The 24 hours of Killarney

That's almost the perfect description of the weekend as Jacob, Liz, Shannon, the 2 dogs and myself headed north for a non bike weekend. It was far from a sit on the dirt in some campground surrounded by many other car campers, not this group. Arrival time to the launch on Bell lake was 3pm, yes a bit later than we all would have liked but it is what it is. Multiple portages finally got us on to David Lake where we would be staying the night, if we could find an empty campsite. As we paddled every liquidy inch of the lake we finally ended up at the farthest site on the lake. We should have just went to the end and worked are way back. Set up and food was started quickly and by 7pm we were ready to chill and eat. Campfire stories began with attempts of making Loon's a gang type attacking bird. It was pretty unsuccessful.

Like usual camping leads to early mornings, for some of us, normal wake up for others. Yet another great meal, fueling for the day would be essential. Another hour paddle fully loaded in the return direction but this time it was a portage, drop and leave. On to the hike of the day up to the top of Silver Peak. A good pace, especially for two weak frail cyclists who tried to keep up with the women. The climb is always worth the view and as we broke through the tree line the wind increased. After the exertion it felt great. Some more food and photo shoot at the top to say we were there was done. No AWI Racing flag left on the top, not this time.

The decent down is almost harder as you look at the sharp point rocks, of course Jacob and I were looking at what lines we would take through it if we had our bikes. An hourish later we were back in the canoe and heading towards the final portage back to Bell Lake. 780 meters feels more like 2340 feet. The winds increased and our hope for a tail wind on the last lake were of course shut down as we battled through the results of that hurricane on the east coast. We slide up on the shore just before 3 pm. According to 24 hour racing rules we could have gone back out for our last lap of the lake, we had time but are lead was solid and we strapped the canoes to the cars and headed south in search of food and beer.

The beer was good, the food was questionable. A great weekend away from 24 hour racing of bikes, the next block of training and racing is about to start. 4 tired people, 2 exhausted dogs. Yep a great weekend.