...day of riding!
It all started with a great idea, then the idea grew a bit to lets ride from Moose Mt. Road to Top of Norquay ski hill in Banff, connecting all our favorite trails somehow! The Idea was never really research in much debt from my side, but I'm big fan of point to point epic rides, so I trusted it would be a day of awesome riding, and epic it was!
The ride was sent out to a few folks but it ended up being Jon, Craig and my self. They stopped by the house around 7AM to start early, we had some food and a few little bike fixes to do. I still figured we had plenty of time do all the logistics around car drop etc and riding before the end of the day. I ended up changing my mind about the big bike vs the broken 29er in the last minute, chose the 29 with a bit of a dummy fix (getting good at this fix), and it would be a great choice! We got on the road just after 8AM so lots of time left in the day. First stop Banff to drop of my truck. Then we ventured back towards Calgary, and to Moose Mt. Rd to get started with the day. On the way we stopped at Barrier Lake to do a drop off of some drinks and snack for later. This would be approximately half way of our day we figured. I thought Id heard a six or so hour day, so I left a can of orange pop, that should be a good addition to the two bottles I had with me, and get me to the Husky on Highway for some more supply.
Jon and Craig and my self finally ready to get going. We started out with Pnuma, climbed up the lower section, then the upper part which I don't think I've done before. It was technical and steep in parts and I felt we were going at a pace I wasn't sure I'd be able to sustain for the day, but tried to keep up. We came out somewhere on Moose Mt, and from there on I'm not sure I'll use the right names of trails we did as it was mostly new stuff for me. We descended something I have done before (double track down to Moose Packers).
We then started climbing up Moose mt, my favorite (well I think, as far as I recall) part of the day. Under Jon's hand in the picture there some awesome switchbacks and behind there an awesome hike-a-bike section up to the summit! Truly Epic! And I was in heaven!
We made it to the "Helli pad" and a little bit further before the first hike-a-bike started. Not a very long section up to the Summit, a few hikes, and a couple of guys on bike was coming down, but probably did an in an out, and maybe that is a smart thing to do.
A quick call and a breather to discuss options on where to go next. In my head I had no clue, looking around it seemed like the only way was back out the way we came. But Nope! Craig knew there was a route across the scree slope, as he did this 9 years ago (which all along I thought was 1 year ago! Not only did he remember that, he also remembers there is a trail from the gas plant up to Jumping pound. And according to Jon, since he had done the topo research, it should be mostly downhill!! Ha ha..
So we ventured out on the scree! We planned on not loosing too much elevation as far in the distance and some closer too, we saw some cliffs and would like to come from the top rather than have to be stuck under. I think that planned worked out pretty good. It took me a good 30 min to an hour just to get used to the height and steepness of the slope. I now see the benefit of getting used to pushing your bike on both side of your body. As all the way across (1 hour 30 min total) I had to push and cary bike on the up slope, there was just no way the left side could do it. I know will practise for next epic!
Early on I lagged behind a bit so Jon kindly came back and took my bike down for a little bit. After this I sort of pulled my self together and forgot about the height and potential fall to death scenario!
This is very close to the end, and Craig had taken a lower line, while Jon and I was up high, above the cliffs I mentioned earlier. Jon went down to look around the corner to see if maybe we could get around as just above us it looked steeper and hard to get up. It felt like he took forever as I sat and "enjoyed" the view, and got my self thinking too much again about the height, to the point I felt it took so long I worried he wasn't coming back! ha ha.. your mind is a crazy organ.. or at least mine is. But thank goodness he came back and the verdict was no go around corner, so up the hill it was. And it wasn't as hard as it seemed. But we were a bit concerned about Craig who were down below and had to make it up the cliffs. When I saw Jon get on his bike a few meters up from me I smiled inside, very big smile! We road down some a sketchy slope full of rocks down to Husky plant and waited for Craig, well before I got on my bike I ensured I saw him cresting as well.
Might not seem so bad and long, but this slope is looking back at what we just did, pointing out you can't see the full path as it is a couple of gully's. I think next time we should maybe try the ridge it self? or maybe there is another way around.
Everyone were still smiling, so all was good, so now, 3 1/2 hour in or so it should be easy breezy, get on Craig's trails to Jumping Pound ridge! Guess nothing came easy today. I now learned it wasn't a year since Craig did this ride, it was 9 years, hence the memory a bit lacking, can't blame him for that. We road down the Husky road looking for the trail head, climbed back up and came up with the plan on staying on top of ridges (open, so we can see where we go). Our other option were to turn back, get Jon's truck, drive to Banff, get my ride and never speak of this again! We chose to continue of course. Jon's GPS wasn't really our friend either, but we had a good guess on what ridge in the far view was Jumping Pound and aimed to hit it. So we bushed whacked a bit, got to a open ridge. From here it looked like we had to peak two tops before topping Jumping Pound. We went down and up the first, we road around some trees for a bit, and by chance we just happened to run into a trail. All of Craig's memory now came back, this was the trail! We still had to do some hike-a-bike, but the ride or hike was still amazing and epic as can be. A little bit more confusion on the second peak, but we peaked Jumping 5 hours into the ride and 27km in distance!! We now only had, according to original plan, Down JP to Lusk, over to Barrier to climb Jewels, up to Razors Edge, down to highway, on TR. Canada trail to Canmore, then Rundle mountain to Banff and up to the ski hill!! hmm and about 5 hours of daylight. A bit of revision of plans. We made it down to the Powderface road, and had a quick chat with a local couple, and also got some much needed water as the two bottles we each brought were long gone! We took Lusk, which was beat up pretty bad, when we arrived at Barrier Lake I was so happy to get my little orange drink! But the boys came out of the bush with no drink for me?? First I thought Jon was pulling a joke, but someone seriously had stolen my drink, and also Jon's power bars!! I was so disappointed, well for two minutes or three.. Jon offered his red drink which almost made up for my loss, and then Craig gave me one of his two bottles as well, so all of a sudden I had two bottles of drink (for those who know me, that's a lot of drink for kate), but didn't think much of it. After the the ride I know I should have....
We rode over to Jewels and climbed, it felt really good actually, to be back on the bike, riding some real trails. We had a quick stop at the waterfall, both boys had a quick shower. At the top of the climb we waited a little bit for Craig, I asked him how he was doing and he had got a cramp and stopped for a bit, but I still didn't clue in on the fact that he only had one bottle as he gave one to me, and I didn't know he was on empty, felt really bad after. Though, we got down and on the highway both the guys seemed to have got some second wind, or maybe I just lost all mine! We flew away and I could barley hang on. Our new plan, stay on the highway to Banff, with one stop at Husky. I made a quick call to my friend Vlad, to kindly have a check on my house and dogs who I'd left at home, a can of coke and a yogurt (the only "food" that was appealing at the time) and on the road again.
Craig and Jon was nice enough to slow down the pace on the road a little bit for me. We estimated an hour to Banff from the gas station and they were pretty much bang on!! ha ha... for once..
When we got to Canmore we jumped on the bike path, super nice I'd say, the picture was pretty much my view for the most part on the road, thanks guy for dragging me in. As the sun were setting we got into Banff, but of course hardcore plans don't end with a car parked in town. In my head I'd decided that there was no way I could climb up, I'd be at least an hour and it was late already, close to 930PM! So I suggested we plan what to do for food, Jon thought we'd just pedal hard and plan food when pace was slower while climbing up to the truck, that didn't help my plan on not riding the hill.... so I sold them on the idea of "time management" basically.. I'll bike into town, order some food, and it'll be ready for when they come back down! I didn't have to sell to hard, they didn't seem to mind that I bailed out of the last climb. I rode into town, stopped at the place that had the word Pizza in it. And by luck, as it was 10 min to ten and kitchen was closing at 10 so I just got the order in on time.
Jon and Craig came down closer to 11, we all huddled in the truck in our bike gear and stinky bodies as you know by now, we are still learning the tricks to an epic day and point to point... none of us left anything in the drop off car! We drove to Bragg Creek, dropped Jon off and I got back to my house passed midnight..... EPIC DAY!!! and no complaints! Thanks Jon and Craig for being such great ride buddies!
Happy Riding Always!
