Today, just outside of Canmore, the group met in a mountain road parking lot for the warm-up hike. The start time was 1pm, but some of the group were delayed until shortly after 2pm. With everyone assembled we started the climb which was about 3,000 vertical feet of solid up hill. My cycling payed of, and my legs were good,and the cardio, while fairly intense, was quite managable.
We hung out at the top for quite a while enjoying the view and taking pictures. The climb up was about 1 hr and 20 minutes and we were pushed by a mother anddaughter team that did it in one hour, we ust could not let them pass us.
Going down was a different story. I found it quite hard on my legs, nees, and feet. This is not a cycling motion at all. At the end our smaller group was quite tired and wondering how we’ll make out on tomorrow’s 8-10 hour trek climbing 6,000 vertical.
Off to bed soon as we need to leave Banff at 4:30am to be at the base start location by 6am. After today’s performance they decided that we need an extra hour of daylight.