Quick update

Howdy cyber folks,

We closed up shop at TA7 (CP15) today after all the teams came and went. To clarify what this TA was for, originally it was the take-out for the Yellowstone River kayak section. After at least 3 course changes and finally the cancellation of the kayaking (we watched whole trees glide past us on the fast-moving water), it turned into a non-transition transition area. However, teams did pick up trekking shoes if needed, poles if they wanted, and some teams took snowshoes (that's a rather long story in itself, will need to expound at a later time). It was a wonderful, pretty, spacious TA and perfect for staging multitudes of crew vehicles. The bike-to-trek TA (CP16) was apparently pretty small, and in fact the race folks tried to limit the number of crews going up to pick up bikes at any one time.

I was wondering whether the tail end of the pack would be spread out, allowing some time to breathe, and more importantly, sleep. However, we were hit with a mass of teams coming from TA6 overnight, and all throughout the night and morning (as some teams slept and others turned around and left) we were checking people in/out and doing gear checks. I'm a bit cranky right now from lack of much sleep and uncertainty over where we are going next. But John is making dinner, so that makes me happy :)

We're at Big Sky (race HQ) while Susanna the Wonderful Volunteer Lady is working on getting us plugged in at TA13/CP28 (end of the climbing/orienteering section and at the bottom of a rappel). I'd love to hang out there and watch all the action, and having Howie only half a mile down the road would be such a cool thing. However, Nike is flying through the course so they may need us to staff CP30 (the last one before the finish) temporarily or longer. I was really hoping to be able to see the race for third up close from Storm Castle, since MOAT appears to be in the running, but I may just have to settle for doing the final gear check on the race winners. Should be interesting, wherever we end up!

I've put in a request to see whether John and I can run the orienteering course for fun eventually :)

Oh, and we got a shower this afternoon, yay!