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 Huge Bend Ranch State Park reported the incident final week. It befell final November within the Chihuahuan Desert and highlights the dangers of counting on electrical bikes in distant areas—particularly the place they aren’t allowed.
Huge Bend Ranch State Park is Texas’s largest state park, overlaying greater than 311,000 acres alongside the Rio Grande. It’s recognized for its huge, rugged terrain and entry to in style out of doors actions like bikepacking, gravel and mountain biking, mountaineering, horseback driving and river floating.
Based on the Nationwide Park Service, the park provides greater than 100 miles of paved roads and 160 miles of unpaved backcountry trails, making it “a premier bicycling location.”
The organisation even encourages folks 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 Huge 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 identification 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 could sound like a good suggestion to make your journey a bit simpler however within the backcountry, they’re downright harmful,” the organisation said.
“If you cannot trip it with out the help of an electrical motor, please preserve it out of the park and off the paths.”
