Another awesome morning in Calgary and not a bad day for a group ride.
Started off in West Brag. Nice to see few faces that I have not ridden mtb with yet this year, Andrea, Cindy and Jon. The rest, Erik, Craig and Trish.
Today the route started up Rangers Summit and it was surprisingly wet considering it was dry yesterday. Guess the storm we missed yesterday still left it's signs. It was also quiet busy already even though we had a pretty early start. Rode a steady pace up with Trish, crested at Strange Brew and rode back to connect with group to go down Bob Cat and venture over to Pnuma via Ridgeback.
On Ridgeback the group put in a few minutes of trail work, nothing compared to the many hours that goes in every year to maintain these trails (thank you to those steady guys who we often see out there), but everything counts. I did the duty of taking pictures :)
Took the classic sulphur up to Pnuma. With Trish having to work I decided to stay with her. She set a Trish pace up Pnuma! At Race of Spades we decided to go further to Special K to maybe shave some time. Great to test the legs on the last little bit of Pnuma, fun pushing the bike over the rocks. Hit a little bit of snow at the top. Special K - been on my lower part of list of great descents. It's technical challenging which some days are fun, but so steep you're just on your breaks and sliding down most times, I like to ride my bike, not slide.... today I hiked most of the beginning, it was pretty rutted and had some snowy/icy spots. The mid sections that was the "beat me up" section, well that hadn't change either... but the return on investment... last third is flowy and fun I have to admit. But all in all, I can check this one off my list for this year and it remains on the lower part of the list. ROF is still my preferred way back down or all the way up and Moosepacker/Ridgeback.
The way back up Bob Cat and Rangers Summit was great, good effort to test the legs a little bit, work the grit from Portugal out :) Then a final descent on Rangers Summit that by now was very busy with riders and it must have taken a hit during a freak storm that we totally missed again today :)
Another bike cleaning effort required but Trish made it back to work in time!
Happy Riding!
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| Fuzzy Erik on Ridgeback... |
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| Cindy climbing Ridgeback - riding strong and smiling all the way... |
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| Showing muscle.... Erik, Trish and Craig.. |
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| Jon and Andrea equally strong.... |
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| A project of this magnitude requires strong leadership and encouragement - here provided by Cindy... |
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| pick one.... |
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| Erik in his classic form - on the seat spinning over most things... |
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| Andrea riding strong! |
Moving that fallen tree was a highlight of the day, you can't do that easily unless you have such a big group!
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