Saturday...

...group ride started out at Cadence again. I had a less than great breakfast, just didn't have it for food this morning. But coffee was good as it always is. During breakfast it was a bit of discussion where to ride, everywhere from Canmore to Bragg, what trails in Bragg etc. In the end we ended up with a plan to do a Tour of the Moose Mountain. And as usual I don't really pay too much attention as I don't know the trails well enough to really follow all the discussions and I'm just looking to ride, and with these guys, Craig, Keith, Craig (second), Gabor and Jon, I'm rested assure that it'll be a great outing.

Though after all this discussion I almost missed my ride, as on the highway I was heading to Canmore, head just not there today! Made it to Station Flat and found a parking spot (not easy, it was packed!) and we started our ride.

Moose Mountain in the back, a great switch back climb!

We climbed up little bit of Sulphur (backwards) then on the highway for a few hundred meters to get to Moose Mt. Road. We rode up Pnuma and had a quick bottle drop off halfway up. Continued up to the top of Pnuma which then rewards you (depending on who you are) with a super fun, rockie downhill section. Rather than going down Moose Packers we continued on and decided to have get a peak of Moose Mountain in. I climbed this once before, and knowing it would not include a scree hike I was more than happy to ride up, and hoped to clean it this second time up. I stepped down once! It was very upsetting, I really wanted to clean this climb, next time! On the way down we did a "follow Jon" approach, so no switch backs, just shortest route down. Fun times, though as we came close to the bottom Jon had pulled over with a flat front tire. This turned out to a much longer stop than anyone had thought, and maybe next time someone will carry a hammer and a chisel, or maybe at least a Leatherman....

Everyone but I (not sure why I never did try...) had at least one individual try at getting the valve out of Jon's rim, some lost a bit of skin off their fingers trying.

Then several team efforts went in to the project, various tools from the surroundings (rocks mostly) were tried.

After all failed attempt, the idea of putting the tube in, get some air and stuff the valve in the tire came up. On the second try this worked great, enough air to maybe find a hiker with a leatherman, or make it all the way down to Moose Mountain parking lot with all the downhill folks parked, that probably would have tools.

Plan worked out, found some "dirt addicted" guys below that had any tool you can imagine (well at least one that we could use) and the valve came out. Only one more flat after this! Not bad for a day on tubes!

So with Jon's bike back up and running, we continued on with the ride plan. We rode from here over to SHAFT (SuperHappyAwesomeFunTrail, I think), and that was all the words plus some that shouldn't be said! So much fun! With one handle foamy loose, I had a couple of near-death experiences when hand would slip off on the steepest parts, added some extra adrenaline, and hence, more fun!
To get out we took some "connector" trail over to a road (I forget what road, but IngsMine maybe), and at the bottom of the road we climb back up to Sulphur, then some more Sulphur climb backwards, a little down and we were back at bottle drop, and good thing, as all the guys were out by this time. Climbed back up Pnuma to the start of SpecialK and ended the day with some fun descending once again. Little bit of Ridgeback and out to parking lot, nice and tired. Very happy with ride today, paced well so climbing felt better than last weekend, cleaning things I didn't before. Food was up next!

Happy Riding!