I just wanted to send out a final reminder about the mountain biking get-together this weekend, a.k.a. the Southern Illinois Fat Tire Festival, if anybody is interested. There should be a pretty good turnout. The last time I checked a couple days ago, unless some people get scared off by Thursday's rain, here's a rough estimate of the amount of people who are coming:
15 from Chicago
15 from Mount Vernon and St. Louis
4 from Washington College in St. Louis
5 from Paducah
8 (at least) from Carbondale, maybe twice that
4 from the LBL area on Sunday
potentially a group of 5-10 female riders from Carbondale
It sounds like we can count on roughly 50 people total at this point. There may be more, but these are the people who have spoken up. Not everybody is staying for the entire weekend (although most are), so you're more than welcome to meet up with us anytime. There had been some confusion regarding the schedule, so here is the final version shown below. It hasn't changed much, but last minute planning combined with us battling rain, ATV damage, travel schedules from 3 different states, conflicting events, and lots of other fun stuff has made it pretty crazy.
Friday night: Mostly just camping, pretty laid back. Some people are doing a night ride at Glendale around 9 PM or so.
Saturday morning: Group ride at Lake Kinkaid at 9 AM. Meet us at the trailhead at 9, or come by Duck Bay's shelter at Glendale early that morning. We'll probably roll out of there by 7:45 AM. After that ride, we're eating at the nearby 17th Street Barbeque. After lunch, some people are riding at Cedar Lake at about 1:30 PM, others are coming back to Glendale to ride or just hang out.
Saturday night: Everybody's meeting back at Glendale about 5 PM to hang out at the shelter to partake in the festivities. There's a few games and competitions going on, including a technical riding competition, "a big folks on little girl bikes" race, and a Huffy toss, maybe a couple others depending on how tired everybody is. About 200 bratwursts will be available for grilling. A projection screen will be playing freeride biking videos all night. Some people will do a night ride around 9 PM again.
Sunday morning: Group ride at Glendale for most people if not everyone at 9 AM. The Illinois IMBA rep may do a bike maintenance clinic during this time for things like derailleur adjustments. At 11 AM, meet at the shelter and we will carpool over to One Horse Gap for a group ride. If you're in to cyclocross, you can skip One Horse Gap and go over to Von Jakob's Vinyard for some racing on Sunday afternoon starting at 1 PM.
So that's about it. It's very laid back and informal, and everybody's very flexible. Beginners and experts alike will be there, and most of us falls somewhere in between, so you'll fit right in. Call me this afternoon if you have any questions or want to mention that you're going. 270-556-8427.
As for pricing, this is a non-profit event that's not sponsored by any particular organization, so there's no exact set fee. Basically we want to at least break even on expenses. Anything extra or left over will be used for trail maintenance in southern Illinois. We're thinking that if you're only riding, that's free. If you're camping, it's $15 a night. If you're eating and stuff, add another $10 to that.
See you there...
Cory
15 from Chicago
15 from Mount Vernon and St. Louis
4 from Washington College in St. Louis
5 from Paducah
8 (at least) from Carbondale, maybe twice that
4 from the LBL area on Sunday
potentially a group of 5-10 female riders from Carbondale
It sounds like we can count on roughly 50 people total at this point. There may be more, but these are the people who have spoken up. Not everybody is staying for the entire weekend (although most are), so you're more than welcome to meet up with us anytime. There had been some confusion regarding the schedule, so here is the final version shown below. It hasn't changed much, but last minute planning combined with us battling rain, ATV damage, travel schedules from 3 different states, conflicting events, and lots of other fun stuff has made it pretty crazy.
Friday night: Mostly just camping, pretty laid back. Some people are doing a night ride at Glendale around 9 PM or so.
Saturday morning: Group ride at Lake Kinkaid at 9 AM. Meet us at the trailhead at 9, or come by Duck Bay's shelter at Glendale early that morning. We'll probably roll out of there by 7:45 AM. After that ride, we're eating at the nearby 17th Street Barbeque. After lunch, some people are riding at Cedar Lake at about 1:30 PM, others are coming back to Glendale to ride or just hang out.
Saturday night: Everybody's meeting back at Glendale about 5 PM to hang out at the shelter to partake in the festivities. There's a few games and competitions going on, including a technical riding competition, "a big folks on little girl bikes" race, and a Huffy toss, maybe a couple others depending on how tired everybody is. About 200 bratwursts will be available for grilling. A projection screen will be playing freeride biking videos all night. Some people will do a night ride around 9 PM again.
Sunday morning: Group ride at Glendale for most people if not everyone at 9 AM. The Illinois IMBA rep may do a bike maintenance clinic during this time for things like derailleur adjustments. At 11 AM, meet at the shelter and we will carpool over to One Horse Gap for a group ride. If you're in to cyclocross, you can skip One Horse Gap and go over to Von Jakob's Vinyard for some racing on Sunday afternoon starting at 1 PM.
So that's about it. It's very laid back and informal, and everybody's very flexible. Beginners and experts alike will be there, and most of us falls somewhere in between, so you'll fit right in. Call me this afternoon if you have any questions or want to mention that you're going. 270-556-8427.
As for pricing, this is a non-profit event that's not sponsored by any particular organization, so there's no exact set fee. Basically we want to at least break even on expenses. Anything extra or left over will be used for trail maintenance in southern Illinois. We're thinking that if you're only riding, that's free. If you're camping, it's $15 a night. If you're eating and stuff, add another $10 to that.
See you there...
Cory