A girl skilled each e-bike rider’s worst nightmare when her bike’s battery died deep within the desert, leaving her stranded for 30 hours and pushing her bike for 20 miles earlier than rescuers discovered her.
Particulars are scarce, however Pals of Massive Bend Ranch State Park reported the incident final week. It happened final November within the Chihuahuan Desert and highlights the dangers of counting on electrical bikes in distant areas—particularly the place they don’t seem to be allowed.
Massive Bend Ranch State Park is Texas’s largest state park, protecting greater than 311,000 acres alongside the Rio Grande. It’s identified for its huge, rugged terrain and entry to in style out of doors actions like bikepacking, gravel and mountain biking, climbing, horseback using and river floating.
In response to the Nationwide Park Service, the park affords greater than 100 miles of paved roads and 160 miles of unpaved backcountry trails, making it “a premier bicycling location.”
The organisation even encourages individuals to discover by bike, stating that “bicycling permits excellent panoramic views unobstructed by a windshield. It additionally permits the bicyclist to see and listen to a few of the smaller wonders of Massive Bend from a extra intimate viewpoint.”
Nevertheless, as a result of park’s rugged vastness, restricted cell service and provides, and temperatures that may simply exceed 100°F throughout the day, bicyclists should be extraordinarily cautious and well-prepared earlier than setting out.
The Pals organisation reported that the girl, whose id has not been launched, was recovered safely from deep within the park’s inside and reminded all park guests that e-bikes are allowed on the paved roads solely – not the paths.
“E-bikes might sound like a good suggestion to make your journey a bit simpler however within the backcountry, they’re downright harmful,” the organisation acknowledged.
“If you cannot journey it with out the help of an electrical motor, please maintain it out of the park and off the paths.”
