Well it's taken a little over a day to get some tracking info on our shop founder Lindsay Gauld, who is currently in the midst of the 420 mile TransWisconsin enduro mountain bike event, but here's what we know so far:
Andy Lockery, the one-man support crew and known embellisher of tales, says that Lindsay pulled well into the lead of the event from the very first pedal stroke, owing at least in part to the fact that he's the only participate who showed up for the event. Seriously. 10 people were signed up so we don't know if we're to accept this report at face value, but that's what we've heard.
Lindsay cannot send us TwitPics and comments during the event as planned (at least not for now) because he is apparently no where near a cell tower. This issue may be resolved for his next event if he invests in additional hardware that will allow him to send pictures and comments by satellite. He may be able to send some info via TwitPic as he gets closer to civilization so feel free to scroll down this page along the left had column to view his pics as they become available.
We do now have access to Lindsay's Spot page where his every move is being tracked, so check it out here, and compare his progress to the route map here. Though we haven't heard from Lindsay in over 24 hours we take comfort in seeing that his GPS tracking device is indeed moving. Either that means he's moving with it or a rabid animal has wounded him and taken the device for itself, but if the latter is correct the animal is doing a good job of following the event route.
We just received the following update from a friend of Lindsay's (Saturday, 6:15 pm):
We've been following Lindsay since he started with his Spot connection - quite interesting - he's about to go north of US2 on his leg to Cornucopia (I think that is where he is headed) before the turn around. We will try to intercept him when he gets back to Drummond tomorrow.
Lindsay is a man apart from others - always knew that - but starting this thing solo with no one else to ride with - chat with - hallucinate with - now that's something else - he'll be fine he is a survivor.
Just checked again - north of US 2 heading to the top of Bayfield County - how exciting - he's got 4 hours of daylight left so should get to the turn around before dark I'd think.
Sunday morning update (info received Saturday night):
He was up near Ashland, which is more densely populated and had cell phone coverage. Apparently his bivey sack worked well in the heavy rain last night and the mosquitoes were out in full force. He was feeling OK and moving along well.
Lynne, Lindsay's wife, recounts her Sunday morning phone conversation with Lindsay:
I have tried to record this in the order it happened, but his conversation was kind of wandering...... and I'm not sure if I have accurately understood all that was relayed in our conversation.
Things were going well into the late afternoon and early evening as indicated by Lindsay's phone message and the Spot sightings.
The highlights are as follows: The rains came...torrential...and the GPS failed because the swamp was so impenetrable that forward momentum could not be sustained, thus no readings. The swamp grass was over his head. He had concerns about getting lost. He fell and punctured a tire when he was attempting to retrace his way back through the swamp to get to some kind of logging road/deer track(?) His new pump malfunctioned. (All this in the continuous rain...it seems to be a theme.) He finally came to some kind of track. He walked and pushed his bike until he came to a house at 11:00 at night. After hearing his tale of woe, the man living there kindly took him in, made him tea, gave him dry clothes, let him have a shower and they contacted Andy. Andy drove out in the middle of the night and the rain to get him. They are now safe and sound at Cable and going to have a day of lethargy.
I'm sure he will have more "details" to fully explain the lessons learned.