Studying day 1

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Wow. Starts with a sucker punch and ends with a kick in the pants. Lots of fun, but it's gonna be a hard first third of a long day. Can't really say how long it took us to finish the lap - we spent a lot of time studying the map and took a few wrong turns. It's a long, rocky road climb from Carter Park, as the ski area service road goes from nice and smooth to loose, rocky and steep. Add in the altitude and I was using all my gears! Finally, after way too long on the road, we reached Wheeler Trail. Single track in alpine tundra! The view was amazing, but I had to focus on the trail. A little more climbing, then time for the descent down to Copper. Wow. Overheated my brakes for sure on that one. All that climbing, those hours on the road and it took us minutes to reach the interstate. A break from single track on the Bike Path was welcome. My hands were sore! We overshot the turn to the next trail by a few miles and had to backtrack, but then onto the Peaks Trail. Rooty, Rooty and lot of rocks. Add in another gradual climb and it was a tough end to the first lap. Some fun sections for sure, but mostly heads up riding. A full days ride - and there's still two more laps! I'll get photos up later next week.

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