Ragnar McDowell 2017: Setting Up Camp

As I mentioned in the previous blog, Chris and I arrived in Tempe late on Wednesday night before Ragnar, and we enjoyed a wonderful lunch with my team from work on Thursday.

After we said adieu to Eric, Jesse, and Trisha, we headed northeasterly into Scottsdale and toward McDowell Mountain Regional Park, site of the race shenanigans.  We made a quick stop at a Safeway en route to change from our nicer clothes into Ragnar/camping wear and pick up some last minute provisions - lunchmeat and cheese for wraps, more cold beer, spinach, and the like.  When we pulled into the Safeway parking lot (shaded with solar panels - nice!), we beheld this magical automotive unicorn:


Oh, Scottsdale.
You never disappoint.

After all of our shopping and changing, it was back on the road; we ended up arriving at McDowell around 2:30, just after the gates for the park opened for Ragnarians.  In the past, the gear drop process has been sort of a cluster, so Ragnar tried out a new idea this year (or at least, a new idea for us - we didn't run McDowell in 2016, so it may have been in place then), and it seemed to work well.  To pay admission fees, cars were routed to a giant parking lot on the left of the main entrance road, and they then curved around into two lines:


Us entering the admission lot

The lines progressed around the middle section with the cones here, and after paying admission, cars were held until the gear drop area was clear.  Once that happened, drivers progressed into the drop zone, unloaded their gear, and then had their passengers ferry it to campsites while they drove back out onto the main road and parked in the designated area.


Moving toward the admission pay zone
(see the tents?).


We're officially at Ragnar!
It's time for GORP!

Since Chris can carry more than I can, we normally have him (and anyone else who may be along with us) ferry gear and pick out the campsite, while I drive the truck out of the drop zone and park it.  This worked well this year again, and by the time I caught the shuttle back to the main camp area, he already had most of our gear transferred to our selected location.  I helped him finish hauling a few items, and we started setting up camp.  As usual, Chris picked us a great spot; we were on the far end away from the Village, so things were quiet, but we were on the main path straight to the transition tent.  That way, when you were totally mentally wrecked at 2am after a dusty night run, all you had to do was wander down the main path, and eventually, you got to our tent.

Also per normal, the ground at McDowell was hard as diamonds, and our little rubber mallet didn't allow us to make any progress with hammering in tent stakes.  Although our fantastic neighbors (seriously, as you'll see in future blogs, BEST. NEIGHBORS. EVER.) allowed us to use their mini-sledgehammer (add that to the list of things Chris now wants to own), Chris initially resorted to this:


Yup, that's a rock

Eventually, the tent and canopy were up, and we could focus on other important camp duties:


Camp Breaking Rag!
All we need now are teammates!


Drinking Left Hand Nitro Milk Stout
and attempting to blow up an air mattress.
At this point, our neighbors
(who will be known as the BNE from this point on)
lent us their battery-operated air mattress pump.
Add that to the "other things
we need to buy for Ragnar" list.

A few minutes before 5pm, we wandered up the road to the official Ragnar village; race check-in was going to start at 5, and we figured since we were already there, we'd go ahead and take care of this duty for the team.  We watched the safety video (after four years of it, I can recite most it now - in addition to it being common sense - don't hug the wildlife) and hopped in line to report our team as "present."


Team Breaking Rag,
reporting for duty!

After check-in, it was back to camp to start making dinner; we'd brought some marinated carne asada from Sprouts near home, and we threw it on our new griddle pan for the camp stove.  Within a few minutes, it was taco time!


Bring on the tacos!



The moon rising over Four Peaks.

As the sun set, the temperature started to drop, although it wasn't nearly as frigid as it's been in past years (thank the sweet baby Jesus).  Chris busted out the laptop to close out his stats lecture (started in the truck the previous afternoon), while I finished up my book.  I also changed into my sweet A Christmas Story leggings and enjoyed some dessert.


Nerd!
Statistics is always better with
San Tan's "Sex Panther."


A whole bunch of nerds at this campsite.


After missing them for a few years,
I couldn't resist grabbing some 
Cerreta's Chocolates from the
bulk bin at Safeway.
Noms!

Given our late night the evening before (and potentially aided by the number of beers we consumed), we tuckered out pretty early - I think we were asleep before 9pm!  It's a good thing we started early, as neither of us slept well; sleeping in a tent is iffy at best, but it certainly wasn't aided by the group of drunk a$$holes who decided to have a sing-along to their radio until about 1:30 in the morning (me: "Goddamn it!  If you're going to sing 'Rocket Man,' know all the goddamn words!  You're not allowed to just sing the chorus!"  Chris: "That's what you're mad about?"  Fair point).


Good night from the Olsen party!

On future blogs, we get teammates!  Hooray!

Later!

Amy

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