I dissagree %100 on the riding. Unless you get there early in the week, dont plan on "riding" plan on "sitting". B/c thats about all you get to do. By Thursday afternoon traffic will be so bad you wont be able to hardley get around. And on friday... same thing. Especially at night. I'm talking mile long lines on the highline and 3-4 hour waits just to get down the road. And this was when I was there w/ 8-10K people, not the near 13K-15K of last year and this year. So you can imagine how much worse it is w/ a few extra 1000 people.
NOW, having said that, I'm not knocking the event in anyway, its an
excellent event, and if you go to see the competitions and the vendors and camp and meet people and have fun, then you will have an
excellent time. I always did. But do not go and expect to be able to really ride, and have a good time. Most people there, the riding is sip... move 5ft. sip sip sip.. move 5 feet.... wait 30min for someone to move out of the way... sip some more... Now you can haul off in the swamp and ride and chances are there wont be as many people on those trails, however there are some nasty and deep holes out there that can swallow you alive if your not careful. Never a good idea to just venture off through the wilderness at Mud Creek, atleast not w/o the proper precautions.
So I guess to sum it up, again, if you go more to see the vendors and the competitions and meet people and have fun, you will love it. If you go to ride. Well, call me when you get home so I can tell you I told you so.
*edit* I will say this, if you dont care about seeing the competitions, riding during the competitions is a really good time to ride. Since %90+ of the population in the park will be at the competitions and not on the trails
