Rocks, snow, mud, and climbing!

Today can be summed up thusly….rugged!

The morning started as we started riding at 0700. On the menu? Koko Claims. Koko is a 5 to 8 mile (depending on who you speak to) ride. Ride, yeah right!!! Ride is a bit of an exaggeration!

The run-in to Koko is all but two miles of the total distance, and it is WAY undervalued! There are numerous segments in that part of Koko that are unridable on a loaded bike, and maybe not a lightweight MTB.

Finally arriving at the base of the famous section, we switched into pairs of tennis shoes we brought as sacrificial offerings to Koko that would be left at the top. It took us about 1.5 hours just to get there! Say 4 miles. Then the fun starts. The “road” is conservatively 2 miles at an average grade that often touches 30%!

There is simply NO riding the last two miles, and even hiking it, let alone with a 50 pound bike, is grueling! It took us about an hour and 45 minutes to go those 2 miles. At the top we were cooked. 8 miles and 3000’ of climbing in a little over 3 hours.

But the fun doesn’t stop at the top! There are about 10 river crossings and an uncountable number of hike a bike down hills. Add to that the tight and dense forest full of bears and it’s quite the adventure.

Speaking of bears, we did see another one today. A scaredy cat black bear that posed no issues. But we saw a ton of wildlife today. We saw elk, a bunch of deer, the aforementioned 🐻, and a mountain goat!

And, just in case we got lost, we were happy to get pictures at the iconic “Mexico” sign just outside Fernie.

So, a rugged 10 hours and about 7000’ of climbing tires you out! But we’re motivated and looking forward to manana!

Ride on!

Shane