Just got back from crewing for some friends at the Panther Creek Fandango ride in Illinois last weekend, and have to give a 'shout out' to the great ride management and crew they had there.
While I'm just a LD rider with only a couple rides a year that i get to, so not much to compare it too, I was impressed at how well organized the ride was. The vetting in started exactly when they said it was going to. There was a board in the pavilion where they had written the start times of each ride for the next day and time of the ride meeting. Ride meeting started promptly when they said it was going to. And the ride manager did such a nice, concise description of the trails that only took a few minutes but told you everything you needed to know - the color of the ribbons, that they'd use flags instead of ribbons where there were no trees, where the 25's split from the 50's, and so on.
I know, this probably doesn't sound extraordinary, but its these little things that are much appreciated by nervous nellies like me that get panicky by rambling confusing descriptions of the trails. Or of having to run up to the picnic shelter every half hr to figure out if they're checking in people yet, or vetting in yet, or have they decided when the ride meeting is....Or when out riding the trails, see ribbons every 50' where there's no place to go except follow the trail, but when the trail opens up into wide open meadows where you could go any way of a dozen directions, and see not a marking in sight....
While I didn't get to enjoy the ride, the group i was with had a great time and were very impressed by the course. we were all looking forward to doing it again next year, then heard they won't be having it for a while in order to focus on sprucing up the trails (much to our surprise since we thought the trails were wonderful). Sincerely hope they reconsider that decision...
If any of you have the opportunity to try this ride, I highly recommned it. So well organized, we gave it a 10!
