TransRockies: Heading North!

Lindsay will be here in a couple hours and then it's time to load the truck, turn off the computers, and get one last good night of sleep before the 12 hour drive north to Panorama tomorrow morning. Thanks to everyone who sent along the good luck wishes these past few days -- that was really nice to see.

Race Updates
The TransRockies people will be posting daily updates with photos on the main race website. If you're interested in following along at home, follow this link. The race starts on Sunday.

Also, I'm going to try and post an occasional update here on my blog when I can so be sure to check back for some short first-hand accounts of what's going on.

Where Will We be?

This is a point-to-point off-road race covering 600 kilometers and roughly 12,000 meters of elevation gain (approximately 370 miles and 40,000 feet of gain) taking place in southeastern British Columbia, just south of Banff National Park.

Here are some links to some of the spots will be spending the night.

Panorama Ski Resort - We'll be here Friday night to Sunday morning. I'm hoping to take one or two easy runs on the lift-served trails on Saturday to stretch out the legs.

Invermere, BC - We'll arrive here Sunday night and spend the night outside of town before heading out Monday morning.

Nipika Mountain Resort - This is a wilderness "resort" near a lake that we'll apparently be spending two nights at instead of one due to the forest fire closure. We'll arrive here Monday and ride an out-and back course on Tuesday, then finally head out on Wednesday for good. Apparently the out-and-back will include a 5 mile climb up 3,000 feet. I'm not looking forward to that.

We'll also be enjoying stopovers in Whiteswan Lake, Elkford, Sparwood, and Fernie along the route. We were supposed to visit Crowsnest Pass in Alberta, but that's looking unlikely due to the forest closure. That's a shame too, as the photos I have seen looked like Crowsnest Pass was one of the best camping sites along the whole route. Oh well... an extra night in Nipika should be a nice addition though.

So that's it. We're off. Thanks for reading and be sure to send some good vibes northward next week. We'll need it!