Ibis Migration
#10 and 11 Report

Pent-up demand for the Men­do­ci­no Migra­tion after a 2020 can­cel­la­tion and a small­er event in 2021 dic­tat­ed need for a sec­ond Migra­tion in 2022. At least, that’s what we’re telling peo­ple. What real­ly hap­pened is that our head Migra­tor took his eye off the ball and over­sold the first one. We sold out in min­utes! So we opened a sec­ond and shuf­fled a few peo­ple to the sec­ond Migra­tion and we were off to the races.

Both were won­der­ful vis­its to the spec­tac­u­lar Men­do­ci­no Wood­lands and its rus­tic clus­ter of 46 cab­ins locat­ed deep in Cal­i­for­ni­a’s coastal red­wood for­est. Per­fect weath­er greet­ed the Migra­tions, along with ide­al trail con­di­tions and a fun and relaxed group of Ibisians. 

Being a cyclist him­self, Rob Hunter knows how to feed the hun­gry mass­es. Rob and his wife Jill are now the vet­er­ans of many Migra­tions with many more in sight (due to his pop­u­lar­i­ty, we’ve actu­al­ly got them booked for 2024 already!). His food is spec­tac­u­lar, and dare we say one of the main rea­sons peo­ple keep com­ing back time after time to the Migra­tions.
Look­ing through the pho­tos we took last year, we pret­ty much for­got to take pho­tos of Rob’s food. Doh! So we might have put in a few from years past.

Pre­sid­ing over break­fast was recov­er­ing chef and cur­rent lawyer Phil Ben­der, tak­ing time off his busy law prac­tice to dust off his knives, whip out his recipe book and show a bunch of enthu­si­as­tic kitchen vol­un­teers how to pre­pare gourmet food for 130 or so hun­gry rid­ers. Thank you Phil, those were amaz­ing meals!

Some­how we also man­aged to get very few pic­tures of Phil’s meals this time around, so we might have used a cou­ple of recy­cled pho­tos from years past. 

Many migra­tors start each morn­ing with an invig­o­rat­ing yoga ses­sion by Abbie. Many oth­er migra­tors sleep in. 

As usu­al, we were serv­ing Nos­sa Famil­ia Cof­fee, the offi­cial cof­fee roast­er of Ibis Migra­tions and many cycling events in Ore­gon. Also the offi­cial morn­ing drink of Chuck Ibis. 

Keg beer this year was from Seis­mic Brew­ing Com­pa­ny out of San­ta Rosa, Break Even Beer­mak­ers from love­ly Amador City and stal­wart Russ­ian Riv­er Brewery.

Over the years, hap­py hour has evolved from cans of beer in a buck­et of ice to a full on extrav­a­gan­za of food, wine, cock­tails, DJ’s and live­ly conversation.