Great day at Hardwood
by genesplicer on 2015-10-05HRD-Hardwood Mountain Bike Park - Oro StationThe PanAm Games Mountain Bike Races at Hardwood were a great day out. The weather was wonderful, the races were great, and the venue was in good shape. I noticed some nice improvements around the Hardwood facility, clearly done just for the games. The staff and volunteers did an exemplary job - wonderful group all around. There were 2 downsides: 1) - the food options were quite poor. It was a nice idea having food trucks cater, but there needed to be at least double the number of trucks given the size of the crowd - the lineups were horrendous, and the trucks all ran out of food. The free water was a very nice gesture. 2) - the lack of re-entry privileges was a major problem area. A rule like this is understandable for a concert, but at an all-day event attended in large part by families, this was unacceptable. My wife and I were there with a 3 year old and a 4 month old. We had planned to take the kids back to the car for lunch and naps in between the races. Instead, I had to turn around at the gates, go back to the car, and bring back the piles of stuff one requires for small children. Then we had to try and get the kids to nap on blankets in the woods, which unsurprisingly did not work well. We had to leave and head back to the car before the men's race was finished because both children were screaming ... Not fun. I do want to re-iterate, again, fantastic job by the staff and volunteers. A couple of changes in planning would have made this the perfect day out!