The bike tour is over. I managed not to:
It would be a very long and boring post if I wrote about everything that happened, so I figure I'll post a few anecdotes over the coming days.
Day zero - which was when most of the riders arrived in our start town, Hoyt Lakes. I arrived around 4:30 pm, got checked in, found my rental tent and dropped my belongings there. Met with my SAG crew (seven other people besides me,;four drivers/four copilots). Got all of the SAG supplies distributed to the other three vehicles.
Then I wanted to find some dinner. Hoyt Lakes is a really small town with no restaurants. We had been told there would be food trucks on site, but one of them didn't show up so we had just one truck. Their offerings looked good but the line wasn't moving, so after 10 minutes I gave up and went to a nearby convenience store to get a sad dinner - a lunchable pack and some other snacks.
By 8 pm I was all settled in my tent, air mattress inflated, ready to read for a while and then try to fall asleep for an early start the next day. My phone rings - a number not in my contacts. So I pick up and this guy with a quavery, creaky voice (sounding like he was about 80 years old) says: "Hi, I'm riding to the event from Iowa. I'm 15 miles out from Hoyt Lakes and I'm out of water and I was wondering if someone could transport me in to camp."
Grrrrr. I sigh. "The ride doesn't start until tomorrow so we're not really supporting at this point" I say. "But it's getting dark and I don't want you out there for another hour" (picturing an elderly dehydrated guy trying to pedal his bike in).
Luckily he was able to give me good information about where he was standing. I drove there and pulled up. It was a young guy! Maybe 30. I felt like he probably could have made it in.
He stunk to high heaven. Not of sweat. I think he had doused himself in some kind of sweet-smelling mosquito repellent. We're in prime mosquito territory and it's just after dusk, you know what I mean? We got his bike loaded in the back of the van. Here's the best part - after I closed the back liftgate and we climbed in, we discovered that about three dozen mosquitos had entered while we were loading the van. They buzzed around us and bit us for the whole 15 miles back (and there were even still a few when my copilot and I climbed in the following morning).
I was not a happy camper (literally!) and I took the opportunity to lecture him a bit about how we only have four vehicles to support 300+ riders so people need to be pretty self-reliant - fix their own flats, make it in to the end even if they're tired. Because it's possible we'll be busy transporting people whose bikes have some kind of problem rendering them unrideable, or dealing with accidents or medical emergencies.
He apologized and maybe I got through to him, because he didn't call for help again during the rest of the tour.
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24 comments
No, I know nothing about getting bit by mosquitoes.
Yes I’m one of those people who has no reactions to mosquito bites. If they’ve bit me, I wouldn’t know.😆
I’m glad everything worked out in the end.
OMG I’m so jealous. I was scratching for the next couple days.
What? I have to interject here. 💕
You mean, you never get itchy after mosquito bites?
Have you been contacted by NASA yet? 😶
@Paulxx001 I used to tell people I never got bit because I thought I never did. Then, my doctor told me, you’ve probably been bit, you are immune to it. There are others like me, I’m not an anomaly 😂
@EnigmaInitiative
If I were prudent, I would NOT broadcast my gift.
We've known of people like you.
Up here? In the north?
People disappear for mosquito myths like yours.
Trucked to experimental labs... is what I've heard. 😐
@Paulxx001 I’m from Michigan. 😂 so we’re talking Canada disappears people like me?
Noted. 😂
@EnigmaInitiative
Shit happens.
You've obviously never followed "X-Files."
Those shows weren't fiction; they were documentaries. 🙈
You sound like you were more than patient with mosquito guy. At this point in my life if I get bit, they swell to huge proportions. I'd likely have had to go home if I'd been dinner for a bunch of mosquitos for 15 minutes! I'd be miserable for at least a week with welts that itched like mad.
That sounds awful! California is the right place for you to live...there aren't a lot of mosquitoes in your area, right?
@smartasswoman Not really. But my place in NC doesn't seem to have a lot either. I was just there in June...awful humidity and heat. No mosquitos...too high up I think.
Congrats on surviving the tour and not running over anybody (I'm guessing you had to clamp down the urge to do so from time to time? ) 🤗
You've got that right!!
Just wondering if you want to repeat this adventure again next year ?🤔
You know, when I'm in the midst of the chaos I hate it, but after the event is over it's definitely a sense of accomplishment that I was able to handle the moving parts and get drivers dispatched here and there to help people.
I think it depends on whether the previous SAG coordinator wants to come back, if she does I think I would have to defer to her.
Glad you survived. I know right now you are really looking forward to next year....
Next year is up in the air. Maybe the previous SAG coordinator will want to come back, if her husband fully recovers from his stroke.
15 miles? What's that on a bike, maybe 45 minutes? (the mosquitoes I get calling for help from... they were outrageous when I was there!)
He was riding a heavy bike, loaded for touring...so I would guess tired and dehydrated, his pace would be more like 10 mph...so maybe an hour and a half.
I was PO'd - but as Paul said, better to pick him up than to be the last witness ever to have spoken to "dehydrated guy".
@smartasswoman well okkkkaaay then... (I was picturing a tour de France kind of setup... lots of spandex and a lone water bottle lol!)
I recalled your big adventure and was wondering how it was going. Glad you survived.
I once diverted to land at a small airport in southwest Florida when my main objective airport was enduring a passing thunderstorm. When I opened the door I was swarmed by mosquitoes. I decided to just wait it out in the airplane, but by then the inside of the plane was full of the little buggers too.
They're not fun to contend with, are they?
That guy had some nerve wanting you give him a lift back. 15 miles isn't too far on a bike. I'm glad he behaved for the rest of the tour.
It's far when you've been riding all day and you're tired and out of water. As CL_Love commented below, he over estimated his abilities!!
Excellent. I would have probably run over someone
I mean...I was driving on hilly two lane roads and the riders were often spread out across the lane, and I'm trying pass them in a no passing zone and praying a car doesn't come over the hill from the opposite direction... so it actually was a bit challenging.
Best laid plans indeed. I have a friend that does some serious bikepacking/touring with basically no support and there have been times where literally she had to steal water from someone's hose to make it. I'm sure he was super grateful for you even if he could have done without the lecture. And frankly, the young guys always overestimate their abilities. Nature of their generation. LOL
See...that's the kind of resourcefulness I like, lol.
I think he did have some route snafus on the way up. If it were me I would build in an X factor when figuring out how long it would take me to get there. But yeah...shit happens.
"Testy text" is always better than testy voice: one can spell-check and think twice before pressing enter.😶
Smart(ass) thinking. You don't want to be quoted as the last witness to have ever spoken with 'dehydrated-guy.'
(Quick-fix to eliminate those mosquitoes next time? Hit a hundred (KPH) with all the windows open: they'll get sucked out.)
As I read your description of the event's complexity, limited support, and potential dangers, I can only imagine the very blunt insurance waiver those three hundred riders had to sign. Are you sure what you were doing was legal? 😲 😂
And wait... what? No pics?
... your tent, 'dehydrated-guy,' the van... your sandwich...
I didn’t see the waiver since I wasn’t riding. 😃 But yes, I’m sure it tries to absolve the organizers for any responsibility for people’s misfortunes. Having helped to organize bike events in the past, I think I remember hearing that those waivers don’t really stand up if someone decides to sue. But at least it sort of gets the message across that riders have to take some responsibility for their own welfare.
I didn’t take many pics (kinda busy!). Here’s me posing with a 170 ton mining truck. Its tires are half again as tall as I am!
@mufdiver69er2 My copilot and I were thinking it would be a pretty great job...
It good you survived and didn’t hurt anyone. Eventful day 0
As it turns out, not half as eventful as days 1-4. 😂
I felt like “not plastering a rider over the front of my car” was setting the bar pretty low. But whenever I thanked my copilot for doing all of the grunt work to get bikes in the car, etc, she would remind me “hey, you’re weaving the car through 300 riders and haven’t hit one”.
@smartasswoman
Yeah great success not running over bike riders. Really low bar 😁