Ragnar McDowell Mountain - Part the First!

As I mentioned on the blog last week, this weekend was Ragnar McDowell Mountain.  This was the second running of this event, but our first time experiencing a Ragnar held on trails.  We had a blast, as you'll see in the blog posts over the next few weeks.*

Sara Murphy (henceforth and forever known as just "Murph") was our only returning Ragnar McDowell runner, so we were happy to defer to her expertise.  When she suggested at least a few of us heading in Thursday, the day before the running started, setting up camp and chilling there for the night, Chris and I jumped at the chance to accompany her.  To ensure we were properly fortified for the sleepover, Chris and I made GORP.

My precious...

Quality testing is essential.

While we were preparing our contribution to the camp supplies, other members of the team were handling theirs as well.  Jake was in charge of fluid refreshment...

Proper hydration is so important.

...and Sara Latham handled making sandwiches:

And we had no difficulty polishing these guys off.

On Thursday morning, we packed up our gear and consolidated it all in the dining room.

Chris' backpack, plus Rag'Merica toes!

This is pretty much what we use our "formal dining room" for.

Good investment, that.

Murph headed over to our place around 2:45 or so; she graciously agreed to pick us up so we could leave both cars safe in our garage, and she drove us there in her Element,** which was the largest vehicle the three of us had at our command.

And a good thing, too!  Look at how packed that dude is.

We hit up Subway to procure some subs for dinner at camp, then we headed to the Mountain.  The check in started at 4pm, and we hit it right on time.  We were about the 15th car in line, and things were moving slowly; I guess the gate crew didn't have their process flow down quite yet.

Let us in!

We need to camp!

Eventually, we made it in the gate and to the designated drop-off zone.  We all unpacked, leaving our gear in a big pile, and Murph drove to the parking area, around 3 miles away.  Chris and I grabbed a handful of gear each, and hiked into the sleeping area to find a campsite.  Each campsite was 17' x 17' or around 300 square feet, and several of them were marked off with chalk lines, to help everyone stay organized.  Since we're sleepers more than party-ers, we hiked to the far end of the available spaces, to find the last campsite before the trailhead***, dumping our gear before heading back for another load.

Staking our claim.

Mainly with reusable grocery bags filled with GORP.

The view of the other campsites from our own.

That's Pete in the yellow shirt.

You'll read more about Pete later.

While we were hauling gear to the site, Murph was heading back with our subs in the fancy-a$$ shuttled hired to move people back and forth from the parking area.  No, really.  We all figured it would be a white Rag-van or crappy old school bus, but the shuttles were air conditioned and being driven by suited drivers.  See?

Fancy. A$$.

By the time Murph made it back, we had the tents up and were working on the canopy.  We finally got the thing erected**** and started the more essential part of our evening plans - decorating!

Team Rag'Merica Thursday night home base.

Check out Bernard on the cooler.

Our larger tent, seen from under the bunting.

More "under the bunting" shots of other campsites.

The trailhead I mentioned is to the left of the orange tent.

Hanging flags and blowing up air mattresses.

Camp life.

As the sun set and the full moon rose,***** we started to bundle up as the night chilled.  We also ate our subs, busted out some of the liquid refreshment we'd brought, and enjoyed some dessert GORP.

It's always time for SunChips at Ragnar.

Sunset behind our campsite.

Or maybe sunrise.  I don't really know.

GORP!

After dinner, Chris chilled out at camp, while Murph and I wandered a bit, checking out other campsites and heading toward Ragnar Village (not to be completely set up until Friday morning).

Murph, trying out one of the wagons Ragnar provided for carting stuff to campsites.

Ah, the full moon.

Over a line of port-o-johns.

Ragnar at its finest.

When we got back, we enjoyed a bit more beer and met our camp neighbors.  One of our neighbors, Alana from Team Ground Pounders, was having a great time putting together a sign marking their camp festooned with this cool LED fiber-optic wiring, and we enjoyed watching her at her work.  In talking with another neighbor, Pete from Team Quinn (in the yellow shirt in an earlier picture), we found that we'd both lived in Jacksonville for many years, so we compared notes on where we'd lived, eaten, and had fun on the First Coast.  Pete was a cool dude, and this opinion was in no way influenced by his decision to offer us some of the delicious freshly grilled steak he and his team enjoyed for dinner.******

We stayed up for awhile longer, playing Left Center Right, but eventually the cold and need to get a good nights' sleep before the Ragnar madness truly began drove us into the tent.

Since the moon was crazy full, we could clearly see our flag from inside the tent.

Pretty cool, right?

Tent selfie!

Next up on the blog...everyone else arrives and the event starts!

Later!

Amy

PS - Thank you to Chris, Murph, Sara, and Jake for their pictures!

* Or however long it takes me to complete them.  We'll all see how this goes.

** Nicknamed "Frankie," short for Frankenstein, since it's as square as square gets.

*** The trailhead that started the yellow and red loops of the course, actually, although we didn't know this at the time.

**** Erected.  Hee.  Sorry.

***** Seriously good planning on Ragnar's behalf.  This made the trails nice and visible for our night runs.  How much Ragnar paid the moon to do this, I don't know, but it was totally worth it.

****** They didn't offer us any of their red wine, but we were doing just fine in this arena anyway.