Save the date for our July Single Track Sunday!
When: 8:15 am at the trailhead, 8:30 am welcome and run
Where: Cedar Trail from Epinette Trailhead, Spruce Woods Provincial Park
We’re heading to Spruce Woods Provincial Park to bask in the hills of Westman.
Despite the drive time, this is going to be an early start to escape the heat in the middle of the day!
The route: We'll start by following the Spruce trail, including the rehabilitated single track leading into Cabin 2. From there, we’ll use the Juniper trail to connect to the Cedar loop before rejoining Juniper (we’ll stop at the photo point over the valley here before following the back half of Spruce back to our start point. This is approximately a 10km loop. You can run this once or twice to get your goal kilometers in for the day. Download the route file for your watch (.gpx).
For those of us joining us who wish to do a shorter run, you’ll follow the Juniper trail loop back to Spruce trail. This route option is approximately 5.8 km. You can review this route on All Trails. These trails are wide and well maintained with great forest views and lots of open space. There are a few views of the small ponds located in the area.
This route offers stunning river valley views that will make you forget you’re on the prairies. On the Cedar trail there are a number of short trail junctions (all signed) that let you take the slightly “flatter” route or a more hill, scenic option. Most of these trail spurs are 200-300 m, so you can choose your own adventure at these decision points. They all link back to the main single track we’ll be following on Cedar. This route is well-marked with provincial park signs, and we will not add additional flagging tape this month. Review a map of the trail network from Manitoba Parks.
What you need for the run: Pack your own water/hydration and snacks for the trail. It can get HOT in Spruce Woods during the summer, so make sure you’re carrying at least 1l of water (with electrolytes), if not more, for our run. You should also plan to bring yourself some snacks (gels, trailmix, fruitsource bars, pb & j sandwiches all work well) you can consume while on the trail. We pass a water pump on this run at Cabin 2 on this loop. We will pass this point at about 3 km into the run and again at 7 km if you need to refill bottles.
Apres run: We plan to picnic at the trailhead after the run, so feel free to bring something to share with the group. We’ll probably head down to the swimming spot at Kiche Manitou campground to cool off before heading home, too.
Getting there: Highway 5 was in rough shape in May, and we haven’t been out since. Leave extra time for the drive between Carberry and the park, as the road conditions require a slower speed.
We try to organize a carpool each month to reduce travel emissions, build community connections, and cut down on parking congestion. Please email us if you can offer a ride to someone on the day. Please note that our run leader is camping at Kiche Manitou this month before the run and cannot offer rides. Feel free to make a weekend of it and join us at the campground!
Hot Tips:
Expect to encounter poison ivy! We recommend wearing long socks and having a bag for your socks and shoes in the car to take home and wash with soap and water.
Having a bottle of Dawn in your car to soap up your legs after a run in the summer is also a great idea to help prevent the oil from poison ivy being absorbed into your skin.
You might want to consider camping overnight at Kitche Manitou overnight to save yourself a long morning drive, like our run leader.