Send It Hits Hurricane MTB Festival
Event season continues with another event under the belts of the team at Send It: Hurricane Mountain Bike Festival took over the Gooseberry Lodges in Hurricane, Utah, April 5-7. Blustery winds and a cold snap didn't stop attendees from getting out on the trails.
The team rolled in on Wednesday just a few days prior to the start of the event. Great weather was waiting, and after setting up camp it was off to the trails. And let's start there: Hurricane, Utah, has some pretty insane trails tucked into its incredible mesas and tabletops. The Wire Mesa trail was close to the campsite, and thus was the first to be tackled. Wire Mesa is a pretty mellow trail all things considered. A short 7.5-mile loop with a few ups and downs and nothing too challenging to warrant a walk or a push. A rattlesnake did shake its tail during a ride-by, but then just slithered under the rock and chose the way of peace. Thankfully.
After the out-and-back ride, Send It returned to the campsite and called it a night. The following day was load-in at the festival and temperatures seemed to be dropping in the desert. Yuck.
It was a bit chilly on the wake up, but nothing to write home about. Maybe 30 degrees overnight? Cold temps are to be expected in the desert, but these down-in-the-freezing-temps are not conducive to having to use the bathroom outdoors while the moon is still up. There are worse problems to have.
Send It cruised over to the festival grounds at lunchtime, only to be redirected to down the hill to Over The Edge bike shop for event registration. Ultimately, this just meant having "Send It" striked out on a paper document and for the team to receive vendor bracelets. Logistically, this was sort of a pain in the ass, but, processes are important and we respect those. Needless to say, the team headed back to the Gooseberry Lodges, found the team marking off vending areas, and started to unload.
(Insert riveting content about setting up a tent.)
After setup, Send It headed out to find another trail. This time, Cole chose Grafton, which promoted black diamond level riding and some climbs. However, either Send It entirely missed the trail markers, or the rating and grading of trails in Utah is entirely different than it is in Colorado. Notably, we missed the Grafton gap, and thus will be making a special trip back to Hurricane to hit this.
By the end of the near 16-mile ride, we were toast, and then it was a huge climb out. Like, an absolute crusher of a climb. All this is to say that better research into the rides would've allowed for a better ride overall. However, getting out and riding your mountain bike is great no matter what.
