Family Adventure Vacation - Stowe Vermont

Stowe Vermont – Family Vacation

Sunday Dec. 16

The travel to Stowe was not looking good as we boarded the plane to JFK. Two major snowstorms had been in the forecast for days – and the travel advisories were up in full force. Sure enough as we arrived at JFK around 3 PM, it was snow turning to rain. All the northbound flights from JFK were cancelled, except one – ours to Burlington Vermont. We only faced a 2 hour delay which gave us time to explore JFK’s food choices. We arrived in Burlington around 5 PM (it gets dark around 4:30 PM) and picked up our rented Mitsubishi Galant to head to Stowe at the tail end of the snowstorm and 2 full feet of Snow. The drive up to the Trapp Family Lodge (a family business of the Trapp family from the “The Sound of Music”) was a nailbiter. As I kept the gas on the floor with the wheels spinning and the motor revved at 100% - the car was slowing to crawl. It must have been pure luck – the little car made it up the mountain. After a nice dinner at the Trapp Lodge – we headed to our cabin, turned on the TV and wound down – tired from the excitement of the day long travel.

Monday Dec. 17

This was the least eventful of the days. The snow was still not cleared from the roads – but we did venture to the grocery store where we stocked up on food for the week and also bought some snow disks for sledding. That afternoon we tromped through snow, sledded down hills and explored the area around the lodge which was still pretty much snowed in.

Tuesday Dec. 18

It was time to learn how to do cross country skiing. The Trapp Family Lodge is known for some of the best XC skiing trails in the country and also expert instruction. The entire family got to learn all about XC or Nordic skiing – our instructor (Larry) was great and we made it through our lessons. After some skiing and lunch (we could ski right to our cabin)– Catherine and Linda decided to do the snow shoe adventure while Anna and Ron tried their hand at the ski trails. XC skis are “squirrely” to say the least. We moved well – but Anna spent the better part of 3 miles on her butt, and I was having trouble with controlling the skis on the downhill. Still we had fun and were quite tired by the time it got dark. Time for some relaxation as Tuesday would be the start of downhill days.






Wednesday – Friday

Mt. Mansfield had 3 feet of natural snow and also plenty more man-made. Linda started with lessons getting good instructors on both Wednesday and Friday. We put the kids in mountain adventure school, and they learned both skiing (Anna’s strength) and snowbarding (Catherine’s strength). Linda improved so much from lessons – that I decided to take a morning lesson on dynamic skiing (thanks to Jonathan, my instructor – he was awesome). After the lessons even the hardest slopes that I had found challenging earlier – were now easily handled. All the nuances that I had been missing were now solid. I spent the afternoon trying all the slopes that looked too steep or slick – and never felt uncomfortable or out of control. I did fall once – it is still tough to hit a mogul on a steep incline. Linda had improved greatly also – she still does not like steep – but she controls the ski’s on the green slopes. Catherine had mastered the basics of the snowboard. All three days had good weather with temps ranging from about 5 F – 15 F, good ski weather.




Saturday Dec. 22

This was our last skiing day and I wanted to give XC one more shot. The weather was also a lot warmer – about 20 F. Anna and I headed out on some more strenuous slopes, while Linda and Catherine went off in snowshoes again. After 3 days on alpine skis I found the XC skis difficult to handle, they love to slide all over the place, I even feel 3 times though not from going fast – simply slick ice and snow and unstable legs in the skis. Anna fared much better, mastering all the down-hills and up-hills we faced in the XC skis. We then picked up some snowshoes and went back and did a family snowshoe hike. Just for reference – you still sink in the snow and even a short distance in snowshoes is quite a workout. Another good night of sleep.





Sunday Dec. 23

Traveling in the north in the winter is always a challenge. We stopped by the Ben and Jerry’s Ice cream factory for a fun tour on the way to Burlington. At lunch I got a phone message from delta that our flight from Burlington to JFK was cancelled due to bad weather in the area. A heroic effort from a Delta gate agent diverted us to Cleveland and then to Atlanta where we missed our connecting flight to Orlando. Luckily we were able to book a later flight (lots of flights between Atlanta and Orlando on Delta) and finally make it home.

Kelly Park Orienteering - December 2007

The routes are exact based on a GPS I carried in my pack. Total time 79 minutes 25 seconds, total distance 5.6 miles, equivalent road distance 8.9 miles.

S to 1 – Trail run to attack point. I originally was going to attack from south of the green area. The white open looked good and it was not hard crossing the splotchy green. Came out just west of the flag, though the control description “terrace” was not too useful.
1 -2 – My mistake of the day. My bearing was slightly off and the lack of features was apparent. I saw the trail, ran too it and used the hilltop to attack. I misread the contours thinking the dashed contour was the bottom of the low area, instead it was a sub-contour and the flag was on a tree on the hillside. I corrected as soon as I saw my mistake (which you can see from my route.
2-3 – My plan was to beeline the control, but the terrain was really bad so I used the east trail as a backstop and attack and relief from the uneven ground. As I got into the low area I did not see the control which was on the northern edge of the low area and well hidden.
3-4 – This was pretty easy and the spur top and trail was apparent, though I did have to do some weaving through the thicket areas.
4-5 – I was proud of myself – finding the little gap in the dark green to the control east, cutting through and quickly finding the control.
5-6 – Plan was to hit the trail T-intersection and attack from there, bulls-eyed it.
6-7 – Never saw the vegetation boundaries (2 dashed circles), but the flag was obvious from 100 meters.
7-8 – Headed North until I got tired of the terrain – headed to the trail and put on the burners. Location was pretty obvious in the white finger protruding into the thicket. Attack point (depression) was also easy.
8-9 – Just run hard, looking for the easiest route and terrain, easy find on an obvious thicket.
9 – F Sprint to trail, and in.

Results (how are these for close results ! - 50 seconds separate the top 3):

Bob Putnam 78:35
Rob Kohnen 79:10
Ron Eaglin 79:25
Tim Buchholz 80:00
Jeremy Hauff 81:40
Wecefar (Kip and Jessica) 82:15

Kelly Park Orienteering

I figured I'd at least post my GPS track from the Floida Orienteering Championship. The event was an awesome race, with at least 5 competitors within 2 minutes of each other. Each of us made at least one mistake (mine was on #2 - which was in retrospect a pretty easy control compared to some of the more challenging controls that I did get. On Monday I'll scan and post the actual map with my route on it. I ran the entire even with a GPS on tracking mode in my backpack.

I am able to transfer the route to my Nationa Geographic TOPO software, which in turn I am able to print at 1:15K scale and trace (using a light table) onto my orienteering map. Unfortuantely my home scanner is not working (damn HP printers/scanners), but my scanner at work does work OK. Anyway - Here is the USGS version of the map, I'll also give my thoughts on various controls and where I made my mistake on #2 (which won't make much sense looking at the USGS map). Total off-road distance 5.7 miles (a tough 5.7 miles) and a travel time of 79 minutes 25 seconds. I did run too conservative as I had too much energy at the end, which at least made controls 8, 9, and F pretty fast.

Primal Quest Bound

I figured this is as good as a place as any to announce something this big. I am joining Team Blue on their epic adventure that is Primal Quest ( http://www.ecoprimalquest.com/wp-primal/ ) . Of course this is more than just entering a race. On any given day I can simply show up and complete an iron distance triathlon event (they actually seem kind of short - like a long training day) - though I am still amazed at how much they cost ($400-$500). This is different, this requires starting in ironman shape and honing to a level well beyond this. It also requires certified skills in ropes, climbing, first aid, navigation, swimming, whitewater, and paddling. Of course to that end you have to do the certifications (I will be going with my team to Camp XStream http://www.gravityplay.com/campxstream/index.html for the certs).

The commitments are more than just physical, the cost ($12,500 per team) is also pretty intense. To that end I will probably be hosting seminars on everything from navigation to paddling - all for the SDR2PQ - "Send Dr. Ron to Primal Quest" fund. Watch this space - I will be testing myself to some higher limits to ensure I am ready for this goal. I've already started upping distances, laying out a more severe training schedule - doing what needs to be done.

I join 2 other Floridians (Blaine Reeves and Don Nettlow) who will be racing for my normal team (Team Travelcountry.com) in this PQ preparation effort. I have 200 days, I will be ready...

Turkey Burn Maps

Turkey Burn Rogaine Adventure Race

Turkey Burn Rogaine Adventure Race
Race Director: Dave Brault/ Team Sun-tek Skylights.

BB = Bonus Bike, MB = Mandatory Bike
BP = Bonus Paddle, MP = Mandatory Paddle
BT = Bonus Trek, MT = Mandatory Trek

To understand what it is like to race in a Rogaine adventure race, you must understand Rogaine. Unlike most races where you complete a course and the fastest time wins – in a Rogaine, you already know your time, the objective is to complete as much of the course as possible. In the TB Rogaine control points are a mixture of mandatory and bonus. All teams must complete the mandatory CP’s, and as many of the bonus CP’s as possible. The Turkey Burn is a Rogaine style race of this type, which is a great format as all teams can compete at their levels and they all finish at roughly the same time. This was also the inaugural race for Pangea Adventure Racing (www.pangeaadventureracing.com) which was the company formed by Greg Owens to handle the challenge of setting adventure races in Central Florida.

Team TCO (Travel Country Outdoors, www.travelcountry.com) was made up of Jamie Sheriff, Ken Kandefar, and Greg Corbitt and we were ready to race, kind of. Greg was coming off a stomach virus that had kept him down all week so he was not starting at 100%. I was feeling pretty good, but had raced literally the last 2 months on races ranging from 4 hour to 30 hours, though I was looking forward to a break after this race for at least a few weeks. Adventure racers are tough stuff so it was that we got about 4 hours of sleep and headed out to set up at the race TA at 2 AM. We were given maps at 3 AM and for me the race was on. Planning and plotting of the course took us the full hour (and about 3 extra minutes) as we missed the start gun and spent the first little run section catching up with the pack.

The race started at 4 AM with a wonderful moonlight paddle on the Wekiva River. There was no navigation on this paddle, we simply paddled to Katie’s landing and back. We arrived back and immediate headed off on bikes for the real racing. It was about 5:30 AM when we headed out, and our plan was to collect BB5 first. A route choice of taking the northern jeep trail was bad as the trail turned sandy quite early, though the southern road might have been just as bad (though I suspect it was better). We slogged about 2 km through the sand and punched BB5. From here it was pretty easy riding East Northeast to Sandy Road and then north to MB1. This was good road and after the bridge the ride up Pine Rd. was fun. BB4 was next and it was pretty easy (though it was off the road a ways). We headed south to BB1 which was pretty easy. We headed back north and picked up MB3 on the way to BB2, which was pretty easy. The trail north from BB2 to the intersection at the end of the railroad grade was packed with head high dog fennel (a tall grass). At this point I reset my odometer, of course I should have paid attention to it as we missed the turn for MB2 and had to double back about 200 meters to it, and then it was to TA1.

The transition to trek here was slower than I would have liked, but we were heading out on foot and it was a beautiful day. BT3 and BT4 were our first two control and were found pretty easy (though the clue to BT4 was in pretty bad shape). From there it was south on the old forest road – now completely overgrown – to MT1. From there it was West Southwest to the southern trail to BT2. We walked right past the flag twice before finally nailing it and heading to BT1. With the clue of a vegetation boundary east of the trail we also found BT1 pretty fast. Since the woods were pretty open we decided to bushwhack back over to the N-S trail. This ended us up near the creek intersection on the N-S trail. A left turn and a little more bushwhack and we were heading north where we had biked earlier that morning. We had kept a pretty good pace throughout the trek, but now we were wearing down and ended up walking the last bit into the TA. So far we had collected 50 points and hit all the mandatory CP’s for that section of the race.

At this point I knew that time would be critical. We still wanted to get BB3 on the way back to the Main TA and that looked to be quite a bit of extra biking and we had been warned that the last half mile of the trial to BB3 was very sandy. After getting back to Pine Rd. we took the right onto the railroad grade (Grade Rd). At this point I switched the Seminole State Forest map. We took a convoluted route towards BB3 staying on the best of the rideable roads (see course map with overlay). We reached the sand road, dropped our bikes and headed down the sand road on foot (from the earlier bike tracks we knew that others had made this choice). Hoof-hearted and SWIM where the other 2 teams to go after this 15 point control, though I was beginning to suspect this was a bad choice. We wasted about 10-15 minutes with some extra looking here – but found the control and headed back to the TA at the fastest clip we could carry.

At arriving at the Main TA we had to scale the wall, paddle 8 miles, bike to the horse barn, do an orienteering course, and get back – all in 3 hours. We scaled the wall quickly and headed out on the paddle. We hammered the paddle as fast as our arms could take us. Greg was in the boat with me, and I could tell he was having some serious back spasms. We saw other teams heading back as we approached the mandatory paddle CP, found it and headed back which was much easier (downstream). I knew I needed an hour to complete the orienteering course under ideal condition (fresh) – and we were not fresh and we only had 40 minutes to bike, run, and then bike back.

Still we had a job to do, we skipped the transition and simply hopped on our bikes – BUT Greg’s front bike tire was flat. The bike was only 1 ½ miles so we pumped it up, prayed it would hold and took the big bike pump with us. The tire held to the barn and we were off and running. We only had time to hit the 2 mandatory and there was no time to have trouble finding them. We nailed both of them – but we were not running well. I was hurting so Ken and then Jamie took my pack so I could concentrate on the navigation. Greg was hurting from simple lack of fuel (remember he had not eaten much of anything since Wednesday and being sick). The 4 PM deadline passed as we were limping back to the bikes about halfway between MT12 and the bikes. We were now losing points, one for every minute. We had been going at 100% for the last 6 hours. We hit the bikes and re-pumped Greg’s bike tire and took the last 1 ½ miles at what could only be called a reckless all-out pace.

In the end we finished at 4:20 (losing 20 points of our 65 we had painstakingly gathered) – and in second place. We had pushed as hard as we possibly could – how we wished we could have gotten back some of those easy minutes from the first half of the course. Congratulations to Manny and Jason of Hoof-hearted, who had done a wonderful job of pushing hard and making all the right choices, even picking up an extra 5 points on the orienteering section. They took the overall win – and I think we were in second behind them.

Of all the races in the past few months – this was the one that hurt the most, we pushed with everything we had for a solid 6 hours and that was following 6 hours of pretty hard pushing. Everyone on the team came through when they had to and once gain we raced wonderfully.

LEACH Maps

LEACH Pictures

The full set of pictures from the LEACH are available at http://www.clubscrub.org/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=600

Here are pics from the teams in this LEACH race report.

LEACH - Loxahatchee Eco Adventure Challenge

LEACH 2007 – A tale of 3 teams

While sitting at the banquet table at Nationals over Bourbon shots and Beer, Melissa and I made a commitment to race the LEACH, one of the premiere races in South Florida. And so it was this Friday I was packing up the family to head to a cabin we were lucky enough to get in Jonathan Dickinson State Park (awesome cabins in a beautiful park – definitely worth trip for those looking for a fun family getaway). I would be racing with Chris in what would pretty much be his first sprint race and his second ever adventure race (having raced a multi-day race in New Caledonia - http://www.sleepmonsters.com/racereport.php?race_id=4311) as Team TCO. Melissa would be racing as a 3 person coed team with Jim Levine and a new racer, Dave – who was a colleague of theirs from work (and also covered for Jim on his trip to Nationals) and Team Trail and Error. Melissa had injured herself the week prior doing a competition and was limping on a bad hip before the race even started. She would be racing on painkillers and her own natural determination. Anyone who knows Melissa, also knows that there is a lot of that…

We got the maps and passports about 15 minutes before the race start and some quick instructions. Pretty much I gathered info that one course route was evil (bad trail) and the area was a lot wetter than the previous year. We quickly laminated the maps and passports with contact paper (they were plain paper) and made it to the start with about 30 seconds to spare before the “Go”.

The race started with a short (3/4 mile) run to CP1 where we were greeted with a swim, at least for one member of the team. I shed my backpack and tossed it to Chris and leaped into the water which was pretty chilly (it was a chilly morning at JD). The flag was suspended on a line over a creek and the water was deep enough that this was a real swim. To save time in the pack I swam around the back side of the control to punch it – and with a little teamwork from other teams (one hand on the rope, one hand on the punch, one hand holding the passport – see the problem here?) was able to punch and swim to a spot where it was less crowded and exit the water flopping my body up the wet, slippery, and muddy bank. Jim had essentially jumped right into the water with the Trail and Error passport and we headed back to the TA in mid-pack.

After reaching the TA we scaled the “Wall of Death” which as walls go was moderately challenging, though teamwork made it a lot easier. We grabbed our boats and were on the water for checkpoints 2, 3, and 4. Because the wall and the CP1 had been pretty tight bottlenecks we hit the water about 10 minutes behind the lead teams – but knowing both teams were strong paddlers, I was pretty sure we would put some distance on the field. Sure enough before hitting CP2 on the south riverbank and the short run to CP3 and back, the teams in front of us had been reduced to 5 teams. By the time we reached CP4 at Trapper Nelson’s we were down to a lead pack 4 teams. As we headed back Team “Are We There Yet” led by Will Murphy and our team had put some distance on the field.

As we exited the water the next special test was to fill a water bucket, throw the water to our team-mate and then they would use the water to fill a 3rd bucket and lift a gallon jug of water (with a pulley attached to the bucket) off the ground. After a little trial and error I figured that throwing the water up in a nice arc, caused it to land cleanly in the bucket Chris had – and we finished the special test in a few quick minutes.

It was then on to bikes where we would head out, not to return to the TA until the end of the race. We got everything together quickly and then waited a couple of minutes for Melissa and her team to enter the TA before heading out on bikes. We biked an easy road 3 miles to CP5 where Melissa caught up with us and we had to dismount and do a short (3 mile) run course. According to JJ who was at the CP, RWTY had left 6 minutes prior. Melissa was limping pretty bad – but we decided to run as strong as we could and caught up with RWTY at an unmapped intersection just west of CP7. We worked together to get CP8 (which also required another navigation decision on an unmapped road and it was back to the CP5, which was also CP9.

From CP9 we instead headed north along the railroad tracks and cut across on a trail directly to CP10, shortcutting RWTY who had taken a longer road ride to CP10 and the lookout tower. After climbing the tower and getting our picture taken at the top (yes this was part of the race), we went down for the next special test. A 2 mile cyclocross trail had been set up and the person (not team) with the best time would get a special prize at the end. Chris and I took this pretty easy (Chris at 8:10 and me at 8:24). After finishing I forgot to go back on the short cut we had taken from CP9 to CP10 and ended up following RWTY along the road route past CP9 and to CP11. We arrived just seconds ahead of RWTY at CP11 and the next special test – the “Spiderweb of Death”.

This was a team test where we clipped onto a rope that we had to follow through an obstacle course (and with the team-mates clipped to each other). Our team-work was going strong and we completed the course just and Melissa’s team arrived. RWTY left second before us heading west on the road. I decided to take a route north on the power lines – pretty much the opposite direction. We arrived at CP12 at pretty much the same time and made a silent agreement to work together on the next few controls.

From CP12 we had to bikewhack west across into the swamp, across the creek, up through thick palmettos to get to the trail we needed. It was a pretty tough bikewhack especially since the creek was not only deep – it also had a muck bottom. I got snagged on a tree and any effort to lift myself over by pushing down with one foot just sunk that foot down into the muck. What I really need was a free hand to push off the submerged tree I was caught on – but the hands were busy holding up my bike. A strategy of holding my bike with one hand and using both feet and my free hand to “3-leg” through the downed tree eventually got me out. Of course the other 4 racers coming through with me were smart enough to stay off the tree. Coming out the other side of the creek was also tough with a solid wall of green followed by palmettos. Willem (I’ve raced with both Will and Willem of Team RWTY) found a good spot to bash through and we were finally out and racing again.

The ride to CP13 was pretty easy and we all rode together. We worked together to find the CP which was just off the Florida Trail in a pretty interesting (ready swampy with many water crossings) section of the trail. Rding from CP13 to CP14 we saw Melissa’s group, which had gained another rider somehow, heading towards CP13. We leapfrogged with RWTY a few times heading to CP14 and were the first bikes to arrive. (from what I understand all the other teams skipped CP13, which was a bonus CP to make the 3 PM cutoff at CP14). At CP14 we had another special test, the orienteering course.

The course was not a true orienteering, as an orienteering is a sport which has a special map and rules. The was a bearing course and it would take both of our teams into some pretty thick and interesting terrain. On one of the OP points we did have to form a search line – which quickly got us to the OP (I think it was OP4 which was 30 meters east of the creek we kept crossing). Luckily we had kept close track of all the clues (15 degrees, 25 meters) to lead us to the last control. One other team had arrived in the mean time and we worked together to get the final OP (CP15) before memorizing the map hung there to return us to the bikes.

At the bikes I tried to note whether Melissa and the other team were there – but by this time a LOT of bikes had arrived. Chris and I mounted up and I called to Will to see if they were ready. Their team was looking at the maps, I had memorized the route back to the TA while we were running from CP15 to the bikes so we headed out. (This was not really that hard as we simply stayed on the westernmost trail all the way back). On arrival we had one more task to complete. We were given the location of the final CP (16) which looked to be an easy out and back mile long run. Jason warned us that long pants might be a good idea – so we knew it would not be that easy. I tried to take us on a shortcut route (I could see a yellow blazed trail that looked like it diagonalled across to the CP – but it was quickly apparent it did not). We simply hit the power line and headed east on the Township/Range fenceline to CP16. As we got there we learned that it would not be that easy – the control gave us a bearing and distance that would put us in the middle of a wire and trip grass swamp. We fought our way into the swamp to the clearing which was on the map and was right where the bearing and distance were taking us. Instead of keeping a straight bearing I tried to weave us around the thickest of the stuff, relying on hitting the large clearing and seeing the flag. Sure enough we could see daylight and the flag was right there on the north side of a huge open wiregrass clearing. We got to it, punched the flag, painted our pinkies and headed back following our path in, back out.

After exiting the swamp we had an easy mile run back, passing RWTY on the way into the swamp. We kept an easy light jog back into the TA and ended up finishing at about 3:30 (beating the 4 PM cutoff). RWTY arrived about 20 minutes later, followed by Trail and Error another 10 minutes after that. It looked like we were the only three teams to get all the controls and beat the cutoff. It was an incredibly exciting race and the cutoffs and the competition were tight enough to keep us moving hard. Team RWTY raced a solid race, running fully on all the (many) foot legs, paddling hard and keeping us moving on the bikes. It was a great race. I should have the maps up by Tuesday (Melissa is scanning them and sending them to me). I have one more race for the season - The Turkey Burn, a solid 12 hour Rogaine style race in one of the most incredible areas of Florida – Wekiva Springs and Blackwater Creek. Watch here for the latest.

Bubba Goat 2007 - Florida Orienteering

The Bubba Goat is an orienteering that is different from a standard orienteering as it is a mass start and it is also very LONG. The 2007 Bubba Goat starting at Kelly Park advertised a race distance of 17.5 km which means that we would be running at least 20-25 km for the entire race. As we lined up at the start my team-mate Jamie, and another adventure racer Nick decided we would work together on the course. This outlines some of the methods (with the map attached) how we handled many of the controls (24 total) in this long race.

S-1, 1-2: These were both quite easy with obvious attack points.
2-3: As this was a relatively large feature we paralleled the E-w road to the south. The sparse features were relatively easy.
3-4: Pretty much due south using the small depression just south of the road to verify direction.
4-5: Decided to head south and use the trail which allowed for some pretty fast running.
5-6: Back to the trail, since the marked vegetation boundary was visible from the trail, an obvious cut across.
6-7: Again hit the trail, used the depression as an attack point to diagonal across. Once hitting the Florida trail we used the open (orange) areas to simply guide us to the control.
7-8: Basically bushwhack to the trail to the south. Use the depression on the trail to attack to the south.
8-9: Trail and attack from the saddle. Since it was so subtle (the saddle) this was a bit challenging.
9-10: South to the trail, then use the depression on the edge of the trail as an attack. The first attack was unsuccessful so we decided to double back. On the way back I headed south to attempt to find the open area south of 10, found it and then used it to attack 10 from the due south. This time successfully.
10-11: This was a long trail run with a long attack point (rough open on trail, with one cross trail), however was on a large feature that made the approach quite easy.
12-15: These were all pretty easy with obvious attack points, we nailed each one. 13 would have been the most challenging because the terrain was thick, but it was due north of the visible hilltop making it easy to find by a reverse bearing.
15-16: The attack off the trail after the shallow depression worked well. The objective was to find the hole in the green thickets and attack from there. We nailed it.
16-17: The original plan was to attack from the west (going around) , the bend in the trail was obvious enough that we diagonaled across to the re-entrant (which was very shallow).
17-18: After hitting the trail (too far north) we used the depression again, however we missed the flag too far to the north. The backstop (N-S trail) gave us a nice attack, the distinct tree west of the trail south of the berms.
18-19: This was pretty subtle terrain after leaving the trail. We got a bit lucky with our attack off the hilltop, but we did hit the flag almost dead-on.
19-20: This was pretty easy from the road intersection attack point.
20-21: Jamie and Nick cutoff and headed back here, Jamie needed to get back (after 3 hours of continuous running) for a tennis match. Because the rules allowed us to skip 2 controls, Nick started for CP23, CP24 and the finish to meet his wife and kids. CP21 was essentially a handrail along the open (orange) area.
21-22: I was getting pretty tired at this point. The thickets from pretty obvious and the trail bend south of CP4 was a pretty good attack.
22-23: After leaving CP22 I hit the trail heading east and ran back into Nick who had overshot CP23 and was coming back around for a second attack. Unfortunately I was paying more attention to this and missed the north trail cutoff and had to double back. After that we used the subtle green “blob” as our attack (and it was very subtle), but we did nail the control.
23-24: This was really easy, but it did require that we run back to the gate and then back to 24 adding a lot of distance to both Nick and my tired legs.

In the end we both finished in about 4 hours (nearly exactly). As it turned out, Nick and I were the only two to finish the entire course and I was the only one to get all the controls. It was a great preparation for adventure racing and the upcoming races the next two weeks (the LEACH and the Turkey Burn) – watch this space for details on both these races to come.

Also for the Bubba Results - they are at http://www.floridaorienteering.org/results/2007-bubba.htm

USARA Nationals Checkpoint 4-5

No major adventure race is complete without the fake CP. In this race CP4 was it - we got there and got to plot another location further up the trail. Instead of staying on the trail we took the road and then bushwhacked back to the trail from above. As the drawn Berryman trail is an approximation of the actual trail - this was pretty challenging. From CP4 we chose to bikewhack to the road and then again to the trail leading to CP5. This was a great section of the race for us. We had not been pushing the pace so had plenty of energy, the weather was nice and it was afternoon and relatively warm.

USARA Nationals Checkpoints 10-12

CP10 was easy but CP11 was tricky with no obvious attack point. For those teams hitting it with daylight it was a simple matter of counting re-entrants to the south of the trail. For teams hitting it at night - the trail was located in a small valley and the re-entrants were not visible from the trail. We did end up hitting the re-entrant east of the correct one. We realized our mistake and headed over the ridge to the correct re-entrant eventually dropping down teh re-entrant to the control. The other challenge here was after paddling was portaging down the spillway to the water in the dark. It is amazing how things that are so simple in the sunlight can be so challenging at night.

USARA Nationals Checkpoints 15-21

This was one of the more challenging sections of the race for many teams. For one, nearly all teams worked through this section in the dark (as did we). CP15, 16, and 17 were deceptively easy. Even though CP18 was in an obvious location - the trek from 17 to 18 on an unmarked trail was tricky. CP18 to CP19 and then CP20 required some tight attention to detail and a good choice of attack points. CP19 had us start into it one spur early until I gave Melissa the map, rested my brain. She chose an attack from the 3rd stream trail crossing, took a bearing and led us straight to it. I took over at CP20. I attacked from the trail where it started west and aimed off a little to the east to hit the re-entrant above the control. This worked quite well and we nailed the control easily. CP21 was a TA and also quite easy with obvious backstops.

USARA Nationals Initial O Course

This is the first initial map for the USARA Nationals (actually it is just a scan of part of the map). The O-Course was not that terribly difficult. We did have issues with CPE. The drawn road north of the CP ended on the hilltop NE of the control and another unmarked road followed the ridgeline towards G. Both F and G were on unmarked roads that followed the ridges. Still we had a good time even though we wasted about 40 minutes using wrong roads.

USARA National Championships, Potosi Missouri

USARA National Championships, Potosi, Missouri

Of the experiences that everyone should have in their life, competing in a national championship should be one of them. Whether it is in football chess, scrabble, or, in our case, adventure racing, being there is simply on of those great experiences. So there we were; Melissa, Jim, and I listening to Robyn Benincasa (one of the all star professionals of our sport) telling us about how hard it is to relate to these things until you have experienced the same. Just a day and a half earlier we hard started on a race/journey that would be one of the great experiences of any life.

I had only raced with Jim twice, having hooked up for the Croom Crusher and then after that the “Howl at the Moon” where we qualified (with Melissa Watson) for the Nationals. I had not planned on going, but a little arm twisting from Melissa – you wanna race ? – had me changing my plans and heading to Potosi, Missouri. So there we were; Melissa, Jim, and I; sitting in the pre-race briefing Thursday night at the Trout Lodge of the Ozarks.

It was great to see all the teams in the pre-race. Some teams looking for top 10 finishes were intent on gleaning every bit of info to have a solid race. My goals were a bit more pragmatic – a solid race and finishing. As with most adventure races we would not really know what the course would be until the next morning when we got our map and passport. Maps would be handed out at 5 AM, then a 6 AM second pre-race, and then a 7 AM start. After the map handout we did the usual course plotting (2 hours, 13 orienteering CP’s, and 25 course CP’s all to be plotted). We finished with a few minutes to spare and headed to the start just as the race began. Then the real fun began.

Jim had to run to the top of a hill (with all the other teams) and then meet Melissa and I at the south end of the lake near the start where we would be paddling. Jim took off and Melissa and I worked through the bottleneck of boats heading to the meeting point with Jim. The temperature was cold enough that water splashing on to us and the boats froze within a minute creating a nice sheen of ice on the gunnels. Fog rose from the lake in huge columns that swirled through the air as the armada of boats paddled south. As we picked up Jim and headed towards the first paddle checkpoints – the sun crested the eastern mountain top illuminating the hilltops to the west in a brilliant blaze of fire and golden fall hues. The first 2 checkpoints were along the paddle, and we stayed in the back of the pack – pacing ourselves and enjoying the scenery.

After exiting the boats after maybe 3 miles of paddling, we started the orienteering course. We were allowed to do the points in any order and we selected a route that took essentially clockwise around the lake. The only one that gave us any trouble was the second one (E - Boulder) as I was relying on the mapped roads on the map to actually be as shown. This was of course after a strong warning the day before in the pre-race not to rely too heavily on the locations of those roads. After switching to reading contours we picked it up quickly and finished a beautiful (and fun) orienteering course without too much trouble. The course had offered some incredible views and scenery. Another cool thing was Melissa found a pretty cool piece of trash, we thought it might be part of a still. The trash won us the ARFE best trash award!

When we arrived at the transition area, there were only a handful of bikes left, as most teams had long ago come and gone from the O course and headed out on bikes. We were in great spirits, we had not pushed very hard on the orienteering and were relatively fresh. The sun had warmed things up nicely so we pulled off a few layers of clothing and headed out on the first bike leg. The first couple of checkpoints (CP 1 and CP2) basically had us climbing the mountain and gaining some elevation. Of course with all of us being flatlanders – this was a bit brutal on our Florida legs, but we found ourselves passing teams on some of the climbs. The real fun of the bike leg started when we entered the single track of the Berryman trail. The bike terrain was pretty awesome, I’m a decent mountain biker and found myself easing cautiously through many of the switchbacks and rocky areas of the course. Our first surprise came at CP4, which had us plot another point a few miles up the trail for the “real” CP4. We decided to take a riskier route than the straight trail ride that would lead us to CP4, which had us navigate to above the CP by road and trail ride back down. We found the control, but it became obvious that the mapped trail was simply an “approximation” of the actual trail. Still the risk paid off as the teams we were with when we found the first CP4 location had not arrived at the new CP4. We had an easy time biking to CP5 and then following the mandatory route along the Berryman trail to CP6 (which was an awesome, mostly downhill, trail ride). We saw team BAMF (also a Florida team) heading out from CP5, which as it turned out was their second time, having taken an illegal route and having to redo a portion of the ride. We passed BAMF just before CP6 changing a flat about 100 meters from CP6. Also CP6 was a great location as an artesian spring with good water allowed us to refresh all our water.
The rest of the bike ride was uneventful buy nice trail to road ride. We chose another risky route, but again it paid off as we passed a few more teams arrived at CP8 and the start of the next trek section in good spirits.

The trek would have 2 checkpoints that would give us a bit of trouble. The first one (CP9) plotted about 100 meters from the drawn trail we were using, however it was actually located on the trail. We spent about 20 minutes looking around the woods for the flag, before returning to the trail and running right into it, just meters from where we had gone in (so much for relying on the mapped trail). CP10 was in an easy spot and a quick find. CP11 gave us (and a lot of other teams) trouble. In the dark and it had us finding a re-entrant at night looking south across a large stream bed. In the daylight the re-entrants would have been quite obvious, but at night it was much trickier. We found what we though was the correct re-entrant, but realized that we had to be “one over” so we crested the ridge and dropped into the second re-entrant and quickly found the checkpoint. We had trekked/walked the entire section and were feeling really good when we arrived at CP12 and the paddle.

By now it was about 9:30 PM and temperatures had dropped quite a bit. We had heard the water conditions were pretty low, so we had donned rain jackets, waterproof pants, seal skins socks and layered up for what would be a cold wet paddle. We first paddled across a small lake and down a steep spillway heading for the creek we would be paddling. The paddle looked to be a little over 10 miles, so we estimated worst case scenario at 4 hours.

We quickly realized that the worst case scenario was a lot worse than we had reckoned. Though the creek was pretty with swift moving water, it was also shallow. We would paddle hard where we had water, scanning the river with our lights for the deep water. We would hit the rock bars and shallows with scrunching noise that we quickly learned to dread. Bottoming out meant either poling our boat (with the paddles) off the shallow, or jumping out of the boat (I should mention into the cold water) and pulling it off the shallows. When we arrived at the CP13 location we pulled out on the wrong side of the river, so I walked across (remember shallow) and climbed the telephone pole where it was hung. This had given a few team (again, only in the dark) at night some trouble not looking up to see it in the air. I also had some trouble punching it – hanging from the pole with one hand I got the electronic dipper stuck and it beeped 4 times instead of one. This was supposedly bad – but I still did not worry too much.

We did have one amazing encounter on the river. At one point we saw what looked like a tree branch swimming across the stream. Our first thought (all Florida team) was gator, and then Jim said Tarpon!, but it was a beaver dragging a tree branch. He swam alongside of us for a while as we stared, dazed at him dragging the tree branch as he swam along completely ignoring us. After 5 hours of paddling and portaging, and scooching, and dragging – we made it to the takeout. At this point we were cold, wet, tired, and the fire at CP14 was quite a luxury. We spent some time drying out our gear before heading out on the last trek, a relatively long 16 mile trek.

We had heard that some teams had trouble with the checkpoints along this trek. By the time we got to the challenging ones (CP19 and CP20) we had daylight. That was a kind of sweet revenge – the fast teams had hit many of the early challenges in daylight which we hit later at night. These later controls they had darkness, while we hit them in the daylight. I did have a brain freeze on CP19, but simply handed the map to Melissa whose “fresh eyes” took us right to it with no problems at all. Our bikes were at CP21/CP8 – at this point we could “smell” the finish (last leg syndrome). It was probably obvious that we were having a good time as we strolled into the TA and started getting our bikes ready for the last big ride. We were joking and were feeling pretty good coming off the trek.

After a long transition we took the road up to CP22. As we arrived at the CP22 location a team came from the other direction and hinted for me to look at the passport. As it turned out the road was an illegal route to CP22, so we had a choice (1) go back and take the mandatory trail route, a 2 hour ride, or (2) take a 4 hour penalty. As it was getting late the team made a decision to take the penalty which would hopefully get us in around noon. I was glad as my Florida bike legs were now approaching a state of rubber and a 2 hour single track mountain bike ride was not something I was looking forward to at the time.

We headed on to CP23 and 24. The ride from CP23 to CP24 had the steepest climb of the race and I am quite proud to say I did not drop on it, though I did pay for it later. We saw other teams as we headed for CP25 (an out and back). At this point (around 29 hours of racing) we were pretty tired and were looking forward to the finish line. In the end we would finish after 29 and ½ hours of racing and take a four hour penalty and a solid 48th place finish. Jim had completed his first 24+ hour race, Melissa and I proved that we were a solid navigation team, and we had done what we came to do – had a great time.

(I’ll have maps up as soon as Melissa sends them to me)

More Howl Maps

I had a request to upload the mapped locations of CP10, CP11, and CP12 - these are the locations. I did not draw in our course as we basically went straight to them.

Howl Maps

Howl at the Moon 2007

Team Travel Country Outdoors – Ron Eaglin, Melissa Watson, Jim Levine, Greg Corbitt
(maps to come in next post)

An annual favorite race of mine is the Howl at the Moon, a night race that brings about a new challenge dealing with darkness and sometimes cold in a sprint (12-18 hours) format. This year was no different as 41 teams lined up to receive the maps on a Saturday afternoon. It did not take long for Melissa and me to plot the 7 Orienteering points and 4 waypoints of the first half of the course and get a chance to plan and relax before the 3 PM start.

We would start with a quick run of about a mile before swimming across the Withlacoochee River near the mouth of the Suwannee and get started on the first 15-20 mile trek leg of the course. The swim was a wonderful start (clear cool water)– ensuring all teams would have wet shoes as we got started on the long run of this first leg. The lead teams immediately got off to a bad start after the swim taking a double track road that was only partially mapped, and completely bypassing OP1. About ½ mile into this run I realized we were heading the wrong way as we should have been on a west head trail along the river and the double track made no signs of going any direction other than north. We bushwhacked west to the river, found the correct trail and took an attack towards the control. The limestone caves in the area of the control seemed like too good of a location to pass up and Melissa quickly found it and we were on our way to OP2 with one other team (2 PM) running along with us.

We came back to the double track road and headed northeast bushwhacking to the Orange blazed trail meeting it exactly where we expected. OP2 was right on the trail and we did not even need to slow down as we punched OP2. From there it was a trail run to the attack point for OP3. We were clipping nicely along and a distinct stream bend was going to supply a good attack point for OP3. Team “Semper Go” (which is Coast Guard – not Marines) arrived at OP3 area at the same time. Our team still had too much energy, instead of aligning the attack point and spreading the team as we had done hundred of times before – we all dissolved into 4 individuals looking independently for the control. After wasting 20 minutes we met back at the river, regrouped, located our attack point, took our bearing, set up a search pattern and found the control 5 minutes later. The 20 minutes of wasted time did allow a few teams to catch up, though they were still locating the control as we were heading out. Semper Go had been with us on the original attack and as we left I saw them and told them to use our original attack – which had been correct before we bailed on it. It was the same attack that had been successful the second time.

From here we knew we had a solid 8 mile run to OP4 – with a lot of navigation choices. We were going to try one that looked to be risky – but would cut miles from our run. After crossing the river peninsula north of OP6 (a paddle control) we located a good crossing spot and swam the river. The trail networks north of the river appeared to require either going 2-3 miles out of the way to the north or making long bushwhacks (though there were likely plenty of trails). The roads south of the river were straight, would be runnable, and also went in the direction we wanted. A path on the south side of the river took us out at the intersection of 10th Ter and 14th Ter – so we paralleled the river on the road, then took 8th Pl. to the dead-end and bushwhacked to the Highway 249 bridge. As we crossed the bridge a local informed us that there were other folks dressed like us (we were pretty distinct running along in our packs carrying paddles) running towards the bridge from the South.

After crossing the bridge it was pretty easy to simply follow the roads to the Holton Creek area where we used the road numbers and the Holton Creek map to ensure our approach to OP4. We wanted to hit OP4 in daylight and it looked like we would do this and be on the river with a little bit of light to spare. The trail (blue trail) intersection and road bend gave us a pretty good attack point going towards OP4. The large number of sinkholes made keeping our bearing a challenge – but we pretty much hit it dead on. Since we had located all trek OP’s with light we rewarded ourselves with about 10 minutes of walking (out to the road heading southeast) before dropping back into a run. Jim had been having some knee problems and was running with a strong limp – though he still was keeping a good pace. We arrived at the boats (overshooting it a little as we were joking and not paying real close attention), filled our bladders, portaged our boats to the river down steps that were obviously not made for people portaging boats and hit the water. Semper Go arrived as we were in the transition and would hit the water just a few minutes behind us.

We took it pretty easy on the paddle at first. I was using a canoe paddle, while everyone else had kayak paddles (just a logistics oversight). The downstream current was swift and we had a huge backstop just before OP5 – the highway 249 bridge. Semper Go caught up with us along this stretch, and we found the entrance to the Alapaha River together and located the CP quickly. The Alapaha River water was quite shallow and the there appeared to be no flow in the river – but it was a nice diversion. It took us just over one hour to paddle from the put-in to OP5.

The next leg to OP6 was relatively straight (literally). The minimal bends in the river made travel along this section quite fast – just hunker down and paddle. Semper Go used this section and some hard paddling to put some distance on us, but I kept our team to our race plan which was a strong, medium speed paddle. OP7 was a very easy find on the 180 degree bend and we kept the pace as we passed the take-out and headed for OP8. We chatted a little bit with Elias as we went by, telling him one plan we had considered was taking out here, trekking to OP7, and then simply heading back to the TA – though I knew his intention was to have teams paddle to OP7. We did this and as we made the turn into the Withlacoochee River we noted that Semper Go had ditched the boat at this entrance opting to run to OP7. Unfortunately for them they had plotted the control on the east side of the river (it was correctly plotted on the west side) and the steep cliffs in the area near the control made getting to the control challenging. We reached OP7 where they were searching for the control – and they were able to use our lights to hone in on it, though the cliffs and the required swim across the river for them would still make it challenging.

We boogied back downriver, now passing other teams near the end of the Withlacoochee. Semper Go’s boat was still on the shore – though I knew they would not be more than 5 minutes behind us. All the other teams were a solid 3 km of paddling back of us.

We were slow getting our boats out at the take-out (stiff legs and all). Semper Go arrived, racked the boat and we headed out the trek to the TA together. They opted to risk a fire road for a more direct route to the old railroad bridge, while we took the park road to US90, a long but easier route. We were slowed a bit as Jim’s knee was really hurting – so our running pace had slowed quite a bit. Melissa had a brace at the TA – which would help Jim.

At the TA we would need to mark maps, and then head out. I was feeling very sluggish at this point and took a little too long after marking maps to get myself moving onto the bike. Semper Go left 13 minutes ahead of us on the bike leg, but I wanted to use the time to ensure a clean navigation when we were out there. Our original race plan had been for Melissa to navigate this leg, but our early success in team navigation made us change the plan – I would do primary navigation, while Melissa would keep track of distances. This worked quite well as we had no trouble finding CP9 and then CP8. From CP8 the road network leading out to 16th Ave seemed to me to be a little off – but staying to the roads leading west I knew would eventually get us to road. We hit it – took an odometer reading and then moved fast to the entrance to OP10 which had a strong backdrop (power lines) at the entrance. We planned to take the best road possible to OP10 – and made some good choices in here, catching Semper Go and putting us back in the lead as we backtracked out to 16th Ave.

I calculated the distance from the OP10 entrance to the OP11/12 entrance at 4 km by simply looking at the UTM grid and subtracting 59 – 55. (look at the N/S grids on the map). We laid into this leg and sure enough the entrance was clearly marked and at 4.1 km. Semper Go had opted to get OP11 first, so we headed for OP12. I had noticed 2 trails heading north off the main road and wanted to be completely sure we took the correct one. For some reason the map had me confused at this choice – so Melissa and I talked it out and decided to take the eastern most choice (which was correct). Looking at the maps today it seems obvious – but at 1 AM, shivering, in the dark, in the woods – nothing seems obvious. This road turned out to be pretty much the worst of all the roads in this leg; rooted, angled, sandy, with logs and water. We chunked along and Semper Go passed us going the other way heading out. By now we were pretty used to seeing each other. The control was right on the money – so it was now simply a matter of heading back out and sprinting home (I did briefly consider using the other trail out – though bailed on that idea).

Once we hit 16th Ave it was a pure sprint north to US 90 and into the TA. Jim was feeling pretty good as he kept dropping us on the bike line – though the line was not terribly effective on the sandy road. Melissa took the line as we turned onto 90 accepting the challenge to bring the pace up to 21 mph (which she did) and we finished a scant 5 minutes behind Semper Go after 11 and ½ hours of racing. We all congratulated each other – we had pushed each other the entire race and had still made it fun. It was fun watching teams heading out onto the bike leg (and later coming back in) especially from a lawn chair by the fire.

Congratulations to everyone who came out and finished this spectacular course. The terrain and scenery were some of the best. The level of challenge of the course was just right Based on the fact that nearly all teams finished in the 18 hour time limit. Good job to Elias and Gomez who once again set a winner of a course with an excellent design and great challenges.

Orienteering Moss Park Red Course 10-13-2007

It was a beautiful day for orienteering, unfortunately for me I could not make it to the event since I had a soccer game and also was a volunteer most of the morning unloading pumpkins from a truck at church. I was able to make it by 3 PM so I got the enjoyment of picking up flags on the red course. The after story of this would be incredibly sore legs and back on Sunday - but this was still Saturday. I've written up this summary of the course (my course in red dash) to help other orienteers look at possible approaches. I am pretty familiar with the area - so I had a little fun with this. Dave Shuman and I got to start together, so we at least had a little bit of a fun run.

Start to 1 - OK this was pretty easy, down the trail across the lake berm running with Dave at an easy pace, south onto open trail. I did enter the woods early instead of taking the conservative route of the trail and cutting west at the open area. This worked pretty well as the woods were quite open.

1 to 2 - This was an Orange level leg, southwest to the trail and a distinct bend west of the flag. Pretty easy.

2 to 3 - Original plan was south to west trail and run to due south of flag and bushwack up. I ended up cutting across to the berm on its far southeast corner as a recent burn had left the terrain pretty wide open. I noticed a few other runners had taken this approach (plenty of footprints going up the berm at this point)..

3 to 4 - I had a bit of trouble tying the flag while jogging, and about midway a lot of downed trees slowed the pace. But I did feel pretty good running and this route pretty much headed north and hand-railed the visible trail to the east. The idea here was to pay attention to the clue (thicket west side) and try to ensure you came across it from the west - which meant staying off the eastern trail.

4 to 5 - Essentially a trail run. A glance at the map showed that the area near CP5 was tricky with no obvious attack point. I over-ran it slightly and had to double back as the flag appeared to be deeper in the palmettos than I though was shown on the map. The idea was simply to follow the edge of the palmettos to the flag and that worked pretty well.

5 to 6 - Essentially due west loking for the best terrain. The distance was short and the clue of a distinct tree I guessed would be visible from a distance and it was.

6 to 7 - The plan here was to find the easiest terrain. I ended up going along the edge of the marsh, however the fenceline was probably easier (it looked like it). The large thicket would be hard to miss - so I was not worried on the approach and took it pretty fast (for the terrain).

7 to 8 - The first part was essentially a fast walk. The footing was treacherous - though the due east bearing was pretty easy. I had a bit of confusion as I came out on the trail as the area to the east was wide open (yellow terrain) and the nearest yellow terrain was 200 meters south of where I figured I was. I took a left on the trail and essentially chalked the discrepancy up to another burn or clearing. The CP was a very easy find from an easy attack point (intersection).

8 to 9 - At this point I stuffed the map in the bag with the flags I was carrying. I figured I would see if I could find the controls using memory (I try to practice this technique whenever possible). I memorized southeast of berm edge for CP9 and due north on man-made object (which I knew to be a sign) for CP10. I picked up the pace as I was feeling pretty good and glanced at my watch as I passed the split oak along the trail (47 minutes). I figured I could finish up in an easy 60 minutes (pretty respectable time). I used the trail as long as I could and then cut across the open terrain to the visible berm. I blew right by the control and got into the open burn area - though I quickly realized I had passed it up. I turned around and looked, no flag - so I broke down and snagged the map back out of the bag. Visibility was very good and I should have seen the flag, looking back I saw a guy in cammo pants carrying a tripod right where the flag should be. I looked at the control description - rootstock. The rootstock was right there in my line of vision and as I ran upon I saw that my angle had simply obscured the flag. Oh well.

9 to 10 - I avoided the temptation to look at the map again (I should have) which I had stuffed back in the bag. I headed due east to the trail and then turned south to head to the trail intersection and towards CP10. It took about 30 seconds to realize something was wrong. The terrain looked wrong and I should have reached the intersection. I broke down again and fished out the map - DOH!, I was already south of the intersection and just ran further south, I don't know how I figured I would end up north of the intersection. It was one of those orienteering moments where you aren't sure how you thought something, and you realize you messed up. Oh well - I turned around and poured on some speed as I knew exactly where to go. Sure enough I could see the flag about 10 strides past the sign. I guess the moral was in doing Memory-O pay attention to the relative positions of the flags.

10 to finish - I was pretty tired and my back was hurting, I still poured on some speed trying now to beat 65 minutes. In the end I ran 65:20 (not bad) which was a dissapointment, but I learned some pretty good lessons about how to use memory in orienteering and hopefully will do well in the next memory-O.

Croom Crusher 2007

Croom Crusher 2007

Every now and then you just need to do a race to go out there and have a good time. I had originally not planned on doing the Croom Crusher – but I found out that my soccer team had a bye week and the fact that it coincided with the Crusher gave me a chance to race. I needed a team-mate so Melissa Watson hooked me up with one of her race buddies; Jim Lavine.

So it was that I woke up at 4 AM Saturday morning, threw everything in the truck and headed out to Croom. I got there – but nobody had seen Jim (and I did not know what he looked like). I had some breakfast and was able to at least get the maps and sure enough Jim showed up. We had discussed on phone and email our race plan – which for me involves pacing smoothly – going out easy and maintaining an even intensity. We ended up lining up on bikes for the start by team number and we were 62 of 75. There was going to be between 2 and 3 miles of dirt road and then we would enter single track. I knew that if we did not get ahead of a lot of teams we would be trapped in the single track, so when the whistle blew I took off out of a shotgun. Jim as surprised as our “pacing” turned out to be an all out sprint for the single track – which we hit with the top 4 teams. We moved fast through the single track and had great position entering the Silver Lake transition area.

At the TA Jim grabbed a card (a 9) which determined that we would be doing the orienteering first – a good draw as we would hit the running in the cooler morning weather. We took off running – noticing about ¼ mile in that we were still wearing our bike helmets. Oh well – they don’t weigh much. We dropped into a nice easy running pace and moved nicely to each control. Two teams (Team Bill Jacksons – Michael and Aaron, and Team RUOK) caught up with us as we moved through the orienteering. Mike and Aaron (Team Bill Jacksons AR) ran by us carrying a blistering pace – we opted to stick to our game plan and our pacing. We nailed each control – pretty much joking and having a good time. CP1 was just on the back side of a hilltop, pretty easy, though it did involve some cactus dodging. From there we cut east to the Orange trail and followed the trail until I decided to cut into the woods about 200 meters south of where the trail and the river paralleled and then follow the low contour. This worked, but brought us west of the control at the pond which was much thicker terrain than just following the Orange trail. From OCP2 we followed an unmarked trail due west to the edge of the (dry) lakebed and then just dead reckoned due south using the contours to ensure our route to OCP3. OCP3 to 4 was easy as we simply headed southeast and followed the barbed wire fence mentioned in the pre-race meeting. We continued to follow the barbed wire after OCP4 and then cut across the field to the low area and the Oak trees. We looked at pretty much every tree (the map made it look like the tree was on the west side of the depression, it was on the east). OCP6 was an easy find with the river as a handrail, we came in a bit south, but the river bend and nearby depression made for an easy control. From there it was a simple run back on Orange and then a cut across – to the TA.

After arriving at the TA we completed the creative special tests (quite fun – including a slip and slide) and started out on the paddle in what turned out to be a canoe with a broken rib. That did not slow us down – we slammed through the water hitting each CP passing a lot of teams – but still being passed by Charlie in their kayak. Jim and I were joking and having a good time pretty much the entire paddle. It was just before noon when we arrived back at the TA to begin the last section.

The last section would have us biking on Croom single track. The objective was to visit the 6 checkpoints along the single track and draw the location of the CP’s on the supplied map. A good way to keep us on the designated trail. Charlie’s team put about a 10 minute lead on us leading out of the TA – but we were feeling strong going into the bike. We moved fast into the single track and then we slowed a bit – while I watched my odometer, which was good as our first control was 1 km into the course. Since it was just before we hit a mapped power line – it was pretty easy. We caught up with RUOK shortly after that – just before hitting a trail split, and both directions were blue. I took the one marked hard trail which gave me nasty hill climb, but I was rewarded by a great downhill drop before joining back up with the easy route (about 100 meters later). We kept together – easily finding and mapping CP2 near a pond. There was serious sand chunking getting to CP3 (with mild slopes up and fun downhills). Around CP4 – RUOK dropped back a bit and we kept on with a pretty fast pace. I was not paying attention as we approached CP5, luckily it was near a marked trail intersection – making it pretty easy to map. Another team (Rob and Sheri, not sure of the team name) caught up with us just before CP6 and I was starting to run out of juice – though Jim was ready to hammer. I did my best to keep pace – especially up the final hill to the finish and we finished just behind Rob and Sheri, but with no penalties that put us in 3rd place overall.

Most important we had a great time, and racing with new racer Jim turned out to be a lot of fun, we are now looking at the “Howl at the Moon”.

The BEAR 2007

BEAR 2007 Adventure Race – Team TCO

When I found out that the BEAR would be held this year in Guana Reserve (north of St. Augustine) instead of Hanna Park (where it had been for the previous 8 years) I decided that this was too good an opportunity to miss; a classic race in a new location. I had a little bit of experience with Guana – we had passed though it in the 2007 Coast to Coast and I remembered it as an incredible area.

Greg and I are both veterans of lots of adventure races so we simply decided to throw our gear together and give this one a go. The pre-race was at 7:45 Am and contained the usual safety and course items and then we were off. To split up the pack before the initial bike ride, we had a special test requiring us to assemble mandatory gear at posts about 1/8 mile down a trail – carrying the team-mates back and forth. At the completion Greg and I hit the bikes mid-pack and started to the first bike leg. It was mostly wonderful and fast double track – with no real navigation (which did not stop me from making one wrong turn) to the coasteering (with bikes) section.

Coasteering (or coastaleering) is simply hand-railing a coastal section to a checkpoint. This first part of the coast was rideable, but soon mud and oyster made it into a bike push. As we continued downed trees made for a nice maze of over and under carrying the bikes. Greg and I saved times saved time by hoisting the bikes onto our backs and simply walking though the waist deep water off the coast. The section was really neat – especially with the light wind and shade through most of it. After coming to the end of the coasteering we were back on the bikes and we hammered the short ride back to the TA.

Finish
Viking: 0915
BAMF 0916
2 stooges 0917
Jax #1 0919
Jax #2 0919
TCO: 0920

We got the instruction for the next portion of the race (in the BEAR – you never know what the next leg will be). It was about a mile portage and what looked like a 4 mile paddle. I had forgotten my portage wheels at home (which would have saved us some time and effort) – but we took that in stride and headed out. A wrong turn on the portage gave us an extra five minutes, and we hit the water about 10-15 teams back. We could see the lead teams in the distance and Greg was worried about being so far back in the race at this point. That did not stop us from hammering the paddle – though. We had a pretty fast boat (Kevlar Pamlico 160) – which was perfect for the water conditions. As we round the point of the Tolomato River and headed into the Guana River there were only 4 teams in front of us – and they were in range. The Guana River was beautiful, calm, and glassy and we exited the water 3 minutes behind the lead team and made the TA in a close second (around 11 AM).

Stage Finish
Jax #1 1106
TCO 1110
BAMF 1114
Viking 1114


It was now getting quite hot out, and the next section was a trek. We quickly ran the roughly 1 ½ mile to the first CP and then I misread the map and headed us due west to the next CP along a vague trail (where following the main trail would have been a direct route). We did come back out to the main trail, but then being in the front I took one trail too early to the west again towards the Capo Creek Tower. As we got to Capo Creek (and no tower) – I spent a few minutes getting my bearings and reading the turns in the Creek, realizing we were about 300 meters south of the tower. Our choices were to double back and use the north bearing trail – or simply punch north through the marsh along Capo Creek. Anyone who knows our team – knows the bushwhack was our route, and the race directors who had been watching teams come in along the (drivable) trail to the tower from the east – were surprised to see us jogging along game trails in ankle deep water in the marsh. We had lost a few places and about 15 minutes in our unique route choice. It was very hot, and sandy, and no shade on the 2+ mile run back to the TA and we simply used speedwalking and dead-mans trot back to the TA.

Stage Finish
BAMF 1210
Jax #1 1214
Viking 1216
Bonham 1219
Jax#2 1228
TCO 1231


I really had no idea of our place at this point, I though there were 3-4 teams in front of us, but not far and we were entering a long bike leg. Greg and I are both strong bikers – and this looked to be a very long ride on hard sandy trails. We headed out onto the single track section of the ride and were close with 2 other teams – who seemed to have some local knowledge of the area. It was cooling off and it was obvious we were going to get some heavy rain (for which we were all thankful). The roads were ride-able sand simply requiring some hard peddling to hold a 6-10 mph pace.

Looking at the map I noticed 2 parallel roads and there were forest roads going back and forth between them every ½ mile or so. We cut over to the parallel road which turned out to be worse – so we headed back over to Hammock Road, and were now along – but we could see tracks from about 6-10 bikes in front of us. The instruction had us turning at the intersection of McNeil’s Road and North Road – and there was some uncertainty as to the exact location with the large number of forest roads – but this intersection turned out to be marked with a race sign. As we made the turn we saw 2 teams directly in front of us and we rode with them for the loop back for the next 2 miles.

I had been feeling bad during the start of the ride, but I knew that with cooling off in the rain and a few miles of riding I would feel better. Since most of my rides in races are longer than 6 hours (12 hours not being uncommon) I am used to pacing and also started feeling stronger as we continued. We had passed 4 teams in the loop and as we exited and headed back south on Hammock Road we only had one CP to find and I had only one team unaccounted for in front of us. We saw them coming from the final CP, though they looked to be hurting some. We hammered the ride back to the TA – Greg was having some problems with his back and could not get comfortable on the bike. I was feeling the best I had felt the entire race and was really starting to get into my “groove” – which is typical after 6-8 hours of racing.

As we came into the TA there was one team in the TA working on the puzzle of the bike leg (we had to spell a word with the letters along the way – G R D I A N) – Greg and transitioned quickly and headed out for the next leg – a paddle. I gave the team a little hint as we went out, and I think they had it solved as we portaged our boat for the paddle on Lake Ponte Vedra (about 1/3 mile portage). We hit the water, it was cool and cloudy, and the paddle was short. At this point I thought we might be in the lead – we were both feeling well and there was no way anyone would catch us on the water.

Stage Finish
BAMF 1500
TCO 1520
Viking 1520
Wiseguys 1529

We paddled to a CP at the water’s edge were we had a logic puzzle to solve and then a short orienteering loop. After solving the logic puzzle – Greg noticed there were 2 boats already at the location. As we headed out on the orienteering – Team BAMF (made up of Jacksonville Beach life guards) came up the road, having completed the orienteering and starting pulling the boats out to the water. I was not sure of how long the orienteering was – but they had at least that as a lead on us. As it turned out, we moved through the O course in about 12 minutes. As we headed back onto the water towards the TA – we passed a lot of teams heading out. We were second across the line, about 10 minutes behind BAMF – with another group of teams 10-15 minutes behind us. Having the close competition really made the race that much more enjoyable. We finished in just over 8 hours – though I don’t remember the exact time.


Finish
BAMF 1630
TCO 1640
Wiseguys 1651
Vikings 1655

A special thanks to all the teams we had fun racing with and against. It was good seeing “Wise Guys” again. Also Team BAMF was fun racing against, even though we never saw them until the end of the race. Thanks to the folks at Performance Multi-sports for putting on another high quality and well designed and challenging race.

A work day, play day

This weekend I had a speaking engagement at Sanibel Harbor Resort and Conference center. This became an opportunity for the family to visit Sanibel, Captiva, and beaches in that area. I am not a big fan of resorts - I like to park my own car and would rather be able to walk to my car just out of the door of the hotel (pictured - looking out at our view at the resort). I also like the ability to eat breakfast for less than $20. However - Everyone at some time should visit the beaches at Sanibel and Captiva. Incredible shells and beautiful blue water (pictured swimming and shelling in the warm gulf waters).

After that it was to Fort Myers Beach staying at a little motel "Carousel Inn By the Sea" which was more to my liking. We could walk to the beach, cook our own food (full kitchenette and a grill outside of our room) and at the beach there were more sand dollars than I could imagine. At dinner that night I saw the "Lobster Claw", for $2 you could use a claw to try and catch your dinner (pictured). On Saturday we went to Lover's Key State Park (Florida State parks are awesome), and got there at park opening - the girls went crazy with shell collecting and there were lots of great shells.