Wildflower 2012 Travel Logistics

mancona

Sorry guys, but I still don't get the dashboard and loss track of things if they are not in the forums.  Therefore I was hoping we could consolidate all the travel discussions to one thread.

 

Here is what I'm thinking but since I have never done this race please jump in and add your thoughts.

 

Travel

- Fly into either LAX, SFO, SJO on Thursday, arriving in the late morning so we have the afternoon to drive to the race site.  Mabye we get a group together that call leave one of these airports around 1 PM on thursday and head to the race site?

 

- Ideally I would like to fly home Sunday afternoon.  Is it feasible to get out of there and make it to LAX, SFO, or SJO for a late afternoon (i.e. 3 or 4PM)  flight on Sunday?

- LAX has the most and cheapest flight options for me, but I believe SFO and SJO are about 60-90 minutes closer to the race, so I can make either work.

 

Camping

- From what I can tell it is $60 per night per car at the race site.  So as RIch pointed out we can save some money by dividing into a few groups and car pooling.

- BTW, I have zero camping gear...so I'm game with throwing some money in for Rich to rent whatever we need.

 

Bikes

- Rich - are you willing to let some of us that are flying in ship our bikes to you?  I'm glad to help assemble and disassmble bikes at the race site on Friday and Sunday.

 

What's everyone think? 

Coach Rich

My notes:

• I have 3 tents which could easily accommodate about 4-6 people. 4 x sleeping bags, including a double for a couple. I also have a cot. REI is less than a mile from me (very expensive mile, it turns out) so I can rent more for you and bring it up.
• The camping is $60/day per vehicle so make sense to totally clown-car it up to WF. There are van rentals at LAX, and I'm sure at SFO and San Jose, if you wanted to rent a 12-15 passenger van as a group.

Bike Shipping:

• Ship your bike to me to arrive no later than Wednesday. I'll bring it up to WF.
• You assemble, race, pack, tape on a return label and I'll transport back to LA and drop off at UPS or FedEx for you.
• Again, basically all I'm offering to do is receive your bike, toss it in my truck/trailer, drive it up, back, and drop it off at FedEx/UPS for you. Hommie ain't filling out shipping labels, etc .

Food:

• I also have 2 x bigass, body sized coolers, a kickass camping stove (90k BTU) so JnI could probably plan to host team dinner with you folks kicking in $$ for food, beer, wine, beer and beer.

Sunday: they shut the road down out of the park at about 8am so you'll need to be packed up and on the road before then. You can figure that LAX is about 6hrs from WF. Don't know about SFO and San Jose.

mancona

Thanks for helping us out Rich!

I'm more than glad to chip in for extra camping supplies and food.

When are you planning on driving back and forth?

Scott Alexander

SFO and SJO are closer (and maybe even Sacto - straight shot down I-5), but car rentals are generally more expensive. Not a big deal for a few days, but just a general warning.

When I went out to WF in 2009, my friend Paul and I rented a van at LAX, with our two bike boxes (flew on Southwest from Dallas), and drove to WF. Rich had a tent for us to use.

TriBike Transport supported WF earlier this year, but they don't have it up on their site yet, so who knows for 2012. There's also other carriers, like Tri Team Transport, but they also don't have their 2012 schedules up yet. I think, shipping to Rich, would be a great idea, if he's willing to haul to/from UPS, FedEx, etc.

With the interest generated here so far, for 2012, Rich better be bringin a whole Costco of food; because once you get to the site/location, there's not a whole lot else out in that area of the state! But I'll vouch that him and his homies do cook up some mean bbq and fajita-style dinners! In 09, we loaded up on food in Atascadero (one of my old home towns), south of WF, before heading into the site/location.

Coach Rich

I would drive up early Thurs morning, probably in the campground by 12-1p, and leave either Sunday afternoon or Monday morning.

scott dinhofer

I am still weighing on whether or not to do this. do many people do the OLY? my GF wants in, but she wont be ready for the HIM as she is new to this and weak on swimming...

also, we are going to be more luxurious and prob rent a camper, is there any one or two people that want to split a camper? we are probably going to fly to San Jose and go from there. anyone who wants a ride in the camper from airport would be welcome to jump in...