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.
Greg at Pangea surprised all the teams by announcing he would be setting a no-frills, half price adventure race in Christmas Florida - or Tosohatchee State Preserve to be exact. Instead of having 2 categories (elite and sport) like a usual race - this was going to be a combined sport and elite race lasting 3 1/2 hours total. Since I did not have anything planned for that weekend I called Erik and formed a team, we then added Michael Moule who was in town and finally a 4th racer Jeanette Ciesla who was moving up from sport to elite class for the first time.
We all met and like most sport races you have to draw to see what your first discipline or race segment would be - I drew blue and that meant paddling. We had been looking at the competition - and I knew that Team Good'Nuff for Dad's Sake was likely to be the toughest competition out there - and they also drew a blue marble meaning they would be starting on the same leg we would.
The Boat TA was about a 3 mile bike ride. We were going to be using our own paddles so we also had to rig up the paddles to carry. Since Mike had been marking the maps he would navigate this section. I had been able to look at the maps long enough to memorize most of this section - so I would be able to help. We put Jeanette on the tow behind Erik for the ride out to the Boat TA. Even though we are all pretty fast bikers, Good'Nuff had a couple minute lead heading into the water. We easily found CP11, but all the teams converged as we got to CP12. This was a bit tricky as it was indicated on a cypress tree and there were lots of these around. It was also pretty well hidden around the back side. Also to get to the tree one racer had to get into the waist high water to wade around to the back side. I found the control - and indicated to Michael where it was - all the other teams converged at that time, but Michael was quick in and out of the water and we were quickly paddling back to Jim Creek. We also passed an airboat full of tourists in Jim Creek which was pretty cool.
This was such a cool area I did create a little bit of video of the section.
We were still just behind Good'Nuff as we took off on the bikes back to the transition area. The next leg would be a bike leg so there really was not a transition - we simply switched passports and headed off on the bike. We quickly passed Good'Nuff looking for CP16 just short of the control location. This was pure single track biking and pretty awesome stuff at that. Here are the north trails on the map and a little video of what the biking looked like.
As we came out of the trails and headed back to the main TA, Good'Nuff went straight past the main TA and we headed left to head by the Bike TA and make a little cutoff to CP15. This set us up nicely for CP17 and a single track ride to WP2 and CP18. We arrived back in the TA and as we were switching shoes we saw Good'Nuff heading into the TA, we had maybe a 2 minute lead at this point. I recorded the next section on video. Here is the map of the trek.
The only place we really had issues was CP5 and we had a lot of issues there. Pretty much all the teams had issues with this control and we did use a bit of teamwork to figure it out. In the end we used a benchmark that was south of the control to eventually locate it. (This is the BM mark on the map.
After we found the CP we knew we were at least 5 minutes behind Good'Nuff - so we decided to run all out for the remainder of the trek. After we left CP5 we were running along the form line (unmapped) towards CP6 but we knew we needed to be on the trail, so we had a very short bushwhack over to the trail and located it quickly on the trail. CP4 was pretty easy except that it was slightly off the trail and not easy to see - but with 4 sets of eyes we located it quickly. CP1 was very straightforward - simply run the trail to the distinct trail bend and attack from there, we then headed southwest back to the trail. As we approached the open area near CP2 Michael and Erik veered off north, found it quickly while Jeanette and I stayed on the trail. They actually got in front of us as they came back to the trail as the woods were very open running. We got back to the main road with about 1 km to go and could see Good'Nuff just in front of us (about 200 meters) on the trail.
In the end - Good'Nuff was good enough to take the first place, all controls in 3:18. We were just behind them in 3:19. Bitter Carnies (14 CP's in 3:22), Florida Xtreme 3 (14 CP's in 3:27).
It was great racing with Michael, Erik, and Jeanette - we teamed well together. Also it is awesome to have a second navigator as it let me do a little bit of mule work and get some brain rest. We were able to use each others thoughts to nail pretty much every control - only having trouble with one.
It was a great day for orienteering today at Kelly Park. I had the GPS tracker in my backpack - so below is my track in Google maps, I added the control locations. Some of the controls were really challenging. Pretty much all the adventure racers got into the palmettos that were east of CP3 and CP4 wasting a lot of time bashing through tough stuff. I ended up bailing to the trail on CP3 and CP4 and re-attacking each of those (as did many others).
CP5 was a bit challenging - but CP6 really gave everyone a hard time.
I attacked CP7 from the road intersection and hit it dead-on. CP8 which looked easy was placed about east of the mapped location, and gave me a real hard time - it also was not located on the thicket. We found it with a small group of racers. From CP8 - it was pretty straighforward the rest of the way in.
You really cannot beat the excitement of having the entire season come down to a single race. It really is not about the prizes - it is about being the Pangea champion for that year - and for all the teams that qualified it would all be decided in this race.
The Turkey Burn elite traditionally starts at 4 AM, this is usually either cold or wet - but today it was neither. The weather was mild and cool, perfect for racing. I'm including maps and a summary of each leg here.
Leg 1 - Orienteering
It would all start out with a relatively short orienteering leg. In the dark - this can be pretty challenging. After picking up the first CP all the teams headed west of the Persimmon Trail. This trail is very rooted, Wanda took at least 2 nosedives and an ankle twist along this route. I had one minor twist - and this was just on the trail itself. Because the race had just started most of the teams were packed together - and also running hard trying to establish an early lead. The only one that gave teams a bit of trouble was CP3 (which was the last one we got). It was placed on the opposite side of the trail, but still along the fenceline. Once one team got it - all the other teams converged. The run back along the Persimmon trail was still tough - and we were moving fast. As we got back to transition area - Nell of Team Eco-Choice hit the knee high cable separating the road from the grass and went down real hard. She however bounced right back up. I'm including the splits from all the teams clearing the course in their order for each leg.
Orienteering 1
35:00 - Florida Xtreme 2 35:00 - Primal Instinct 35:00 - Eco-Choice 35:00 - Get to the Chopper 41:00 - Florida Xtreme 43:00 - Green Paw 48:00 - Nature Calls 1:03:00 - Good Enough 4 Dad's Sake 1:27:00 - FLX/Utility Mutants
Bike to Lake Highland
The next leg was a simple road bike about 6-7 miles to the boats at Lake Highland. I decided to NOT wear clips for this leg as I did not want to take the time to change. We were the third team to get into the water just behind Primal Instinct. Green Paw hit the water just behind us.
Bike 2 Deleon Springs to Lake Highland Fish Camp
29:00 - Green Paw 30:00 - Primal Instinct 30:00 - Florida Xtreme 30:00 - Get to the Chopper 31:00 - FLX/Utility Mutants 32:00 - Florida Xtreme 2 33:00 - Nature Calls 37:00 - Eco-Choice 37:00 - Good Enough 4 Dad's Sake
Paddle Leg
This next leg was a good long paddle leg. We were in the water just around 5 AM meaning we would have at least one hour of paddling in darkness. We were bunched pretty tightly as we hit CP7. I had decided that we would do this paddle with 4 in the boat. That is not necessarily the fastest way to paddle - but it does let us rest a racer. It also would allow me to focus more on the navigation. We were moving about the same speed as the other boats around us, and we had now established a pack of about 6 teams moving together. When we reached CP8 it was completely clogged with vegetation and we were essentially pushing the boat through weeds and sea lettuce to get to the CP. It looked like the water was shallow so I decided to jump out and walk to the CP. This did not work out as planned as I immediately went over my head in the surprising deep water (I never did touch the bottom). I swam and pulled the boat along toward the control - but this was not terribly effective as I could not get purchase on anything and the water was too deep. As 4 teams passed us here I pulled myself back on the boat, now soaking wet - but not really cold. After that we concentrated on just paddling hard to the next few checkpoints all of which were pretty easy to locate with the pack of boats.
The paddle from CP11 to CP13 meant avoiding clogs and jams of all the weeds floating on the surface of the lake. The sun had now come up and it was turning into a pretty sunrise. Of course the beauty was punctuated with the sounds of rifles and shotguns going off as it was hunting season. I can see why the game disappears quickly when the season starts - the sound of the guns carries a long way, and at times it sounded like someone was shooting off cannons somewhere on shore. The next to last control was placed so that you could only really get one boat in at a time. This spread all the boats into a small armada with about 2 minutes between the boats. All the lead pack teams were paddling all out and you can really tell by looking at the split times that are so close together. Florida Xtreme did pull away from the other teams after we hit Spring Garden Run - all solid paddlers, paddling all out.
Paddle Splits
3:27 - Florida Xtreme 3:27 - Eco-Choice 3:34 - Green Paw 3:35 - Primal Instinct 3:36 - Get to the Chopper 3:39 - Florida Xtreme 2 3:46 - FLX/Utility Mutants 3:47 - Good Enough 4 Dad's Sake 3:57 - Nature Calls
Transition to Bikes
After we hit land - the next thing to do was to pack up and get out the door for the bike-trek-bike coming up. None of us had had a chance to eat or drink at this time. Our opportunity would be after the time trial and on the next trek leg (still a ways out). Here are transition times and time to Chuck Lennon (less than 1/2 mile away).
Bike to Chuck Lennon
8:00 - FLX/Utility Mutants 8:00 - Get to the Chopper 9:00 - Eco-Choice 11:00 - Primal Instinct 11:00 - Florida Xtreme 2 11:00 - Florida Xtreme 12:00 - Nature Calls 14:00 - Good Enough 4 Dad's Sake
Chuck Lennon Time Trial
For those of you not familiar with Chuck Lennon - it is some wonderful single track set on a few acres near Deleon Springs. There is not much land - but the courses are designed to make the most of what land is there. If you have never ridden single track - think roller coaster on a bike. Here is a little video (not mine) that shows some of the highlights of the trail network. The elite course biked hoot owl to the hub, then red, yellow, and finally out the blue.
This section was also a time trial (think race within a race). Since we were all still (biking) fresh nearly all the team rode this hard. We also saw Nell (Eco-Choice) go down hard again on the blue trail - but just like the first time she popped back up. Also "Good Enough 4 Dad's Sake" showed that they have what it takes to do the single track with the second best split time behind Primal Instinct (which had ridden Lennon before and are a strong technical bike team).
Time Trial Chuck Lennon
37:00 - Primal Instinct 39:00 - Good Enough 4 Dad's Sake 40:00 - Florida Xtreme 43:00 - Nature Calls 43:00 - Get to the Chopper 44:00 - Florida Xtreme 2 45:00 - FLX/Utility Mutants 50:00 - Green Paw 53:00 - Eco-Choice
Bike to Heart Island
Nothing spectacular after the wonderful single track - just all out ride to Heart Island. Jim put Wanda on the tow rope - just as we were entering Heart Island he stopped to take her off the tow, Bruce and I rode in and nearly got a separation penalty - however Jim and Wanda were just around the corner entrance (maybe 30 yards from the actual TA).
Bike to Heart Island
17:00 - Florida Xtreme 18:00 - Primal Instinct 19:00 - Get to the Chopper 20:00 - Nature Calls 21:00 - Green Paw 21:00 - Florida Xtreme 2 22:00 - Eco-Choice 22:00 - Good Enough 4 Dad's Sake 23:00 - FLX/Utility Mutants
Heart Island Biking
We were warned that the bike trails were pretty sandy (actually they were horse trails). Bruce was having some quad cramps and the sandy riding was tough. I was on my new Motobecane 29 - and they ride incredibly well in sand. Our course is shown - we tried to stay to the best riding trails. Green Paw had arrived just before us at Heart Island, and Florida Xtreme (1) and Primal Instinct were just minutes in front of us as we entered here. I am still picking sand spurs off my tires from this section.
Red shows our route - Heart Island Bike
Heart Island Bike Loop
0:45 - Green Paw 0:50 - Florida Xtreme 0:52 - Good Enough 4 Dad's Sake 0:56 - Eco-Choice 0:56 - Nature Calls 0:58 - Get to the Chopper 0:59 - FLX/Utility Mutants 1:00 - Primal Instinct 1:01 - Florida Xtreme 2
Foot Section Heart Island
Red shows our route - Heart Island Trek
At this point in the race fatigue was taking its toll on the team. I was stiff and not running particularly well. We did a lot of bushwack in this section (though it was not what was slowing us down). We also joined forces with Eco-choice to nail the CP's. So far we had lost about 5 minutes on the previous bike leg to navigation and we immediately lost about another 5 on CP31 on this leg as we shot right past it and had to double back. We made up for that on CP30 heading straight to the control and avoiding having to do the bearing. We did the same on 29 - but missed it and still had to use a bearing for that one. We bushwhacked straight across to CP28 (coming to the white trail a bit north of it) and then headed in.
Heart Island Orienteering Loop
37:00 - Green Paw 39:00 - Get to the Chopper 40:00 - Florida Xtreme 42:00 - Primal Instinct 45:00 - Good Enough 4 Dad's Sake 48:00 - Eco-Choice 49:00 - Florida Xtreme 2 50:00 - Nature Calls 50:00 - FLX/Utility Mutants Bike To Main TA
At this point we were racing with Alan and Nell from Eco-choice. Jim was towing Wanda, Bruce was the passport man. We also knew we had about a one hour bike ride and then the orienteering course. The O course would be a make or break, essentially any team at this point could win. Green Paw and Florida Xtreme had built up a pretty good buffer, but not enough to make the race foolproof. Primal Instinct was close enough we knew we could possibly catch them. We did this bike leg with everything we had left in our biking legs - which was not much. I was still happy with my new bike, it had done well on single track, sand, and road. The roads were all nice country roads and quite scenic. I tried to keep a solid line, and pulled all the way back to the TA.
Bike to Main TA
50:00 - Green Paw 50:00 - Good Enough 4 Dad's Sake 52:00 - Primal Instinct 54:00 - Florida Xtreme 56:00 - Florida Xtreme 2 56:00 - Eco-Choice 59:00 - Nature Calls 1:00:00 - FLX/Utility Mutants 1:01:00 - Get to the Chopper
The Final Orienteering
When we got to the TA - there were 3 teams on the O course in front of us (Florida Xtreme, Green Paw, and Primal Instinct). Our team was also feeling pretty lead-legged. I knew if I was accurate with the orienteering and the other teams made a mistake or two we could catch them - of course that meant being perfect in this section.I decided to go in reverse order so that after the last control I could shut off the brain and simply take the trail in to the TA. The first and second controls (CP43 and CP42) were both quick and easy. From 42 we headed north on the trail towards 41 and cut into the woods when we saw the dirt mounds, quickly finding the dry stream and what was left of the fenceline (actually the fenceline found us as Jim tripped over the barbed wire). CP 40 seemed a bit too far south - but close enough. We bushwhacked pretty much straight to the trail NE of CP39 and picked it up quickly too. CP39 to CP38 was a trail run, and we found the old ditch quickly. Here we saw Primal Instinct coming towards CP38 (doing the course in the other direction). They also looked very fatigued. From CP38 we went north to the trail along the road and just ran to CP37 trail the entire way. From CP37 we headed south found the "bend" in the power lines and took that trail south To CP36. CP36 looked easy on the map - it was not. I finally shot it from the trail to the east of it, and the trail heading southeast from the intersection was complete grown over and gone.
Even though it took us to tries to hit CP36 we had lost no more than 5 minutes and ran due west on the road punching through to the blue trail where we headed south and quickly located CP38. We passed some sport teams as we ran to CP41.
This control - even though the hill was obvious cost us 10 minutes (at least). The control was east of the mapped location, and we had found yellow biodegradable ribbon at the mapped location. This led us to believe the flag could have been missing. We gave it one last effort on a wide sweep of the hill and sure enough found it on that last try. from there it was "leaving it all on the field" - running with everything we had left to the finish line. We had not had enough to catch Green Paw and Primal Instinct. (Eco-choice did this entire section with us).
Orienteering Deleon
1:26:11 - Florida Xtreme 2 1:26:14 - Eco-Choice 1:35:42 - Green Paw 1:49:03 - Primal Instinct 1:52:38 - Good Enough 4 Dad's Sake 1:52:44 - Nature Calls 2:07:13 - FLX/Utility Mutants 2:32:26 - Florida Xtreme 2:57:47 - Get to the Chopper
Final Thoughts
This incredible race had pushed the season championships into the final hour of the final race of the season - for those who love competition, you really cannot get more exciting than that. Overall times were very close 9:44:42 - Green Paw 10:09:03 - Primal Instinct 10:14:11 - Florida Xtreme 2 10:14:14 - Eco-Choice 10:42:26 - Florida Xtreme 11:01:38 - Good'Nuff 4 Dad's Sake 11:10:44 - Nature Calls
To see all the teams and splits (I just did the course clearers) - go to http://www.pangeaadventureracing.com/event-details/events/2011-turkey-burn-ar Congrats to all who came out raced. Good job Green Paw on pulling it together for a well earned victory.
Also as a side note - using exercise calculators I estimated I burnt 6500 calories during the race. I drank 70 ounces of Gatorade and ate 2 apples and 2 Cliff Shot blocks (little ones).
OK! So let me start this blog with the fact that Jeff has been bugging me to get a new bike ever since Expedition Idaho. I have needed a new bike for a while, mine does suffer from old age - but I have been changing out the components and keeping it rolling for years. It is heavy - but I have not had trouble keeping up with team-mates or training partners, so I've been putting it off. Plus I really like my bike!
Well as we met and headed up to Checkpoint Tracker I knew I'd hear about getting a new bike a few more times and I laughed it off. I figured I could at least finish off this season on it and switch bikes in December.
Now to the race. Checkpoint Tracker had advertised a national level challenge and I was pretty sure that they would deliver. We got half the maps at the pre-race and the usual routine of heading back to the hotel room and plotting CP's started around 9 PM. We were staying in Barkley Lodge on Lake Barkley at Land Between the Lakes in Kentucky. The area was quite pretty - the lake is a great backdrop for the beautiful woods. I was racing with Erik from Utility Mutants. We were up there with Florida Xtreme; Courtney, Jeff, Mark, and Jim. They had raced in Kentucky 2 weeks earlier at the USARA National Championship.
The Race
The race started with really 3 prologs; a little foot loop to create a photo opportunity, a second foot loop with a 200 yard paddle to create a second photo op, and then an orienteering loop. Erik and I stayed near the back of the pack and I used the GoPro to video all the teams - most of which were in front of us.
After we got out of the water we headed towards CP3, and immediately followed a large group of teams up the wrong re-entrant (too far north). We spent a good 20 minutes re-shooting the bearing and coming off the hilltop with the other teams who made the same mistake we did. Doh! Though it is always good to make a small mistake early than a big mistake later. We headed to CP 2 and nailed the small pond quickly. The other teams that were with us disappeared off into the woods to our west even with us calling to them. Oh well - we punched the control and headed to CP1 which was a pretty easy find. The red line is what we ran, (yellow was our plan). When we got back to the boats to head to TA1 it appeared that half of them were gone.
We are pretty good paddlers and teams that were already in the lake and near out of our sight I was pretty sure we would catch. It was nice, cool and sunny. The paddle took us just over an hour - I shot a video of us coming into TA1. As we approached we could see Florida Xtreme already on the long rogaine foot leg. Here is a video of me taunting them as they crossed in front of us. I calculated that they had exactly a 15 minute lead at that point. They had done the early orienteering in the CP1 to CP3 order and that proved to be a better method.
The Rogaine
The next leg of the race was a LONG Rogaine embedded in the race. We had 10 hours to try to get as many CP's as possible. We were going to try and get them all, but it was going to mean going fast AND being dead on with the navigation. The maps are below (in 2 parts).
The strategy took us across the bridge where we quickly found CP7 and CP8 by going up and over the ridges following the lake shoreline. (The red line is our course). CP8 to CP10 was simply punch through the flat area to the road and run to the road bend and head back into the woods. The pond was tricky - but we also had about 6 teams with us at this point. We then punched straight out to the road again and used the power line road intersection to attack CP9. Again a quick find and we had a few teams with us. We decided to head straight across the ridgelines to CP14 where a lot of the teams dropped out to the road. We ended up being faster and that put us in front of a lot of teams. We had CP20 to get before we headed to CP15 (CP36) at the road intersection. CP20 had a large cleared area that had overgrown with briars along the steep slope. This was punishing Erik who was not wearing long pants or leggings and was getting pretty chewed up on his legs. We went over the reidge and dropped down the ridge to CP15. CP15 was a manned CP and seeing Bill there checking in teams gave us a bit of a boost as we headed to CP11. All the teams with us had disappeared by this time, either taking another route or falling back on the navigation. We were alone as we attacked CP11 (up to hilltop after 3rd re-entrant along road). From CP11 we punched straight through the very thick low area to CP16. We passed Tecnu at a stream crossing here and were able to refill our water bottles at the stream. Here is a little video of this crossing.
CP16 to CP21 was our first nav mistake. I somehow got caught up behind another team which drew me off my bearing and left me totally lost. We decided to punch back north to the flat area and re-attack the control. The second time we went very slow and cautious, finally using the double hilltop to the north to drop south to the control. We came upon Yoga Slackers here and got some tips and gave some tips for the upcoming controls (they were coming from the other direction). From CP21 to CP22 we simply followed the ridgeline and went straight to the control. CP22 to CP24, punch to the road and then attack from correct spot on road. We made one bad attack attempt before realizing we were too early, but nailed it on the second try. CP28 was simply trying to hit the correct re-entrant, which we did not - but we did figure out the re-entrant we were on and corrected by following around the ridge line. At this point we were running out of time and decided to skip CP29 and go straight to CP25 - this was pretty easy at this point as was pushing to the road and nabbing CP26. It was starting to get dark so we decided to head back and try to grab a couple more along the route - our route is shown in the red line. We arrived at the TA with a good half hour to spare. There were a few teams taking advantage of the nice warm indoors of the TA - quite a luxury with a real sink (read fresh clean water). We saw Florida Xtreme coming into this TA just as we were leaving for the boats.
It was nice and dark as we hit the paddle to head north to the next TA. I heard teams complaining about the paddle. For me, paddling at night is awesome - it is cool and it allows you to relax a little bit between hard legs. Most Florida teams are good flat water paddlers - we have lots of flat water here and have plenty of chances to work on that skill. The paddle was quite enjoyable and we passed about 6 teams on the water, we also caught up with a few before the next TA. The only challenge was a muddy portage at CP33. At CP33 we had a trek to CP34 where the bikes were staged which we ran (the entire 2 1/2 miles) because we were cold and also to stretch our legs out after the paddle.
The Bike Leg
The bike leg was a lot of dirt roads (some in poor condition) and single track. There is a LOT of single track at land between the lakes. In the day and with fresh legs I would have been in single track heaven. This was an incredible section of single track riding and it was straight forward enough that it was rideable at night. At CP41 we had to build a noodle raft and cross 600 meters of water in 34 degree weather or take a 2 hour penalty - we took the penalty. After CP41 we hit another section of single track that was really fun and the sun was coming up.
Here are some video's of this section - after I could get video with the sun up.
Busting past one checkpoint - LOOK REAL CLOSE at the tree.
At this point of the race we were doing great. We were a bit tired, but were in an excellent position to finish and it was looking like a podium finish. However just when all is great disaster starts. Going up a rise I snapped my chain. We stopped and did some repairs - but as i got back on the bike I knew we were going to have some issues. The chain was going up and down the gears (high and low) with a mind of its own. I thought it might be a stiff link, but was not sure. Luckily the single track was pretty flat here and we were able to progress very slowly to CP47 (next to last one). The ride back to the boats was going to be tough and I was not able to put any real pressure on the pedals as I could feel the crank set slipping. I broke my chain the second time without any real stressing of the chain - a quick inspection revealed that my derailleur was at an angle and was torquing the chain. We were riding along the grass on a road where the pavement was off-limits. We also noticed that this was being largely ignored by teams - however I was not willing to violate this rule and told Erik I wanted to go back to the last TA to regroup. Once back at TA47 we figured that the only way to make the cutoff with the bike issues was to use the illegal road (which was a DQ) - we decided to drop at this point and take a ride to the start. I did take this video of using the bike as a "kick-bike" heading back to the TA (for fun).
Fixing the chain
The Kick Bike
In the end - we calculated that without the bike issues we would have ended up with 43 CP's and a possible 3rd place division finish - BUT even with all the problems we enjoyed ourselves. We raced as a great team - and I'm looking forward to more races with Utility Mutants.
Team Florida Xtreme was out and about for another week of adventure racing. For Jeff this was the middle week of 3 weeks of races, 27 hours at USARA in Kentucky, this race, and then next week we are back in Kentucky for a 24 hour race - the Checkpoint Zero finals ( http://www.checkpointtracker.com/ .
For this week, Bruce, Jim, Jeff and I were ready to have some fun. The start was the usual prolog and then a trek to the boat TA. We flew through the prolog and were first to the boats. We headed north to CP7 and CP8 so that we would beat some of the offshore wind - but that was a mistake. After getting the 2 CP's to the north we headed south into the maze of channels. CP9, 10, and 11 were all pretty easy. CP12 looked challenging - we decided to attack it along the west channel which quickly became clogged and too shallow to paddle. We ended up collecting about a half dozen teams in this area - none of which could make it across to the east and CP12. The red line on the map below shows our path into and out of this area - though we did not paddle far, the rough terrain and the uncertainty of our location made it a 45 minute complete backtrack.
After the using a route that had a little more water - we found CP12 (with a few teams in tow) and then also CP13 and CP14. As we approached the boat TA we saw that there were 5 dirty canoes out of the water. We knew that Team Primal accounted for 2 of them, but weren't sure who the other boats belonged to. I like having teams to try and chase down (kind of a bird dog thing) - so I was motivated to race hard the remainder of the race. We decided to transition to the trek next. This proved to be a good choice - we were relatively fresh and were able to keep a decent running pace for the the entire trek - nailing each control. The one that was a big surprise was CP16. The year before we had a CP on a hilltop in deep pine woods very close to where CP16 was located. As we approached the area it was completely barren. The area around the CP was completely stripped of trees and even the ground was nearly barren. It did make for fast running. To see the area before the clearcut look at http://eaglinar.blogspot.com/2010/10/lighterknot-2010.html and look at the video at time stamp 1:30 (those are the same woods!).
We made a quick transition to bikes after the run and headed out - though I knew that Primal had a very good lead. I was not sure who else was in front of us at this point. On the bike I did make 2 mistakes - the first one was following the road to the right into the open field just before CP3 (and then backtracking back to the main road). Then one minute later doing the same thing to the left - doh! I quickly got my brain back into the game. At CP21 all of us ran right by the CP - which was just beyond the gate and spent a few extra minutes searching (we saw it as we headed back out). CP22 was in a really nice wooded area and trail network - great location and one I will visit later. We pushed really hard on the sand roads at CP24 and then into the finish for a 3rd place. Primal Instinct had a well deserved first place finish, followed by Get to the Chopper (who were a few minutes in front of us). It was a great workout and an excellent race. Here is a bit of video of the race to enjoy (with some music).
I hit Moss park in the heavy rain this weekend for orienteering. Could not resist as they had a long blue course. Here are some images from that course
I was a bit worried coming into this race. The week before I had bonked bad about an hour into an orienteering and was not sure how my body would hold up a week later going into a 6 hour adventure race. We knew we would have high temps - so that was one concern. I was pretty sure I was recovered enough to perform well, but you never know. Wanda, Jim, and I met up - I have some video that covers some of the different parts of this adventure race and some parts that are common to all adventure races in the video - I have annotated it, too.
The elite race started with a bike prolog that had 2 checkpoints. My strategy on these is simply to keep the navigation clean and position ourselves well going into the next leg (which would be the boats). Since I navigate I usually call out directions to the rest of the team as we ride so that if they are in front we don't get delayed or have to stop. Our plan was to go left inside the fenceline and hit CP2 first and then CP1. This turned out to be a good strategy as most teams headed to CP1 first - this left us pretty open riding on the trails. We made it back to the TA within a minute of the leaders as planned and made a really fast transition to boats (our entire transition is in the video). This is pretty typical of all our transitions - we like to move in and out of the TA as fast as possible.
Once in the water we had 3 CP's downstream in open water, 1 CP up a clogged narrow, channel, and 3 CP's that were in an open fast flowing channel. We headed upstream on the narrow channel first. We were pretty sure that we would be pushing the boats through this section and we knew that pushing them upstream or downstream would be pretty close in speed. Only a few teams chose this route so we had the river almost to ourselves. There is some fun footage of this section in the video. Once we hit the main channel again we had some tough upstream paddling, but after the most upstream CP it was high current paddling downstream. Since we were paddling fast I jumped out of the boat (literally) as we got to CP4 and my team leaned with me, swamping the boat. CP4 was in very shallow water so we dumped the boat and cruised downstream flying over shallow logs. Unfortunately CP3 was just behind a log across the river and while we ducked under it we totally missed the control and flew past it. We realized this when we got to the river split and the main channel - but I decided we would return for CP3 after got the downstream CP's. These were easy and when we got back it took us 7 minutes to get to CP3 and back, we also passed Florida Xtreme I just before CP3 so we knew we were about 2 minutes behind them. Of course had we not missed CP3 we would have been a few minutes in front of them.
After hitting the main TA we hopped on the bikes. We had trekking shoes on for the paddle and kept these on for the short bike to the bike drop. We would start the trek there. I had previously decided to do this counterclockwise (CP19 first) which turned out to be a good strategy. None of the CP's gave us any trouble until CP28. Because there were not many features and the 2 controls were only about 500-600 meters apart we took a direct bearing from CP27 to CP28. At the distance we did not see the control, so we bailed north to the trail and then west to the trail intersection. I got a little confused here and took us a bit too far, but realized my mistake. We attacked CP28 the second time from the trail intersection NW of the control - again we were not having much success and were joined by Nature Calls as we were searching. Their was a mapped depression North northeast of the CP and we were using that to keep us on the attack. I finally decided to simply follow the subtle ridgeline that was east of the mapped location. This worked and even though I was not positive I think the mapped location of the shallow depression was too far west, but I'll bring that up with the mappers. The extra time at the control was pretty much a moot point because we were about to have bigger problems.
Two controls back Jim had handed the passport to Wanda. He will sometimes take a little break from being the passport mule, but I noticed he was moving a bit slower and was hunched as we were moving. Shortly after CP28 he was totally hunched over and we were stopped. Most experienced elite AR teams have had plenty of experience with heat issues in summer races. Wanda and I had both slowed our team in many races due to heat related problems, but this was the first time Jim had been hurting. It soon became obvious he was really hurting, but after about 15 minutes of dry heaving and emptying the contents of his stomach - we were moving again. At this point sometimes there is partial recovery, sometimes full recovery, and sometimes no recovery. We were in partial recovery - Jim could move, but not fast and we were at the furthest point in the trek. I eventually put Jim on a tow - and I knew he was hurting as I was putting on a solid pull (which Jim would never let me do unless he was in bad shape). We made it to the bikes, and I wondered if we would be able to move faster on bikes (Jim is an extremely strong biker and the strongest on the team). He was having a hard time keeping even a mild pace and at this point I was really worried. Once we got back to the TA - which even for the short bike was pretty arduous (you do feel the pain of your team-mates when they hurt) Jim was pale and not sweating. This is really not a good sign.
We decided that we would check-in as finished at this point. That would at least give us an official finish, and then Wanda and I would head out and do the bike leg. I gave Jim some ice rags and Wanda, we got the bike passport - I threw on my faithful Cannondale bike shoes and we were off. I'm not sure if we caught up with them or vice versa - but at the first bike CP we were biking along with Nature Calls. Oddly - they chose entirely different routes to nearly every CP, but we usually arrived within minutes of each other at each CP. We did this leg counter clockwise too. I had chosen to bike second for 3 reasons (1) to avoid switching shoes twice, (2) avoid running when it got hotter, and (3) be able to see how ride-able the trails were while running to help optimze the bike route. Wanda was awesome on the bike on this leg - I pushed the pace hard (looking to break 1 hour on this leg) and she never fell back. I was feeling pretty good, I've been trying to be better hydrated at the start and it seemed to be paying off (though I did have to pee twice on the course).
Nature Calls dropped back at CP16 (2 CP's to go) and Wanda and I finished at 2:24 (5 hrs 24 minutes). Nature Calls was very close behind us, I did not stay at the start after that - I headed to the water to cool off and wash off chiggers and ticks. Jim was feeling a lot better having cooled off too.
The race was great- I'll post the video as a link here once it gets done uploading. I am now using a GoPro HD t ofilm races. It is a great camera, but HD video takes a while to upload to Youtube (10 hours)
Well - if there was question of whether I was recovered from Idaho, I answered that today. I met Johan Mukhalis to do the blue course orienteering at Rock Springs. I'm doing training runs at most orienteering events (except for State Championships) - and Johan came out to take me up on the offer. The plan is simple - I coach the other runners through the first parts of the course and then let them navigate the final controls.
It was actually pretty pleasant temperatures for the start of this course which was good - since we were in the open fields for the first few miles (which can be brutallly hot). Of course the fields were very overgrown - so the travel was pretty rough. Johan is a good runner and we kept a solid pace through controls 1-4, and then the truck hit me (as we headed for CP5). Ironically the only thing that did not hurt in my body were my legs. As we moved through the next few controls I let Johan do more of the navigation (which was a nice break as I was combating heat, nausea, and fatigue. We slowed a bit and I starting feeling batter. After we cleared the thick Palmetto bushes north of CP9 I let Johan navigate. He brought us nicely into CP10. I told him to try and rely on features and less on the compass (exact words - "Try not to use your compass" ) heading to CP11. This was key to the lesson as it is a demonstration of how much you can lose a bearing. Even though the control was north of our location we ended up heading for a pond that was south of us.
Here is where some of the most important techniques of adventure racing (and orienteering) come into play. When you are not in the correct location you need to figure it out quickly and correct. This is extremely important because even the best navigators are going to make mistakes. So, after looking for the control for a few minutes I pointed out that there was a visible pond north of the pond we were searching. Johan took the clue and realized that there were no ponds on the map north of the correct pond and we ran to the next pond. Of course this still does not mean we were in the correct location (this was still the wrong pond). Hoever, from this pond you could see the bathrooms (and the finish) to the northeast of our location. Since CP11 was pretty much due west of the finish we knew we needed to head further north to yet another pond. From this point Johan read the features and brought us right into the control. This also provided me a little opportunity to rest a little bit (I was really hurting). From there we headed towards CP12 and the finish.
I am going to try and do training runs for any adventure racers that want to do this at the orienteering events - I'll post to Facebook on the Pangea site when I plan to do these runs. A lot of thanks to Johan - I really enjoyed the run and after heading home and getting a nice nap I feel much better. Now here's hoping I recover a bit more before next week and the Superhero Adventure Race.
Start - CP1 - Flag visible from start was not correct CP, used as an example of the more subtle points of reading the map and also using the bearing.
CP1 - CP2 - Easy road run, then moving to the mapped opening in the trees leading to CP2
CP2 - CP3 - Used the trail along the fenceline and then headed into the high grass. Bearing was easy to keep as the mounds south of the control were visible. Alternate route would have been to punch due east to trail and use trail to attack the control
CP3 - CP4 - This was a long slog through tall grass. We used the tip of the vegetation boundary to keep our bearing. Towards the end as we approached the CP - it was easier to go into the trees which were very open.
CP4-CP5 - Route choice was really to either take the sandy trail south or follow longer road route. I was interested in finding a shortcut through woods southwest, but never saw a good cut.
CP5 - CP6 - Trail run except for last 100 meters. We waled right past control in the stream bed even though location was obvious - turned around and there it was.
CP6- CP7 - Only trick here is making sure you don't overshoot the attack point off the trail - location was easy once you found the wetland near the trail.
CP7 - CP8 - We overshot the control as we were chatting. Johan asked me if we were close and I said we had passed it. We doubled back and found it quickly. I was skeptical about the placement on this one.
CP8 - CP9 - Trail run to attack point. Once we hit the pond going was easy, though the control was in a thicket between the 2 ponds. (GPS did not pick this up).
CP9 - CP10 - Even though backing out to trail would have been easier I led us through thick palmettos north to large wetland. This was partly to get Johan used to thick bushwacks - he did great (I suffered, but did not let on). After emerging into wetland I let Johan take over and he led us straight to the control.
CP10 - CP11 - This was a great example of how easy it is to get disoriented. This was all Johan navigating, after taking the bearing north, I told him no more compass and we quickly veered east and then south. When we came out on the large field to the east I took a look at my compass to see what we had done - without the compass the entrance into the big field to the east looked a lot like the one to the north. Knowing we were looking for a shallow pond - we headed straight for the first one we saw. Here is the technique that helped the most - relocating, Johan did great at it and we headed correctly for the correct control. (Warning - anyone who comes out on a training run with me, I am going to make sure we need to do a relocate for practice).
Here are some final notes from Idaho (useful notes for racers);
1. Because you (supposedly) cannot ship Lithium Ion batteries by air I had the company I buy them from (http://www.cr123batteries.com/) ship directly to Idaho. Unfortunately the hotel misplaced them and did not find them until after the race. The other team-mates had no trouble shipping their batteries by air. I did buy batteries and an extra light at Walmart and mark had enough extra CR123 batteries that I was covered. ( http://www.cr123batteries.com/ )
2. On the shipping gear to Idaho I made the mistake of trying to fly my gear bin on Delta - was charged both oversize and overweight ($440!!). In the future I will ship in multiple suitcases ($25 first and $50 for second) and buy a bin on location (a lot cheaper - Mark did this). On the return I simply shipped UPS (which was also a hassle, but a lot less). Anyone who finds ways of decreasing shipping costs - let me know!
3. I had a flat tire on day 1 of the race. On the steep downhills I had my brakes clamped pretty hard - this caused the tire to rotate on the wheel frame and shear off the nipple of the tube (really!). I'm not sure how to prevent this, but I did see how it happened. Luckily it was no big deal to change tubes even though you would have thought the 15 minutes to change the tire was forever! (note: I was riding a 26" hard tail)
4. As mentioned in the blog I changed from solid foods to Perpetuum after the first day. This worked amazingly well, and I still ate solid foods in the transitions (about 24 hours between though). I filled a water bottle with dry Perpetuum powder and poured the entire bottle into my 100 oz bladder and filled the bladder with water. It turned out to be about the perfect strength. I used Strawberry-Vanilla flavor. ( http://www.hammernutrition.com/products/perpetuem.pp.html?utm_source=lgsiteads-perpstraw&utm_medium=ad&utm_campaign=lgsiteads-perpstraw )
5. Sleep - I always get asked now much sleep. I ended getting a bit less than the rest of the team (hazard of being a navigator) but was very well rested the entire race. Night 1 - 0 hrs, Night 2 - 40 minutes (not quality near CP 16 on ground), Night 3 - 4 hours (decent sleep in truck at TA 1/2), Night 4 - 4 hours (decent sleep under stars at TA4), Night 5 - 3 hours (3 hours decent sleep at TA5, up early to prepare maps for next leg), Night 6 - (5 hours, first one up in camp morning of restart - great nights sleep under stars).
6. Injuries and Pain management - In day 1 I hurt my knee in an endo on the bike. It did not bother me much during race, but it is still hurting 3 weeks later (especially on stairs). Loss of toenail (both big toes) made for some real pain, but only trekking and only downhill. After I lost the toenail completely swimming during Survival Quest there was no more pain. I took a total of 4 Tylenol the entire race for pain management the entire race.
7. Cold - I don't get cold easily so am not one to ask about cold gear. I wore a tight base layer with a fleece on top when it was cold and was fine. I was only cold when not active, but was easily warmed. The other team members did suffer some from cold.
Feel free to ask me about any Gear. The best Gear was the Out There Pack I bought from Mike Kloser - it was awesome http://besthike.wordpress.com/2011/01/26/out-there-as-1-backpack/
Gear Junkies have some great gear recommendations at http://gearjunkie.com/gear-test-expedition-idaho - I know how AR folks LOVE GEAR, and they have some great gear recommendations.
As we left TA 5 we knew there was not much racing left. Of course that is a pretty relative term, it was Friday morning and we knew that we would be racing until at least Saturday afternoon - but in our minds we were approaching the end of the expedition with less than 48 hours to go. Our plan was to ride up and over the mountains to TA6 at Lake Couer d'Alene. We knew that there were 2 legs that could be completed there, a paddle and a long trek - our plans were to get a few paddle points and then bike the 4-5 hours to the Dark Zone for a good night of sleep before the restart Saturday morning.
There was a little bit of downhill before we started the climb up and over the mountains. This climb - though one of the easiest we had done, seemed very long and it was taking a bit of a mental toll on us. we crested the top and started the long downhill. This felt great - it was a long straight and beautiful leg. we spent a good bit of it riding along the shores of a nice stream. There was a second climb in the leg - which was tough on the team, eventually we had a fast downhill and arrived at the Lake. I worked on the paddling map while the team prepared the kayaks.
Heading out on the water felt great. Though most folks consider long paddle legs the greatest challenge of a long race - if you are from Florida, you are used to long flat water paddles. This one was not going to be long as we had been told we could only keep the boats out until 5 PM (about 2 hours). We had enough time for 3 more checkpoints. This should have been easy - however the person who set out the paddle points was not an orienteer and the points were well over 200-300 meters off. Luckily they were quite visible from the boat, so except for the first one we tried (Paddle Point 14) we were expecting them to be off. We saw Team Bones trekking in while we were out on the paddle. When we arrived back at the TA - Bones was there. Our gear bins were not, so we were pretty low on food - luckily Team Bones had plenty of food and tossed us a few bags which was a real treat. In fact, it might be a good idea to have teams trade food bags along the way - as we got a new complete variety of food. I really thought the squeeze applesauce was awesome - (THANKS Team Bones). The TA was also out of fresh water - but this was not a real issue as we would be heading up the mountain and could purify water along the way.
It was here at this TA that we had the only real team breakdown. I was tired of being pressured to hurry out of the transitions - and I explained to the team that instead of rushing me, it would be better to see what I needed to move faster. Watching Team Bones and how they supported their navigator I knew we needed to provide better support too. (They got food and boats ready while their navigator was marking the maps and preparing the course). I try never to complain during a race - but I also wanted to make sure the team knew that the time they had to do all that other TA stuff - I needed to prepare maps. Anyway, having spoke my peace - we were back in action and heading back on bikes uphill. It would be a 4-5 hour ride to the Dark Zone which would have us there shortly after nightfall.
When we were coming down to the Lake, we had passed Team Seagate going up to the Dark Zone. They were taking a longer route, but with more conservative navigation. I decided to take the direct route - which appeared to have some challenging navigation. As we approached the top of the pass to the dark zone we ran into a couple of ATV riders. At first they were astonished we were riding without guns as there had been a lot of fresh wolf kills. There have been no documented cases of wolves attacking humans - so that was not really a worry of mine. More of a concern was navigating the maze of trails leading down the mountain to Honeysuckle Campground. They gave us some navigation advice (left at the Y intersection and then stay right along the edge of the mountain) and told us it was a pretty long way to the campground. It was all downhill and fast, and we even came upon another team as we headed down. Upon arriving at the Dark Zone, we found a spot to camp, cooked some food on the fire, and bedded down for what we hoped would be a good nights sleep.
I was the first one up (in the entire camp) the next morning. The fire had burned down so I went and got some firewood and tossed it on. As the fire started to blaze folks from various teams roused and we got it going quite well. I also heated some water and made coffee which was very effective at getting my team out of bed. Around 6:30 AM - Dave gave out instructions and let the navigators see the maps for the final leg to the finish. We would be starting in reverse order - with the slowest teams starting first and the faster teams following in 15 minute increments. As usual the ride was going to be a climb, followed by a downhill and then a flat ride to the Silver Mountain Resort where we would transition to foot and climb to the top of the Gondola.
My goal was to not be passed by any of the pro or elite teams until we had completed the climb. We were in the second group which means we would have a 15 minute lead on Bones, Light & Motion, Yoga Slackers, and SOG. The next wave 30 minutes behind us would be Seagate and Thule. We pushed hard on the climb, leaving the other teams in our group behind and passing three of the teams of the previous group before cresting the pass. Just as we got to the pass Team Seagate passed us and we also got to observe their downhill technique. Where we brake or coast down the steep downhills - they actually pedal to go faster ! At the top of the hill a sign stating "Road Closed Ahead" had me apprehensive about our chosen route. Was it a washout or other major issue. As we looked at the sign - that was when Seagate went by (not even pausing to read the sign) - and I figured if the top navigator in the world could ignore the sign - so could I. As it turned out a forest gate at the bottom of the hill was closed and we did not even need to stop, we simply rode around the gate.
Once we hit flat ground we formed a bike line - after some team griping about how we would run the bike line. A quick 10 miles we were in Silver Mountain Resort and then trekking up the incredibly steep trail up the Gondola Line. The finish was amazing, about 3000 people were watching the finish line as Dave Adlard announced our arrival. There were high fives, hugs, beers, and congrats as we walked through the crowd. I was pretty fatigued and really in need of some quiet, so after a beer and a little food I headed back to our room at the resort, did some laundry and rested until the awards ceremony.
After all the excitement and adventure - I was happy to be done, and very tired. This was a great team - we worked well as a team and even though we had our moments, we always bounced back together and did great.
After the long trek and 30 minutes of sleep in 2 1/2 days we needed a little bit of rest. We dragged into the Transition just after dark - we saw Team NYARA heading out on the big bike. Our plan was to eat, prepare bikes, and then get 2 hours of sleep before heading out. It felt good to sit and eat, but it also grew cold very quickly and we were not prepared for the sleeping conditions. Luckily we were able to sleep in one of the back of the trucks that were used to haul bins - and an enclosed, flat and warm area was very good for sleeping. Just shortly after midnight we got word that no more teams were to be allowed on the "Big" bike leg. The story was simple - Mike Kloser (2 times world mountain bike champion had completed this course in roughly 10 hours in the day with a GPS and riding on fresh legs. The top teams were over 20 hours out and had not arrived at the next TA. It was estimated (and a good estimate) that slower teams would easily take 40-50 hours to complete the bike, thus putting them at jeopardy of not making mandatory cutoffs later in the race. We wanted to head out - but were convinced that it was a better idea to accept a ride to the next TA over 135 miles away. We weren't able to arrange for this until the next morning when Rick drove us to race central in Kelllogg (an apartment in Kellogg) and then went back for Team Topo Adventures. We made ourselves at home, Jeff prompty hit a couch and proceeded to snore loudly. I laid all the maps out on the nice warm asphalt and raided the fridge (with permission). I noticed Marghi curled up in the grass outside the apartment, but did not wake her as she was sleeping so nicely. A couple hours later Rick came back and said that Topo Adventures had found another ride - he would drive us to the next TA on the Northeast side of Lake Pend Oreille. This turned out to be a 3 hour drive - and was a lot of fun chatting with Rick about the race and what was going on with all the teams.
When we arrived at the next TA - the lead teams had finished the big bike ride and had already headed out on the lake. We geared up, picked out a boat and headed out on the water. The lake was pretty awesome and as we headed west - we had great water conditions. I had been warned that the wind would get bad in the afternoon and that we would be hitting whitecaps as we passed Windy Point and headed south on the lake. Sure enough - it got very windy and very rough. Since Mark and I both had experience in canoes in open ocean water - this was not really a big deal. We wanted to be very careful not to capsize the canoe though since the water was quite cold and would make for a very unpleasant swim to shore. We reached TA5 near 5 PM where we would face an orienteering course and then the rappel and drop into the water. Before we could do the O course - we had a free climb scramble from the boats to the top of the cliff - I took the rope on the right up the cliff that had one spot that was quite challenging.
We posted the second fastest time (just at 2 hours) on the orienteering course and beat the cutoff to do the rappel. The rappel was amazing - we went over a rocky cliff and then dropped about 10 feet into the water where we swam to our boats. It was just getting dusk as we did the rappel - unfortunately this is where I lost my GoPro in the water where it promptly sank into the depths of Pende Oreille. Bummer - we spent some time looking for it, but no luck so we moved on.
This first hour of the paddle was essentially battling wind and waves, which was even more exciting after dark. As it got darker - the wind eventually died down and the moon came up. The last part of the paddle heading into TA4 was quite pleasant, though I did make the team divert a little bit towards a light that turned out to be a houseboat. Around 11 PM we paddled into TA4 where at least 6-7 other teams had set up camp and were roasting hot dogs and heading out on the orienteering leg that left and returned from this TA. We also nicknamed this the Stoner TA - pretty much from the humorous philosophizing of Corey the volunteer manning the TA. The entire TA atmosphere was quite laid back and had a feel like it was planned out by "The Dude" (watch The Big Lebowski if you don't understand).
Having had nearly a full night sleep the previous night I was well rested and also highly motivated. I estimated this O course would take about 5 hours and was determined to do it faster. Mostly because if I returned to the TA while it was still dark there was a chance of getting more sleep, and partly by seeing the times posted by the lead teams which I knew I could beat. We nailed every control and finished easily in under 5 hours. Jeff even used pace counting to nail one particularly challenging control ensuring that the entire team knew that he was "dead-on". We returned to the TA while it was still dark, I pulled out my space blanket/sleeping back combo and plopped on the ground for a couple hours of sleep. The ground here was nice and soft (unlike the rocky hard ground we had slept on up to this point). I slept soundly until the sun crested the horizon (less than 2 hours) and then got up and mapped out the next leg of the course that would take us to Farragut State Park and the Survival Quest leg of the race.
The rest of the team was up shortly after me and it was not long until Jeff was bugging us to get out of the TA and onto our bikes. I still had to prepare my bike and gear. I had switched to 100% Perpetuum after the previous trek so food was pretty easy for me. The team was waiting for me as we left TA4 and headed uphill starting the long bike to TA5. This started with an uphill and pretty much kept going uphill. We were on logging roads (with active logging) slowly making our way to the top of Baldwin Peak. A couple of CP's along the way gave us some remarkable views of the lake. We reached the highest point on this leg at Baldwin Peak and then had a little issue (my navigation and some literal map reading with an incorrectly mapped trail) finding the trail down. Once we did find it we had an amazing treat.Trail 37 downhill from the top of Baldwin Peak was the most incredible downhill I have ever done - and I've done some great downhills.
This trail hugged the side of the mountain at a nice (but not overwhelming) slope. After about a mile we had a switchback and got to do the entire thing in the other direction. I lost count of the switchbacks after about 12. It was fast, with a nice drop on one side and a steep slop on the other. Skill level was mostly "blue" with a couple of tricky spots. By the time we reached the bottom after almost a full hour of downhill my legs were literally vibrating and shaking. Mark and I slid down the final sandy section towards the CP at the bottom and then we pedaled to Farragut State Park and TA6. Along the way we passed a few teams out on the Survival Quest who gave us the advice to bring extra food and water.
When we reached Farragut we knew we needed to head out on Survival Quest as quickly as possible to make the most of the light. After a couple of easy Survival Quest tasks we headed out on another orienteering course - this one on a real O course map. As soon as the orienteering map was in my hand I wanted to run, this was not really feasible as a team - but I did have a great time doing a real Orienteering course. When we returned we were given the next task (go to a location, make a Travois, and carry a wounded team-mate through a short course). The next task was really nice - go to a local restaurant and eat an ice cream cone (I had Huckeberry). We arrived at the next task (called Michael Phelps) right at dusk and since I am the most cold tolerant person on the team I got to swim out and around a buoy - it was starting to get cold and dark. I really did not want to go into the water... After retrieving the clue we trekked to the next task where we had to make a raft and use it. It was quite dark as we arrived at the next challenging and Team Idaho has just dragged out of the water. As it turns out the raft really only had enough lift to float one person and the other 3 had to swim. This did not look too appealing to the team - and Team Idaho had lost their map so we instead decided to head back to the TA. It was still over a one hour walk back to the TA and it was a lot of fun chatting with Team Idaho. We passed a few campers on the way and they gave us some soda's (a little treat). Jeff navigated the tail end of the trek and we dragged in a little after midnight. After some food and warming up I created a little cubby and wind shield to help me sleep using the bike boxes.I felt great after a few hours of sleep and joined the navigator from Team Topo Adventures to map out the rest of the course to the dark zone around 4 AM. A few hours later the rest of the team was up and we headed out on the next to last leg of the race.
Our transition from biking (for about 24 hours) to trekking was pretty quick, we took about an hour to rest and refuel and get our gear and we were off on the "Heart of Darkness" trek leg. This trek had been modified when the race director could not get a permit for us to trek through the 2 mile long tunnel that was originally planned. For those visiting Idaho in the Kellogg area - this is a very popular bike ride through the tunnel and yes it is dark and unlit. We instead had a few checkpoints that left us after a few hours on the west end of the tunnel. From there we would go through the other shorter tunnels and over the bridges. This was an old railroad track, and we had lots of bikes go by as we trekked the entire length of the bike trail.
We arrived at CP15 about 9 PM and decided to take a quick nap/rest. It was very cold so 3 of us tried sleeping in the restroom at the parking area at CP15 - this did not work out so well and we really did not get any sleep. We decided to continue on. As we trekked I started working out the time and the distance left to cover. I had determined that it would be very challenging to meet the cutoffs necessary for us to complete the next leg (130 mile mountain bike ride) and get to TA4 before the time cutoff. We considered skipping the next CP (CP16) which was going to add about 8 hours to the trek. In the end we decided to go for it since the rules said we had to get the first 35 CP's to be officially ranked. As we reached the trailhead for the trail leading to CP16 we had a wide water crossing - the water was ice cold and we wanted to stay dry so we all crossed barefoot - challenging as the rocks were quite slick.
We had been carrying our heavy climbing gear the entire trek. Since this was an out and back to CP16 - we decided to "stash" this gear to lighten our load and pick it up on the return trip. We headed up the trail around 1 PM. The trek to CP16 was essentially an UP for about 4 hours. On the way up we passed Team NYARA on the way down - this was a very welcome sight since they were the only team we had seen for about 14 hours.
When we got to the top around 2 AM Tuesday morning, having not slept since the start of the race (Sunday) - we were starting to get tired. About an hour into the return trek Marghi started babbling incoherently and walking aimlessly - we decided to stop and sleep. Sleep was instantaneous - and 30 minutes later we were back on our way again. We also saw Team Topo Adventures heading up at this point. By now we had pre-dawn light and this made the downhill trip a lot easier. It was down back to the water - a very cold crossing, refill water bladders, shiver for a while and then head to CP17 and CP 18 which were just preludes to the real climb to the top of Stephens Peak (6600 feet). This was where the real action of the trek would occur - a rappel into a double bowl where teams would split up and get different CP's. Marghi and Mark rappelled about 600 feet into one bowl while Jeff and I climbed a knife ridge (and yes Jeff was very nervous) and dropped into the other bowl. The climb into the bowl was challenging as we kept getting cliffed out - but we finally made it down to the lake. As it turns out the entire east side of the lake (where we were) was a cliff into the lake. We found a way to cross to the west side where we easily traversed to the north tip of the lake and the CP. From there is was a 3 km path down to CP22 where Mark and Marghi had been waiting for us for about 15 minutes. They had their own sets of challenges getting their CP.
From CP22 it was a simple 9K flat trek back to the CP where we would prepare for the next leg of the race, the longest I have ever seen in any expedition race ever. It would be a 135 mile mountain bike ride with nearly 50,000 feet of climbing - the "Big" ride. As we came into the TA we passed NYARA heading out on the bike. It would be the last time we saw them until the dark zone on Friday night. As we reached the TA we knew we would need some real sleep and be fully fueled before we tackled the ride - so we got out the tents and bags and took a rest.
Enjoy this video of the trek. Here is a map (CP's in red of the trek.
