June 13th

Okay, so this post is out of order. We're new to this blog thing.

On Tuesday, we met up with some wildwater paddlers in downtown Salida. As we were setting up to run shuttle, we ran into Ruth Gordon who was our guide in Ottawa two years ago. Since then she has gone on to become the Canadian National Freestyle kayak champion. Go Ruth! It was great to catch up with her.

Rob ran the classic course and then worked on the sprint course. Around lunchtime, I wandered into Absolute Bikes to ask about group rides, etc. They told me to hurry up and get ready because there was a noon mtb ride leaving in 10 minutes. Picture steep singletrack comprised of cat litter and loose rocks the size of baseballs and softballs. This was after the painful 40 minute cat litter climb in the hot sun which made me totally ill. Let's just say the 3 guys on singlespeeds totally beat me up the climb by a long shot. I came close to throwing up. It was probably silly for me to go hammer without letting my body get used to the elevation and the crazy heat - we had only been in town for 20 hours. Between the new terrain and the elevation, I felt like I this was my first time on a bike. Thankfully the group took pity on me and waited at all the turns. I can't wait to adjust to this thin air. I felt like such a slow-poke on the ride.