Monday, September 12, 2011

Selfish Volunteering

Not to brag, but the last few days have been pretty dang cool.  It's days like these when I am so happy to live the life I live.

Saturday, was the Caribou Classic put on by BMA. I had no idea what it was but they needed "sweepers" (people who follow the ride and make sure all riders finish and clean up the trash on course) so I volunteered.  Mostly, I just wanted to ride some new single track and see what Caribou Ranch looks like (the selfish part).

The event and the riding did not disappoint. A heard of elk watched us start, followed by a loop through the ranch, and eventually up to West Mag for 15 or so miles of single track.

After that section, it was my turn to "sweep". My sweep friend, Jen, was a great companion and explained all kinds of neat stuff as I had never been up the 505.
The top of the 505 trail was beautiful. Well, pretty much any time I see Devil's Thumb I think it's pretty, but this was really worth the climbing.
 Our "sweep" ended at 5pm.  8 hrs in the chamois. I'll admit, it was a long day. Far longer than I anticipated. I was quite tired and hungry when we finished.  But the cool thing about this event was--there was food and beer waiting for us when we finished- at the ranch.

The event was great! I'm so glad I was part of it.  I'll do it again next year for sure.

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