The Coolest 24 Hours of Babaganoush

Rural Mysteries of the North Fork Polygon

The Coolest 21 Hour and 42 Minute Mountain Bike Race Against Cancer

May, 5-6, 2007: The Rural Mysteries Mountain Bike Field Unit went under cover again at the Coolest 24-hour Mountain Bike Endurance Race Against Cancer. The annual all-day, all-night solo or team-relay mountain bike race takes place in Cool, California above the North Fork of the American River. Last year our teams used a quasi-redundant overlapping search pattern to scan the race course for unusual phenomenon. This year, not only was the race course almost 2 miles longer with more single-track to get lost on, but there was also a sense of obtuse dread and acute inevitability, as if time itself was being bent at a 12 degree angle.

By the end of the race, we realized that we had experienced:

2 hours 17 minutes of Missing Time

When we packed up and left the area at a little after two-thirty the next day, we nervously noted the numerical significance of the time and date of our departure:

2:34, 5/6/07

Also, here's a page from our field notes which we used to log accumulated missing time and to document mysterious sightings and uncomfortable feelings:

Field Notes from 2007's Coolest 24 Hour Mtn Bike Race Against Cancer
Lap	Rider	Time Out	Time In	Lap Time	Missing Time	Comments
1	Robo-H	12:00	12:53	:53	N/A	"Race course is better than West Virginia trails. Prediction: Next lap won't be as fast!"
2	T-rex	12:54 pm	1:38	:46	10 min	"Somehow got lost, maybe, maybe not. Compass spinning. How did I get here so fast?"
3	G-pup	1:45 pm	3:16	1:31	N/A	"Big smiles, took photos along the way. Super single-speed lap!!"
4	J-dub	3:17 pm	4:25	1:08	N/A	"Too much fun! I broke my drive-side rear hub flange and 2 spokes!"
5	TN-T	4:25 pm	5:22	:57	N/A	"I can't believe you talked me into this again!"
6	Robo-H	5:22 pm	6:16	:54	N/A	"Almost the same time as first lap... coincidence??"
7	T-rex	6:50 pm	7:50	1:00	34 min	"Either I somehow didn't see Robo-H come in or there's 34 minutes of missing time!"
8	G-pup	8:00 pm	9:45	1:45	10 min	"Saw ample wildlife! Took pictures of sunset and birds!"
9	J-dub	9:47 pm	11:05	1:18	2 min	"It was a long and lonesome trail... what broken hub??"
10	TN-T	11:06 pm	12:08 am	1:02	N/A	"Midnight... moon... madness..."
11	Robo-H	12:14 am	1:14 am	1:00	6 min	"Bike light problems... and NO SASQUATCH!"
12	T-rex	1:16 am	2:29 am	1:13	2 min	"Suffered like heck on the Heckler... smooth downhills... endless gear dumping on the uphills."
13	J-dub	2:48 am	4:15 am	1:27	19 min	"Suffered from T.D. and T.S.D.S. Didn't see Bigfoot but spotted a squashed mouse on the trail."
14	TN-T	4:36 am	5:39 am	1:03	24 min	"Cold toes! Very nice sunrise! Hope I don't have to do one more lap!"
15	Robo-H	5:45 am	6:44 am	:59	6 min	"Still no Sasquatch!"
16	Trex	6:54 am	7:59 am	1:05	10 min	"Turtle doves sang to me! Confirmed the mouse kill. Great time to ride before it gets hot out."
17	G-pup	8:05 am	9:36 am	1:31	6 min	"Barbie mascot suicide attempts times two! What?"
18	J-dub	9:42 am	10:50 am	1:08	6 min	"Must... make... TN-T...ride... one... more... lap!"
19	TN-T	10:52 am	11:55 am	1:03	2 min	Wow! Finished with only minutes to spare!
Total Accumulated Missing Time					2 hours 17 min	Our team did not see as much of Sasquatch as we had hoped. Much more disturbing was the fact that we experienced a record total of over 2 hours of missing time! We have no recollection or explanation of what happened during those missing two hours.

More Race Notes:

Our team was locked in a virtual 3-way tie for 3rd place
But technically, we came in 5th place in our catagory.
Our teams brought enough food to supply an expedition to Everest.
The gas price in Applegate on the day of the race was $3.36/gallon for regular and $3.55/gallon for supreme.
Red Horse Brewery attempted to sabotage our investigation by providing "free" beer at midnight.
Our total team mileage was 209 miles.

Rural Mysteries of the North Fork Polygon