Mesa County ARES members have been busy in the months of April and May, providing emergency communication support for several mountain bike and running events in the Grand Valley. In April, we staffed seven aid stations and a communication control center for the UTMB/Ironman Desert Rats Running Festival over three days. 25 of our members used their 4WD trucks, UTV’s and Jeeps to travel into some of the remote aid stations to ensure communication between the race staff and the control center. We also staffed the Fruita AdventureFest in the north Fruita Desert Recreation Complex and the Wild Horse Gravel Race in Debeque, Colorado. For all of these events, we passed administrative and medical traffic where the sponsors’ radio systems couldn’t get through. Thanks to all of our members for their dedicated service to these popular community events, and special thanks to Andrew AEØWZ, Randy KDØNSP and Keri N2KNK for their hard work and planning. Also, thanks to Goggi Schaub for providing the trailer for our comm center.
