IT'S THAT TIME!!! Here's your annual summary of how best to follow along online:
The Western States Trail Foundation has a loyal group of volunteers that will be working hard to bring you up to date information during the ride weekend. When the ride starts, there will be a link on the main website http://www.teviscup.org/ to the LIVE WEBCAST. That link will allow you to search the progress of a specific rider, information status by checkpoint, current leaders, and a list of pulled riders. You can even save a list of Favorites to make checking on their progress throughout the day more streamlined! http://webcast.teviscup.org/
You can also find ride updates, **LIVE** streaming videos, photos and more during the course of the ride on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TevisCup/ We have webcast photographers and crew at nearly all checkpoints. We will be doing our best to provide continual coverage, upload pictures and video live during the event. Live streaming is always a big hit and we try to provide as much as the service allows!
Additionally, this year we have a GPS tracking for riders! For an additional fee, riders can elect to carry a live tracker, which will send pings to update the riders’ status on the trail every 5 minutes. There may be locations on the trail where GPS signal is too weak to successfully send a ping, the unit will try three times before waiting for the next 5 minute interval. You can follow along with those riders who have elected this optional service here: http://trackleaders.com/teviscup19 Individual riders GPS units should also be linked to their “Where’s My Rider” webcast page.
All of the people helping to man our EIGHTEEN various checkpoints are volunteers, typically working long hours for nothing more than the love of the event and a spiffy Tshirt. They do their best. Several new innovations have been introduced to provide updates as quickly and error-free as possible. Most stops are either direct internet uploading from the checkpoint or through technology which enables emails/uploads to be sent over HAM radios run by our communications volunteers. These two things allow us to be as accurate as possible. We will do our best to keep everyone up to date on their rider. Lag time from the rider checking in to the webcast being updated may be around 20-30 minutes for the more remote locations, others may be nearly real time!
You can imagine how hard it is to not transpose numbers, either verbally when reading/calling them out (especially for tired riders), or while writing them down/typing them in (think of 3-4 people having to hear/write the number for each instance), especially when you've been awake 20+ hours. Keep in mind it's possible to miss a rider # if they all arrive in a big group. If your rider shows up pulled or in a strange place - check again later and don't automatically take it as gospel. There are automated database checking tools to help the webcast volunteers find and correct a mistake at the next update.
Also just because your rider stops at a particular location for longer than usual/planned, it's not necessarily significant. It could be that the spotters missed their number going out, or perhaps they stayed longer than planned to let their horse eat or rest for the upcoming trail segment. There will be volunteers in Foresthill with computers if you need assistance in looking up a rider.
Summary of how to follow us online:
Main Tevis Website:
http://www.teviscup.org/
Official Checkpoint Webcast:
http://webcast.teviscup.org/
Official Tevis Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/TevisCup
Event GPS tracking:
http://trackleaders.com/teviscup19
Twitter Account:
https://twitter.com/tevisnews
Flickr Photos:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/teviscup/albums
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/tevisfeed/
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