Florida Coast to Coast 2007

This was the 9th installment of the classic Florida Coast to Coast Adventure Race. I’ve raced 7 of them, finished 6, and helped directed one. This was also my first time as a relay racer – since I really wanted to try this format where 6 team-mates race with always 4 of the 6 on the course. My team-mates were Rod Price, Dave Brault, Bob Denney, John Hollingsworth, Jim Fuedner – and we would be racing as team Dirty Fish.

Many of the teams had a hard time finding the start, so the 6 AM start time ended up being pushed back to 6:30 (hmm….). We started with a 3 mile run down A1A where we entered The Guana Forest. John and I ran the first road section and then waited for first Dave and Bob to catch up, enjoying the facilities at the entrance of Guana. Once entering Guana we were greeted with wonderful shaded trails and relatively simple navigation. Towards the end of the trek we decided to shortcut across the saltwater marsh as the tide was low and the water was very shallow. This turned out to be a good move as it saved about 20 minutes, however as we reached TA1 at 11 AM our “walking only” pace had put us already 2 hours behind the lead teams, which had arrived and left at 9 AM. I vowed to not look at the TA splits after that.

A quick road ride of about 20 miles left us at the edge of the St. Johns River and the first paddle section. It became obvious that the team would not transition quickly as we spent nearly 45 minutes preparing to enter the water and start the paddle. I sat out this section, which was advantageous as I needed to do some bike repairs. I also was able to go by Publix and get some Fried Chicken – a real treat for an adventure race. We drove to the TA (fighting nasty Jacksonvillle traffic) and soon after the team arrived. We heard stories of teams capsizing their boat on the heavy chop on the St. Johns – as it turns out our team was one of those, but it must not of hurt them tremendously. We had another slow transition preparing for the next leg which would be a long (we estimated 12 hours) bike ride. This would also require tricky night navigation (my strength) and I was determined to bring our team back up into the front pack.

TA4 was relatively easy, though the correct road from CP4 was tricky as it looked like a driveway in the dusk and our small group (2 teams) was reluctant to take it. We entered some nice single track as it was getting dark and got to the final dirt (and sand) road leading to CP5 just as Bill Jackson’s was coming out. A quick consult with them confirmed my strategy – to use trails to get as close to the river (either one) as possible and then handrail the river to the control. We ran into Jason (Team Hoof-hearted) who had been searching for 3 hours and was thinking about bailing – I told him to come along and I was confident we would find it relatively quickly. He dropped his bike (I promised to bring him back to it) and we found the flag in about 15 minutes.

On the way out from CP5 we decided to use the western trail (hoping to avoid the sandy trail coming in) and were rewarded by a rideable trail back out from TA5. We also got to be yelled at by some redneck lady who claimed we were trespassing. We basically ignored her and got out of there. In my experience paranoid folks who live deep in the woods are paranoid for a reason, and though there was no threat of her calling authorities (they also don’t want cops around these activities), they do sometimes decide to protect their turf.

The ride to CP6 was easy, with rideable roads. We took 15 minutes extra at CP6 as there were 2 yellow gates about 50 yards apart and we thoroughly searched around the first one until one of our group found the second gate. CP7 and CP8 were also uneventful. The ride from CP8 to CP9 was rough as we ended up on Sapp Road which had 8.5 km of ride/walk/ride/walk sugar sand. CP9 to CP10 required very close attention to the map which is always fun past midnight. We totally missed the north trail leading in to CP10 so the team slept for 20 minutes while I rode back and found the trail entrance. I found the entrance just as another team was leaving, we quickly regrouped and also found the CP quickly – though it was in a tricky spot for the night navigation. When we got to CP11 we found that it had been cancelled and that no teams had successfully found it. This was a relief as the only attack point I could find required a 1 km dead-reckoning bushwhack. The terrain looked tough, so finding this control would have been tricky (though I was ready to try). We biked into TA4 just as the sun was cracking the horizon to start the second part of the course.

At TA4 we received a set of new maps. We would start out with a trek that had three very challenging checkpoints. Most of the lead teams were in the TA and I knew if I could get the team moving we would be with the race leaders. I was not able to get the team moving and we spent over an hour in the TA – which was OK as it gave me time to plot the locations of the next few sets of CP’s. We were now ready to start the trek toward the three “Swamp Points” and then a long trek to TA5.

At the first SP we ran into Nature Calls who had been working on the CP for a little over an hour. Our first attack was unsuccessful so our team decided to attempt it from the pond edge about 500 meters north of the control. Travel in the swamp was slow and erratic. We leapfrogged to keep our bearing, but had no luck on the second attempt. We eventually ended up with a large group of frustrated teams and after much discussion decided to bail-out. We trekked over to the entrance of SP2 and I found 2 trails that got us within (by my calculation) 250 meters of the control. I paced the attack point out and entered the swamp and ran directly into Nature Calls who were exiting. They had found SP1 and also told me SP2 was due north of my location (which is why I chose that attack point). We decided to spend only 30 minutes searching and with 2 other teams gave it a shot. The thick vegetation made finding controls like finding a needle in a haystack and we soon expended our 30 minutes and headed out. At this point the team decided to also bail on SP3 as it looked to be the most difficult of the three SP’s. (As it turns out we were correct and teams spent hours on this control with no luck).

The rest of this leg was a hot dry death-march, and we had expended most of our water supply. I was able to shorten the trek some by taking an unmapped trail across a section that looked like it required a dog-leg on paved roads. This provided shade and more interesting terrain. The next TA required a transition to bikes for a relatively easy bike leg (at least navigation wise) as most of the checkpoints were cancelled for this leg. This was too bad for me as I was familiar with the area and knew the location of one of them. We settled in for a long road ride and pace-lined the section with no problems.

At Suwannee Springs we were able to get the teams into the water quickly. I was going to sit this leg out. It turned out to be a wonderful night paddle on the Suwannee River and the team had stories of passing many river partiers. For me I was able to drive to the Suwannee River Campground and was looking forward to my first sleep in the race. We were the third crew into the Suwannee River State Park, we set up camp I marked and checked the maps, and even set up the laminator and laminated them. After that I took a nice hour long nap on a real cot and then after waking up I went to the river edge to wait for our team and help them get ready for the next trek leg. The team had paddled for 6 hours (about 30+ miles) and had obviously enjoyed this paddle. We decided to wait until morning to trek out of the TA so the team got a little sleep and also a nice breakfast before heading out a couple of hours later.

I was really looking forward to this next trek. It looked to have great terrain and also the 2 traverses across and back the river. The navigation to the next CP and the traverse were easy and we were way ahead of the cutoff (arriving at 7:30 AM to beat the 8 AM cutoff). I knew teams behind us would be struggling to make these cutoffs. I demonstrated how NOT to traverse, immediately leaping off the edge and thudding into the ground. I stood back up and tried again hitting the cool morning water for a refreshing dip. The team did the traverse quickly and we trekked to the second traverse which was a bit more challenging, but provided us an opportunity to climb the cliffs. The next checkpoint was a little tricky – but as it was located on the intersection of 2 horse trails, I made it a lot harder than it had to be meticulously pacing where I could have just stayed on trail.

The next CP, on the side of the river should have been easy. If we had stayed on the Orange Blaze trail (as suggested in the passport) it would have been. Instead I decided we needed to bushwhack east to it. This would have also worked except… Some of the other teams might have noticed this – but at some points along the river the compass north arrow points at the river. Great – but also impossible, and the second time I’ve seen a magnetic anomaly in a race. Of course this one, with one hour of sleep in 2 days had me confused and also caused me to send the team north on the river when we should have headed south (figure it out, if east is north, etc…). I sat down and recalculated where we were and started the other direction, finding the flag within 150 meters south of where we had hit the river. The next CP (on an abandoned vehicle) simply required hand-railing the river and was pretty easy.

You would think finding the TA from the last CP would also be easy. However all the roads I was relying on from the map petered out forcing us to bushwhack. I am sure if I went back and did this fresh I would laugh at how easy it was. Luckily John (Fish) who is also a good navigator was with us and working it out together – we not determined our location, we hit the road and with 2 minutes Greg from Sleepmonsters drove to us (which really confirmed our location). About 15 minutes later we were in the TA. The next section was a portage (about 2 miles) followed by a relatively short paddle (18 miles?). I had not paddled and wanted to do this one – so there was a little debate as to who would paddle. In the end I was teamed up with Dave in the boat and we hit the water.

This was a lot of fun. The river was scenic (with wildlife, people, springs) and it was still daylight. We paddled alongside Team Relentless most of the paddle at a modest pace. I knew the next bike leg would be challenging as I marked it. John was also waiting and had rechecked my marking (I had done the night before). This just confirmed it would be challenging. We also picked up soloist Greg who would ride with us this section. We reached the area of CP25 (or was it CP23, the passport said both) and I found a good attack point 300 meters north and 250 meters west of the distinct waypoint (gate across road marking the hunting club area). The attack turned out to be very good as we hit the control nearly dead-on pushing our bikes. After that we had a long bike-whack and as we finally exited the woods when we found a trail – I realized we were pretty much lost. We tried to relocate – both John and I stopping to check every intersection. We even called Dennis who suggested we bail to the main road. I was pretty sure at one point we were at the intersection I wanted to CP24 – but the team had ridden ahead, so I continued on. After hitting the paved road, we found the road/Steinhatchee river intersection which gave us a known location and 8 km later we were back on the road having found CP24. The team at this point decided that CP25 was a bad idea and we headed towards the TA, doubling back to CR51 and heading south. As we neared the TA – it was only 2 AM and I knew we had enough time to get CP26 and make the cutoffs, so the team decided to go for it.

Our first attempt was completely off, sleep deprivation was getting to me and I simply was just going on random. I led the team in a few circles and was delirious when Dave decided I needed to get back to the last known location and try again. This proved a good strategy as I immediately snapped back to reality, saw the mistake, and took us to the railroad trestle leading to CP26. Our approach was probably different than the RD was anticipating – taking the railroad berm – but we found it and headed back. On the way back we ran into a delirious Team Relentless who appeared to be completely lost. I told them to follow us into the TA. At the gas station at 19 and 51 I stopped my bike without unclipping and went over. Basically it looked like I fell asleep on my bike (I might have). Eventually we arrived at the TA around 4 AM.

It was now cold, though I was warm from the exertion. I dismounted my bike lay down on a cot and was asleep in under one minute. I woke up about 45 minutes later from my shivering – I was delirious, but I also recognized that I was borderline hypothermic. Dave threw some clothes to me – but I was shaking so hard I had a hard time putting them on. I got up, walked to a car, got inside, and fell asleep in seconds. The next day I found out that the car was occupied and Linda (our crew) even talked to me – but I was snoring before they could complete a sentence. Dave woke me at 6:45 AM and a cup of hot chocolate later I was good to portage the boats to the river. All the teams hit the Steinhatchee River pretty close together, and I was going to sit out this short 12 mile paddle.

After packing up the TA we drove to the waterfalls (3-4 feet) on the river, but the teams had passed. We then drove to the end and Dave and I entered our spare boat to paddle back up the course and join our team. They arrived shortly and we all paddled in together finishing in 3 days, 4 hours, and 40 minutes.

For those considering relay – do it! It is an awesome way to race, you get to experience the course with minimal pain. My team-mates were great and we did just about everything correctly. This was close to the most challenging C2C I had done (though not quite). It was definitely the most fun.