not sure who sponsored it- they had two cycle shops set up to work on bikes, and police escort for the road rides. The police were stopping traffic at intersections on the way out, and the mayor spoke to us before the ride, so it seemed like a pretty big one.
The gps is the garmin astro, for hunting dogs. The dog collar unit sends signal every 5 seconds to the handheld, telling it where it is, whether it's moving or not, and how fast it's going (average speed; you download the details of the track later)- I should do that. You download it superimposed on google earth so you can see right where you were, and how fast you were going at that point. The blocky collar unit just fit in the upper pocket of my hydrapack, with the antenna sticking out.
I think the trails in that area are so rocky that maybe they don't even think about when it rains. But the rocks are set in mud. There were only a few big puddles and some creek crossings, the rest was slick clay and sharp rocks. My bike did fine, but one guy was having problems with his gears, and they all were having problems clipping in (walking so much in the mud). The guy with the cannondale 29er had some sort of brake noise sometimes whenever he moved (I don't know anything about disc brakes).
vickie