This is my site on my experiences with adventure racing. You may see many of these articles published elsewhere as I write for a number of navigation, outdoor, and adventure magazines (normally in condensed and edited versions). This blog contains the full unedited versions of these stories.
The TB race always has a high WOW factor, being the last race of the season. I had heard that Dave and Jim who had designed the course were not going to disappoint this year and raise it up a notch – which they did. I was racing with Rob, Sheri, and Adam – Team SWIM.
The 4 AM start and a recent cold front was going to mean at least a few cold hours of racing. We started with a straightforward 2 mile run, which got the pack spread out. We ran hard so we could head into the bike leg with a bit of a lead. CP2 was pretty easy, and we transferred to the trail to CP3. and headed south. At CP3 we ended up doing a short bike whack to the parallel trail, but found the control quickly as other teams closed in. We pedaled hard for CP4 – it was solid riding with just a bit of mud. We stayed on the fenceline which had us missing a small trail bend, but we simply dropped the bikes and followed the fence to the control. CP4 to CP5 was much more of a challenge, A good portion of this was along a spoil bank with a lot of mud. We opted for the direct route which was head west and then up the unmarked horse path. Our bikes got pretty caked with mud, but a lot of this was also ride-able. And it was back to the TA where we had about a 4 minute lead on Team Shake-a-Leg.
The next section was a real highlight. We headed due east from the TA on an old logging tram. The tram eventually became overgrown (at CP6) and we bushwhacked to the marked “boats” location where we used three roped boats to ferry across the lake. Another set of boats was used to ferry across the second lake – and we finally reached our boats at the marked spot, where I estimate they were (see map). This was really a highlight and I wonder how they got all of these boats into this pretty inaccessible area?
The incredible trek to the boats due east along the berm line and across the 2 lakes
We paddled to CP7 and looked towards a portage to CP8. We instead (seeing it was think paddled back around). We heard from Teams SAL and Nature Calls that is was actually a pretty easy portage and took less than 10 minutes. The paddle back around took us 18 minutes (so we lost a little time there). We shifted into hard paddle mode and headed for Blackwater Creek.
This is where we (meaning me) made a huge mistake. I missed a crucial turnoff onto the creek and instead headed down the Wekiva thinking we were on the creek (we did make a left turn – but we needed to make a second one). We paddled for a little over an hour and finally came upon Wekiva Haven – oops. We turned around and headed back and after about 40 minutes located the turn into the creek. In all including figuring out our mistake we had lost a couple of hours. (FlXtreme also was with us – sorry guys).
Here is where ended up turning around and heading back - the small area at Wekiva Haven
Finding the creek was now the least of our worries. The creek could only be described as “full contact paddling” with lost of deadfall and obstacles. We still completed this section of paddling in about 2 hours. Arrive at the TA near 1:30. Now our problem would be time. We decided to skip all the foot checkpoints except the mandatory CP11. This was sad – since that was the section I had most looked forward to. I can handle making mistakes and blowing our chances at the race – I do enough races that I’ll get more chances. What I regret is missing a really cool foot section – though I figure the race director will probably let me pick up the controls – so I’ll still get to do it.
Anyway – we did run hard back to the TA via CP11 (well hard by my standards and physical condition). My team-mates are all good runners (and so am I usually, though I had just taken a month off from running to heal and was not quite back at 100%). It felt good to be back on the bikes for the last leg of the race. We had over an hour, and only 3 CP’s that were all pretty close and the entire route (except for one short section) was all good riding. We made it in with 20 minutes to spare – and congratulated those teams (Miami SAL, Badfish, Nature Calls, and Eco-extreme) that had run quite a great race.
Prologue – at 6 PM we finally got all the teams off of Backwater Creek. Team Tarzan, Luchadores, and Colkat probably also all have quite a story to tell….
Splits for all legs are at http://www.usaranationals.com/progress.aspx
“That’s how we roll” is one of the great sayings of our team – in this case Melissa Watson, Jimmy Levine, and I were headed to Blue Ridge Georgia after qualifying at the How at the Moon adventure Race. Nationals are always an opportunity to see some of the teams from around the country and also enjoy a well set and challenging race. The race course team of Ron, Tony Berwald, and Patrick Harper would never disappoint – so we expected a challenging and well set course. We arrived by plane to Atlanta (and also learned about a lot of the new luggage charges) on Wednesday morning so we would have an extra day to enjoy the area before the check-in on Thursday. We went around and hiked to a few waterfalls. I unfortunately had a bad cold that I had aggravated (racing) from the week before so was hacking and coughing all this time hoping I would at least be on the tail-end of the cold by the race start on Friday morning. Racing with a cold is one of the most miserable experiences you can have. I know a lot of racers who have done this will sympathize.
The volunteers from Blue Ridge were extremely friendly. We checked in and ended up with the same race number we had at Potosi (69). I think we’ll have to ask Troy to make that number our tradition (it was the same team I had raced with last year too). The pre-race gave us a number of solid warning – most important was be at the start at 6:45 AM or the penalty would be severe. I figured we would be riding the train (and we were). We were given the maps and about 30 checkpoints to plot. I wanted pasta so we headed for the local Pizza Hut – and started on the maps. We met our sister/brother team there Travelcountry.com and we worked together to plot all the points. We decided sleep would be more important than race strategy (for me with a cold it was) and crashed by 11 PM so we could be up early for the start.
The next morning started around 5 AM. I had a little issue finding my race bib and it looked like it would be a panicky start. We had to be ready and downtown by 6:45 – where we would be transported by train to the actual race start, and also given the maps for the race prologue. The train ride was great – even though we couldn’t see anything in the darkness. It did not matter, we needed the time to do that last minute map marking. The prologue was an enjoyable run with three easy control points, followed by a cold but shallow river crossing to the canoes. We did not plan to run any, and we stuck to our guns – and even got to be in dead last for at least 5 minutes (until some teams got lost looking for the first control).
Our split: 44:20 (fastest teams 21:30)
The paddle was along the Toccoa river. The water was quite shallow and we spent a great amount of time pushing the boat off rocks and other obstructions. The rapids did not present much of a challenge, but they were still fun. We did take one swim, we still have not figured out how. We were paddling along – not even a rapid, and the next thing Jimmy was sliding into the water. Well it was going to be a wet race, so we might as well start off wet. It was easy to slide the boat to the side and dump the water. Our gear was also OK. We got back into the boat and enjoyed the remainder of the paddle. We passed beautiful mountains and mountain homes overlooking the river. The fall colors were in full swing and the sun was out – for at least the first part of the paddle.
(Paddle Section: Our split: 4:25:45 faster teams 3:23 with average teams around 4 hours)
The take-out was pretty obvious, though the first part of the portage was a bit tough. Still the boats were not terribly heavy – and the portage was only about a kilometer, though I do not recall ever portaging up a hill like that (hey – I race in Florida). The next short trek was to the bike drop. We had a great trail map, though for a good part of the trek we decided to bushwhack. I think it saved us some time, we were passed by about 5 teams, and 3 of those teams passed us multiple times. We pretty much could not run at all, we did not want to aggravate M’s injuries.
The Portage from the take-out to CP2
Location of CP3 and Bike Drop, including really nice single track from CP3 to CP4 (uphill of course) (Trek Section: Our Split: 2:17:24 Race Time: 7:27:29, average splits for teams was about 1:30)
When we got to the bike drop there were about 10 sets of bikes there. We took a little time and got some food into us. We also made sure we had our extra clothes ready as it was starting to rain. It was going to be a long wet ride. The first section of single track was a blast – there is some great single track at the Ocoee Whitewater Center (where the 96 Olympics were). It got darker and the weather got colder. We did not have any real trouble with the navigation or the terrain – but all three of our Florida legs were struggling with Tennessee hills. Since this was a 30 hour race we simply decided to get into a rhythm and move through the checkpoints at our pace. It was also getting pretty cold out – we were completely soaked, and the temperature was going to be dipping below 40. We were really having fun with these – and we also hooked up with another team (Team 78 – Quincy Multisports Team; Carrie, Antony, and Pat). The navigation was relatively easy to this point, no frustrations had us in good spirits. After CP5 we took the road (not marked on the map) to CP6 and ran into some teams leaving CP6. Since we were not on any marked trails or reads – the nav at this point was from reading contours. The large number of teams that had bushwhacked to the hilltop where CP6, leaving a lot of track, made this one pretty easy to find. The real challenge came finding CP7. For some reason – I completely stopped thinking on this one. We went east to the ridgeline and started heading downhill, we realized this was wrong, so we backtracked. A lot of teams were packing gear on the ridgeline and for some reason we moved west and down to the next ridgeline where we found a trail and headed south. This trail petered out pretty quickly and a little map reading made it obvious we were on the wrong ridge anyway. At that point we decided to bail on CP7 and take the FS22 road to CP8 and the transition to the first trek.
(Bike Split, we got CP4,5,6,and 8 - arrived at CP8 at 14:22:56. The fastest teams arrived there around 8:20. Our bike times were not fast, but we were starting to move better)
We were freezing (wet and about 40 degrees) by the time we got to CP8. I knew we would warm up quickly on the trek. The navigation looked relatively straightforward – but the rain and fog had visibility at about 15 feet. We saw teams heading in all directions as we approached CP9, some running the loop backwards – some going our direction. CP9 was on a driveway and we followed the pink ribbons (prescribed route) for CP10 – though these petered out pretty quickly. Still – we simply followed trails south and did a little bushwhacking and came out right at CP10. From there CP11 was simply following the road. There was a truck sitting at the entrance of the road where CP11 was. That also made me miss it. Luckily there were 2 entrances, so there was really no chance of missing it. Here there were no trails mapped, but the passport alluded to a trail that would lead us to FS22 – which is what we wanted so we used this clue. We headed east on a very well defined horse trail. About 1 km the trail split with one trail going south and the other east. Neither trail was on the map – so we headed east and uphill, which was our desired direction. About 10 minutes in we ran into FLXtreme and Relentless coming down the trail – apparently it looped back around to CP11. We headed back down and took the other trail that ended taking us straight to FS22. Unfortunately for FLXtreme and Relentless they had lost a couple of hours on the loop.
It was pretty much uphill from there straight to CP12. Carrie got to try her first time on a foot tow on this trek as I locked her in behind me, her legs were really hurting from doing an Ironman the weekend before. We now had 3 teams traveling together (Relentless dropped of the pace after we found the trail). We had a little burp in finding the CP, and FLXtreme bailed out on us before we found it – even though I was yelling “This way”. From CP12 it was a complete plunge downhill to CP13 and the bikes. This was tricky for us just as it must have been pretty tricky for the teams coming up the hill. Carrie gave us all a scare as she started over a small cliff – but I was able to snag her before she went over and swing her back around to the side. For me this part was a lot of fun – the terrain was challenging and we had to simply move north to the bikes.
(We got all controls for the trek section CP8 - CP9 1:10:04; CP9 - CP10 36:07; CP10 - CP11 21:16; CP11 - CP12 2:38:23; CP12 - CP13 [bike drop] 53:34] and arrived at CP13 at 20:02:20)
By the time we reached the bikes there was a fire going so we were able to try to dry out some of our clothes before taking off on the bike. We were moving slow – not because we were tired, but simply because we were cold. Also 2 of the bikes had flat tires when we returned so we had to change these. There were a lot more bikes still sitting on the ground when we left this TA than when we left the last one – so I was pleased that we were moving up in placement. Considering we were biking extremely slowly and had not run a single step – we were doing pretty well.
The bike leg to CP14 was basically up one big hill and down the other side. Both Carrie and Melissa had very little bike legs left, and none of the guys were doing well enough to tow. We decided to just keep our nice slow and easy pace and get there. As we came to the sign warning of the road being closed (we had to go through some construction) leading into CP14 – there was a camper with a fire going. Team 78 decided to head back to the finish line from here and skip these final controls. We said our goodbyes and headed on.
(Bike leg CP13 - CP14 2:53:13 arriving at CP14 at 22:53:33 race time)
There were a lot of teams relaxing around the fire and planning out there strategy for the final controls when we arrived at CP14. We decided to go after CP15 on foot – but bail on the other 2 controls (CP16 and CP17). This was really a neat location near a waterfall that was a short walk from the TA (CP14/CP18). When we got back from CP15 it was now light, so we would be able to do the remaining course in daylight. We decided we would get three more controls on the way to the finish. Most of the bike controls on this leg required some serious climbs – and Melissa had no climbing legs left, mine were also starting to feel the all-night bike ride. Leaving CP16 we had an uphill climb to the road heading back towards Blue Ridge. I had heated up nicely and the sun was out – so I stripped down as we reached the top. Of course the entire next few miles was downhill in the shade so I was freezing as we approached the turn to CP23 and had to put my clothes back on as I was shivering pretty hard. And then we climbed again. Even though this was by no means the worst climb of the final bike leg – it was enough for me. We pushed and biked up the hill, got the control and enjoyed the screaming downhill back to the main road.
(splits were pretty meaningless here,we made it from CP18 - CP24 in 2:28:24, most teams in our area were skipping controls at this point)
CP28 at the fire station was pretty eventless – though we did stop and chat. We also enjoyed a Whisky shot to warm us up (leave it to firefighters to be prepared for cold shivering bikers) at the fire station. The remaining section was downhill to the railroad tracks and CP29. As we approached the CP – Jimmy grabbed Melissa’s bike and ran to the CP – which was manned. Melissa and I – both puzzled walked along and caught up with him at the CP. We were both puzzled – by why he grabbed her bike and started running, he thought that it was the finish, so he wanted to beat the team behind us in. It wasn’t and we had about 3 miles of biking on the railroad tracks. Melissa was also bonking – but we stopped that with a solid shot of Hammer Gel (she cleaned out our flasks).
(CP24 - CP28 1:25:59, race time 27:32:14) (CP28 - CP29 21:55, race time 27:54:09)
For those who have never biked on railroad tracks – it is bumpy. Also after 28 hours of racing, it is pretty punishing. I have a hard tail, but I discovered that if I kept my speed up – I kind of glided over the railroad ties. Melissa had a brand new Cannondale full suspension (that had been giving her problems shifting) that she was able to move pretty well over the tracks. We passed about a dozen teams on this section, though that really meant nothing in a Rogaine. I felt pretty good about our speed, we finally made it past the tracks section and hammered the final road ride to the finish.
(CP29 - CP30/finish 33:16 - one of the fastest times on the course !)
In the end we got 19 controls in 28 hours and 27 minutes to put us solidly in 35th. We though that was a very respectable race. (results are at http://www.usaranationals.com/results.aspx ). We got to meet up with all the teams at the banquet – most important we had an awesome time !
Any adventure racers who are interested in a true adventure in January and has a passport please contact me. I am planning with some AR friends an expedition with a group in Ecuador that is pretty amazing. Mickey and Fish (know racers) are working on the adventure now. If you have an interest - please let me know. Here are some pictures
I raced in the Superhero Adventure Race with team SWIM this last weekend Nov. 1. As I went to sleep Friday night I knew I was coming down with a head cold, but I felt pretty good as I got up Saturday morning and headed out to King’s Landing to meet Adam, Stefan and Charlie (Team SWIM) for the race start.
We were given the maps at check-in and the course looked relatively straightforward – though we would be racing off of black and white trail maps, which are not known for their accuracy. We were told at pre-race that the controls would all be located in obvious locations on the trails (and they were) – so it was simply a matter of making sure we stayed on the correct trails.
We started on bikes and finished off the short loop around CP1 and CP2 without incident, though it was apparent there were a few extra trails along that route. The important thing here was to pay attention and stay on the correctly blazed trail. We had a little problem as we started on the second bike loop in Kelly Park – nearly missing the Yellow blazed trail, but corrected quickly. Each control was located correctly – but the short mistake put us about 5 minutes behind Team Shake-A-Leg Miami. We took that 5 minute gap into the transition and into the first and long paddle leg. This leg was a paddle from King’s Landing to Wekiva Marina with one control en route. We were making great time (as a strong paddling team) – but lost a lot of time as Stefan and Charlie decided to go for an involuntary swim due to a submerged log. We came into the transition area about 7 minutes behind Miami, and headed out at a strong pace to catch them.
The run looked to be quite long – with really no navigation other than choosing the correctly blazed trail, which was pretty much the white blazed trail the entire route. We did get opportunities for a few small shortcuts where we caught up with Team Miami just before CP11.
As we reached the marker for Trailpost 22 we had to choose to bushwack to the control or take what looked like a longer trail route by Big Buck Camp which we opted to take as the woods looked pretty thick. It turned out to be slightly faster as Team Miami bushwacked and lost a few minutes on us. From CP11 to CP12 it looked by the map to be a little over a mile. This was entirely misleading, as the trail snaked in and out and the actual distance was about 3 miles. Just after CP12 Team Miami passed us and started to pour on some speed – the run was starting to take its toll on me, but we kept the pace up and stayed behind them until M2 and the swim section.
The swim was quite refreshing in the cool spring water of Kelly Park (72 degrees). We had to swim in full gear and then get out and finish the last mile to the TA – which we did just behind Team Miami. We had 2 sections left, one long bike and a short paddle section. Team Miami made a very quick transition and was out within a minute. We were having troubles getting out of the TA, and I was starting to hurt, though I felt we had enough to catch up. We moved through Kelly Park fast and headed into Wekiva to do the Red Blazed Bike loop. I missed the turn onto the single track (not sure how) and we ended up biking cross country through the woods a short distance to return to the trail – costing us another few minutes. Once we hit the trail we pushed as hard as we could, both Charlie and I were hurting, and I was on the edge of bonking so could only push so hard.
The single track turned into sandy double track and we were forced to bike along the edge of the freshly tilled road. The section near CP14 was also a bit confusing – but the landmarks I made note of when we passed through that area earlier in the race helped me get us to the control quickly. From CP15 we pushed as hard as we could back to the TA and found we were 7 minutes behind Team Miami hitting the water for the last paddle.
Paddle turned out to be a misleading word for this section. We decided to take the section counter-clockwise to take advantage of the current in the main channel heading downstream. The first section in the canal turned out to be a boat drag as the channel narrowed into shallow thick hyacinth. I let Stefan drag me for a while in the boat to recover – I was starting to feel the cold, and a bit nauseous. We came out to the main channel where we had some strenuous paddling with plenty of downed trees and obstacles – but we also had a good current.
Just as we had left 7 minutes behind Team Miami, we arrived 7 minutes back of them and took a solid second. They had pushed hard the entire race knowing we were just behind them and would be pursuing them relentlessly. It was a great race. I am now recovering from my cold and will be ready for the next post – USARA Nationals this coming weekend. Many thanks to my fun team-mates; Adam, Charlie, and Stefan.
The Howl is one of Florida’s great races (I’ve done 4 of them now) and the return to Jonathan Dickinson park meant that it would be a challenging race. I was racing with Melissa Watson, Jim Levine, and Ken Kandefar. We had all raced before – but this would be the first race where Ken raced with Jimmy.
The race started with a short 3-4 mile orienteering run with 3 checkpoints. We took this section easy, it was hot and we knew this was primarily a night race. I loaded double the mandatory gear in my pack (so Melissa could go packless), Jimmy did the same for Ken who was carrying the passport. After the run it was on to bikes. Even though we were well back in the pack coming in from the run – we were the third team out on bikes with a speedy transition. Our first good navigation choice was to parallel a sandy bike trail on a more ride-able trail and then bushwhack across when we reached the correct distance. The sandy trails in the first part of the bike leg were essentially push-a-bike. You could not ride along the edges due to the large number of cacti – which would easily flat your bike tires (we had 2 flats in this section). Some team had 10 or more flat tires. After the sand ride, we had about 8 miles of road to the paddle start.
We had to paddle with bikes, we arrived at the paddle start in 3rd place, behind Club Scrub (Brian and Jason) and Sport and Spa (JJ and team). The paddle was fun but brutal. The river in the first section was narrow (with bikes hanging over the canoes this was tough) and fast. The high current meant we were moving fast, and the winding river and low and protruding trees made this a real challenge. I took 3 good shots from branches on my head leaving a bit of blood behind – but we were keeping a fast pace. The 2 spillways were also fun as they made a small rapid. We entered the water about 10 minutes behind Surf and Spa, and we exited the same way.
As we finished the paddle, we hopped back on our bikes and headed to the TA to get ready for the foot leg. It was now very dark. We caught Surf and Spa at CP7, and did the bushwhack from CP7 to CP8 with them. This was one of he harder bushwhacks I have done. Clinging vines caught our feet, the knee deep water, cypress knees, fallen logs, and thick vines made this an incredible section. We came out just a bit south of CP8, I had lost my hand light in the swamp (the second this year) – bummer. We ran easily from CP8 to CP9, and then picked up the trail network for CP10. CP10 was another bushwhack in a deep swamp. We found the control quickly, but we had to navigation out of the swamp – which required essentially a due west bearing to meet up with the correct trail. This was challenging. We met up with Surf and Spa – but they had missed the control and had to go back.
At this point we were essentially by ourselves, Club Scrub was well ahead of us (and also had some serious home field advantage going – as well as being incredibly strong athletically). Surf and Spa was now well behind us. We jogged back to the TA and headed out on bike for the single track. One of our least favorite styles was the next part of the race. You essentially stay on the single track trails and find 3 controls along the route. The single track was fun at night and we had no problems finding the 3 controls in this section. From there it was to the tower, and a long ride to CP 14 where we would do another trek. This was all pretty easy.
CP15 looked like an easy control – it was about 150 meters at 340 degrees from a distinct intersection. I did a bearing shoot and jog – but missed it the first time – so we had to come back and redo the bearing shot. The second time around a bit of teamwork made this one a pretty quick find. The last control of this run was easy (on a bridge). Team Club Scrub had a mismarked map in this section and had lost some time here – putting us within range of them as we headed back to the TA and off to the final paddle. Melissa was having a little bit of bonking on this section, but some food got her back up and strong. The remainder of the team was doing well – and even Jimmy was not complaining about the pumpkin we had been given to carry at the end of the first paddle.
The final paddle had relatively easy navigation, one control in Kitching Creek, the other in an obvious location past a small island. We pushed, but not terribly hard here. We had expected to see Team Club Scrub here – but they passed while we were in Kitching Creek. We boogied hard on the paddle to the boat ramp and had an easy ride to the finish line. We finished at 3:52 for an official race time of 13 hours and 42 minutes. This put us second overall and first coed and also qualified us for USARA Nationals – so that is now my next race.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Nocturnal Challenge
After Primal Quest I needed about 3 weeks of full rest, so I took a little time off from training – but like most adventure racers it was not long until I wanted to get back into the woods. Luckily I got the call from Melissa, she had been out with an injury for months – but was now ready to come back. She had not been able to run (hip injury), but decided it was time. We made a few calls and soon we had Jimmy, Jamie, Melissa and I set to go.
We got the maps at 4 PM for a 5 PM start. It looked like some challenging navigation with a lot of transition – but nice that we did not have any huge distances in any discipline without a change. We started with a roughly 6 mile bike to a TA on the river where we did a short (less than 1 mile run). Our route choice forced us to swim a pretty nasty canal – but at least it cooled us off – as well as covered us in slime and mud. The teams were all pretty close as we finished the run and headed off into the river for a relatively short paddle (7 km). The first CP was easy – the second one was a little tricky (CP4 in the race). We had to find a narrow channel and head due east down the canal to SR 407 (and then back).
Look at link – the CP was near SR 407 on the east end of the little canal in the middle of the map. We paddled from the east end of the power line road on the west side of the road.
After returning from the paddle – we had a small front pack with a lot of strong teams also chasing. Melissa was feeling pretty good so after a short bike to TA2 – we were able to run the next few CP’s. These were not terribly challenging, though they would have been pretty hard after dark. Luckily it was light and we made the best use of the remaining light making it to just before CP7 before we broke out the lights.
As with most races, the race changes quite a bit after it gets dark. A full moon helped, though we had plenty of bugs – gnats, mosquitoes, - and pretty much everything else that flies. We returned to TA2 with a few minutes behind Miami Shake-a-Leg and about 15 minutes back of Village Bike. As we transitioned to bike Team SWIM showed up and we could see Badfish and Mim’s the Word approaching. It was good (it is fun to have a lot of good teams running tight together). We caught up with Village Bike near CP11 which they had found. Melissa was navigating the bike, but I was using a little local knowledge (with a peek at the terrain for confirmation) to get around the worst of the terrain near CP10. CP10 was located on a spoil back SE of CP11. We used the trail that ran due North South to get to CP11, and we dropped bikes at CP 11 to bushwhack to CP10 (and back).
By the 4 ponds you can see the spoil bank. CP10 was at the south end of the westernmost pond.
The bike continued from there with some more challenging terrain – though the navigation was not that terrible. We finished up at TA3 and headed south (with Dave Shuman) into the best swamp trek section of the race and CP13 and CP14. We remet up with Village Bike at CP16, and helped them out a little with direction to CP15 which they had missed (where they met up with team Miami SAL). CP16 was the only control to give us a challenge. - We did have some fun wading through the lake at CP17 (which was on the NW corner of a man-made lake) in the dark, though no gators challenged our route choice. It is stil kind of scary being in a Lake in the middle of nowhere, with gators, chest deep in water, at night.
After that it was back to TA3 and on to bikes. Miami SAL and Village Bike caught up again at CP18, where we made a slight mistake going down the wrong trail. Melissa's spider sense finally took us in the correct direction and we found the real trail. Shortly before CP20 – riding hard on the terrain at night I had a pretty good scare as I went down hard and caught a palmetto just above my right eye which cut my eyelid and gave me a pretty good black eye. Luckily it was more blood than pain and we kept moving strong. The next segment was going to be the toughest of them all. The aerial below shows the section of river we navigated. Needless to say the controls required picking up the small lakes and canals and keeping meticulous track of your position. This was more challenging as the river was high and the channels edges were submerged and much more subtle. The final control in Jim Creek is one of the most spectacular (and secret) locations in Florida. Anyone who has ever paddled that section will have to agree it is almost magical. I’ll leave this one as a secret known only to a few adventure racers – if anyone else wants to know this secret place, they’ll have to come out to a race. Other racers who have been there – please feel free to leave a comment (but not the secret of the location).
As we trudged out (Pictures here thanks to Mark and TeamRacePhotos.com) of the paddle – we could not see any other boats. We knew we had enough time to beat the 11 AM deadline for a full course finish, but we still ran some of the 2 ½ miles back to the bikes (from the take-out). The last 2 bike controls were easy and it was daylight. We biked a pretty easy pace and finished up at 10:07 (all controls and 53 minutes to spare). About 40 minutes later Miami Shake a Leg showed up followed by all the other finishing teams. Considering the difficulty of the navigation – all teams that completed the course should feel proud of themselves.
It was great to return to Florida racing and see everyone at a fantastic race with great teams. Also thanks to Dave Shuman (Team Figjam) who stuck with us (well we kind of insisted) for the last half of the race. By the way – my eye is fine.
As part of the primal quest race - Go Pro gave us cameras to wear and record our race. Of course we did not have them on all the time - but they got some good video. Our video is at
The simple description of Primal Quest is that it is an extreme test of human endurance in the form of an expedition adventure race. The race acts like a huge hammer; each leg of the race is a smashing stroke against the willpower and bodies of the individual racers. Every single leg of this race, most as long as a full adventure race themselves– can and will exhaust your strength, break down your body, and test your resolve.
The Team
My journey to PQ was a strange one, one day I got the call from Julie Ardoin asking whether I wanted to join a team that she had been invited to join, Team Blue. Our team was an unlikely band of adventure racers, but somehow I knew we would be a good combination. We were not the hawk faced, chiseled figure, triathletes in matching uniforms. Kent Ryhorchuck was the soul of the team. Kent is a quiet (but opinionated) man with long brown hair and a full beard. He wears a quiet sly grin at all times. He also has an incredible knowledge of what to do in everything dealing with mountains and snow and brought this experience to the entire team. Dom Drouin was the engine and captain of the team. Dom is a huge man with a huge smile and an infectious laugh. He has a French Canadian accent and a talent of producing jokes when needed by the team. Then there is Julie Ardoin. Julie is endowed with some kind of inner strength that allows her to keep going beyond all normal human limits. She is quiet and soft spoken, though in this quiet voice of resolve she was the force that moved the team on when everything else was forcing us to stop.
Dom, Kent, Julie, and Ron
The Race Start
We’ll skip all the logistics that it takes to get a team to this race. Between certifications, gear, travel, logistics, crew, and skills test – just getting to the start line is an ordeal. But around 10 AM as the fog lifted over the mountain we heard a big boom and the teams were off and on their way to the top of Lone Mountain. Lone Mountain is an imposing feature rising over 11,000 feet above Big Sky Resort – it was also my first true alpine climb through snow and scree along a thin ridge to an incredible summit. Once reaching the top, the real fun began with nearly 1000 feet of but-numbing glissade down the back side of the mountain and a short trek back to the resort and the Transition Area (TA). Our morale was high as we quickly prepared for the next leg of the race, an incredibly long mountain trek past some of the most beautiful terrain I have ever seen.
Lone Mountain - Our First Climb
Before this race, I thought of Montana as this large state up north. I had never been there and really had no connection. The place awes you with its beauty. The pictures cannot do justice to the incredible waterfalls, wild-flower covered fields, mountains, and even the wildlife – bears, elk, moose, bison, deer, porcupines, horses, and birds. They all come together to give you the surreal sense that you are traveling through a place that is set aside as a special place where we are just visitors. The highlight of the first trek was probably Ousel Falls, which thundered below our thin mountain path as we worked our way south to the West Gallatin River and the next TA. Our navigation played a strong role in conquering this section. Snow made it difficult to find any of the trails, so we relied on contours, streams, and features to find our way through. The biggest highlight was a stream crossing across a roaring waterfall on a fallen log – the first of many. The sun rose as we reached the valley around Taylor Creek and Check Point 6 (CP6). This was an area of flat marshes where moose graze lazily in the grass covered ponds. We finally made it to the next TA around 9 AM, and donned our wetsuits for the next leg of the course, the whitewater paddling.
The Water
We knew we would be dealing some serious whitewater conditions as we donned wetsuits and prepared to head out in the Duckies (little two man inflatable boats). Water conditions were at historic levels due to large late snows and high snowmelt. The water temperature was a frigid 40 degrees – and we all knew there was a good chance we would be doing some real swimming. The first 10 miles of the whitewater were quite easy as we faced only Class 1 and 2 rapids (that came continuously). Linda was racing ahead of us in the car and stopping to take pictures along way. After about 10 miles we started hitting some Class 3 rapids, which we all handled easily even though the hydraulics on these could easily swallow our little Duckies. And then the river got angry. We were now frantically paddling in different directions to avoid strainers and rocks. I had scouted this section of river from the car days earlier so I knew what to expect – but it was coming by extremely fast. Even the bridges required us to duck as the water was high enough to make the clearance quite low.
Kent and Ron in the Duckie - the front person powers through hysraulics, the back person straightens and steers the boat.
One heart-stopping moment came as we shot around a corner into a large rock setting up a vertical wave. Unlike most waves – a vertical hits you from the side tipping your boat over. We paddled hard away from the rock – but the current was too strong and we were launched into the air, with our boat hurtling sideways. The next sequence of events seemed to happen in slow motion. First, I rammed my shoulder into the side of the Duckie that was supposed to be under my rear pushing it back towards horizontal. Kent, at the same time, grabbed at the underside of the boat with his right hand (99% of paddlers grab for the up, or tipping, side – thus tipping the boat over) and we landed in somewhat of a flat position and stayed in the boat. After a quick breath we turned around to see Dom and Julie flying though the air – 2 people, 2 paddles, and one blue Duckie each heading their own way. There was no time to give to the though of rescuing them as we were heading straight for a massive strainer. We paddled hard to avoid the strainer which threw us into a large series of Class 4 rollers. I kept the boat straight as Kent pulled us out of the successive hydraulics. We were frantic to find an eddy to help our team-mates, shouting to the rescue crews that there was a boat over. It seemed like forever – but was in reality only a few minutes until we reached Moose Creek and were able to pull out. A few worried minutes went by as we waited for our team-mates who showed up, with one paddle and looking pretty wet and beaten.
At Moose Creek we were slightly shaken - but we geared up and headed back out onto the angry river on river boards.
At Moose Creek we were to switch from Duckies to River Boards. We had purchased some awesome river boards before the race. Julie, Dom, and I (and Jamie – one of our crew) had tested them out the week before and felt comfortable river boarding. Dom and Julie were back in good spirits and we set out into the rapids again.
The team sets back out into the ice cold water on our boards.
River boarding has one simple premise, hang onto the board and stay upright. We were having fun – the class 2 and 3 rapids were like riding a cold wet rollercoaster and the boards handled the waves quite well. We bounced, slammed, and slid over and under large waves – hooting and hollering. A few miles downriver we would take out for a medical hypothermia check. This is where things got interesting. I missed the first eddy at the take-out and was thrown a rescue rope. As I grabbed the rope I spotted the strainer that the rope was pulling me towards. At the last second I let go of the rope, bounced off the strainer and went careening downstream towards a set of bridge abutments. (All this was caught on video by my wife). I kicked like crazy and was able to catch an eddy on the far side of the river under the bridge. I crawled up and was cleared by PQ staff to get a ride back across the bridge back to my team (rules prohibited walking along the road – and luckily Linda was able to prevent me from walking across the bridge avoiding a penalty). At this point Dom was slightly hypothermic, but warming up rapidly. And then the call came in that the river was being closed down because the rescue crews were strained to their limit (doing an average of 6 rescues per hour) and felt they could not keep up with the emergencies. So we sat and we waited. About 90 minutes later we were cleared to catch a ride to the TA where our crew had been waiting worriedly to find out about us. All the crews had heard was that there had been “issues” on the water.
After bouncing onto a strainer - here I am clinging for life in a small eddy created by the bridge abutment. My wife caught this as was panicked until I gave the OK signal.
We were cold, tired, so we ate and decided to get some sleep – our first of the race.
The Second Trek
The next trek was actually a series of treks for us. Like all the other treks – it was impossibly long. The first major obstacle was Telephone Ridge. Later our crew (who was tracking us on SPOT) would ask if we crawled on this section. Their guess was not too far off. We climbed along a deep snow covered ridge that was covered with downed trees – reducing our progress to a crawl, and we did it all at night. CP11 was tricky to find because all the roads were covered in snow – so we basically bushwhacked to the correct elevation using the altimeter and found the control. After this we ended up in Wheeler Gulch were we traveled down a gulch trail with impossible canyon walls on both sides. At the base we needed to cross a stream that appeared un-crossable (a raging rapid). Some other teams had found a decent log crossing so one at a time we scooted across the log while team members from various teams set up safety lines downstream in case anyone fell in. We left the crossing at 7:23 AM and headed up the other side of mountain along Cottonwood Creek.
Our team of entrepid trekkers. This was beautiful country.
From there it was up, and up, and up. This was a long slow endless climb with a few navigation challenges again because of the snow covering the trails. We passed the time telling stories and jokes and breaking the trek into smaller bite size pieces. We made the trailhead by noon and rested. We passed Mystic Lake at 4 PM. We made the Bear lakes (and some of the oddest terrain of the race) by 6 PM. I passed the time by marking our progress in hours on the map. We finally arrived at TA5 around 9:30 PM. We would surprise our crew there by immediately jumping onto our bikes (after a little food) and heading out to the next TA 35 miles up (south) on the Yellowstone River.
The First Bike Leg
The first major bike leg of the race was never intended to be a bike leg. The original plan was a 100 mile paddle down the Yellowstone River. The river, however, had risen above the flood stage and was filled with massive floating logs (not sure where they came from), boils, and some serious rapids. So this would instead be a 100 mile (roughly) bike leg with a prescribed course. We got a little sleep in the Big Timber TA (3 hours). This was not a terribly exciting leg and it did give us the chance to stop at a McDonald’s and snag some serious calories. The end location was along the Yellowstone, even though that was not really the end of biking.
The Crazy Mountains (Trek #3)
From the Yellowstone we would ride bikes for about 20 miles into the trailhead at Big Timber Canyon, drop our bikes, and head up and over the Crazy Mountain range. This was the true highlight of the race. It started as an easy trek along a canyon road, which turned into a trail. The streams, swollen with snowmelt roared all around us – and the Crazy Mountains, with their eerie jagged spires gave a dreamlike effect. Our first glacial lake was aptly named Glacier Lake. We had to cross a pass of Conical Peak to get to it, a climb from 8,000 to 10,000 feet, and then a drop into the bowl of the lake. We climbed up an incredible snow slope, with the roaring sound of water nearby. We climbed this with the local team 26 – Team Big Sky. This gave me a level of comfort until I asked them about the roaring water sound.
“It’s water running under the snow pack.” “Is that bad?” “Only if you fall in.” “What should we do?” "Move faster and get off the snow pack.”
Glacier Lake was frozen with every shade of blue imaginable. It was surrounded on three sides by snow slopes topped by skree ridges where jagged boulders had been placed as if by some insane artist. The tracks of the other teams in the snow led down and around a massive ridge to the next Glacial Lake – Moose Lake. The climbs in the snow (some in the dark) up the incredibly steep slopes were exciting, if not exhausting. From Moose Lake, it was a climb to the third lake, Campfire Lake. It was clear this place did not see too many humans. The snow muffled all noises, so an eerie silence pervaded everything. There, hanging on a lone tree at the edge of the lake, was the checkpoint – looking totally out of place in this absolute wilderness.
Everything is vertical in the Carzies.
I shot this video with my cell phone and no I did not have a signal
Even after the CP we still had to climb and get out of the glacial bowl, about 500 more feet of purely exposed snow and skree at a dizzying pitch. Finally standing on top of the ridge looking back we felt the true wonder and awe of this place. The Crazies were not like the other mountain ranges. They were sculpted into odd shapes and patterns. They were remote and they were stunning in their uniqueness. We still had to get down and out, and it was a long way. The steepness of getting out was scary, and Julie and I both experienced some serious trepidation at going down some of the snow hills we had to descend. But down was the way and we finally went from snow to rock, to dirt, to forest, and then back to road leading us to the small comfort of the TA.
The Second (real) Bike Leg
Our crew – Jamie and Johnny Sheriff are both experienced racers. At this point in the race with a total of 5 days of racing and 6 hours of sleeping we were looking rough. The crew in these races must have a strong nose (we smelled), a pleasant disposition (we were grumpy and short), incredible organization (we always needed that one piece of gear that we could not find). They had to anticipate our needs (I don’t want stew – I want ice cream) and be soothing. We had an incredible crew in Jamie and Johnnie and that allowed us to eat, sleep, repack, eat again, and head out on bikes for the next section – the long bike. This started with a downhill followed by a long slow mild uphill to the remote town of Ringling, Montana – Population 14. At Ringling, we headed onto hard packed cattle roads and started going through small rollers until reaching 16 Mile Canyon Road. This was aptly named as it was a 16 mile long stretch of wonderful road going downhill through a slot canyon. We were able to fly down this canyon at breakneck speeds (I almost hit 40 mph on one stretch). At the end, it was simply following a series of country roads to the foot of the Bridger Mountains and the next TA. The nearly 100 mile ride had caused some butt rash and chafing for my team-mates – I was simply happy to not be on my feet for a while.
The Bridger Mountains (Trek #4)
As incredible as it sounds at this point we had another 24 hours trek facing us, this time the Bridger Mountains. We would start the usual way – by going up. We took a long transition to fuel up. We planned to cross the first major ridge in the daylight and then spend the night trekking up and down over the ridges. On the way up we ran into Blain, Ulf, and Trish (team TravelCountry.com). They had suffered dual disasters – first with a sick team-mate and secondly by getting separated from one of their team-mates who appeared to still be missing. This was a moral blow to me. I was not competing against them, they are my friends and team-mates and I wanted to share the taste of finishing the race with a top team who I knew and had raced with before.
Still the race went on and we found ourselves doing the forever climb. My training strategy of climbing the stair-master and the treadmill and max slope was working. My muscles were handling the climbing quite well. Notice there was no downhill training in that regimen – that would be a mistake that would cost me greatly later. When we reached Sacagawea Peak and the pass (CP21) we had a good bit of daylight and a few teams around us. We needed to pass over the ridge on to the Bridger Mountains National Scenic Trail. Only problem was, everything was covered in snow and there was no clear direction to go. The trail on the map appeared to contour down along an very steep ridge line - but there was no way to do that. To make things more ominous, we could look down into the snow and see fresh boulder paths from boulders knocked loose.
We decided to go straight down into the bowl and then work our way over to where the trail should be. This was another glissade/snow plunge into another bowl. By now, we were getting pretty good at this. As we reached the bottom we did spot the trail carved into an exposed slope and headed that way. Another team had crested the ridge and was looking down. We got to the trail and started our long slow march putting the bowl out of sight. I sneaked one last look at the team that was back on the ridge – they were still there and it was obvious they were arguing with each other.
The pain had started small when we first topped the crest. I thought nothing of it, it was not blisters – I knew that pain. This pain was different, but it was not bad. By the time we reached the last part of the mountain the pain had become a living thing. Every step downhill was agony. My feet had swollen so much I had to cut my shoes open and then they just swelled over the top. And my pain was not alone. Everyone was in their own private well of pain. Blisters, feet, toes, and knees were taking the shock of it. I had no way of knowing if mine was the worst pain – but I was in my own world now. I called the team to stop and rigged up a cord from of my shoe that allowed me to pull up on my shoes with my hands. This seemed to work a little – it would get me off the hill. Kent took my pack. We went back and forth through switchbacks that would simply not end. I was slowing the team – so I felt guilty. All we wanted to do was get out and get out now.
And then we came out. We were on a road and it hurt less going on a flat road than down a hill. Kent was navigating – I was long past being able to do anything that required thought. I think we got a little lost for a while (I’m not sure, though I remember vaguely doubling back at one point). And then we were in the transition area and the medical tent. And there was one thought screaming through my head – I’ve got another 50 mile trek ahead. A number of things were happening now. Kent’s strength, Julie’s drive, and Don’s spirit and sense of humor had gotten us through the last section. As we came out my wife Linda and kids were there. When I needed a moral boost I would think of them, but nothing is better than actually having them there. Linda held my hand and told me it would be OK. I calmed down and looked at the race rationally. We had a long bike ride, the ropes course, a long trek, and a final push on bikes to the finish ahead. The bike ride I knew I could handle – so I would push the trek out of my mind until after I completed the other tasks. Linda was there and soothing. The team was intact. The medical team was taping my leg. Strangely – I knew this all happened in the day, but in my memory it was dark, or at least it was until Linda was around me – then it was light again.
Bike Leg #3
Even though this leg was painful on the team – it was recovery to me. Kent who was a rock the entire race was dealing with knee pain from an injury back in the river boarding that made riding tough. Both Dom and Julie were suffering terribly from the effects that doing a 3rd long hard off-road ride would have on your rear-end. This ride was a 7 hour climb followed by a one hour screaming descent. The descent was well beyond my abilities and that of my hard tail bike – the one everyone makes fun of. But still with my rim brakes smoking and sparking I made it down one of the most frightening, challenging, and exhilarating down hills I have ever ridden. Leave it to Primal Quest to seek out the best downhill runs and put us on them. Eight hours later we were in the TA at Storm Castle, eating and getting some sleep (this time 5 hours) to prepare for the ropes course.
Ropes and Orienteering
We woke up at dawn to hike (3 miles) over to the start of the ropes course. We knew that the course had taken most teams about 8 hours to complete including the orienteering, so we figured on being out for a while. The ropes course can best be described in the numerous pictures of the course. The course was made up of 6 pitches, one of which was a free climb. Between each pitch you would traverse and scramble on a hand line to the next pitch. The scrambling required a mixture of strength and flexibility. Most of these I simply used Batman technique and muscled my way up the rope. About halfway through, as my sweat caused the nylon to stretch, I had to change the ascender setting on my daisy chain. This was challenging as I had to do it while on a rope. That was a first for me.
Yes it was as high and scary as it looks. We walked along thing (inches) ridges and rocks and roped up amazing pitches.
The ropes course was long and spectacular. Incredible views from dizzying rock spires were the norm of the course. When we reached the top, we decided to find three of the bonus orienteering points and get to the rappel. We were not sure how to get to the rappel (no instructions or trail given here) – so we went the wrong way twice. The biggest challenge of the rappel was the path to reach it – it had been eroded away into loose skree and we were told we could not use this path after we were half-way up. The teams were shuttled to an alternate path and we made our way to the top. Rappelling was fun as it is an essentially no energy sport. We double rappelled – so Kent and I went down together. I had to call for a fireman belay on his rope – the Figure 8 he was using was not giving enough friction for him to control speed. As we hit the bottom we could hear the cheers of Dom’s wife and our crew. We were now getting ready for the next big trek.
Trek #5 Indian Ridge to Ennis Lake
There is really not too much I want to say about this section. We were shuttled to the start and listened to the cheers of our crew and family as we started the long and tortuous walk up the mountain. We hiked and hiked and hiked. We stopped roughly every hour for five minutes to check feet and eat. We tried to break it down into a number of smaller treks setting goals of reaching different areas. There was some navigation involved in areas where the trail was lost due to downed trees. In the end it left us at the top of the final mountain with a steep decent to the road and Ennis Lake. The pain in my tendonitis was killing me, but my team rallied – knocked some sense into me, took my pack and we all made it down. It was getting near dusk when our haggard, worn, swollen, bodies limped into the final TA for some food and a little sleep before the last leg. The trek took us 20 hours.
My favorite pictures of the race. Finally trekking in to Ennis Lake we were greeted by our families at the final TA.
Final Bike Ride
The sleep monsters from the previous trek forced us to get about an hour of sleep before attempting the final bike ride and 2,500 foot climb to the finish line. We knew this would probably be a 5+ hour climb – but would not require too much physical effort compared to the other legs. We were wrong. Julie was audibly sobbing in pain as we started ascending so I took her pack; I was feeling physically strong – my only real pain being my feet and tendonitis. We kept riding and then I saw something that sent shudders up and down my spine – bike lights from another team. We did not know nor care who it was, we had worked so hard – we were not going to lose a place now. Dom impressively grabbed Kent’s pack. Kent put Julie on a tow line and we started what would be an uphill 4 hour sprint. Kent was impressive – you could physically see Julie’s bike jerk forward with each power stroke of his bike. He yelled out to us – “push the flats too – not just the up hills!” – so, we did. He was also navigating and he led the team to the finish line. The folks following us on SPOT said it was pretty impressive how we took off, and we matched times with the best of the teams on this leg.
The Finish
After so much pain and suffering – sprinkled with euphoria, joy, fear, adrenaline, and emotion it was nice to see the finish line. PQ does act like a big hammer with each leg pounding you into submission. You don’t conquer it alone, you bond together as a team, you lock arms, you push together and you withstand its blows through the efforts of the team. If one person feels pain or falters, the team falters – but when we succeed, we succeed together – and this was our success. 15 place. Well beyond ours or anyone else’s expectations for our ragtag group of racers who still do not have matching uniforms.
P.S. For those of you who cannot get enough of the PQ stories the PQ web site has lots of pictures and stories from PQ 2008 - Montana http://www.ecoprimalquest.com/wp-primal/pq/
Just to let everyone know I am safe and sound now at the Big Sky lodge after having finished PQ Montana around 1:30 last evening. I cannot even begin to describe how challenging this race was, I am walking (barely) and will have plenty of posts soon. Our 15th place finish exceeded everyone's (including my) expectations. Check back for updates as I have time (now on to cleaning up gear...)
For those who want to follow the Primal Quest Action - our crew is going to try and keep news available on the Team Blue blog. The blog is at http://pqteamblue.blogspot.com/
If a pcture is worth 1000 words - this is a long story. Thanks to Abhijit who took wonderful photos and posted them at http://picasaweb.google.com/abhijit.in.touch - check it out there are lot more great shots.
We showed up and first thing was to paddle out to sea... Tip our boat over - and get back in, this was the skills test. Then we paddled back...
After the pre-race we started on the maps.
We also worked on preparing the gear.
This is us finishing up the short (4 mile beach run)
After the beach run we hopped into our boats and we were off weaving our way through the mangroves.
20 odd miles of paddling later - we showed up at the park on 520 in Cocoa and got on our bikes and left.
Our crew cleaned up, headed to the next TA and took shelter from the rain.
We showed up many hours later with 2 ailing team-mates. Julie and I decided to continue on as a 2 person team and headed out for a long trek, and a rainy bike ride (sorry no pictures) - but you can reaad about it the text version of the race.
Many hours later around midnight, we showed up at the TA at Hunt Club and Wekiva Rd. We ate. We got ready for a swamp whack and we headed out. These are some of the critters we met in this long trek section. Most of these tried to either bite or sting me. I had lots of bites, there were lots of spiders. A very welcome site, the TA at Blue Springs and the end of the trek.
Notice Josh is carrying Julie's pack here.
Ron chats with Gomez as we come off the long trek. It was pretty challenging trek.
Notice Julie going through her gear as I looked at dismay at the contents of my shoes. I was pulling swamp grass out of my shoes days later.
We were quite tired but we ate, we repacked. . We got in the boats - switching to the Amaruk and paddled off. Here is Julie adjusting the foot posts.
The end of the paddle at Blue Springs.
We had new maps that we had to mark at this TA. This gave us a rest, but it was tough to focus on marking maps while hot and tired.
We headed off on bikes from the Blue Springs TA. We are now in the afternoon of Day 2. Many CP's were removed from the course making the bike ride much shorter. We biked for about 10 hours arriving at the Oklawaha Dam at Moss Bluff around midnight. We slept for 30 minutes, ate and then headed off on the river some time before 2 AM.
Here I arriving after the paddle that was after the bike ride. We paddled from 464 at Moss Bluff to Silver River State Park.
There were lots of fish and spectators (animal variety) at Silver River State Park.
In the cool morning air, the trail looked inviting, our next leg would be a trek.
After a real shower and some oatmeal - we added Josh and Clay back to the team and took off on the next trek section. It looked short, it wasn't.
Julie and Ron check in after the trek to learn we have one more leg of the race, another long bike ride.
At Santos we took some time to eat and check the maps. I wanted to get a feel for how long the next section would take us. I estimated 10 hours.
Off we head into the Santos Bike trails. These are great trails and every Florida Mountain biker should hit these at some time.
A little before 7 PM (only 7 hours of riding) we arrived at the finish line - total time 60 hrs 57 minutes. We ate dinner and then it was off to home to dream about the next race - which for Julie and I would be Primal Quest in Montana.
At Dinner from Left to Right - Clay, Ron, Abhijit, Oscar, Heather, Josh, and Julie
