Impossible Panther

Impossible Panther 24 Hour

This looked to be a fun and challenging race held in Troy NC (a manageable ride), a couple of teams from Florida (Shake A Leg Miami, and Mims the Word) were racing. I was racing with Katie and Dave from Mims the Word. Here is the race summary.



The race actually started at 8 AM with an orienteering prelude, a little 45 minute jog - even though we were in bike shoes, we headed out. I held the team up a bit with my bad ankle, but good navigation had us 3rd in and we headed out quickly on bikes. We ended up back in the pack at CP2 as the plethora of trails in the area made the navigation challenging. This challenge would follow us to the next CP (CP3) which would see a lot of teams head up a ridge in the wrong direction - luckily this only fooled us for a while and we found it while a lot of the other teams were still searching. CP1 was the first big climb, though we dropped bikes and hit this on foot - though we took non-trail route, the woods were open.



We next headed for the river crossing at CP4, Katie slipped here - the river was about waist deep and the rocks were very slick. Luckily she caught her bike before it headed downstream and we moved quickly to CP5. From CP5 it got a it confusing, simply because of the multitude of trails here. We did not find CP6 on the way down, but ran into Team SAL and headed for CP8 , CP10, and CP7 with them. CP7 was pretty challenging - but we found it and decided to skip CP11 and CP9 and head straight back to the TA.


We caught back up to SAL at the TA, they had gotten CP11 ad CP9, we marked maps and headed out just a few minutes in front of SAL. The trek was enjoyable - it was about 5:45 AM as we left and we made it quickly through the points - making one mistake between CP14 and CP16. CP16 had Katie hanging by her pack over a bridge trying to reach it. A short jog to manned CP19 and then a jog to the TA had us in our boats.


The river section was a blast. A swift current with a little whitewater made it a lot of fun. The first CP 21 cost us some time as we followed the original clue into a creek, for some reason the conrol had been moved to the river bank - but I hada good time exploring the creek. The water eventually became calm as we approached the PeeDee River - which was flowing swiftly. We crossed and stared the orienteering course.


The orienteering course was a highlight of the race for me. Though it was challenging and long - we were using a real orienteering map (sorry - I cannot find it - but you can see it at http://www.teamrocgear.com/w/2009_Impossible_Panther ) and I'm very comfortable on those maps. We beat the time estimate and finished in 3 1/2 hours. The one challenging control (CP27) hidden in the Rodendendron at the top of Sugarloaf mountain was challenging - but the rest were pretty easy.

When we arrived back at the TA - we had some points to plot. The Dam had opened the gates and the river was now "unpaddle-able" - so our choice was to portage the boat to the dam. This turned out to be very challenging with our heavy boat and the steep slopes up and around the dam. At one point it was humorous as Dave literally lowered the boat to me over a 20 foot cliff. Luckily the 16 foot boat was something we could do this with.

We paddled to the rappel and sent Katie out (since they were only letting one team member rappel). The River and the open gates on the Badin dam made the other 2 points north of the rappel difficult and dangerous so we got the one south of the TA and headed in for one more portage up the side of a mountain.

Dave had a flat at the TA (hey - best place to have one). We decided to take the road back as we only had one hour to get back. We were able to get one control on the way back (we even saw SAL Miami) and still finish with 20 minutes to spare.



For those teams who want challenging navigation - and for us - unfamiliar terrain, this is a good race. It was tough. The 24 hour Rogaine format lets you push yourself as hard as you want. I had great team-mates and we really meshed well as a team. In the end we finished 4th overall (see http://www.gobushwhack.com/IPAR09_results_summary_24.pdf )

More information on the race is at http://www.teamrocgear.com/w/2009_Impossible_Panther