"Not What Muir Had in Mind"...But I Bet Mather Would Have Loved It!

I had to steal Monday’s IBR report title because Park Rangers LOVE to quote John Muir.  And as if to prove the point, I was looking up something at work, mistyped, and got this error message.  This is funny on so many levels, especially if you know Kirsten’s IBA number.  

It's true, I don’t think the IBR was what Muir, or Albright, or even Mather had in mind.  But I bet that Mather, who was known to tour parks via motorcycle, would have loved the idea.  The NPS founding fathers probably could never have anticipated visiting THIS many parks in such a short amount of time.  To refresh your memory (and for those just tuning in), to be a finisher of this year’s Iron Butt Rally, riders must at minimum, visit 50 parks in 25 states within the time restrictions.  (You’ll see the tally has begun in today’s IBR report.)  Normally, the Iron Butt ride of this nature gives riders 365 days to complete, but during the Rally, they will have 11 days.  The National Park Tour is apparently the most started IBA ride, with the highest number of non-finishers.  And our intrepid rally riders have just begun Leg 2. 

   

As you can imagine, Kirsten got her fair share of ribbing and knee-slapping and wan cries of “unfair advantage” at the launch.  Lisa Landry’s droll response, “what, is she going to have people in the national parks do the ride for her?”  Now, at the end of Leg 1, riders are reporting national park staff in multiple sites have heard-tell about this rally and its national park theme and are providing their own encouragement.  Tom Loftus showed up at a park to claim his picture, and a ranger came out of the visitor center saying, “You’re here!  I’ve been watching a SPOT moving towards us for a while!”  At other parks, staff are coming out and bringing snacks to riders in the parking lot, some saying, “This is the most visitation we’ve had all year!”

I think it’s fantastic that the IBR choose national parks as the theme for this year – getting into the spirit as the centennial of the NPS is launched.  By 2016 – 100 years after the establishment of the NPS- it will be all national parks all the time- especially for those of us in the agency.  It’s an honor really.  I hope that our LD community is enjoying the ride.  We’re a small agency with a lot of spirit (just 21,000 permanent staff; for comparison, that’s the number of people who commute to the Pentagon daily).  To my NPS family – all your encouragement of the riders means A LOT to them!  Keep it up! 

  

Mather riding in YELL, 1923

Now to make good on a couple of my earlier promises – the story about Glacier, and explaining the NPS alphabet.  For Kirsten, even though there are many, many parks on this ride that she has never been to before, each time she rolls up to an arrowhead, it’s like coming home again and again.  (It’s like that for all of us in the NPS family.)  However, there is one major park that she has yet to visit - Glacier NP.  What – you say – never been to Glacier?  Glacier was my first park and you always have a soft spot in your heart for your first park.  I spent 2 summer seasons and a fall season at GLAC.  I left in early October in 1996 in the middle of a blinding snowstorm on my way to my first winter seasonal park of El Morro National Monument (just a few miles from ABQ).  All of this was before I met Kirsten, and I told her many years ago that I wanted to go back to Glacier and I’d love it to be on her first visit.  Kirsten is very literal.  She took that to mean, when it showed up as a bonus location in a rally YEARS later, that she was not allowed to go.  For YEARS I have heard, “you know, I hear that Glacier is nice.  You know, mountains, pretty roads… can’t really say…I’ve never been there.”  As it turns out, she opted not to go to GLAC on Leg 1 this year either – but I swear it’s not my fault! 

And by now – you’ve probably figured out the NPS alphabet.  It's the 4-letter acronym that all parks are known by, and a fun game we play to test our NPS knowledge.  The acronym is created by the first 2 letters of the first two words of the park name, or the first 4 letters if the name is one word – GLAC is Glacier NP.  Every rule has its exceptions, take Carlsbad Caverns NP in NM.  No one wanted to work at CACA, so it’s known as CAVE.  I spent a winter season at LAME and we all loved the name, “That’s a LAME dam!” for instance.  But Lake Mead NRA is now known as LAKE.  It’s handy to know this shorthand because you can #findyourpark online anytime by typing nps.gov/ and your favorite 4 letter name.

One last note for rally-watcher rookies who want to know how you prove you’ve been to a park.  Here are two pictures from Kirsten’s Leg 1.  Riders must always clearly have their rally flag, with the number CLEARLY visible, in the photo at the bonus location.  And they must also follow any other rules for each bonus (sometimes riders AND flags need to be in the picture, etc).  These pictures were for Pecos NM.  The picture on the top is bad, the picture on the bottom is good.  If she hadn’t checked and rode away from Pecos with a bad picture (i.e. could have been anywhere on any desert road without the sign clearly visible), she would have lost the points at scoring.  As it turns out, she got all the points she planned at the end of Leg 1.  Ride On.

Leg 1 - Completo!

Was this classic tune going through your head today as you watched all those SPOTs begin their decent to Albuquerque?  Apparently, it is one of Chris Sakala’s favorites, and Kirsten has been known to sing along to The Partridge Family too.  

But my 3 minute afternoon conversation with Kirsten went more like this:

Me:   “How are you feeling today?  I saw your spot outside Great Basin this morning.”

K:     “Yes, I slept there last night.”

Me:   “I saw the SPOT, but there’s not that many hotels near Great Basin.”

K:      “I know – I slept in the parking lot and when it got light enough to take the picture, I took it and left.”

Me:    “Wait, so you’re telling me you slept in the parking lot at Great Basin last night?”

K:       “Yes – I used my cover stuffed in the bag for a pillow, I took off my boots, and I kept my gloves on because it was a little cold, and I slept right on the tarmac.  Man, I slept hard too!  It was so serene, but those birds were so loud this morning!”

Me:     “Sooo – you’re going to be really happy to be in the hotel tonight.”

K:       “You have no idea.”

And that, Rally watchers, is what you call an Iron Butt hotel.  

Which did help to recharge her batteries because she made excellent time here on day 4, picking up parks and her 12th state this leg on the way to the barn.  The 103+ degree weather yesterday really wiped her out and she finished off (aka “slammed”) the rest of her V8 and Gatorade and then a Subway sandwich to try and balance out the electrolytes and calories.  Apparently, an impromptu soaking in the sprinkler system at a never to be named in public park yesterday made her feel EVEN MORE BETTER!

As of this post, she’s back at Rally HQ in ABQ, readying herself to present for scoring.  Then food, a bit of route planning for tomorrow’s launch of Leg 2, then big sleep.  You know the mantra – big roads, big rocks, big sleep, big fun.

Cooler Skies and a Surprise

A very helpful directional sign,
which we captured on vacation in FL earlier this year.

Today’s brief ride report actually came in three parts over about 45 minutes as the cell phone kept cutting in an out of range.  The good news is the weather has gone from over 100 degrees to 54 degrees in less than 8 hours.  Kirsten had to finally pull over and put her warm layer on.  Altitude anywhere will give you cooler skies.  She saw a bald eagle this morning and then, what did that sign say?  99 more miles of twisty roads?  Um, awesome.  So for about 160 miles she rode through incredible country on twisty roads and thought, “sometimes this ride is a slog, and sometimes it’s a vacation.” 

As for me, I had a nice surprise today.  A lovely “serene” lily arrived at my desk, with a note thanking me for holding down the fort (we love that pun now around our house).  It does get a little crazy in the pit crew sometimes and the plant made me smile.  I also want to thank all of YOU for your comments and for following along!  I read Kirsten your comments and it really helps when things get tiring.

Tomorrow ends Leg 1.  Stay tuned to the IBR Ride report and watch as that sea of SPOTs makes their way back to base.  Kirsten's in there somewhere thanking you for following along!