Musquodoboit Muffin Run Sunday December 8. Start at 10 am at Crawford's Falls. Distance is approximately 16km. Registration is on the morning of, and closes at 9:30 at the start/finish line. There is lots of parking on both sides of the bridge. There are no facilities at the start/finish. The start finish location is on Highway 357 (aka Meagher's Grant Rd) approximately 12km from the intersection of highways 357 and #7. Coordinates of the start/finish are: 44.872673, -63.220254.
The are no feed stations on the trail. All runners must have at minimum a pack, a rain shell, a fully charged mobile phone, snacks and water. Registration is $20, and waivers must be signed at registration. There are no awards or prizes for this event- except everyone gets a muffin.
The course begins with approximately 4km of flat rail trail and finishes with about 2km of the same. In between is wilderness singletrack.
NEW! There are an additional 3 optional out-and-back sections on the singletrack segment. They appear at approximately 5 km, 7km, and 12.5km. These are very well marked with blue flagging tape and are steep descents/ascents. Each out and back has a book. Remove one page from each book you get to. You must show the captured pages to the finish timing. Each page deducts 9 minutes from your finishing time. If you get all 3 pages, you get 27 minutes faster! However keep in mind the energy required for these may result in added fatigue and have a deleterious result on the net time. Each out-and-back takes at least 3 minutes. Totally optional.
If you have not run this trail before you are in for a real treat, but please be aware of the extreme technical and physical demands specially of the middle10km section. It may sound short but the distance is compounded by all steep ascents and descents and numerous hops skips and jumps between boulders, and over roots. There are no flat straight sections in this segment of the trail. Trail specific running shoes are highly recommended. Studs or spikes are definitely allowed, and may or may not be helpful depending on environmental conditions.
