Transrockies Day 2

Day 2: K2 Ranch to Nipika 73.7km 3813m of climbing

LOL! I thought the day one hike a bike was fun. Day 2's was positively insane. We had about 74km to the finish today. My knee is not doing well. The brace is annoying. But I'm afraid to take it off.

We have a nice warmup on the highway today, nice to get things stretched out before a climb. Then we go up the Fairmont ski hill. It's a lot gentler slope than Panorama (and a lot smaller ski hill) I was spinning fairly steadily. Knee is doing pretty well so far. We hit another fire road downhill. And I get another flat. Our tire change is even quicker this time. I'm pumping these things up to 40 psi. I need tubeless for next time.

We get to some more steep climbs and then the fun begins. We hike a bike up an avalanche chute. A stupidly steep climb. At least we weren't like the poor bastards who were in the lead, the climbed too far and had to come back down. We finally get up the hill and exit to some newly cut trail. It's an instant traffic jam of bikes, I don't move for about 5 minutes. It takes seemingly forever. We finally get moving, alternating between walking and riding. Again, a lot of people just can't ride the trickier terrain. We get to some really fun, rooty, wet downhill stuff. My friends Allison and Adrian would loved this. My partner Niall crashes hard, snapping his seatpost and twisting his body badly. We limp in just under 9 hours. Ugh. Tomorrow is a time trial day, hopefully a nice rest!