This is the year!

Where's the snow??

_After a completely unproductive holiday, 2012 is here and this is the year! 2 years of planning and dreaming, and now the ride is 8 months away! Well we are hitting the ground running -- spending hours pouring over maps and plotting on google earth to make our final route. We've had a preliminary route for the entire ride, now we're just going mile by mile and adjusting. Average day so far is 18 - 21 miles, and to say the terrain is varied is an understatement! Right now I have the whole ride taking 28 days, so a few days shorter than I'd originally thought. Once we get the whole route finalized, I will post the details on the website so everyone can see.

I'm afraid we haven't yet secured any funding to help pay the road crew for their time. That means we'll have to cut back on the frequency of their visits. The plan now is that the food and water drops will be made ahead of me, and I will rendezvous with the road crew every 6th rest day. That's a little scary because it means we just have to hope that the food and water will still be there at the end of each day! The good news is, most of the endpoints are fairly remote (yet accessible) so we should be able to hide supplies.

We will need some volunteers to help make those food and water drops happen! The drops in far eastern Nevada are taken care of, but we'll need help from Carvers to Reno. Volunteering would entail driving out to a very specific location (you'll need GPS) and setting out one small bin of cubes and a water barrel. Some of the drop off locations are easy (Fort Churchill, Gabbs, etc.), others are a little more remote. Please let us know if you can help by dropping off food and water for a day or two... It is very much needed!

Other than that, we still need some supplies. A small two-horse trailer is a must, as is a months worth of weed-free cubes! If you can help with any of those things, please let me know. Lots of smaller things still to buy, but that's what tax refunds are for :)

Since we've yet to see any snow here this winter, Sage and I are trying to take advantage by getting in some longer rides. This week we spotted a large herd of antelope! The snow is bound the fall eventually, and we'll keep riding... just really bundled up!

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