Annette Hiom (phil’s mum)– active runner, trail runner, outdoor enthusiast – has Brittle Bone disease
Gale Lutkehaus (Grace’s Dad)- farmer, logger, active outdoorsman, fisherman, former guide – prostate cancer survivor
The Trail – A 75km hike along the west coast trail for 7 days Grace and Phil Hiom have signed up to be sherpas for Gale and Annette for their quest to finish the West Coast Trail. Knowing the difficulties of the trip with lots of ladders, trolley crossings, deep muddy trails, slippery boardwalks and tiring beach walking.
7 days of food and gear is a lot for 2 people to carry but Phil and Grace are looking forward to the challenge. They like challenges but usually they cover a lot more distance in a lot less time so going slow will be the challenge but the heavy load will help to slow them down. Gale and Annette will be carrying daypacks with clothes and water. The rest of the gear could add up to a lot but totally worth the challenge for these 2 young adventurers.
Phil and Grace recently left some of the best jobs in the world in Calgary and travelled to Australia and New Zealand for 3 months when they returned they moved to Kamloops to be closer to family and have longer and warmer summers. Although missing their jobs and friends they had in Calgary it was time to make the move. Sometimes it’s worth the sacrifice to be closer to family to give your support. With Gale turning 68 this year and now recovered from prostate cancer why not take on the west coast trail, which is named one of the hardest hikes in Canada.
Annette also just being diagnosed with severe Brittle bone disease or Osteoporosis had a few things on her bucket list – one being the west coast trail and an other one she conquered last year when Phil and Grace took her to the top of a mountain in Lake Louise. Annette is very active; running road marathons and trail runs up to 25km maybe 50km this year. I’m sure there will be more after this trip.
Although each have their own concerns Annette has a fear of ladders and whether she will be strong enough to finish the trail. She has been practicing the ladders with one set up in her yard. Also hiking many stairs every day with a pack getting ready for the long hike. Not sure what the neighbours think – maybe lots of leaks on the roof?
Gale has concerns of being slow and getting exhausted too quickly but with encouragement we can get him through it. Needing some motivation to exercise he decided to build an extension on to his hay barn so the ladders will not be a concern for him.
Phil and Grace ran the West Coast Trail 4 years ago in 2 days so they know what they are getting into. With all the scary websites out there saying how hard this trail is Annette is starting to have doubts but as part of her training now she is not going to look at anymore websites on the WCT
Conquering this trail will be a trip to remember for everyone. The gear is going to be light and the story is going to be great. Wish us luck and good weather for the trip
The night before the race checking out the times of the previous year winners for solo women Grace noticed she needed 6 laps to win. The pre-ride the night before was awesome but we only rode half the course not the crazy downhill which we soon learned about in the race. The race started at 10am and it was an all out sprint to take your place in line. The course was awesome lots of challenging logs to go over and some crazy downhills as we both almost launched into a ditch.
With no support and just a car to go back to – to switch out packs and get food there left little reason not to keep riding. Grace was in the lead for women’s solo early in the race and really didn’t want to do a 6th lap but knew that 6th lap would mean 1st place. Phil had a mechanical on lap 5 as his brake pads went into his router, not so good when the rest of the lap is all downhill but he made it to the end safely and in time to convince Grace to do that 6th lap. An awesome race and we will probably go back next year. See you at Pedal by the Puddle
The best place we know so far for fishing is Grassham Lake located near Fort St James a small town where Grace grew up. It’s always a great fishing day almost every cast or a few minutes of trolling it’s either a bite or a fish landed in the boat. A favourite location for camping or take the catch to shore and cook up some fish with salt and vinegar chips on a bun who needs hot dogs when you have nice rainbow trout.
We caught enough fish for dinner for a week and we spotted a moose and calf on the lake. Always a great day out if you go fishing at Grasham Lake. If you are looking for a guiding outfit to take you out for a great day these guys can take care of you and show you a good time at Grassham – Omineca Outfitters.
Here’s a moist bread that will taste fresh for several day’s on the trail. It’s heavy but provides a lot of energy and tastes great at all times of the day.
Mix all ingredients together in a large mixing bowl, I personally find this has too much sugar I would recommend reducing this to 2.5 cups from 3 cups:
3 Cups Non Gluten flour (a mixture of hemp, all purpose non gluten, tapioca, rice etc…)
2 Cups Whole Wheat Flour
3 Cups Cooked Pumpkin or Canned
3 Cups Sugar
2 Cups Chopped Walnuts
1 Cups Vegetable Oil
1 Tablespoon Pumpkin Pie Spice
4 Teaspoons Baking Soda
1 Teaspoon Salt
Split mix evenly into 3 loaf tins.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake for 1 hour 10 minutes or until the centre is cooked use toothpick to test.
Here are some pictures that Grace and I took at the Race the Ranch Downhill Race this past weekend. It was a beautiful day for the race. There were 358 riders taking part in the race. Grace and I volunteered to help out with the timing for them however before we got started Grace and I snuck off and got some pictures of the racers pre riding the course. I would have loved to get photos of them while they were racing but it was very busy around the timing tent and no time for running off to pretend to be a pro photographer. Maybe next time there is a race in town I will try and get on as a photographer instead. Anyways hope you guys enjoy the pictures.
The biggest DirtChix ride of the season, so far. Thanks for the invite and thanks to Phil for putting on his skirt and joining the DirtChix to take some pictures. 16 fine girls and 1 photographer were out for the ride, which slowly broke into a few groups so the faster girls could ride ahead. Only one really good tumble not sure who won the dirtiest girl award but I tried rolling around in the dirt but that didn’t work. Thanks to Dana for organizing a great ride. Check out some of the pictures below from the ride.
Here is the latest video angle we are trying with the hero camera. It’s pretty good it gives you a new look on the trails. We shot this video up in the Juniper area of Kamloops late in the evening. Super fun riding up there. Enjoy.
Do you want to go riding in Salmon Arm? Hell’s ya!! It’s hard to believe it’s mid April for the past how many years riding in April meant wearing lots of layers and piece mealing a trail together. NOT NOW, for Phil and Grace it means great climbs, awesome trails and lots of sunshine.
There were 12 of us riding; the climbing was awesome as we pounded our way up to the top of the hill where we rested so the group could catch up. Cruising down the other side with some dips, berms and gates. At the bottom was a bike trials and jump park. Time for some pics and a snack and the dreaded climb awaits. Watch out for Phil the creepy guy along the trail taking pics of everyone else riding, well not really creepy.
Reaching the top again and awaiting the arrival of the rest of the group was a great time to work on our tan. Did someone say DOWN, WOW that was amazing the down was filled with tight corners fast descents, more corners, trees, rocks and GATES!!! what a rush we loved it. Just another day in paradise. Thanks to everyone for letting us tag along can’t wait for next week.
The perfect finish to an epic adventure the Waitomo Caves furthermore the 5 hour ‘Black Abyss’. The decision was made to do the more advanced caving trip after talking with one of the guys at front desk, as 3 hour the Black Labyrinth sounded a little boring.
We booked the 9am trip on Friday and I guess no one else wanted to go on the early trip that was great for us – we had a guide to ourselves for our 4-5 hour caving adventure.
First off we had to get our gear sorted – wetsuit, booties, rubber boots, harness, biners, repel device, safety lines and helmet. All ready to go we drive for about 10 mins to the entrance of the cave and did a few dry practice runs to learn how to use the repel device and how important the brake hand is.
So hooked up and ready to go I went first and yes very nervous when the guide says okay just bend your knees and swing out off the landing pad and down this tight tunnel. Then the cave opened up into a huge cathedral of dark space. It seemed like a long way then I could see the light of the guide below and a sigh of relief came over me. I unhooked and then Phil came down of course no problem. A little bit of walking on some metal grates and then on to the flying fox also known as a zip-line. I again, first up hooked in and ready to go just step off this ramp and we like to do this part in the dark as the guide turns off my light and sends me off. Loosing my voice I couldn’t even scream it was really fast and over, before you knew it. Phil followed and loved it.
Next up black water rafting standing up on a ledge, harnesses are now off and we are given an inner tube and told to place it against our buts and jump off you can’t really see the bottom but the water is down there somewhere. So Phil steps up and the guide says on the count of 3 your going to jump or I’m going to push you. Phil says what? Okay 1,2,3 and Phil jumps, okay my turn guide says on 3 jump so 1,2,3 and I say hold a minute I’m going down there, okay again on 3 okay no more counting I will jump I just need a minute. So I ask the guide so what if the innertude moves off – don’t worry it won’t he says, Okay so I jump, yelling as I free fall and then hit the water, sinking a few feet under and then reimmerse from the water with a mouth full of cave water just exhilarated and wanting to do it again. One guide named Stew will be with us for the rest of our trip and we venture down the cave to check out the glowworms and since there is only 2 of us we get to go all the way to the end of the cave and it’s just amazing. The guide had a hard time keeping up to us it was so much fun. The glow from the worms amazingly light up the cave and showed us the way through in the pitch black. We stopped for some caving on the way back so we climbed up the side of the cave and through to some amazing stalagmites and then we had to crawl through a space where you had to turn your head sideways to get thru not much room at all but we came out into a huge cathedral. WOW.
More rafting and then we leave the rafts and walk the rest of the way in varying depths from knee deep to swimming in deep pools down the cave we go to another side trip. This cave was pretty exciting but hard to explain squeezing, crawling, head first, feet first and pulling ourselves through tight squeezes, and really having to think of how to get yourself through some of the spaces, It was so hot as we squeezed thru the caves as we were wearing our wetsuits the whole time. We climbed up some underground waterfalls, learned to climb with just butt and knees down a rock chimney.
Amazing experience out of our comfort zone and it awesome I would definitely do it again.
Arriving at Will and Emily’s Merino Farm known as the Glenmore Station we were wowed with the beautiful mountains. Lucky for us it was a work day on the farm so we got to see what really goes on with those Merinos. They were busy rating the young rams about 18months old to see if they were going to stay at Glenmore or be sold. A guy named Gordie from Australia was there helping them out. We think he is the sheep whisperer as he travels all over the world rating the sheep. He showed us the difference between wool used for base layer and what is used for outer garments. Some had super crimped wool and others not so much.
Across the farm 2 other guys were taking wool samples and blood samples to be sent away for testing. Just like any job there are hazards and sure enough the one guy cut himself right across the wrist not the best place for the cutters to end up.
Emily was showing us on the map how far their valley goes and that there were a fewhuts along the way for when they bring the sheep back from the hills; a lightbulb went off –we could run up to the huts and either stay or just run out and back. Emily likes to run in the valley as well so she showed us where to go so the next day that was the plan to run to the second hut.
The run was just amazing the scenery awesome and lots of cows and sheep to watch out for we made it to the 1st hut in about 2.5hrs with all the stops for pictures and running around rivers. Our goal was to reach the second hut as the valley opens up to amazing glaciers and mountains but we hit a road block. The river was too high to we decided to hike up in the hills but it thick with this spinney bushes that were covered with these inch long spines and were head height. We decided to turn back but not without some great views a great run and a beautiful day.
