butter. My stomach grumbled. It was hard to keep running. We pushed on, running as quickly as we could up half-rotted cedar planks. Several sections of the trail can be completed either by forest or beach, but we decided to stay in the forest due to the deep sand and rocky shoreline lining most of the coast. Ladders broke up the more difficult sections that occasionally required us to use our hands to lower ourselves off large roots or muddy, oil-slick rocks.
Gnarly Roots and Bear Scat Forced back on the beach, we struggled to find the easiest route. Was it the hard-packed sand at the edge of
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the shore that was so off-camber my left hip was several inches higher than my right? Was it the rocks, newly revealed by the ebbing tide and slippery with bright green algae? We decided Nitinaht Lake, where you can that neither option enjoy fresh salmon or crab if you was ideal, but the have time to spare. Photo by Jade Belzberg faster we made a decision, the better. At long last we found ourselves ourselves and our tiny packs onto the back in the forest, climbing more ladcable car and rejoiced when it felt like ders up to a high point that led us into we were zip-lining across the river. more treacherous terrain. Clustered in At the last cable car, at kilometer 62, this section are three of the four cable the trail cut inland. What in fresh hell, cars on the trail, but we opted to take I thought, as we cursed gnarly roots and only two of them as the river was low huge mud pits where the only option was enough on the first crossing to simply to go straight through. I was tired; we run across the water. The cable cars both were. When I stopped to calm my that we did take, however, were a fun breathing, I found my legs quivering. reprieve from the run itself. We threw As the kilometers ticked slowly by,
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