Posted by
Madden Driver Coghlan
Spent five days in CO/UT working the
Bikerpelli tour on the
Kokopelli mountain bike trail. It was an epic four days doing logistical support for 90 riders as they rode the 142 miles from
Fruita, CO to
Moab, UT. Try to imagine sending 90 riders off in the AM, meeting them for lunch as the stagger in over the course of 4 or 5 hours, then meeting them for dinner...doesn't sound too difficult eh? And truly it wasn't, but only for the near perfected system designed over the years by the tour director.
Not sure where really to begin with this one, so I will try to pick out the juicy...and often smelly details. The event itself was a tour, not an event. The distinction here simply being that our focus was on group support and less on
individual attention. This meant that there was no on trail support, just bike repair areas at the aid station at lunch and at camp in the evening. While the riders were on trail we spent our time driving the riders gear, our gear, and often several riders in two full size budget rental box trucks and a fifteen passenger van. There are photos to come, but just to paint a picture these roads were often four wheel drive only and one included 22 creek crossings.
At lunch, in addition to a bike repair area, we setup several tables with a nice make your own
sandwich lunch spread, put out a variety of camp chairs, and
generally attended to the condition of the riders trickling into the station. The evening was another matter. The goal was to arrive to camp an hour or so before the riders at which point we unloaded 90 large
duffels, and 90 camp chairs, before setting up our gear in
preparation for cooking that nights dinner. In addition to the tables, stoves, food etc. needed for cooking, we were also charged with setting up toilets. 90 people is by no means my definition of a low impact
backcountry group, but in an attempt to minimize the footprint we setup 5 toilet areas. These were a relatively simple system of "bathroom doors," signs staggered some 50 yards from the actual toilet areas, followed by a trail of orange flags leading to the toilet. The toilets themselves were generic 10 gallon buckets, with plastic snap-on toilet seats. Next to each toilet was another bucket of kitty litter. After using the bathroom, the
user was supposed to cover his/her product with a scoop full of kitty litter. Although far from preventing all odor, the system worked relatively well. Picking out
scenic and private spots for the toilets became something of a challenge and was even entertaining. Picking up the toilets in the morning was a much less pleasant process...carting around 10 buckets of human waste is 100% as unpleasant as it sounds.
During the day I filled multiple rolls, but was spent most of my time driving what we
referred to as the "SAG" wagon. This was a 15 passenger van available at breakfast and lunch for riders wishing the skip the next segment of trail.
Occasionally the van was used to shuttle riders from the lunch spot passed a portion of the afternoons ride. On our last day we shuttled riders passed a 6 mile sections of uphill pavement to the
trail head of the next section. I managed to drop off one load of riders...in 40 degree temperatures and heavy hail...before the afternoon ride was called. Those eight riders, ranging in age from 22 to 52, sat in the van at the
trail head for about 20 minutes before communally peer pressuring
each other into going for it. As one rider relayed to me later "even after you left we circled on our bikes at the
trail head, waiting for someone to chicken out or take the plunge. After about 30 minutes one of the other riders let out a loud "fuck it!" and tore off into a dark muddy unknown." About 6 hours later those eight riders trickled into our evening camp, coated head to toe, tire to tire in mud.
Included are a few pictures from the journey. Unfortunately I was only able to snap a few quick shots with my
iphone, but one of my epic 8 muddy riders has promised to send some of his along.
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