ARES units from Mesa County and other Colorado districts will again be providing important race communications for several mountain bike and running events in 2024. For several years, we have worked with organizers from Gemini Adventures and UTMB/Ironman to relay race traffic during the Desert Rats Trail Running Festival and Fruita AdventureFest events. We have also assisted their risk management teams with evacuation route planning and other duties to enhance course safety.
The Desert Rats event will be held on April 12, 13 and 14 next year, followed by the Fruita AdventureFest on May 11 and 12. We’ll spend some time laying the groundwork at the meeting on November 25th, but I’m looking for good participation from our group again this year. The events will be similar to last year, but some changes have been made that will make it easier to staff the courses. For Desert Rats, on Friday there will just be a 10K race, with the big 50K and 100K events moved to Saturday. We were a little short-handed last year, but through the hard work of our ARES team, we were able to cover all the events and practice our skills even through a rainstorm and cancellation of one of the races!
If we’re not able to fill all of the slots at the various aid stations, we may need to recruit some team members from other ARES districts so mark these weekends on your calendars to help out if you can. It’s always a great chance to exercise your skills, tidy up your go-kits and meet some new people from all over the world.
Contact Chip Ferron NØWKR at 970-261-2508 or chip.ferron@gmail.com for more information.