Training on Stage 2 of Intermontane Challenge
Once again Chuck from Intermontane was nice enough to take us out for another ride on another section of the Intermontane Challenge course. We went out early Tuesday morning, we met at Chucks place and carpooled over to the trail head. Once again another smoking hot day in Kamloops. We started off with about 10 – 15 minutes of road riding from the parking lot over to the trailhead.
Once we started up the trail there was no rest from the relentless climb to the top. We climbed for about an hour on a completely exposed doubletrack road. I think Chuck was trying to wear us down by putting us in the heat. It worked, we could barely keep up and could not keep the sweat out of our eyes. We finally reached the singletrack trail, we thought that we must be close to the top at this point. Not a chance we climbed for another hour in the heat on a singletrack trail to the very top of the mountain. The views of Kamloops and the surrounding areas was amazing. We attempted to climb the wall but only I was able to make the climb, but Grace and Chuck put in a tremedous effort.
We stopped and took lots of photos, I used photography as an excuse to not continue riding and so I could get a rest. We started our descent down a fun piece of singletrack with some steeper sections Grace whimped out and walked a few as she’s not quite used to this kind of riding yet. The rest of the singletrack was among small brush and rocks where Chuck took photos of Grace and I going down the rock garden. At the bottom of the rock garden the trail turned into double track which was fast, fun and very dusty. There was more singletrack awaiting which was a fun swooping trail.
Back to the road to end our ride with a few minutes of road we were back at the truck. A great day and a great ride guided by Chuck from www.Intermontanechallenge.com. This race is going to be hot that’s why they call it the challenge it’s not just the riding. It’s Everything.
Thanks again Chuck!
Tags: Intermontane Challenge, Kamloops, Mtb, Trails
