Photo submitted New book a guide to adventure

But a new book is out that attempts to re-introduce the outside environment into this inner game and some local green spaces are featured within.

The guide covers 60 running routes throughout Canmore, Banff, Kananaskis Country and Kootenay National Park and, though some of them are not for the light-hearted, author Bob Walker stresses the importance of enjoying the experience.

“This is more like adventure running,” said Walker, who has personally spent the past four years both running all the routes he has included in the book and organizing the content as well. “While some of the routes are trail-only, there are others that include options for scrambling, route-finding, orienteering, canyoneering, and even glacier travel. It’s really all about having fun in the mountains.”

What led him to write the guide was simply a lack of information that was available to runners like himself.

“I spent a lot of years bumbling around in the woods and getting lost and trying stuff, which is what everyone does,” explained Walker. People would approach him after a while and ask if he know any good paces to go. After a while, he thought writing a book would be easier for everyone.

In fact, one of the tougher parts, he said, was deciding what to include and what to leave out.

Walker lived in Canmore for years and lives in Revelstoke today so he had a lot of knowledge of trails to choose from.

For local destinations, he chose the trails along the highway through Kootenay Park that were most runner-friendly. There are short, two kilometre sprints that give a quick taste for the scenery but also included are some ultra-marathon distances and multi-day experiences to keep it interesting.

He admits that the research was enjoyable. “At one point I was running two hundred kilometers a week. All I did that summer was run. It was great.”

Walker found it difficult to name one route as a personal favourite but points to the Rock Wall Trail near Kootenay Crossing.

An advantage of running on trails as opposed to roads, he says is that the constantly changing terrain reduces repetitive motion injuries in joints that road runners might experience.

And for those interested in the technological side of running, all the routes included in the book also include GPS tracks that can be downloaded from his website as well. Mountain Running is a finalist in the Banff Mountain Book Festival.

It is available locally from Crazy Soles Running Store in Invermere and Nipika Mountain Resort or through Walker’s website, www.mtnrunning.ca.

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