Eaglin Adventure Racing: Expedition Idaho Part III

Continued from Part II - Heart of Darkness

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.

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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).

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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.

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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.

Here are some great pictures - Marks wife (Meg) joined us at TA5 and got some awesome shots. http://www.megrobertsgalleries.com/Adventure-Racing/Expedition-Idaho

Here are some images from TA5