Epic Camp Canada 2014 Day 11

Epic Camp Canada 2014 Day 12
August 31 (a day late)

Lake Louise - Calgary - 201km

Big Day!
Newsom set the camp minimum run for today to be a run from Lake Louise up to Lake Agnes and then back to our accom which he guessed to be about 10km.
He had left at 6:05am (very punctual is our Newsom) to do the same run but run up there from the accom which added about 1,000ft of vertical.
  The trails here are incredibly good.
After yesterday's run and today's I have covered a lot of them and there's a hell of a lot more here  to explore.  The trails we ran today were very smooth and wide.  Very run-able.
There's a log cabin restaurant at Lake Agnes that I'd love to have as my batch!   Gorgeous spot.
So our group was out there on foot for about 90 minutes.  Not exactly a cruisy jog before our long ride but "It Ain't Easy Camp" as everyone's come to expect by now.

Quick pack-up and I was dead last to breakfast again.  But to my surprise Michelle put out all the stuff that we weren't able to save since it was the last day so started with a half a tub of maple walnut ice-cream followed by lots of wonderful left-overs.
Can't remember if it was today or yesterday but after my run I glanced over to Gary's bed on the way into our room and it was covered with bike food/bars including about 6 Snickers bars.  He didn't need that many!  :-)  So Adamski and I uploaded one each to help the buddha-belly out a bit.

So off we go for our last ride of the camp.
The plan was to have a big re-group at about the 150km point to ride in together for the last 50km.  so that meant an easy w/up, me romping to a quick "prestige" KOM and then Newsom taking over to get us rolling for the next 40km.
I remember he did the same thing on one of our Nelson based camps when he rolled us out on the last day of that camp from Collingwood to the base of Takaka Hill super steady.

Fast roads, great winds and we ripped it towards Vancouver.
Barry Breffle (Bsquared) was once again busting my balls so I had to back off and ride more mellow but had a good Talk Ultra podcast to listen to and had young Adamski in tow with his Garmin to make sure we didn't make any wrong turns so it went by so easy.

We had a few more punctures today to wait for, but no big deal and after a leisurely lunch on the road-side we cruised riding friendly into and through Calgary to our accom on the other side of town.

Very happy to arrive at the Marriott.
Charlsey was already packing his bike!
He had left about 90 minutes before us and did it all on his own but still seemed in good spirits.  Must have something to do with his recent marriage to the lovely Shannon-a-rella!
Most of us had a quick shower and down to the bar before dinner.
Dinner was good!  another wonderful restaurant meal with everything pre-ordered except for drinks.  Lots of booze going down! with Gary becoming more incoherent with every drink.  Dude can really slobber all over you in a situation like this.
Fantastic evening remembering funny and extraordinary moments over the last 11 days.
Special thanks to John Ballard for the cocktails.

Adam B wrapped up the Yellow Jersey, Zach the polka-dot and Lou the Red jersey for (BOF).
   I'd like to make a special mention here of our two fabulous Kiwi woman who showed exceptional grit and resiliency - Shannon for her climbing ability on her bike and Leah for her stickability every single day.  Tough, tough women.

Epilogue to follow soon with some camp wrap-up thoughts and some tips for those of you who might do a big training camp in the future.
Dwan and I drove the van back to Vancouver today - 930km. All day driving.
I might have to ask for those kms to be added as a last tack-on!