High Lonesome COVID19 Update #1 (Runner email)

This email was sent to runners and waitlisters on March 27

Hello runners and waitlisters! 

I hope that you are all healthy and are successfully navigating the unique challenges that your communities are facing. Here in Colorado we are all home-bound until April 10th and I know many of you are also under similar orders. Given the constant bombardment of emails about COVID-19 we were trying to keep a rather low profile...but after some internal meetings we realized that now would be an ideal time to update you on the status of the High Lonesome. Additionally, we wanted to inform you of a few more changes that will be needed to accommodate life under the virus. 

So, first things first, we are currently still planning on having the 2020 High Lonesome. The USFS, state of Colorado, Chaffee county, and our directors have not given any reason to stop planning. HOWEVER, the situation is very dynamic and changes by the day or week. We'll update you if anything changes, but for now plan on it. Additionally, we are working on some fall back plans like a date to reschedule to and how to handle the lottery and entrants if we have to cancel. Expect to see some emails from us as we work through those issues. 

Secondly, we realize that some of you may have lost income, jobs, or more from the fall out. To try and help with that, we're going to offer full refunds on entry fees to anyone who has been significantly and negatively impacted by COVID-19, provided someone takes your spot off the waitlist. We're not going to make this more complicated than it needs to be, so we're going on the honor system here. Please don't use this as a chance to get a refund because you're injured, lost stoke, etc. As a small business ourselves we are also under a lot of challenges and financial pressure..but we think we would be remiss to not help however we can. If you'd like to take advantage of this, please send me a NEW EMAIL (Please don't reply to this one...it's easy to miss stuff with 50+ replies from unique people in a single thread) and we'll take care of it. 

Third, trail work might be hard to come by. We're still organizing our work days and most non-profits are also planning their summer schedules. However, please know that if we get closer and you are struggling to find trail work and you can't afford the opt out, that we will work with you. This are odd times, so we're going to be flexible to make sure we get through this together! For now, please continue to make all reasonable efforts to get your trail work done but please reach out as you need. 

Wash your hands!

Cheers, 

Caleb

RD, High Lonesome 100