CHC'21 Pre-Riders Start Out!

Five riders started out from the traditional Louisville perm-and-brevet start location at 5:00 am this morning, under brilliant skies. Thanks to Pascal Ledru for the photo!

Bonne route à tous! 
 

Mark Thomas, Jim Howell, Paul Foley, Vernon Smith, and Nate Hartokolis

Rider Update #1

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With our event less than three weeks away, we hope you're getting both prepared and excited!  Some notes ...

Event Procedures - Have a look at the 2016 Event Procedures document, if you haven't already. This year's will be similar. We'll be updating this document after the pre-ride. 

Pre-Ride - Our pre-riders will be starting on Wednesday, June 30. They will be highlighting any services, road, or other issues. Bonne route!

Start Time - Pre-riders will be starting around 5:00 am, and we expect that will be our event start time, because the first day is shorter than in years past. Hopefully this will enable a good amount of sleep prior to departing.

Proof of Passage - We plan to allow GPS tracks and photos for every checkpoint. But you may also take a card and get validation from store clerks, etc. If you do rely on GPS, we will accept multiple GPS tracks (e.g., one per stage), and will encourage you to have a backup mode - photos, or receipts, etc., in case your GPS device conks out.

Rider Progress Tracking - As in years past, you may supply us a link to a GPS tracking page showing your position. These links will be included on the Rider Progress page. But you are also invited to join the CHC Spotwalla page set up by our friend Greg Smith.

Luggage Storage - The manager of the Quality Inn in Louisville is arranging a room for CHC Quality Inn guests to use for luggage, including bike containers. This is a smaller space than in years past (which was their conference room), but their conference room had already been booked. This should work out ok, but we'll also be asking you if you have a rental vehicle in which you could leave some or all of your luggage, to offload that space.

Post Event Dining - In past years, we've reserved a room at the Carrabba's restaurant down the street in Louisville, but looks like this location has folded, sadly. So we'll probably recommend heading across the street from the Quality Inn to Murphy's.

As always, let me know if you have any questions!

-jle

On the way from Laramie back to Walden

A couple rooms to be released at Walden

The CHC team will be releasing a couple of extra rooms at Walden tonight or tomorrow.  I will be away the next couple of days, but our team should be posting to the blog when that happens to let you know.

-jle

Stage-by-Stage RWGPS Routes

Chris Argo has split up the CHC route into a collection of RWGPS routes (thanks, Chris!). This way you can download individual stages, making them easier to manage in your device.

There is also a link on the CHC homepage under "2021 Route".

-jle

A couple of rooms extra at Walden

We've tallied our rooms at Walden, and have a couple of extra (since some riders picked the not-lodging-included option). Before we release the rooms tomorrow, June 10, we're offering them as "upgrades" to single-occupancy, first come, first serve.  The total event fee will be $500, so the upgrade would be $100 from the double-occupancy option, and $270 from the no-lodging option. 

1. Send me an email with your request.
2. Send the add-on fee needed via PayPal to rmccmembers@gmail.com. 

• Include your name in the Notes section.
• See that "Paying for an item or service" is marked/indicated when they 'Send Payment Now'.

Deadline is today, June 9.

If we've already filled the upgrade rooms, we'll let you know and refund your extra fee.

-jle

Rooms Release and COVID/Vaccine Policy

Rooms Release - We are planning to release extra rooms that we have reserved at the North Park Inn in Walden on Thursday, June 10. This is near the deadline after which they will charge us for all the rooms we've reserved, so this is our last chance to free up rooms we do not need.

When we have done that, we will post on this blog, and on the CHC Google Group. This is for any of you not who did not choose the lodging-included option, and were waiting on a chance to book at North Park Inn.

♦ ♦ ♦

COVID/Vaccine Rooming Policy - From the start in planning the High Country, our philosophy has been that the virus and vaccination situation would evolve in ways we couldn't predict, and also each individual's attitude and situation. So we've left it up to each rider to decide whether this event made sense for them. (That is given that we would have protocols in place for food handling, gathering at the overnight checkpoint, etc. - more on that to come.)

So this is our policy for assigning rooms, if you've chosen the CHC lodging option:

• We will assign rooms in Walden the first evening, and you may keep your room for the three nights in Walden, unless some special situation means some folks need to be relocated.

• If you and another rider have decided to room together, you can tell us before the ride or when you arrive in Walden, so we can assign you the same room (whether or not you arrive at the same time).

• Otherwise, you will be assigned the next room available when you arrive that first evening ... except that if you are COVID-19 vaccinated, you may request to room with another vaccinated rider. At least in the US, the vaccine is now plentiful (and free), so it's a good assumption that riders who've wanted to be vaccinated now have been.

Please feel free to contact me or other staff members with any concerns or questions!

-jle