[Volunteers_fosm] Watermelon 100 Project

[Joseph C. Giles]

It is less than two weeks until Matt Thompson attempts his Watermelon 100 Project <https://friendsofthesandias.org/watermelon-100-project/> in which he plans to run and hike over 100 miles of Sandia Mountain trails (with more than 30,000 feet of elevation gain!) during one weekend. My mind remains boggled by this audacious plan. 

Fundraising in conjunction with the event already has raised $4,700 for FOSM, and this could go much higher if we get some good publicity from the local newspaper and TV stations on the weekend of the event. Thanks to the many of you who have contributed.

You can join me in marveling at the treks Matt has made in preparation for the event here <https://friendsofthesandias.org/watermelon-100-project-preparation-runs/> and watch excerpts from interviews he is conducting with FOSM members here <https://friendsofthesandias.org/watermelon-100-interviews/>.

You won’t be surprised to learn that Matt has planned his route meticulously leaving from the lower Tram terminal at 8:00 PM on Friday the 13th (he’s obviously not superstitious) and heading for the north end of the mountain following the track he did on April 16. I offered to be at one of the several aid stations along the way and suggested that other FOSM members likely would be interested. The extraction from his spreadsheet below shows where he plans to be on Saturday morning and afternoon. Matt suggested that these 5 aid stations would be appropriate for FOSM volunteers. (His friends and family will cover Friday and Saturday nights.)



These times are very approximate, of course, and will be updated by Matt’s wife as he proceeds. She will track his progress throughout the weekend using a satellite communications device (which, hopefully, will work much better than mine) and cell phone updates.

I plan to be at the Chimney Canyon station to welcome Matt with refreshments Saturday morning. Please let me know if you would be interested in taking one of the other stations. I’ll pin down specifics with Matt (exact locations, desired supplies,…) and keep everyone updated on his estimated arrival times during the event.

Speaking of Chimney Canyon, there was too much snow on the trail for Matt to go down it on the 16th. Has anyone been on any or all of this very steep trail since then?

Thanks in advance.

Cliff Giles
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.swcp.com/pipermail/volunteers_fosm/attachments/20220503/f64373c1/attachment-0001.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Screen Shot 2022-05-03 at 2.04.47 PM.png
Type: image/png
Size: 224557 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.swcp.com/pipermail/volunteers_fosm/attachments/20220503/f64373c1/attachment-0001.png>