit trail is an extension of the Upper Shannon Falls trail to the top of the new Sea to Sky Gondola in Squamish, BC.

As a run or fast hike, it takes around 2 hours to summit and is between 6.5 – 9.8 km, depending on your route, with roughly 1,000 metres of elevation gain. It climbs almost double as high as the nearby Stawamus Chief, giving you a great view back down at the massive monolith. Karl and I recently did the hike starting from the Shannon Falls parking lot which is definitely the way to go.

The Annapurna Circuit in Nepal truly is a trail runner’s dream, with untold miles of trails that wind through valleys, along ridges, and over mountains.

While trekking the AC this winter over 2 weeks, I managed to get out for a run every couple of days to explore the trails above the main trekking route a little further. That is, up until about 4,000 metres when running became a little difficult.

Joffre Lakes is one of BC’s most beautiful and relatively accessible alpine lake hikes or runs. There are three lakes in all (Lower, Middle, and Upper Joffre), with Upper Joffre being by far the most picturesque.

I’ve actually never been there in the summer, but a group of us did decide to run it the first weekend of December including my friends Chloe, Shannon, and Joel. It took just over 2 hours and we had a great time playing in the fresh pow.

I wanted to provide an overview of the inReach SE manufactured by Delorme which I recently got, specifically from a trail running perspective.

There are plenty of comprehensive reviews out there of all the product features and benefits, so I thought instead that I’d just quickly point out how I hope to take advantage of some of the device’s unique features in the backcountry running and racing that I do and to show you the device in action.