TransRockies, Day 2

Dear Mom,

Bike camp is fun! I am having a great time here at TransRockies. Today at breakfast I ate eggs and oranges. They got all of the kids together in a big group in downtown Fernie and we all took off together. Some kids went really fast. Keith, Jenn, Sierra and I all went to the back of the line. We like it there because we can goof off and none of the counselors catch us.

Then they let us climb fire roads! I love climbing fire roads! Fire road climbs make me smile because I can look at all of the beautiful mountains and pedal hard until my legs feel big and strong. The other kids sometimes complain and think fire roads are super lame, so I try to pretend I hate them, too.

Then we got to ride singletrack trails! But they weren't bad singletrack trails like the ones yesterday. They were fun! The mud was nearly dry and I stopped to smell lots of flowers and look for Saskatoon berries, because Keith says those are delicious to eat.

The the trail came to the top and we were so high! I think I could even see our house, we were so far up above the world! I looked all around at the mountains and smiled big, because we had a long way to go down.

And then we went down, down, down. You would be so proud of me, because I almost rode all of it! I missed some switchbacks where the other kids kicked up too much dust, but mostly I had the most fun I have ever had on a downhill in a long time. Even Keith said, "My smile muscles hurt."

Then we rode to Sparwood, and it was fun to go to Sparwood because I rode through there last year during Tour Divide Bike Camp. This time, there were lots more kids and I didn't have to eat at the A&W because there were free oranges and cookies. The bus came and they took us to Elkford, which is another place I recognize, but I forgot how pretty it is here. For dinner we had turkey and watched a movie about ourselves, which was funny. I laughed because they showed a picture of me lowering my bike down a headwall.

Thanks so much for sending me to Bike Camp! They say we are headed into the wilderness so I probably won't be able to write for a while, but I am doing great and I miss you.

Love,

Jill

TransRockies, Day 1

The subtitle of this post is "20 miles of mud-choked smiles." It was a tough day one for TransRockies, especially for those of us competitors who don't really know how to ride a mountain bike. That didn't stop it from being 30 kilometers of giggly fun, but, yes, Keith and I did take four hours and 32 minutes to wrap it up, and yes, if I knew what the conditions were going to be like and I was given the choice of whether to ride my bike or leave the bike at the starting line and run the time trial instead, I would have picked the latter option. I would have definitely moved faster on foot without the slippy wheels/mud-clogged anchor.

This is my partner, Keith, and my friends Sierra and Jenn from Whitehorse, Yukon. Sierra and Jenn are racing in the Women's Open category. Keith and I are in Mixed Open. It rained most of the night and all morning, and by our 11:34 a.m. start time, the trail had been thoroughly soaked and torn to shreds by the nearly 400 competitors who started before us.

These girls started just a few minutes before we did. I like their strategy - if you can't be the fastest, you should be the most stylish.

This guy finished the race before we even started. The look on his face gave us an idea of what we were in for.

The route gained more than 1,600 feet right out of the gate, in less than six kilometers (like how I'm mixing my distance/metric measurements? Expect that from me a lot in TransRockies.) It was a super fun climb; definitely my favorite part of the day, and I'm not joking about that. It was mostly rideable and incredibly scenic, and I have decided that gravity is not my friend. Yes, I would rather just ride uphill and skip the descent. As I said to a guy climbing in front of me earlier today, "I like riding uphill because at least then, I own gravity. Once I turn my wheels downhill, gravity owns me."

A few too many times I shouted to Keith in a rush of glee, "It looks just like Juneau! Oh, Keith, I miss Juneau." (And I promise, this was said without an ounce of sarcasm.)

Another picture from the climb. After "trail amnesia" sets in, I can always tell which parts of the ride I was in a great mood and which parts I was grumpy, because the good-mood stretches are saturated with pictures, and the bad-mood stretches have no visual documentation.

Top of the first climb. Keith endo'd just a few hundred meters down the trail and we both picked our way down after that, mostly on foot. The surface was cheek-clenching steep, covered in sticky mud with veins of wet roots flowing across the width and length of the narrow, switchbacking trail. It was much more technical than anything I have ever attempted to ride, and I wasn't about to start on day one of a seven-day stage race that I'd like to finish.

This was part of a five-kilometer downhill section that we were able to ride. This is only my and Keith's second time riding mountain bikes together, and we found we're both well-suited to each other as partners. Both of us prefer self-preservation to taking big chances for a small boost of overall speed. As he said to me earlier today, "I'm a trail runner, and after this race, you probably will be, too."

About midway through a long, rolling descent called the Coal Discovery Trail, I was pretty much ready to chuck my wheels in the woods. The tires got so clogged with gummy mud that they were worse than slicks, fishtailing down the chewed-peanut-butter trail even when I didn't hit the front brake, and I was side-slipping off the slope on a regular basis. I finally got frustrated enough with it that I announced to Keith I was just going to jog the rest of the way, and I hoped he didn't care. I did jog a good most of it, and my mood improved again pretty quickly. By the time we were freed from our self-renamed "Mud Hell Discovery Trail," I was singing at the top of my lungs, a song that Keith had running through his head all day thanks to our friend Dave and a clever shirt, the "867-5309" song.

Keith and I at the finish line, giving our best defiant sneer to stage one. One of the advantages to not riding much of a 30-kilometer stage is that you don't really get tired at all. I can't even feel it in my legs or head, so I'll chalk this one up as a free day and hope we get a fresh start tomorrow.

This is my kind of bike race

That title is misleading. There's been no bike racing yet. The event actually starts Sunday morning. Keith and I seeded ourselves in the bottom half of the recreational racers, so we begin our 30-kilometer, 1,300-meters-of-climbing time trial in Fernie at 11:15 a.m. After that moment, this week is going to be hard; real hard. I look at the elevation profiles and kinda wish I could just leave my bike at home, because it's going to be a heavy thing to carry. But it will be fun. I'm really looking forward to TransRockies.

Meanwhile, I am already settling into the posh lifestyle of the race. I drove up to Banff on Friday so my car would be near the finish when the race ends. The drive between Missoula and Banff is one of the more spectacularly scenic 400-mile stretches of road I've ever had the privilege to gawk at while creeping in a line of 50 vehicles behind an oblivious 70-year-old driving 35 mph in a red Mustang. I stopped in Kalispell to have lunch with Danni, and borrowed several jerseys from her (including one Good-n-Plenty jersey; not quite as appropriate as Sour Patch Kids, but close.) Ate steelhead and stuffed mushrooms with Keith, Dave W. and Jason the Ski Stop guy in Banff. This morning Keith and I made our way back to Fernie, but not before stopping for four hours at his friend's cabin on a lake in southern British Columbia. We swam and tried out the standing paddle board and went on a boat cruise around the lake amid perfect temperatures and sunlight. It's been a small taste of what it's like to go on a normal vacation; I've almost forgotten. The gorging and relaxation has been short-lived, but appropriately so. I can't wait to start the bike adventure.

Yes, this is going to be quite hard, but don't cry for me. There will be plenty of grilled salmon and massages at the end of the trail.