Finding a Foot and first blog entry:)

So, this is my first in hopefully many, detailed accounts of our training for our Trans Alps Race in September. My Partner for this race, Rene and I have been training for the past 5 months together. It is an 8 day stage race that starts in Germany, goes through Austria, Switzerland and ends in Italy! It is approximately 290 kilometers and I won't even post the elevation gain because it just makes my legs hurt!!

I like to take pictures on all of my training runs and long races....I have so many pictures of deer, moose, bear, and gorgeous vistas from various remote locations. But, I have to say- last Friday's pictures were the most gruesome!! I started off on a hike up to Black mountain around noon, and we decided to go up a steep lil' mountain before bushwacking our way up to the summit. Well, at the top of this mountain, we found what we thought was a human foot. YUCK.  I know anatomy. I was trying to rationalize how this couldn't possibly be a human foot in front of us. Unfortunately, I couldn't think of what other kind of animal would have the same configuration as a human foot. So.....long story short, after a quick RCMP call, they told me to take pictures of it, and to meet them at the bottom of the mountain. After seeing the photos, they also thought it was human, so we showed them were it was and continued on our hike up to black mountain.

It was definitely one of the most eventful hikes I've ever had (and I've had a lot!), a couple of hours later, I almost stepped on a FRESHLY killed deer (thanks to a cougar, we think).....so needless to say, after that I armed myself with bear spray and a large stick and was on high alert looking for the cougar.....
6 hours later, we are home and pooped from all the findings, bushwacking, and did I mention the stinging nettle?!!!!

I got a call 8 hours after finding the foot, that it was in fact the rear foot of a bear!!! So.....if you are ever out hiking and find a foot that looks human, it could be a bear!! It's amazing- I googled it to see the difference/similarity and it's amazing how similar they look!!! I won't post my gruesome pics of the foot in my first blog, but it was tempting....
All in all, it was a great training weekend with 12 hours on my feet......this will be the last build week before some REST!! YEAH!!!  Wish us luck this weekend, as we go down to run the north shore trails for 5 plus hours followed by hiking Yak and Needle Peak on Sunday another 8 plus hours of hiking. Very much looking forward to rest:)
Good luck to everyone who is running the Knee Knacker Race on Saturday!!!! Can't wait to see you all finish:)