Day three of the TansRockies marks a bit of an turning point in the event. David and I signed up for the full TR7 which is seven days of stages and riding. There are two other options in the event, TR3 and TR4. TR3 includes the first 3 days whereas TR4 is last four days. TR3 all takes place in and around Fernie and TR4 takes place further north towards Canmore/Calgary. Today was the last day of TR3 so starting tomorrow we will see a bunch if new faces/riders as TR4 officially starts.
TR3 wrapped up in glorious fashion. The stage started at the ski resort and took a road aptly named 'lungbuster' to a trail that we traversed over to the next drainage and followed a downhill that kept you fully engaged. The start was a bit of a rude awakening though. It got steep and sustained, just continued to give for about 2,200 ft over 3 miles for an average grade of over 13%!! At least the steep climbing was on a road and did not entail a root cocktail on that climb.
We got to the bottom of the first downhill and followed some nice trail through overgrown bushes and it put us out through a creek crossing. As soon as went through the creek (fortunately we did not need a paddle and were not yet up ¥£#% creek so all was good), we hit the first aid station and promptly filled up knowing the featured climb of the day was ahead of us.
At the briefing the night before, we were told that grizzlies had been spotted in that drainage so that hovered in the back of my mind. We left the aid station and followed to contour of the river via a tight and rooty trail that eventually put us onto a road where 'the climb' awaited. Let's just say it did not disappoint. It was lonnnng, steep, and did I say steep? The view up the climb/ hike a bike were stunning. The climb just kept on dishing out doses of face slapping and it took everything to get on the bike on the pitches that were "rideable" and keep the pedals turning. There were large sections that were just barely rideable and you just kept moving up up up.
Along the way, we saw some fresh bear scat. Man oh man, it was fresh! The only fresher it could have been was if it was steaming! It was so fresh that it was still green, and it was definitely grizz scat. They say the scat turns brown after about 15 minutes so we were in the bear's backyard. We made sure to make noise and chatter as we tried to dig ourselves out of the suffering as we slowly progressed up the slope. Fortunately we did not have any bear encounters.
We finally created after some grunting, groaning, maybe even a tear or two (fortunately the sweat rate was so high that tears and sweat could not be distinguished from each other), we crested and were treated to some 360 degree views of awesomeness. We peaked at about 6300 ft and then eagerly anticipated the downhill of the day that would lead us to the finish.
The downhill is a hiker only trail and was opened up to the TransRockies for the day. It was fast, steep, and full of switchbacks that were not rideable, which of course did not deter us from attempting fate and trying to clean them. This would lead to my first fall of the day which made me a wee bit gun shy after for the remaining switchies. David, on the other hand, felt like he needed to out-do his prios day's falls and up the ante by going over his handlebars and airborne in the superman pose. He got up and I was a little worried because he stumbled and almost fell back down. He decided to get going quickly so as to not think about the pain or results of being mortal but acting all super hero like.
But ahhhh, my turn was next! About 2 miles from the finish I had myself a keeper of a fall. The trail was so steep that brakes were only partially effective. I got a little too much speed and then hit my brakes and felt my rear wheel lock up on something slippery which sent me into my own little super hero pose as I rolled into the bushes and slid for about 10 ft. My shoulder started to bark at me immediately but I hopped rghit back on and rode to ignore the pain and force the mind to think about something else.
Without further insult to injury, we got to the finish and parked our butts down while people looked at us and just commented about how much of a mess we looked....or just maybe they were digging
Hersey's salmon colored shirt?
Day three in the books and it was just just over 19 miles and about 5,300 ft of elevation gain. They were hard earned but the payoff was amazing. We did some extra credit miles to get back to the condo so we did an extra 8 miles and about 300 ft of elevation gain.
Tomorrow we take a 4 hour shuttle north and have a late start/finish to the stage. We might be incommunicado for a few days as we get deeper into bear country - starting at stage 4, bear spray is mandatory! They are doing a check of the racers prior to the start....
TR3 wrapped up in glorious fashion. The stage started at the ski resort and took a road aptly named 'lungbuster' to a trail that we traversed over to the next drainage and followed a downhill that kept you fully engaged. The start was a bit of a rude awakening though. It got steep and sustained, just continued to give for about 2,200 ft over 3 miles for an average grade of over 13%!! At least the steep climbing was on a road and did not entail a root cocktail on that climb.
We got to the bottom of the first downhill and followed some nice trail through overgrown bushes and it put us out through a creek crossing. As soon as went through the creek (fortunately we did not need a paddle and were not yet up ¥£#% creek so all was good), we hit the first aid station and promptly filled up knowing the featured climb of the day was ahead of us.
At the briefing the night before, we were told that grizzlies had been spotted in that drainage so that hovered in the back of my mind. We left the aid station and followed to contour of the river via a tight and rooty trail that eventually put us onto a road where 'the climb' awaited. Let's just say it did not disappoint. It was lonnnng, steep, and did I say steep? The view up the climb/ hike a bike were stunning. The climb just kept on dishing out doses of face slapping and it took everything to get on the bike on the pitches that were "rideable" and keep the pedals turning. There were large sections that were just barely rideable and you just kept moving up up up.
Along the way, we saw some fresh bear scat. Man oh man, it was fresh! The only fresher it could have been was if it was steaming! It was so fresh that it was still green, and it was definitely grizz scat. They say the scat turns brown after about 15 minutes so we were in the bear's backyard. We made sure to make noise and chatter as we tried to dig ourselves out of the suffering as we slowly progressed up the slope. Fortunately we did not have any bear encounters.
We finally created after some grunting, groaning, maybe even a tear or two (fortunately the sweat rate was so high that tears and sweat could not be distinguished from each other), we crested and were treated to some 360 degree views of awesomeness. We peaked at about 6300 ft and then eagerly anticipated the downhill of the day that would lead us to the finish.
The downhill is a hiker only trail and was opened up to the TransRockies for the day. It was fast, steep, and full of switchbacks that were not rideable, which of course did not deter us from attempting fate and trying to clean them. This would lead to my first fall of the day which made me a wee bit gun shy after for the remaining switchies. David, on the other hand, felt like he needed to out-do his prios day's falls and up the ante by going over his handlebars and airborne in the superman pose. He got up and I was a little worried because he stumbled and almost fell back down. He decided to get going quickly so as to not think about the pain or results of being mortal but acting all super hero like.
But ahhhh, my turn was next! About 2 miles from the finish I had myself a keeper of a fall. The trail was so steep that brakes were only partially effective. I got a little too much speed and then hit my brakes and felt my rear wheel lock up on something slippery which sent me into my own little super hero pose as I rolled into the bushes and slid for about 10 ft. My shoulder started to bark at me immediately but I hopped rghit back on and rode to ignore the pain and force the mind to think about something else.
Without further insult to injury, we got to the finish and parked our butts down while people looked at us and just commented about how much of a mess we looked....or just maybe they were digging
Hersey's salmon colored shirt?
Day three in the books and it was just just over 19 miles and about 5,300 ft of elevation gain. They were hard earned but the payoff was amazing. We did some extra credit miles to get back to the condo so we did an extra 8 miles and about 300 ft of elevation gain.
Tomorrow we take a 4 hour shuttle north and have a late start/finish to the stage. We might be incommunicado for a few days as we get deeper into bear country - starting at stage 4, bear spray is mandatory! They are doing a check of the racers prior to the start....
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