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Tomorrow begins the mountain bike festival that we came all this way for! Hurrah!

Usually at this time of year, my mountain biking buddies and I are traveling to Big Bend and Terlingua to compete in a big marathon mountain bike race – known as the Chihuahuan Desert Challenge in earlier days, and later as Mas o Menos. Unfortunately in 2010 and 2011, there have been some land-use issues in the area – some of the trails we’re accustomed to racing on have been blocked by new landowners or something of that nature (I cannot speak confidently to the details). This is a real shame, because the local economy in Terlingua runs largely on a couple of big events a year: the mountain bike race, and a big chili cookoff or two. Losing the race as an event threatens the locals. I’m always impressed with the small businesses that open their arms to us: tiny cafes see an overwhelming amount of business (hungry mountain bikers, whoa!) for just a few nights, and gamely serve us as quickly as they can, and local lodgings get booked something like 5 months in advance.

So in 2010, with no race to get us out there, mountain bikers across Texas decided… we should go anyway. We had a blast riding parts of the race course, as well as some trails we hadn’t seen before (or hadn’t seen since the older courses of the Chihuahuan Desert Challenge race days), and a number of people commented that NOT racing allowed a more relaxed atmosphere. And the local economy still saw an influx of people and dollars: I guesstimate the town population (based on past numbers) at 300-400, and they see sometimes 1000 people come in for the race. The non-race event brings in fewer, but still, I feel good about the Texas mountain bike community stepping up to appreciate this little community that’s treated us well over the years.

(and thanks to our buddy Chris for house- and dog-sitting so we’re not sitting empty!)

Filed under: miscellaneous | Tagged: bikes, personal, Terlingua, travel |