Continued from Day 1 Expedition Idaho
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.
View Expedition Idaho in a larger map
Next Part III - Water at Last
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