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.