Skills tests and Moose Drool

Saturday 6.21.08

Life in an RV is kind of like living on a submarine: cramped, stinky and full of dudes. No one took a shower until arrival at the Big Sky Resort . It was nice to get all cleaned up and to finally get a good night sleep after all of the driving.

Everyone woke up refreshed and the mission for the team was to get the various skills tests out of the way. The first of which was a swim using body boards and fins. The water tests were performed in a small lake by the hotel that is fed from snow melt. The water was COLD. MOAT donned dry suits for all of the water activities, struggling to put on unfamiliar gear for the first time. After a lot of grunts and groans, MOAT headed down to the water. They were made to swim across the lake and back, and then float in the water for a few minutes. The swim was followed by paddle tests in both high-side (white water boats) and Necky kayaks. They had to turn the boat 360 degrees left then right, then flip the boat in the cold water and re-enter. In the Necky Kayak they had to perform both a self and t-rescue.

Lines were starting to form for the other skills tests including: climbing, mountain biking and gear checks, plus a medical check. The team broke off to get these knocked out, and I went to the airport in Bozeman to pick up Noel Reuter, Leslie’s husband. Noel Reuter and Rick Sanders are providing support for MOAT during the race.

The highlight of the day was a bike trip to Half Moon Saloon for dinner. This was intended to be a relaxing fun ride, not a training ride by any means. I hit many firsts on the way down the mountain to the Restaurant. I have never been winded on a downhill before. I have never maxed out my gears, never understood what drafting feels like, and I have never hit 50 miles an hour on a mountain bike. Ok, it was actually 47.8mph (77kph), but that’s damn fast! I pedaled my True Fabrications 29’er as hard as I could to keep up with MOAT, who didn’t even seem to be pedaling. As soon as I fell off of Leslie’s wheel, a major gap formed that I had a hard time closing. Dave was telling me later that it was all about the tires – my big knobbies were no match for their low rolling resistance treads on the descent. As soon as the ground leveled, they pulled away. Nathan dropped back and towed me up with a bungee attached to my stem. He pulled me with such force and acceleration that it was like I had just added an invisible motor to my bike. I caught back up and we hit some sweet and way too short single-track while it lasted.

Dinner was ok – the view was just terrible, sitting out on this patio deck with the raging Gallatin River in the foreground, mountains in the background – just awful!. Everyone was carb loading ordering pasta with chicken on top, and a few of us had ‘Moose Drool’, a dark beer a bit lighter than a Guinness. Very tasty.

After Dinner Dave, Nathan and I rode off in search of more single-track, but discovered that it ended shortly after we picked it up on the way down. Noel had driven the van to meet us, and he shuttled us all back up the mountain (Thankfully – I don’t think I had that climb in me!).

On the way up we had been passed by several exotic cars with “bullrun.com” on the back. Bull Run is a rally race from Calgary to Arizona, and there was a check point at our hotel. Apparently a female team had been arrested going 130mph, and we did see a cop parked on the side of the mountain. It was entertaining, and we heard loud engines racing up the mountain late into the night. Hopefully everyone slept well.