tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-227364952024-03-06T22:10:55.646-08:00Eaglin Adventure RacingThis 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.Ron Eaglin, Adventurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08115631046197741573noreply@blogger.comBlogger246125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22736495.post-58478381330993719682017-02-08T18:42:00.000-08:002017-02-13T17:47:32.518-08:00HuRaCaN 300 GuideI thought about first writing about the experience of the HuRaCaN 300 bike packing ride, but I think a full guide of what to expect is really a better approach. I will also add more details as I get comments on things I might have missed. For this blog I broke the ride into segments that denotes each unique section of the race<br />
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Segment 1 - Santos to Land Bridge - This is a wonderful fast and flowing single track segment. There is very little technical, but very nice flow. Water and bathrooms are available at the land bridge trailhead. Enjoy this segment.<br />
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Segment 2 - Land Bridge to Ross Prarie - The technical difficulty of the trail increases here, but for most riders this will be incredibly fun. Canal Diggings which is a big loop you should do CLOCKWISE is a ton of fun along with Nayl's way and my favorite - the last mile of Ern'nBern which is one of the most incredible flow of any mountain bike trail. Ross Prarie Trailhead is a great stop for water. Bathrooms here too.<br />
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Segment 3 - Ross Prarie to Withlacoochee Trail - You leave Ross Prairie through the Florida Trail and after crossing SR200 use that to get to Limerock road. Follow Limerock Road (fast riding) to a small section of Tricycle Trail and through the Pruitt Memorial which is a special stop. Continue west on Limerock road, north to 484 and then west again on this white knuckle ride with plenty of large trucks going by. Don't miss the left turn at the gate to make the little L turn that takes you to the Dunnellon Trailhead. Highlight is the Rainbow River bridge. A little road ride and you are now at the Withlacoochee trailhead (water and restrooms here). The convenience store at the end of Dunnelon Trail is a good stop.<br />
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Segment 4 - Withlacoochee Trail - Just fun and fast riding on pavement on the Withlacoochee Trail. Just ride - there are some great places to stop in Hernando for burgers or chicken all right on the trail Don't miss the little trail jog here. Continue until you get to the big bridge overpass and make the climb up the north side.<br />
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Segment 5 - Florida Trail to Withlacoochee - The first section here is pretty cool, a nice little section of hiking trails. After you exit you will take the paved road to FR 9. As you cross SR44 there is an ABC Liquor Store on the left across from the Appleby's. Just saying it might come in handy later.<br />
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Segment 6 - Withlacoochee Citrus Tract - Take FR 9 (solid packed) to FR 10. If you need water a quick stop at Holder Mine is good (just at the intersection of FR9 and FR10). Bathrooms here. After West on FR10 head south on FR13 - also still pretty nice riding. A little road ride and a little confusing section around the pond are the only places you might have issues. Trail may have some pig rooting, soon enough you will hit pavement and approach Checkpoint 1 - Lake Lindsey Mall. Stock up here, hot Cuban sandwiches and everything else you may want or need for the long section to come.<br />
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Segment 7 - Heading to Croom - Even though this is mostly road, the dirt sections are rough and sandy. Also there is a right turn that you will probably miss - keep your eyes on the blue line and realize you will have to get your bike through a gate designed to prevent bikes.<br />
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Segment 8 - Croom Bike Trails - This section is incredible. Riders who are racing should fly through this section and go fast to be able to beat nightfall. For those who are going for the fun ride - enter after dark. If you are early, wait for nightfall - you will find out why. Some riders will take all night to complete this section, others will enjoy the fun and move on. Both groups are going to find some easy and some highly technical riding. If you are looking for some sleep the primitive camp near the exit is the best spot. Riding highlights are the quarry and drunken monkey.<br />
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Segment 9 - Withlacoochee Trail to Ridge Manor - If you need water (or rest) after exiting the bike trails (just after the primitive camp) then Silver Lake is your spot. Otherwise it is a short paved ride to Checkpoint 2 - Ridge Manor<br />
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Segment 10 - Richloam - Devil's Creek - Green Swamp - This next section starts with a short ride east on SR50 until you hit the dirt road and pay very close attention to the GPS track through the maze of sandy dirt roads which take you to the Orange Blazed crossing of Devil's Creek. This can be a shallow (feet dry) crossing all the way to a roaring river. This year it was the former. The riding here is all single track with quite a bit of pig rooting. Eventually you give way to sandy single track through beautiful open and hilly terrain and finally head out to Cummpressco Road and the Green Swamp Crossing.There is no water on this stretch.<br />
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Segment 11 - Cumpressco Road - Beautiful and fast riding on a solid coquina based road. The only hazard here is the occasional hunter's truck barreling down the road. There is no water on this stretch and the water at Cumpressco Hunters camp is not potable, but it is treatable.<br />
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Segment 11- Rock Ridge Road - Van Fleet Trail - Water Gage Road - This section starts out fast with paved riding. After crossing the river you come to the trailhead at Rock Ridge Road. Turn left and take the pavement to the Van Fleet trailhead. Here you have water, picnic tables, and a real bathroom. It is a great place to take a quick break. You will head north on the Van Fleet trail and right on water gage road. There is no condition where water road is fun, it will be a huge wet puddle or a dry sandy litter box. Just get across it and make your way to SR33.<br />
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Segment 12 - All the way to Clermont - Head north on SR33. This will be a white knuckle ride, SR33 is a truckers paradise and they go fast. You have a break along here at the Sunoco if it is open. A chance to grab a quick bite and fluid after the long trip from Ridge Manor. If you don't stop or they are not open it is not terribly far to Clermont from here. After turning right off SR33 you have a bit of a reprieve from traffic as you head to county road 561. After turning right on 561 you only have a short distance until you turn left again. If you are lucky enough to catch this section in daylight it's a trreat. Eventually you will come out on 474, another heavy traffic road and end up at Checkpoint 3 - the 7-11 at the corner of 474 and US27.<br />
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Segment 13 - Crossing Clermont - If you need anything (food, bike gear, repairs) this is the section to get it. You pass at least one of everything. Bad side - lots of traffic. Eventually you will get across the city, cross a construction area and some roads to take you to the Clermont Hills section of the ride (after crossing the turnpike).<br />
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Segment 14 - The Hills - This is actually quite a fun ride, you will cross some of the bigger hills in Florida including Sugarloaf. The climbs will give you some incredibly fun downhills. These are much more fun when the temp is above 50 and you are wearing more than a TShirt, but frozen nipples aside - a ton of fun. There is a lot of riding here which brings you to the Green Mountain Overlook. Make sure you check out the overlook, use the bathroom and then head across Lake Apopka.<br />
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Segment 15 - Lake Apopka - Another enjoyable segment, best enjoyed at Sunrise or Sundown. This is all fast riding and the lake is scenic and beautiful. There are bathrooms at the pump house and at the finish at Magnolia Park. There is also a camping area in magnolia Parka across 437. If you are looking for better accommodations follow the route into Apopka. For good inexpensive and friendly lodging I recommend the Regency Inn on 441, on your left just before you cross 441. Once you cross you will ride to the West Orange Trail and follow it to CP4 at the 7-11 in front of the Publix on Rock Springs Road. The McDonalds at CP4 is a great place to get some food - you will want it as there is no food between CP4 and CP5. <br />
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Segment 16 - Wekiva - This short section has some nice single track and double track with one walking section through a small wetland. When you hit post 19 and head onto the double track you will soon be at the Buck Lake crossing. Camp Cozy provides a possible camping spot.<br />
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Segment 17 - Rock Springs - This was at one time decent riding, some strategic mowing and a disker put an end to that. The horse barn has bathrooms and showers and the last chance for food and beer is at the store in Wekiva Falls.<br />
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Segment 18 - Seminole State Forest - Royal Trails - Maggie Jones - The first part of this is a lot of fun, a nice crossing over Blackwater Creek with fast riding on rock road. After exiting Seminole State Forest at Cassia Traihead go left to SR44 and right to Royal Trails. Pavement will yield to dirt road and you will complete the long Maggie Jones road to pavement again and Paisley Mart. It is wise to hit this in daylight or early evening as it is the last food before the final push to the finish. If it is closed you can still get water at Clearwater Lake.<br />
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Segment 19 - Paisley Bike Trails - Fun fast and flowing you will exit on Paisley Road turn left and reenter at the Orange Blazed Trail.<br />
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Segment 20 - FNST to Farles Lake - Fast riding but will likely change in the future - still a lot of fun.<br />
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Segment 21 - Bombing Range - Wide open, fast riding, scenic - all dirt. The last segment seems to drag on for its full 6 miles, but it is all good riding. As you ride this segment just think about how much forest there is here.<br />
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Segment 22 - Final push - You will pass through a combination of paved and unpaved roads. You will come out on CR314, cross the Oklawaha River bridge and head 1 1/2 miles west to the Marshall Swamp Trailhead. Take a quick breather here - water and bathrooms are here. Marshall Swamp is fun and fast and twisty single track and eventually brings you the pavement and the park on the other side and Baseline Park. From Baseline Park Trailhead it is a road ride to Santos and the finish. <br />
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<br />Ron Eaglin, Adventurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08115631046197741573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22736495.post-41309132084784016472016-10-22T18:09:00.003-07:002016-10-22T18:09:43.005-07:00USARA Nationals - Florida Xtreme MastersI raced USARA Nationals with Team FLX Masters; JJ Johnson (who raced the very first USARA in California) and Courtney Spratt (my great friend with over 20 bikes - truly understands the n+1 formula).<br />
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We did the usual check-in, ate dinner, went to pre-race, and dropped our bikes. We would get maps the next morning, but we knew the general course layout the night before.<br />
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Start at TA1<br />
1. Short Orienteering Prolog<br />
2. Long paddle<br />
3. Bike to another park<br />
4. Orienteering at park<br />
5. Bike back to TA1<br />
6. Orienteering at TA1<br />
7. Bike to TA2<br />
8. Orienteering at TA2<br />
9. Long paddle to Finish<br />
10. Bike leg returning to finish<br />
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Quite a fun course with many transitions and sections. I was really looking forward to the race.<br />
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1. Short Orienteering Prolog - 2 1/2 mile and 12 checkpoints. We headed out at a light jog and made quick of this section. We were about 2/3 back in the pack when we hit the boats for the long paddle. It was a beautiful morning and I was quite happy with how it was going. We had not expended too much energy and had not wasted too much time in navigation errors.<br />
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2. The long paddle was just that. We took a clockwise route. I love paddling and really enjoyed this section. JJ, however did not - an injury (torn rotator cuff) was severely aggravated and by the last 5 miles of the paddle, JJ was really struggling with the paddling. Early in the paddle he was steering - and we should have moved him, but that was our first mistake.<br />
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3. By the time we returned from the paddle we were near the back of the pack. This was fine - we prepared to ride and headed out. We had a small issue with finding the Bartram trailhead - but were soon on the route. There was no real navigation and we simply tried to optimize our timing. As we hit one road section we passed Adventure Medical Kits going the other way, doing well over 20 mph and eating on the bike. A few spots along the trail were tricky and we ended up walking rather than sliding of the trail. (I did slide off the trail as I did attempt to ride it). We were essentially in the same place as we arrived at CP12 and started the first orienteering course.<br />
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4. Orienteering 1 - Starting up the road we well overshot the attack point and found a control from another race (as did many others). By dropping south to the water I quickly realized my mistake we double back to CP13. Next we followed the shoreline finding the North-South channel and shot into CP14. From there we headed due south to the trail (second trail) - headed east to the hilltop on the trail and dropped south to the control (also bring a half dozen teams in the area to it). From there it was a straight run on trail back to CP12.<br />
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5. Bike back to TA1 - We decided to use the south route (on the loop) to return. Two things happened - it got dark and the trail disappeared. I knew pretty well where we were and we simply bike whacked north (at the north dimple) and picked up the south dimple, and finally bike whacked out and finished the ride to TA1.<br />
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6. Orienteering 2 - We seemed to have picked up a lot of places as we headed out on orienteering 2. We decided on a counter clockwise route. CP19 and CP16 went quickly. CP17 was a disaster and I finally got it by shooting a bearing from the gate house of the park. My mistake was using the clue and trying to search each re-entrant. The control really was not really in a re-entrant, but was in an area where there were plenty of them. We did help some teams that were struggling with it (as did we). CP18 and CP21 went quickly, however I totally misjudged CP20 (and let my attention lapse). We ended up having to go to the water where I mistook the coves, which led us on a long back and forth where we ran into Team Chunk - and we got the control and headed back to the TA. We had pretty much lost all our gains from the first Orienteering.<br />
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7. Bike to TA2 - This was simply fun and fast (Bartram Trail). Awesome flowing single track with a couple of checkpoints along the way.<br />
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8. Orienteering 3 - My this time it was obvious we would not be able to do paddle 3. Not because of timing, but JJ had no shoulder left. We could have paddled with just Courtney and I - but for some reason this never occurred to me. Still we were having fun - and I was looking forward to the next orienteering. Unfortunately it was not looking forward to me. I had misplotted CP27 (see both locations on map). Jeff from FLX was supposed to check my plots - but had missed this one as we ran short on time. We grabbed CP25 and CP29 quickly. We decided to go around by road to CP28 where we ran into AK-47 man. At first he was upset about people that had cut through his yard, but after some chatting at the Bait shop all was OK. I also helped them to know where the best fishing was as we had paddled the day before through some massive schools of fish that I had noted. Some locals were still not happy about our approach to CP28 and it was getting light - so we called it a day and headed back to the TA (on the road).<br />
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From here we simply biked back to the finish. We were looking forward to some real food and got some awesome South Carolina BBQ. The banquet was great and it was great to see everyone. I also won an entry to the 4 day race in Virginia sponsored by 361 adventures which I am setting up a team already. All in all I would have liked to been able to clear the course. Neither JJ, nor I were at 100% - but I also was satisfied and enjoyed simply enjoying the race. <br />
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<br />Ron Eaglin, Adventurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08115631046197741573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22736495.post-80501610832100677462016-09-12T18:11:00.001-07:002016-09-12T18:11:40.094-07:00Cauldron 36 Hour RaceI thought I would throw together a little blog post for the Cauldron 36 hour race by Off the Grid Racing. I raced with Courtney Spratt, Junos Reed, and JJ Johnson as Team FLX.<br />
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The start was at Blue Spring recreation area - a beautiful spring near Marianna FL.http://www.jacksoncountyfl.net/parks-and-recycling/blue-springs Checkin was at 8 PM and it looked like I was going to need all 4 hours before midnight to prepare the maps for the midnight start. There were 28 8 1/2 x 11 maps to prepare and it became quite obvious that we would be doing a LOT of biking in this race.<br />
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The race started with a prelude orienteering of about 4 miles (probably less) - but it became obvious that it was not going to be fast. The first few controls were in rocky outcroppings and caves and were pretty tricky to find in the dark. We took out at an easy pace and finished the section about even with Canyoneers and Disoriented, but Team Pangea moved through this fast and had a solid 30 minute lead as we headed into the first bike section.<br />
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The biking had a few odd issues, the CP at the first BP showed the flag well off the road and it was actually on the road, 15 minutes wasted. By the time we got to the 3rd control we had joined forces with Disoriented - which worked out OK since the control was on the SW corner of the intersection and the clue said NW corner. It would not have been too bad if that corner was not all briars. Well, that's Adventure Racing. We learned early to keep a wider net on checkpoint searches.<br />
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The ride took us to Hinson Conservation Area for another orienteering course This was a great course and took us into the day. This course had some incredible areas and lots of cool water features along the Chipola River. We had no issues at all with this and had a great time crawling in and out of the rock formations and caves along a scenic section of the Florida Trail. Only one control inhere gave us issues, one on a Spring. We found the watercourse of the spring and I headed upstream to the spring, but Junos who had the passport went downstream and we had a bit of confusion (in the dark) bringing us all back together. As it turns out we passed Pangea going the opposite direction at exactly this time. <br />
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After the trek we were back on the bikes with Team Disoriented and about a solid hour+ behind Team Pangea.<br />
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We would bike back to Blue Spring Recreation Area and move onto the paddle.<br />
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I wish I had more pictures of the paddle, but this was a high point. Crystal Clear beautiful water. Interesting checkpoints and a nice sunny day. It really does not get much better and we did the entire paddle within minutes of Team Disoriented which were our race buddies. As we got back to the main TA we took some time to prepare for the next section of the course which would be around 24 hours until we saw our gear again.<br />
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It was hot when we left on the LONG bike and besides being long it was hot. After a few hours of biking Junos started suffering serious heat issues. We headed to a convenience store (3 miles out of the way) and cooled off and got food and drinks. After heading back out - Junos stomach gave out and from there it was simply a issue of getting to the next TA alive, which we did. A lot of thanks to the lady with the hose who helped us cool off.<br />
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Florida Caverns State Park was a welcome site and it would also be a long time before we headed back out on the bikes on the home stretch. The next section was a trek and Craig Sheriff was really encouraging at the TA. After about 2 hours of trekking Junos really started suffering and we headed back to the Caverns TA to drop him off.<br />
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With Junos settled we headed back out to complete the trek. We ran into a few teams and helped them out and I am happy to say we completely cleared this trek section and were the only team to do so. There were some really challenging controls - but incredible caves and feature. Visit it - you won't be disappointed. https://www.floridastateparks.org/park/Florida-Caverns<br />
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We had stashed some food in our paddle bags and Craig had grilled up some hamburgers and hot dogs. Junos was feeling a little better and had gotten some decent sleep. Courtney and JJ and I spent about an hour debating whether we would do the optional paddle here, finally deciding to attempt the bike leg return to the Main TA. I had estimated it at 30 miles (I was very wrong). We had about 5 hours to complete this before the 36 hour deadline and as it turns out a combination of sandy dirt roads, heat, and distance was going to make this a real challenge. As it became obvious that we would make it back in time we stopped at a convenience store where JJ got into a fight with a coffee machine and an ice maker. But we did get some food and drink in us for the ride home, and nobody was going to challenge our use of the ice machine as we smelled pretty bad,<br />
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It felt great to make it to the finish line. I estimate at least 130 miles of biking, about 25 miles on foot and 7-8 of paddling. It was really great and I am now really looking forward to USARA nationals.<br />
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Ron Eaglin, Adventurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08115631046197741573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22736495.post-42097407397955329012015-07-17T12:24:00.000-07:002015-07-17T12:24:09.442-07:00Expedition Alaska Part 6 - Mount Marathon and Aftermathcontinued from:<a href="http://eaglinar.blogspot.com/2015/07/expedition-alaska-part-5-kenai-lake.html">http://eaglinar.blogspot.com/2015/07/expedition-alaska-part-5-kenai-lake.html</a><a href="http://eaglinar.blogspot.com/2015/07/expedititon-alaska-part-4-water.html"></a><br />
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<b>Finally Sleep</b><br />
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TA7 was a great location. We were at the military resort in Seward - a camping area and RV park for the military. It had real bathrooms and HOT showers! The team was completely wasted (tired) when the totally over capacity passenger van dropped us off (nice ride for a couple of miles from the Lost Lake trailhead to the TA - just to keep us off the roads.<br />
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I was so tired I have very little recollection of what was happening. It was dark, we were in the TA. I think Shu and John had the tent set up. I know I woke up with all of the other team members in the big TA tent we had. The folks from Vidaraid were then and we chatted with them. I got a shower as did the rest of the team. We pretty much had a full day and teams were rolling and hiking in to TA7 in much the same condition we came in early that morning. It was all pretty hazy. The next few hours were pretty much a combination of packing gear, repairing feet (mine were really bad), eating, chatting with teams, and generally not hiking - though we did walk into Seward to see some of the Men's race of Mount Marathon - though John and Terry got the best view of that.<br />
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We all hiked to the official finish line (about 2 1/2 miles from the TA) and got the final picture and official finish. We talked to the media crews. Again all hazy. We were all looking to a real nights sleep in a real bed. Before that we would have a little get together with beer, wine, and whiskey and start telling our stories about the race. This was a wonderful and relaxing end to the major part of the race. We still had the last leg to complete (the Mount Marathon 5K) the next morning - but after what we had done - this all seemed like a formality. Plus we would get a real nights sleep. Around midnight we set off for the hotel room we had been assigned, and collapsed.<br />
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<b>Mount Marathon</b><br />
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This is Mount Marathon - the trailer here tells it all</div>
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I woke up early the next morning. My feet were in incredible pain - but I was going to make the Mount Marathon. Kerry was literally out - like a zombie. Terry and Ric were already stirring, the rest of the team (Sterling, Julie, Tim, Julie) were at another hotel. We got up and dressed - I was moving slow, so Ric and Terry headed out towards the start of the Mount Marathon race. We still had plenty of time - and I wanted coffee and donuts - so I headed towards town and successfully found a coffee shop. The rest of the team found me in the coffee shop. I had a massive danish and 2 cups of loaded coffee and was feeling almost ready for the Mount Marathon start.<br />
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What can I say - even though my feet were in pain, the Mount Marathon was a blast. It was only 5 K (of course 3022 feet was up and another 3022 were down). I am forever spoiled on 5K (of course I always thought - what's the point on a typical 5K anyway). The climb up started with a scramble, a cliff, climbing trees, open scree, falling rocks - and the down climb was pure insanity. It was awesome - if I could ever get back to do it again (and could get an entry into the race) I would be there.<br />
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We regrouped before we came back down (we had to hunt a while for Julie) - and we all crossed the line dirty, gritty, and happy.<br />
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Everyone contributed along the course. We wrapped up with a wonderful party.dinner and then it was all off on our own separate ways. Here are some pictures of our journey;<br />
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<b>Julie</b></div>
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<b>Lena and Tim</b></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Sterling</b></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Ric</b></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Terry</b></div>
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<b>Kerry </b></div>
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<b>John </b></div>
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<b>Susan (Shu Shu) </b></div>
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<b>Ron (your author and guide) </b></div>
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Ron Eaglin, Adventurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08115631046197741573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22736495.post-66175328214142925972015-07-16T18:59:00.002-07:002015-07-17T12:24:54.523-07:00Expedition Alaska - Part 5 (Kenai Lake Paddle & Lost Lake)from: <a href="http://eaglinar.blogspot.com/2015/07/expedititon-alaska-part-4-water.html">http://eaglinar.blogspot.com/2015/07/expedititon-alaska-part-4-water.html</a><br />
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Because we did not have any bikes an no real chance to do the bike leg, we had a little bit of free time. We headed over to Cooper Landing (TA5) in the U-haul and planned on getting a solid rest there. This was a great TA for me as my wife and kids were going from Girdwood to Soldotna and were able to come by and say hello. We were even able to drive by the local convenience store and get some supplies. We got some decent sleep and food - and were able to truly get ready for the paddle across Kenai Lake. We were also asked to leave earlier tha we had planned so we could get the boats to the next TA so they could be brought back for other teams. That turned out to be good as the water was pure glass at 4 AM as we headed out onto the lake and took the LEFT TURN (take note NYARA) into Kenai Lake.<br />
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The first few hours of the paddle were pure joy. Amazing views, reflected in glassy waters - with perfect temperatures. It would not last as we would eventually move into a strong headwind - but still the paddle was a pretty fun paddle, though I feel that the team was pretty ready to be done when we pulled into Primrose Camp (TA6). One plus of this leg is we got to see Tecnu as they passed us at the final checkpoint - it was great to exchange hellos and offer encouragement and congraulations for them.<br />
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At TA6 (Primrose Campground) we were able to get some food. We were in the afternoon of Day 5 (as best as I could tell) and all we had left was a hike from Primrose to Seward with one bushwack to a checkpoint along the way. This would be another trail porn (See Day 2) - as Lost Lake was incredible and we hit it right at sunset. <br />
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The rest of the trek was tough as we were pretty tired of trekking, and I was hurting enough I started in on the Naproxen/Acetimenophen mix to ease the pain in my swollen feet. It did get pretty dark as we crossed back below the treeline. The bushwack was kind of fun. We ran into quite a few colonies of Marmots (Alan! Alan! Alan!) and Grouse with their chicks in the tundra. Towards the end of the trek (last 3 hours) the team was very tired so I decided to sing and tell stories. Luckily the team did not throw me off the mountain :-) <br />
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It seemed like forever, but eventually we were done and the passenger van came to the trailhead to give us a ride to the final TA in Seward. Here we would get a solid nights sleep and be able to prepare for the final leg of the race. We only had one thing to do and that was to visit the end location before we prepared for the final leg - Mount Marathon 5K. We even got to see the Saturday Men's running of the race - pure insanity and incredible fun.<br />
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Next: <a href="http://eaglinar.blogspot.com/2015/07/expedition-alaska-part-6-mount-marathon.html">http://eaglinar.blogspot.com/2015/07/expedition-alaska-part-6-mount-marathon.html</a><br />
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<br />Ron Eaglin, Adventurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08115631046197741573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22736495.post-17761405344527353352015-07-16T12:48:00.000-07:002015-07-16T19:00:12.592-07:00Expedititon Alaska Part 4 - WaterContinued from <a href="http://eaglinar.blogspot.com/2015/07/expedition-alaska-day-3-packrafting.html">http://eaglinar.blogspot.com/2015/07/expedition-alaska-day-3-packrafting.html</a><br />
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<b>Day 5 - Whitewater </b><br />
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It was well after midnight before the team was able to get into tents and get some sleep at Checkpoint 21 - the whitewater put-in. Because there were many teams waiting here to start the whitewater, the checkpoint had really turned into a miniature transition area. John and Shu had found a spot to set up the big tent and the entire team ate and collapsed into the tent. I woke the next morning at 4:30 AM getting a pretty decent sleep and went out to talk to Dave Adlard - who I could hear speaking to others in the TA. Dave informed me I needed to have the team up and ready to get onto rafts by 5AM so I set about waking them up. I was having little success - the comforts of a warm sleeping bag were no match for my pleading, however I had waken Shu Shu up - and she had a LOT more success rousing the team. Sure enough at 5 AM the raft guides showed up with rafts - and we had everyone in their dry suits and ready to go shortly after 5 AM.<br />
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I had neglected to tell the team that the rafting would start with a demonstration of their whitewater swimming ability in the 38 degree water before we would be allowed to get onto the rafts. As we prepared to jump into the water Team NYARA showed up from upstream and our group of teams grew by one as we all cheered NYARA to deflate their pack rafts and join us. We all jumped into the water, floated to our rafts - jumped in and off we went.<br />
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First let me say I absolutely love whitewater rafting. On rafts, duckies, pack rafts, or whitewater kayaks - whitewater is my #1 adrenaline thrill. I had read up on 6 mile creek - full class 3, 4, and multiple class 5 rapids. I was stoked, but did my best to contain my excitement. Sterling took a spot on the front of the raft in front of me, Tim across to my right. Ric was on another raft, but we were all on rafts and heading down river. We had some fun chatting with our raft guide Tommy, and the safety rower, Mudflap. Turns out Tommy had guided many of the rivers I had paddled, so we had fun chatting about different locations and times of year to raft.<br />
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I noticed that Julie who was besides me on the raft was turning bluish after the first rapid, and we ended up having to drop here off. She had not zipped her drysuit thoroughly and it had filled with water - sending her into hypothermia. She was able to get a nice warm ride and dried off - but would miss the rest of the rapids, bummer.<br />
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We had a lot of fun playing the small rapids in between the big ones, and Tommy demonstrated the ability to give everyone on the boat their own "glacial facial" by maneuvering the raft just right. We went through a couple of sets of 3-5 rapids getting ready for the final run into the big one. If you are interested in the water from the rafter POV - here is a little video I pulled from Youtube;<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Aje0gPNQoIA/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Aje0gPNQoIA?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
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If you want to see what it looked like for us - well all we got were these wonderful pictures;<br />
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The final series of rapids was a series of 5 Class 5 rapids (Staircase, Suck Hole, Merry Go Round, Jaws - are the ones I remember) with no real break in between. There was a bail out opportunity before the rapids - but you would not have been able to rip me off that boat. I was pumped big time. We did get to see the boat in front of us (with Ric on it) nearly flip on the first rapid - but we bounced beautifully through all 5 of them and popped out the other end (with one last class 3 waiting for us) completely pumped.<br />
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The race instructions said that the raft guides were supposed to dump us out of the boats just past the last rapid - but Tommy had not gotten the memo so we floated serenely past the dump point and CP22. By the time Mud Flap reached the dump point all he could do was to yell to Tommy that we were supposed to be dumped into the river. Of course by that time the river had destroyed our hearing :-) and all we could do was float to the take-out and TA3.<br />
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The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. We did not have bikes (opting to save $300+ and not bring them). So we could not do the next biking leg - though had I been able to rent bikes - I would have been sorely tempted. The team got into the U-haul and we headed for Cooper's landing and the start of the kayak leg <br />
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next: <a href="http://eaglinar.blogspot.com/2015/07/expedition-alaska-part-5-kenai-lake.html">http://eaglinar.blogspot.com/2015/07/expedition-alaska-part-5-kenai-lake.html</a><br />
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<br />Ron Eaglin, Adventurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08115631046197741573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22736495.post-59082836796881389022015-07-15T18:45:00.005-07:002015-07-16T12:47:48.677-07:00Expedition Alaska Day 3 - PackraftingContinued from <a href="http://eaglinar.blogspot.com/2015/07/expedition-alaska-day-2-crow-pass.html">http://eaglinar.blogspot.com/2015/07/expedition-alaska-day-2-crow-pass.html</a> <br />
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After the team all made it safe and sound into the transition area (TA1) - I would like to say we got up the next morning refreshed and ready to tackle the next section of the course. Of course - it was already the next morning, but we were pleasantly surprised to see Shu Shu and John had food and a tent, and some really nice amenities for the team. This transition was in Girdwood - which is a very nice little town, and also pretty touristy in an outdoors kind of way. <a href="http://girdwood.com/">http://girdwood.com/</a> <br />
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We knew we needed to get moving on the next section, we also knew we needed to shed some weight from our packs to be able to move a little faster. This would be critical because we would be adding packrafts and drysuits to our packs. We also would start with a "realtively" long hike over Berry pass to Twentymile River and then start the packrafting fun. Tim was sick and would not be joining our gang of 7.<br />
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The first part was all easy trail and we took a fun checkpoint picture at CP6.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hamming it up at CP6</td></tr>
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<b>Berry Pass Trail</b> <br />
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From there we had really easy hiking on Winner Creek trail for a few miles - until it petered out and became Berry Pass trail. The hiking slowed and we entered more rugged trail hiking with really cool water crossings.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Plenty of water crossings</td></tr>
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My favorite was a waterfall off a snow field that made an incredible rocky mountainside crossing over swift water through rocks. I went across - and set up my camera. We were there with Team Gung Ho, and they had already picked out a good crossing point. I was able to shoot awesome video of the team working across the rocks. And it did not save to my camera - in fact no video or picture after that would save - Doh!<br />
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We continued along Berry Pass trail, spotting bears and switching places with Gung Ho a few times. As we crossed the pass itself Team Orion came up from behind us and passed us moving very fast. It felt nice to have a few other teams around us as we worked our way down the pass as it was getting darker. We hit the heavily forested sections around midnight, and the tree cover along with the dusk darkness made us break out our headlamps to be able to see better. Well at least those of us who had headlamps. Our progress slowed greatly as we picked our way over the trail which now had regular deadfalls and holes in the dark. We passed Gung Ho one last time before we got to the bridge that signaled Rose Hip Creek and our entry point into Twentymile River.<br />
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It was completely dark and I bushwhacked looking for a good entry point into Rose Hip Creek while the team bitched at me to slow down. Ric was stumbling a lot from fatigue and darkness, and I don't think anyone felt too comfortable with me putting distance between myself and the team. We were also in the dead heart of bear country. Eventually Gung Ho caught up with us and we found some ribbons (left by Dave) that led us to what we would end up name Cairn Beach. The water in Rose Hip Creek was barreling, it was dark, and we pretty much decided this would be a good spot to camp. We had come down about a 25 foot muddy cliff to get to the beach, and we were definitely not going forward onto the swift water at night.<br />
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<b> Cairn Beach</b><br />
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We set up camp on the this little rock beach on the edge of Rose Hip Creek. We were so exhausted we used our pack rafts as a tent (easiest to set up), moved our food and packs upstream, and fell asleep immediately. We were sharing the beach with Gung Ho (Rob, Jay,and Penny) who were also exhausted - but had at least set up a single tent. I fell deep asleep and woke about 3 hours later - very cold. I started shivering, but quickly put on my fleece and pants and slipped into my dry suit and warmed quickly. Rob and Jay were inflating their pack raft and getting ready to take a blind leap of faith. Rose Hip Creek was pounding around a blind corner (cliff) and there was no way to see what faced us on the other side (waterfall, strainer?) Soon the rest of the team woke up - all shivering from the cold. I helped team members get into their dry suit to get warm, and we were soon all up and eating breakfast. We watched Gung Ho put their pack rafts in the water - ad they were off.<br />
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After some consultation with the team - we decided that we were not comfortable putting in here with the fast current and blind corner. We hiked back up about 200 feet (up) to the bridge over Rose Hip Creek, and back through the forest on the other side. We finally found a beach about 400 yards downstream of Cairn Beach on the other side of the creek. I also noticed that there was a huge strainer just 200 yards down from Cairn Beach that would have caught most of us by surprise. We were able to blow up rafts here and start down Rose Hip Creek - for about 400 yards before it rerouted completely into the Alder trees.<br />
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So we portaged along the old creek bed about 1/4 mile - to Twentymile River. Here we would start our pack rafting adventure. The water was still moving very swift - with lots of choices, lots of strainer, and some tricky - but doable lines. I decided to go first and picked a nice, but challenging line that narrowly avoided a few strainers - but was doable. I wen down about 400 meters, eddied out and turned around to see the team. The scene was chaos, at least 3 boats were floating, there was a paddle in a tree, 2 of the team had swum to the side of the river, and the others were paddling for dear life. The team sprang into action and we got everyone to the beach and retrieved the boats and packs.<br />
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The last challenge was to retrieve the paddle in the tree. Terry was amazing, he was able to toss a rope around the paddle and pulled it free (after a few tries).<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tired but not beaten</td></tr>
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The first pack raft had not gone well. We were cold, tired, and scared - the team did not want to go back on the water, so we started hiking downstream. Pretty soon we ran into Jay, Rob, and Penny who were sitting on a log with one boat. We quickly learned they had hit a full stream strainer that had lost Rob his boat - which headed downstream with his pack. I had seen the strainer as we hiked downstream and had thought at the time I was glad we did not encounter that strainer! <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hiking down the beach</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Team Gung Ho minus one bost</td></tr>
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We used Gung Ho's Sattelite phone to call into race central where we learned that the spot transmitter that was on Rob's pack was still pinging and was only about 1/4 mile downstream. We devised a plan to rescue the boat - Rob and Jay would go downstream in their good packraft. Penny would hike downstream with us - we would then meet up downstream and re-assess. We had some excellent moose trails so the hiking downstream was easy. By the time we caught up with Rob and Jay they had found and rescued the boat, but the pack was nowhere to be found. Since the spot tracker was on the pack and not the boat - we knew it was nearby. Sure enough we located it on a strainer a little downstream and a little tricky cliff rescue of the pack had Gung Ho whole and back together.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A nice beach to rest</td></tr>
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They started back into the river which was much calmer here, and
Sterling and I were able to convince our team to get back into the
river. This time our travels were much easier and I took great care to
stop, eddy out, and hike around all obstacles for the next few miles.
Eventually we reached a beach where we could attack Checkpoint 7 on a lake on the other side of a tree covered ridge. We pulled out here and I learned that the team really got no sleep on Cairn Beach because of the cold - so we decided to rest here. The sun was out and it was nice and warm. Sterling and Kerry were asleep within minutes - sunbathing. I organized 4 of us to hike to CP7 with the plan to hike there, see the lake, and hike back. 3 would remain behind and rest on the beach. The group of 4 quickly became a group of 2 as the terrain got challenging real fast. Lena and I hiked to within 200 meters of the ridge when I decided it would be best to hike back. My estimate of time it would take to get to CP7 was off (by hours) as I completely underestimated the terrain. We headed back, roused the group and headed downstream once again.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kerry getting a nap in the sun</td></tr>
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We ended up passing Gung Ho who also tried to attack CP7 and also bailed out when they realized how challenging it would be. The rest of the rafting downstream was pretty uneventful (if not long). I think Sterling fell asleep in his boat once as it started drifting all over the place. As we approached Seward Highway I estimated it would take us less than an hour to reach the road. Of course this was before the current went absolutely dead and a huge headwind kicked up. Instead the 1 hour easy float turned into a frantic pack raft paddle into a headwind for roughly 3 hours. As we approached the bridge we called Shu and John who were waiting for us at CP17 (across the Turnagain Arm) and asked them to pick us up at Seward Highway - saving us about 2 miles of paddling. As we crossed under the train bridge, the train went over and stopped on the bridge. The conductor (William Nye - I am not kidding) waved frantically at me - and then hopped off the train and ran to the shore where we were. He had just bought a pack raft and wanted to know where we had put into Twentymile River. We chatted for a while and then he went back to the train and drove off.<br />
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Gung Ho caught up with us and we all loaded into the back of the U-Haul which John drove over from CP17 to the Twentymile/Seward Highway bridge. We all loaded into the back and drove to CP21 - the put-in for the whitewater. We would be getting there around midnight. The adventure was about to go extreme - but we did not know that yet. <br />
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Next: <a href="http://eaglinar.blogspot.com/2015/07/expedititon-alaska-part-4-water.html">http://eaglinar.blogspot.com/2015/07/expedititon-alaska-part-4-water.html</a><br />
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<br />Ron Eaglin, Adventurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08115631046197741573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22736495.post-42966229064392452552015-07-14T13:40:00.002-07:002015-07-16T12:50:32.312-07:00Expedition Alaska Day 2 - Crow PassContinued from: <a href="http://eaglinar.blogspot.com/2015/07/expedition-alaska-prerace-day-1.html">http://eaglinar.blogspot.com/2015/07/expedition-alaska-prerace-day-1.html</a> <br />
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It was about 4 AM in the morning when Adrian and crew dropped our team off at Eagle Lake recreation center. We had a chance to get about an hour of sleep at the S/F while we waited for the word on getting onto this alternate course. When the time came to go - it was immediate and we had 3 minutes to grab our stuff and get into the cars - or miss the ride.<br />
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There was some trail information at the trailhead about the conditions at the pass, and Adrian strongly suggested we take at least an ice axe and some crampons in case we had any issues with snow fields or conditions at the pass. I threw these items in my pack, we said some goodbyes - and all 8 of us disappeared into the trail network heading along Eagle Creek.<br />
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[Leg 2 First Stop]</div>
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At this point we did not have a trail map, but the race maps did contain all the terrain that we would cover on the trek, and it is a single trail crossing over 24 miles to the pass - how hard could it be? We hiked for a couple hours through incredible arboreal forest as we approached Eagle Creek. There were signs of bear and moose everywhere. We later learned that this was the original trek that was planned for the race, but the forest service was concerned with having so many people racing through this area at the height of beer and moose season. This was a major animal thoroughfare and more humans means more chance of contact with animals.<br />
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We did have our first moose encounter shortly after that - but the moose which had been on the trail wanted no part of us (8 brightly colored hikers) and quickly lumbered off. We (I) could feel eyes on us and I knew that we had disturbed some bears with our constant chatter which became a drone of "Go Away Bear" when we did not have anything else to say.<br />
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Dave has a term he uses for incredible trails - "trail porn". When the trail is simply too incredible to describe it simply becomes trail porn. This hike was going to be one of those. The trail would meander through thick, lush rainforest, then head out to the side of the creek basin, then up rocky outcrops with incredible views.<br />
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The hiking did seem pretty endless - even with the stunning views. We also had our share of interesting obstacles along the way. Each water crossing was a unique puzzle and we had plenty of rocky outcrops and little exposed areas to keep us challenged.<br />
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For those watching our little spot tracker dot move along the broad canvas of the trail - there was a little heart attack moment. As we approached a large talus field the team had a navigation hiccup. I won't go into the details, but it was one of those odd occurrences that teams come back and explain away with "team dynamics" and our case was no different. We discussed the situation for about 45 minutes, went back 45 minutes, and then returned forward for about 45 minutes - and were back where we were. There was one advantage, though - we had hiked back to a camping spot where a team of backpackers was doing the trail in a 5 day outing. They had a good map of the area that showed the trail and I was able to get some pictures of it, and this turned out to be quite helpful later on down the trail. It also gave us a lot more information about the full trail network in the area.<br />
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As we got closer to the water crossing, we encountered more interesting obstacles.Some of the water obstacles were kind of fun.<br />
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[Leg 2 - Water 1]<br />
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[Leg 2 - Water 2]</div>
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Even though we had plenty of trail obstacles - at this point with only about 2 hours of real rest in 2 days - fatigue was starting to take its toll on the team. We needed some rest breaks - but we were not going to get any real rest until we crossed the major water crossing. This is also where I bumped into Ric - unfortunately with the point of the ice axe right where his had was - giving him a good gash. We did some emergency repair to keep us moving.<br />
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And then we were there at the water crossing. There were a few groups either steeling up to make the crossing, or just looking at it. We went across with no incident and even got to see some dogs cross the water.<br />
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[Dogs Across Water]</div>
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After the long crossing and some lying around in pain as our feet warmed up we hiked inland a bit to a wonderful camp spot and took about a 90 minute nap, preparing for the next 13 mile push up to Crow Pass.<br />
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[Nap after much hiking]</div>
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<b>Part 2 - Up to Crow Pass and Home </b><br />
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Once we woke up - we were greeted with beautiful sunny weather and even more stunning scenery than we had been seeing for the first part of the hike. We opened into 2 steep hillsides with a river running down the middle and beautiful green tundra on steep slopes.<br />
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We also had wildlife scenery, bridges over gorges - just stunning hiking on incredible terrain. We even saw some other people hiking through the other direction. I was even able to get both bear and moose in a single camera shot.<br />
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[Bear and Moose]</div>
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As we approached the final climb towards the summit - the map led me to believe we would take a ridge line to the south. I climbed up about 300 feet and found no trail. That was when the maps I had taken a picture of earlier came in real handy. The showed the trail crossing a creek and going straight up a center ridgeline to the pass. So we hiked back down from the wrong ridge to the correct ridge. This involved a water crossing which at this stage we were none too excited about, having all just gotten our feet dry.<br />
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[Wrong Way in Alaska]</div>
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The hike from here was very steep and we were getting some decent darkness. This is when Tim started getting sick. Something had devastated his stomach and we started with taking all the weight off his back and redistributing it. We hiked up and steep, and Tim got worse. This was where Sterling really proved himself. He took 200-300 foot segments, ferrying packs up, returning back for another, and then bringing another up. The pass loomed from above - it looked straight up. Sterling's efforts kept the team moving while Lena worked hard to keep Tim stable on his feet.<br />
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And then we reached the pass. I cannot describe the magic of the top - behind us the Raven Glacier groaned and reflected the dim light. In front of us - the full moon glinted between spires as we round the top. It was like we were meant to be there exactly at that place at that time. Pure magic.<br />
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From there it was a simple down climb through well marked, but steep trail comprised mostly of large talus rock. It was brutal on the feet and slow - but as our elevation dropped our spirits increased. As the sun rose on the next day we reached the trailhead. I set up my tent and put Sterling, Julie and Tim in it. Ric and Kerry attempted (to my many giggles) to set up their tent that was designed to be as cryptic as possible. Lena camped under one picnic table, I picked another - but moved after it decided to channel a water spount onto me as it started raining. I eventually joined Terry under an overhang of the restrooms at the trailhead.<br />
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As I sat and reveled in being almost done with this leg, race representatives that had seen our spot tracker came by and told us they would be back in 30 minutes to drive us to the TA - and adventure part 2 was complete. Little did we know our real adventure had just barely begun. Coming next - pack rafting (or as my team would learn to say - not just no - but oh hell no!)<br />
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next: <a href="http://eaglinar.blogspot.com/2015/07/expedition-alaska-day-3-packrafting.html">http://eaglinar.blogspot.com/2015/07/expedition-alaska-day-3-packrafting.html</a>Ron Eaglin, Adventurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08115631046197741573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22736495.post-89523951773443637782015-07-13T19:00:00.002-07:002015-07-14T13:43:57.243-07:00Expedition Alaska Prerace -Day 1<h2>
Introduction</h2>
How do you start an epic expedition like Expedition Alaska - well I will start with a disclaimer, first this is all coming from a tired and hazy memory of an epic adventure with an incredible bunch of friends. I will include all the details I can remember as I know my readers really like to hear about the guts of the race.<br />
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<h2>
Getting There </h2>
The flight from Orlando Florida via Chicago (and back via Houston) is an adventure unto itself. It is even more of an adventure when you throw in the ton of gear that is part of the mandatory gear list of such a complex race. I normally throw all my gear in military duffel bags - and did the same here. This got everything safely to Alaska where Dave Adlard and about 30 racers were waiting on shuttles to take us North to Denali and 3 days of safety training prior to the race. Most of my team would be coming in on later flights and later shuttles. Julie Ardoin was the only one I had actually ever met before. When we arrived at Princess Cruise line lodges in Denali under the watchful gaze of Mordor (my nickname for the hulking Mount McKinley that loomed over the lodge) - we were given room keys and I was able to get some real rest - in a real bed. Since it never gets dark in Alaska in the summer, the adjustment for sleeping is quite strange. Tired is tired, though and I was ready for some shut-eye. The next morning I met my team and was pleased that we would have a great group for the race.<br />
<h2>
Training in Denali</h2>
The race director - David Adlard had one big concern about this race - safety. This turned out to be well justified as we would all find out later. So the focus of the next 3 days turned to preparing the teams for things they might need to deal with out on the course. I in turn got to meet my team;<br />
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<b>Our Team</b><br />
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Lena - Amazon goddess, pretty, strong muscled with striking features and incredible inner strength<br />
Tim - Lena's husband, soft spoken, great sense of humor and wonderful to be around. Also strong and experienced.<br />
Sterling - Lena's son. Quiet, pleasant - with incredible athleticism - 14 years old.<br />
Kerry - First a little scared, but with a little bit of iron in her soul when she let it show. Also an amazing ability to overcome.<br />
Ric - Tall, outgoing, and generally fun to be around.<br />
Terry - The "old goat"pound for pound the strongest 60 year old I have ever met<br />
Julie - The organizer of the crew - and the iron lady, have raced in some of the worst conditions ever with her and knew she could handle just about anything.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRz3iOidSyGmzrGAh9EzLbott0X7jcoAUpRaeS6v8IqQGYKnhAGJgqZ6omIMiGGcovrmJTGtLYp5ha8CUpbRrq7Wuq3uO1hoxkLBHBu_pk3jwMLk4yizBT7aTFB5LxqxJSPXAfElQb5g/s1600/IMG_1685.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRz3iOidSyGmzrGAh9EzLbott0X7jcoAUpRaeS6v8IqQGYKnhAGJgqZ6omIMiGGcovrmJTGtLYp5ha8CUpbRrq7Wuq3uO1hoxkLBHBu_pk3jwMLk4yizBT7aTFB5LxqxJSPXAfElQb5g/s320/IMG_1685.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tim</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsHwNnExNJQB_CUMB_tya9-CSaJ1ZBVsfw9xcweKlYYqpBLYT4IcJ-whN9U-jfp2HU3fSW2x1R3l7igIBExbEtX3RbTPOWqwB3EwyneqRkET69Z3E-aL1RFUS4NFiiBcF5_Mm09vGU_Q/s1600/IMG_1686.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsHwNnExNJQB_CUMB_tya9-CSaJ1ZBVsfw9xcweKlYYqpBLYT4IcJ-whN9U-jfp2HU3fSW2x1R3l7igIBExbEtX3RbTPOWqwB3EwyneqRkET69Z3E-aL1RFUS4NFiiBcF5_Mm09vGU_Q/s320/IMG_1686.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lena</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizV8JBEq8PM5AUeMBNKc1S4iPK-HmgMMych0eAJMLY9TuXYPVVxmBU2hoCeo_HHRpZG3bB5M3Np1S48UTngE4tlPLRzt_FZsk5CslWEbz5YRBwz3ZmjQIzXyGKz2qHmPfn8Z_LKSWHhQ/s1600/IMG_1688.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizV8JBEq8PM5AUeMBNKc1S4iPK-HmgMMych0eAJMLY9TuXYPVVxmBU2hoCeo_HHRpZG3bB5M3Np1S48UTngE4tlPLRzt_FZsk5CslWEbz5YRBwz3ZmjQIzXyGKz2qHmPfn8Z_LKSWHhQ/s320/IMG_1688.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ron</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_UnVuhK2rKGr3LwNBZDqFTpufQzBHyvgTRuNh2Meq6r6sCOr7lcJjl4EZJR2RLthfT1tDrS9mIjjQFJIjC59cAbUSJWmbAhfYR8gs8ZIg31OxxPs-XXNUcv3ANgZ_P-nlCL8BQan8FQ/s1600/IMG_1689.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_UnVuhK2rKGr3LwNBZDqFTpufQzBHyvgTRuNh2Meq6r6sCOr7lcJjl4EZJR2RLthfT1tDrS9mIjjQFJIjC59cAbUSJWmbAhfYR8gs8ZIg31OxxPs-XXNUcv3ANgZ_P-nlCL8BQan8FQ/s320/IMG_1689.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ric</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPscjlOwIcwXS4RjjFdBzuanlFLqpioTFUSv8V1sy2EWS7Ef5Faq10diR9R_21tdr07h83_sP9tzq351vcQdheHelCZF_RVtmzMH5D6x8FXj-QQfro0LSFYxB8hMaRRiqDN3EKr_gysg/s1600/IMG_1744.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPscjlOwIcwXS4RjjFdBzuanlFLqpioTFUSv8V1sy2EWS7Ef5Faq10diR9R_21tdr07h83_sP9tzq351vcQdheHelCZF_RVtmzMH5D6x8FXj-QQfro0LSFYxB8hMaRRiqDN3EKr_gysg/s320/IMG_1744.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Terry</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju3cYzDnUqawUvxCi9IOrAs4B9lTpLcFskLwK_WFYDu8xwNPVsZOrx1uw7hpt7nWW9q-SkxAIScrk6FjntbUrSOmxtCzLB_UA3hgomVCwwx0YPMFk85V5N6BoyVi1EUSJxE1t4AybrIQ/s1600/IMG_1758.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju3cYzDnUqawUvxCi9IOrAs4B9lTpLcFskLwK_WFYDu8xwNPVsZOrx1uw7hpt7nWW9q-SkxAIScrk6FjntbUrSOmxtCzLB_UA3hgomVCwwx0YPMFk85V5N6BoyVi1EUSJxE1t4AybrIQ/s320/IMG_1758.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sterling</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ7euN8-U0ESe4F3cKUz6mVFOebowEz67_Q6mskI1Xomo2y2a1pKx17_5d36yVjGacDAgZhnLLQyDbOVEhlmH8uacjijN4vfNJ5l8W8WOh3900IuHeAIlPlOgeQFuqH0kOhdg_9yZSmQ/s1600/Julie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ7euN8-U0ESe4F3cKUz6mVFOebowEz67_Q6mskI1Xomo2y2a1pKx17_5d36yVjGacDAgZhnLLQyDbOVEhlmH8uacjijN4vfNJ5l8W8WOh3900IuHeAIlPlOgeQFuqH0kOhdg_9yZSmQ/s320/Julie.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Julie</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL5BMwzzKaXKWqfPYJ6vQq1AEiawgg69LXSzXTEpLTSTPxLtbeT41AygCOCW-uhNXmijPUAGpic3ZtbivSNlcuvmsayFoJgWa-iCN-MkJoypYvtzTrtNV9jnkpizXEGaWFaXlO-WTOrQ/s1600/Kerry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL5BMwzzKaXKWqfPYJ6vQq1AEiawgg69LXSzXTEpLTSTPxLtbeT41AygCOCW-uhNXmijPUAGpic3ZtbivSNlcuvmsayFoJgWa-iCN-MkJoypYvtzTrtNV9jnkpizXEGaWFaXlO-WTOrQ/s320/Kerry.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kerry</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<b>Our Crew</b><br />
<br />
Shu shu - An ex-Alaskan female bush pilot (pretty much says it all) and a heart of gold. Love her.<br />
John - I spent many hours chatting, joking, and drinking with John - capable, resourceful and great spirited. Also both of them were incredible cooks and John grilled me the best Salmon I ever had - period.<br />
<br />
After meeting the team and crew I felt much more comfortable with the race. Still I did not know how "tested" our race team was - so was not sure what would happen if things went south, or I needed to rely on them in life threatening situations. I somehow thought we might need to be ready for these situation and I proved to be correct - though most of the situation we ran into we were all well capable of handling.<br />
<br />
<b>Training</b><br />
<br />
We took the training both seriously, and also had some fun. The most critical training was the crevasse rescue. Dave and I had discussed the ice conditions and we both knew that at least one team based on odds would have to do a crevasse rescue. The 2 parts of crevasse rescue are important - (1) how to keep the falling team mate from pulling you into the crevasse, and (2) how to get them out quickly before they became hypodermic. I worked with Terry, Kerry, and Ric on this - and after some consultation with Adrian (our mountain guide) we came up with a team and rope order or Terry, me, Kerry, and Ric. This put Terry in the front and the most likely to fall into a crevasse - but I was very confident in getting the team down quick and executing a rescue if that were to happen. Still I am happy to say we did not need to test that theory.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv3-hdFn1LZyk6NzzNcCmi7hi_uCZ8TwcCdrEwejACf70s1F6BznW_kXZyVHdPHkFnBUB0og0bUgbSVZQjr2xA2I12j4Dr8EfbvZrEGs11KCjfEGQS_jMvG-2OiXUjI6ordcxaurZyOg/s1600/Training.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv3-hdFn1LZyk6NzzNcCmi7hi_uCZ8TwcCdrEwejACf70s1F6BznW_kXZyVHdPHkFnBUB0og0bUgbSVZQjr2xA2I12j4Dr8EfbvZrEGs11KCjfEGQS_jMvG-2OiXUjI6ordcxaurZyOg/s320/Training.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
In addition to the ropes, rope travel, and crevasses - we also got to do a little pack rafting. Unfortunately this was nowhere near enough for the conditions we would face. My ideal training would be - avoiding a strainer, quick maneuvers, ferry forward, ferry backwards, escaping a hydraulic, aggressive rescue, all types of strokes, and pretty much everything you would need to be comfortable sharing a 6 foot blow up boat with a pack with 50 pounds of gear on it - in fast moving water. We got a little of that - but the reality was we were as a team completely unprepared for what we would face when we hit the real water. We just did not know that yet. I could sense the apprehension about the water in most of my team mates - and did my best to make sure it did not spread to me. I've been in every kind of water in every kind of boat, this was no different - just a little more uncomfortable since the water was all colder than 40 degrees and the cost of any mistake was much higher.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZDClCvY6k1X864ovYfO5TlVwZsMyhauL_F7IBuNke7kYwFwGaa0fv0NGEXgtMTixkaVZRcBLBw9bWa-aEJI0RDZHmpgdCwk0zPVCe9BHfLZOflpDttO6lHpUFYxlwrZqc87BnXzqEoQ/s1600/10497443_10203970579245306_1126642735907336523_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZDClCvY6k1X864ovYfO5TlVwZsMyhauL_F7IBuNke7kYwFwGaa0fv0NGEXgtMTixkaVZRcBLBw9bWa-aEJI0RDZHmpgdCwk0zPVCe9BHfLZOflpDttO6lHpUFYxlwrZqc87BnXzqEoQ/s320/10497443_10203970579245306_1126642735907336523_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Adrian - our mountain guide</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In the end - we were reasonably prepared, and we went through all pre-race rituals and meetings and we all were on an extreme adrenaline high when the time came to load onto the buses and head for the start.<br />
<br />
The biggest item for me in any pre-race is the maps and preparation. We got the maps with plenty of time to prepare (a full day almost) - here are the full scanned maps (thanks Tecnu) - <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/103157039195633082599/MapsExpeditionAlaska2015">https://picasaweb.google.com/103157039195633082599/MapsExpeditionAlaska2015</a><br />
<br />
<b>The Start </b><br />
<br />
After an enjoyable bus ride chatting with old friends and overcoming nervous energy we got the first glimpse of the start at Eklutna Lake. The race would begin with a 13 mile run/hike around the edge of Eklutna Lake to the gear drop for the glacier gear. There we would pick up the ropes and glacier gear, cross the Eklutna River and proceed to the glacier.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmbpGDojW6wQuOyJtRAbjllEhUG29gwlbDBuHXB3QpMoCW9iJd1ciYcZTaClqMLKNkeT-6FwilMQZlzKGicVBPz9jXB8Lh_EGvEN3O_TAAPFvA2oS2bsgedUrICqSE6SKjBNKXu7OCFA/s1600/Eklutna+Lake.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmbpGDojW6wQuOyJtRAbjllEhUG29gwlbDBuHXB3QpMoCW9iJd1ciYcZTaClqMLKNkeT-6FwilMQZlzKGicVBPz9jXB8Lh_EGvEN3O_TAAPFvA2oS2bsgedUrICqSE6SKjBNKXu7OCFA/s320/Eklutna+Lake.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eklutna Lake</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7e3sndEY6LWpDbjAIxjAxLgwad4swidWmlBvd8r5Xqe7UwvASwW4RL9PRlFiLvCZXr_i0xNZmIgCF-UhS4fM3-GrlXSaX5V8tmdW955_dWP63KBZQeC4WVu_Eo0VJpJWlTT_v2tikfg/s1600/Glacier.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7e3sndEY6LWpDbjAIxjAxLgwad4swidWmlBvd8r5Xqe7UwvASwW4RL9PRlFiLvCZXr_i0xNZmIgCF-UhS4fM3-GrlXSaX5V8tmdW955_dWP63KBZQeC4WVu_Eo0VJpJWlTT_v2tikfg/s320/Glacier.png" width="305" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Foot of the Eklutna Glacier</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
<br />
<br />
We did not take a fast approach to the trek, choosing to conserve energy with a conservative pace. This put us the last team to reach the gear drop and pick up the extra gear. The sites along the short hike were all pretty awesome - with the highlight being Serenity Falls. Trail information about the trail network around Eklutna is at http://dnr.alaska.gov/parks/maps/eklutnalaketrailguide.pdf<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzZjFbEH9pccd4DAAEjOYbmkvbkmPcv2A_K5Mu6jG6ZLQ5mNeS6R3ZrijLy4RAfzrR2GbLh0Xl5tg_bGA3I_mIpfekH8uBqxrPOPA0e699Dpx4_2L1usaIKDtu9y2ZogDmKZ1cVLUocg/s1600/RicAtStart.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzZjFbEH9pccd4DAAEjOYbmkvbkmPcv2A_K5Mu6jG6ZLQ5mNeS6R3ZrijLy4RAfzrR2GbLh0Xl5tg_bGA3I_mIpfekH8uBqxrPOPA0e699Dpx4_2L1usaIKDtu9y2ZogDmKZ1cVLUocg/s320/RicAtStart.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ric at the Start</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZgbHoiu4iexiU0XxQxFk66GJnNDEox0ZIw1kamj517ktliXvwrTOQe2WeaZs1at9qDZsi4rxdxOdNYXQ1xM5ojituYKVk8kqr_z6sgrJMjjnNIO0HzW7_cij6wWvdVvTsAt1mBXWewQ/s1600/Eklutna+Lake.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZgbHoiu4iexiU0XxQxFk66GJnNDEox0ZIw1kamj517ktliXvwrTOQe2WeaZs1at9qDZsi4rxdxOdNYXQ1xM5ojituYKVk8kqr_z6sgrJMjjnNIO0HzW7_cij6wWvdVvTsAt1mBXWewQ/s320/Eklutna+Lake.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eklutna Lake</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Once we got to the gear drop we got word from Adrian that the water crossing a mile up had gotten quite challenging as the snow melt later in the day had increased the water level to dangerous levels. Many teams had struggled quite a bit with this crossing with a lot of these crossings well documented by the ever-present camera crews.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ODao9EIAT4Y/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ODao9EIAT4Y?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<br />
<br />
I decided that the location of the gear drop looked crossable and Time and I attempted to try a crossing. I went first with Tim using a safety rope just behind me. I completely misjudged the effect of the deep, swift, and cold water on me and lost my footing. Tim immediately jumped into action, grabbing and tossing me towards the shallower water near the shore. I had made one crucial mistake in not unbuckling my pack (welcome to water crossing 101) and found myself on my back, but out of the fast water near the shoreline. It felt like it took forever for my numbed fingers to unbuckle my pack and allow me to escape to the far shore. In reality the entire episode was captured on film and probably took less than 2 minutes total. In the end Tim and I ended up on the far shore, cold and exhausted. I immediately made a quick clothes change and was feeling better as we decided to hike the far side of the river up to the water crossing where the other teams had crossed.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtX26zeS5GPTHQkWTct7DzMe1gpCDStGNW8uyXFYMbpIn4XqvwlpfLOVaztVKkXlkbQ-9gJtKupREX_qCDY5cy-RaybggafA8tVG_GnSnhpbigVKwmG79hP2CFf0kAZucJVNZWDSxyhg/s1600/BigWater.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtX26zeS5GPTHQkWTct7DzMe1gpCDStGNW8uyXFYMbpIn4XqvwlpfLOVaztVKkXlkbQ-9gJtKupREX_qCDY5cy-RaybggafA8tVG_GnSnhpbigVKwmG79hP2CFf0kAZucJVNZWDSxyhg/s320/BigWater.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The main water crossing early</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidCEMOJbEv-m0K6pJOwNWlNtHTiWMZAbhyphenhyphenkpdpkvDTuzNq-XYtEvQ2Kz0xgfXpLwWnWr1Rgyi-dJjGtPTRJtrV9WqE_0hht34Qy0lOnQ2ndpJfRuT9zkL_TGjHCXUKbGwkc0J4wpbsvQ/s1600/Water3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidCEMOJbEv-m0K6pJOwNWlNtHTiWMZAbhyphenhyphenkpdpkvDTuzNq-XYtEvQ2Kz0xgfXpLwWnWr1Rgyi-dJjGtPTRJtrV9WqE_0hht34Qy0lOnQ2ndpJfRuT9zkL_TGjHCXUKbGwkc0J4wpbsvQ/s320/Water3.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tim and Ron in Water</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB25UsbcfiIjDMcND-4kckoBBGrnABP1oQqROz_XaMmh0WQjvw573CWZdBbfB52_dYiHi2LxaYKeidakOkqe5RqAarXIJ8axCb8wCWr-aeYUXh97RONNkqoRM3IrWsJ6SrykNjXgvUkQ/s1600/waterCrossing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB25UsbcfiIjDMcND-4kckoBBGrnABP1oQqROz_XaMmh0WQjvw573CWZdBbfB52_dYiHi2LxaYKeidakOkqe5RqAarXIJ8axCb8wCWr-aeYUXh97RONNkqoRM3IrWsJ6SrykNjXgvUkQ/s320/waterCrossing.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tim and Ron in Water</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_YK3bILwK22Iy01zGwHanOQY1sPFFktwiyX_uEAAo477H8qPb0KlwNyhXuGgtEnbs5AhzrXRjNA72m9b7R52Ws3Hd5RNkykFcSBL-6loq9CAOidnOVQpXwdZeMZ41IOo-xtMM7CCgOQ/s1600/WaterXing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_YK3bILwK22Iy01zGwHanOQY1sPFFktwiyX_uEAAo477H8qPb0KlwNyhXuGgtEnbs5AhzrXRjNA72m9b7R52Ws3Hd5RNkykFcSBL-6loq9CAOidnOVQpXwdZeMZ41IOo-xtMM7CCgOQ/s320/WaterXing.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tim and Ron in Water</td></tr>
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The hike up to the upstream water crossing on the other side of the river proved to be quite technical through a massive rock field. This would have been quite fun had I not been so shaken ad carrying 50 pounds on my back. We finally made it to the water crossing with Tim and I on the correct side of the river and 6 other team members on the wrong side. We made three major attempts across the water and everyone made it to the small island in the middle of the river. Only Julie made it all the way across. Finally after an hour we had most of the team cold and exhausted when I got a radio from one of the race staff and called to Adrian that we were not going to be able to make it to the glacier. There was an alternate route that added some distance (a lot of distance). We would first have to hike back to the start, and then be transported to Eagle Creek to cross the mountain on the next major pass over (Crow Pass). We would not be doing the R2 traverse. The team was a bit disappointed, but as we would quickly learn - nothing in Alaska is easy. We got back to the start where a lot of the crews were still there, including film crews. They had had a very challenging time with the water crossing also and there was a lot of talk of the crew members getting swept downstream with cameras. It was quite late when we made it back in, and we got a little camping rest under the starts before we were shuttled and dropped off at Eagle Creek - we would be all by ourselves as we did the Crow Pass trail from Eagle Lake to Girdwood. That story is next.<br />
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Next: <a href="http://eaglinar.blogspot.com/2015/07/expedition-alaska-day-2-crow-pass.html">http://eaglinar.blogspot.com/2015/07/expedition-alaska-day-2-crow-pass.html</a> <br />
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<br />Ron Eaglin, Adventurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08115631046197741573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22736495.post-43785138811721718582015-06-22T17:16:00.000-07:002015-06-22T17:49:15.883-07:00Father's Day AR - 2015I had the pleasure of racing a 6 hour race with my daughter Anna Eaglin in the Father's Day race on June 21. It was a 6 hour race, meaning I was not too worried about prep and distance, but Anna had not raced with me in a while and I was not sure how she (or I) would handle the extreme heat.We got going on the elite course which would start with a 4 checkpoint orienteering run to TA1 - a remote TA where the boats were staged. We walked most of it as it was quite hot - but I did get this video of some running.<br />
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Here is a little video of the top teams hitting CP4 and heading to the TA<br />
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Once we got to the boats (second team in just seconds behind the first team) - we would have to portage the boats about a half mile from the Barr Street parking area to the river. Anna is pretty strong and we moved very fast through the portage into the water.<br />
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The paddle was a lot of fun and the nice thing is it was not a leg where we had to worry about overheating.We were the 3rd team off the river - just minutes behind the top 2 teams and a 4th team close on our tail. We decided to get CP12 on foot - I've also got a little video of that.<br />
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Once we got back we quickly prepared bikes and headed off and swam this across the river. We felt good going out, but shortly after the swim with our bikes - the bike leg started to take its toll. Both of us were beginning to hurt and we bailed after only 4 controls. At least the swim back across the river was nice and gave us a chance to cool off. I knew we had one final trek leg - and I also knew that we could navigate through it quickly.<br />
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Some of the terrain was tough - we methodically worked through the controls - Anna staying close and just trusting my navigation - with some pretty thick brush and terrain. <br />
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As we came towards the finish we ran into one of the teams we started out with at the first few legs. We pushed it in strong (as best we could) and finished 3rd overall, 1st coed - with only minutes separating the teams.<br />
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A great and HOT time was had by all, thanks for Dave Brault - his courses are always the right combination of challenging and FUN.<br />
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<br />Ron Eaglin, Adventurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08115631046197741573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22736495.post-25568411504797505372014-09-16T19:34:00.000-07:002014-09-18T05:55:26.097-07:00Superhero Adventure Race 2014The Superhero this year was held in my home town at Blue Springs State Park, and Junos and I were looking forward to having a home town advantage of racing in a park where we at least knew most of the trails. Courtney was planning on racing with us, but overslept so we were reduced to a 2 person male team.<br />
Reference http://naturecallsar.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-superhero-6-hr-ar-2014.html <br />
The race started with a foot prolog with 4 two control sets that required us to collect 3 sets to complete (that would be six controls).<br />
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A1 - A2<br />
B1- B2<br />
C1 - C2<br />
D1 - D2<br />
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I quickly figured out an optimal route based on the bearings and distances given in the instructions and we were off. The route I chose took us to control D2 which was unfortunately misplaced. We bailed after about 8 minutes of looking for D2 and went for the C controls and ended up finishing in 21 minutes (where the fastest team Enginerds finished in about 12 minutes).<br />
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From there it was on to the paddle. I was able to calculate that Enginerds who could see in the distance had about an 8 minute lead and Team Jax was about in the water with us at about the same time. We had no trouble with any of the paddle controls, and were able to whittle the lead of Enginerds to about 4 minutes as we exited the boats on Hontoon Island for the foot section. (boat time 53 minutes)<br />
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It was now getting pretty hot, but we were able to keep a decent running pace as we got CP4, CP10, and CP9 and headed for the first control to give us a challenge - CP6. You can see from my track, we actually all (3 teams) went right by it multiple times before spotting it. Manny from Nature Calls I think was the first one to spot it.<br />
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That time cost us as we ended up picking up a penalty returning to the TA at Hontoon after the 11:45 deadline (by 2 minutes) and got 1 penalty point for it. Well that and the fact that I was facing heat exhaustion and already had started in cold sweats towards the end of the run. However a quick cool-off in the St. Johns River had my core temp down and I was able to keep it down by paddling easier on the paddle back to Blue Springs (Run 1:35, Paddle 1:02) Team Enginerds had attempted a 2 point control that would add 45 minutes to their paddle, so we arrived back at Blue Springs nearly tied with Team Jax and with FL Xtreme close behind us.<br />
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The next leg was the bike leg and we were pretty good with this area. Even with knowledge of teh single track we still missed one control as we simply did not see it as it was blocked by a team we were passing. This had us completing the Orange trail of the bike leg twice. What took even more time than that was a bad attack on CP20 (after a good attack on CP19) - as shown<br />
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We were out there with Team Jax, and we headed down a trail we knew to the paved trail an back into the TA.<br />
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At this point we had 25 minutes to the do the tube section, which was enough time to get 3 of 4 controls. We knew it was close with Enginerds - in the end we looked like we had won, but after recalculation and correction, Enginerds edged us due to our penalty point.<br />
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Still the race was quite awesome and hope to add more pictures and details to this blog in the next few days.<br />
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Note errors - D2 missing (13 min); CP6 looking for CP (17 min), CP20 bad attack (13 min) - total 43 min. <br />
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<br />Ron Eaglin, Adventurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08115631046197741573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22736495.post-72141358791429404892014-08-26T18:11:00.001-07:002014-08-26T18:12:24.539-07:00Nocturnal AR 2014The original plan for this race was to race with Mojito's on Monday - Erik Wise and Jeanette Ciesla. He had recruited Jim Gorton and I to race, but a last minute injury took Erik out - and the team was whittled down to Jim and I.<br />
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The history of this race is simple - survive the incredible heat from the daylight portions and then survive the challenging night navigation. If you do both of those well, then you will do well in the race.<br />
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<b>Trek - Leg 1</b> <br />
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The race started with a roughly 8 mile trek to the boat TA. We started through the city of White Springs, eventually ending up on trails and dirt roads. I had spent a lot of time copying in roads from the "supplemental" maps that were available at the start table. Even though we were nearly the last team to enter the woods an get to CP1 I was not worried. A due east buswhack from CP1 across to the trail proved to be no faster than walking as we left CP1 with Jeff Leininger, went straight across, an ended up running to him at the trail heading to CP2.<br />
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At this point I had an option of cutting the corner - but Jeff convinced me to not do this as he knew the terrain near the waypoint where we took a bearing to CP2 was wide open. It was - and we quickly got CP2 and headed with Jeff and Hunter to CP3. We had caught a few teams looking for CP2 and b y the time we hit CP3 - we had about 5 teams near us.<br />
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Some of those teams went south at the intersection of R4 and R5 - we chose to go straight across on R4 and that actually put us ahead of quite a few teams. The right turn to R2 and the creek were pretty obvious and we made up even a bit more on the teams ahead of us. We made up even more time by turning North (near where CP7 - Paddle point) and taking the roads. We saw Nature Calls ahead of us taking the trail and came out in from of them at CP5. It was a short hike to the TA and the boats.<br />
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<b>Results at TA1 - Trek Times</b><br />
Northwest Florida AR 1:56<br />
Team Hammer 1:55<br />
Team America 2:05<br />
Mojitos on Monday 2:05<br />
Nature Calls 2:05<br />
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<b>Paddle Leg1</b><br />
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The paddle leg was simply fun. The water was quite hot, which was sad since I was hoping that it would be a nice cool off from the heat of the trek. We easily ran the rapids at Big Shoals and avoided most of the other rocks. Big Shoals was a good rapid and we picked up a bit of water on the drop. The navigation was relatively simple and we had quite a few solid teams working together. We ended coming out of the water with Northwest AR and had a really good paddle time.<br />
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<b>Results of Paddle</b><br />
Mojitos on Monday 2:22<br />
Endeavor 2:26<br />
Nature Calls 224 <br />
Northwest Florida AR 2:28<br />
Team Hammer 2:37<br />
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<b>Bike Leg 1</b><br />
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This is where the race or at least the navigation got tough. The only trail mapped on the provided maps was the bike trails. The cutoffs, dirt roads, shortcuts, firebreaks, and foot trails all were not mapped. It started off bad. Even though we were the first team to reach the vicinity of CP11 - after 30 minutes of searching there was still no control and every other team in the race had by then caught up with us. I finally found it by bushwhacking to the river, figuring out my exact location and then using that to take a direct bearing and find the CP. We left the CP first (we found it first - though I suspect Northwest Florida AR had found it and snuck out). We took a wrong turn and ended up spending 30 minutes searching in the wrong place for CP12 before we discovered our error. By "we" I mean us and Team Hammer which were working together. After figuring out our error we quickly found CP12 and CP13. The trails near CP14 made no sense and seemed to have no relation to the map - so Team Hammer and our team planned to head to the road and then backtrack to CP14. Along the way we ran into Craig Sheriff who was leading Team Wet Feet - and the three of us found CP14.<br />
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By this time we knew the bike navigation was going to be a challenge. We continued on to the second part of the bike leg (down SR41 and into the next trailhead). We saw some teams heading back to the TA from the second leg - so we figured we were way behind the lead pack. The navigation on the second part of the bike leg was also challenging but by this time we were being meticulous. CP17 gave us some problems, but having 8 teams working together with Craig an I doing the primary navigation proved effective. Somehow we got off again an missed the turn to head towards CP18. This one was hard. I eventually found it by bushwhacking to the river, finding the 90 degree bend (E-W to N-S), going out to the trail from the unmapped foot trail - pacing out the distance on foot an finding the entrance we had missed earlier to the bike trails. Dustin and I (Dustin was sticking close) then ran back to where the teams were searching and we were all back on the track again. One more control and we were done. We went out to the road and cam in from the original trailhead to find it. We had them all - and it was then back to the TA.The only other items worth mentioning on this leg were the lightning storm and the torrential downpour that limited visibility to about 10 feet - hey, it's an adventure race! (we took over 2 hours more than Northwest AR to complete this leg!)<br />
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Results of Bike Leg 1<br />
Northwest Florida AR 3:18 <br />
Endeavor 4:24<br />
Nature Calls 4:57<br />
Mojitos 5:27<br />
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<b>Paddle Leg 2</b><br />
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Outside of the fog making visibility of the river challenging, this was really just an enjoying night paddle with no real issues on the navigation. I had no trouble finding any of the controls and we had decided to work with Team Hammer and Team Wet Feet.<br />
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Mojitos on Monday 1:48<br />
Team Hammer 1:48<br />
Wet Feet 1:48<br />
Nature Calls 1:50 <br />
Endeavor 1:51<br />
Chunk 1:55<br />
Northwest Florida AR 2:37 <br />
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<b>Trek Leg 2</b><br />
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This was the leg that I figured would make or break the race. Night foot navigation is my favorite thing - I love the challenge. I love looking for the subtle clues - it is just awesome. I had drawn in as much detail as I could from the supplemental maps to help make this as easy as possible. CP24 and CP25 were easy and we headed into the woods north of CP26 on the orange blaze trail. We found CP26, headed to the long E-W road, headed 1 km east to the road end, went in 100 meters and found CP27. This control hurt a lot of teams. We headed back west to the orange blazed trail where we had come out earlier and followed it south to CP29. From there we headed NE, bushwhacked across to the road (River Road). Finding CP 28 was a challenge - no obvious attack point, clue was center of open woods. Having a few teams to help us out worked out well, though somehow we lost both Team hammer and Team Wet Feet - and had to call them into the control (which took about 15 minutes) - but at this point I wanted us all together. CP30 was easy - and soon we were back at the TA.<br />
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Results<br />
Northwest Florida AR 2:51<br />
Mojitos (and others) 2:57<br />
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<b>Bike Leg 2</b><br />
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By this time we kind of had the bike method done. We did get CP38 and then come back to the trailhead an went the other way towards CP31. I cannot say these were easy as they were not an following the bike trail at night was challenging. By the time we got to CP34 we had sunlight and also a group of teams following us (I think at one point 6 teams) - one it was light I was really enjoying the single track. We had no issues with nav at all after the sun was up - and were pretty sure we would have a decent finish as only Northwest Florida AR had left on this leg with all poins completed before us.<br />
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<b>Results</b><br />
Endeavor 1:57<br />
Nature Calls 1:57 <br />
Mojitos, Wet Feet, Hammer 2:12<br />
Northwest Florida AR 2:40<br />
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<b>Conclusion</b><br />
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Only 4 teams cleared the course - and a lot of teams had issues with a single control that cost them placement. I was determined to clear this one - and having the ability to work with other teams did help. Congratulations to Northwest AR (with Rev3 navigation) on a great race. This was an incredibly fun race and it was great to feel good again after being sick at he Rogaine World Championship a week earlier.<br />
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Greg apologized for making the race navigation too hard - though I thought it was challenging, it was not undoable. It would have been nice to have a little more detail on the maps - but I was able to handle the lack of detail and as you can see I drew in a lot of roads and other trails.<br />
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Results at http://pangeaadventureracing.com/event-details/events/2014-nocturnal-challenge-ar Ron Eaglin, Adventurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08115631046197741573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22736495.post-19573081064598768192014-08-19T18:53:00.000-07:002014-08-19T18:53:22.677-07:00World Rogaine Championship 2014 - South DakotaHere is a short analysis and recap of the 24 World Rogaine with some course info. I raced with Brian Thompson and Sean Butler - a great race team pairing.<br />
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Leg 1 -Shown on map is route choice (not exact) and time on each leg. We elected to go south, which had higher point controls, but a lower point density than the northern sections. A difficult choice since all the area is mapped as white, so any variations in terrain and runability are essentially hidden. We started with a pretty good pace and our navigation was pretty much spot on - though Brian did most of the front navigation during this section and I stayed back but kept a close eye on the map to avoid an big errors.<br />
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Leg 2 - This leg contained a very interesting long no road or trail section from 103 to 93, this was an interesting and enjoyable leg and did not pose any real navigation challenges. Our pace slowed slightly during this section - but much of that was due to terrain.<br />
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Leg 3 - The essentially flat and open terrain made the route through 74 pretty straightforward, and our time reflected that. I was starting to feel overheated with some stomach issues around 74, but was still able to keep the pace.<br />
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Leg 4 - It was on the approach to 92 that the bottom fell out for me. Brian and Sean were doing well and pushing the pace. By the time I got back to the road from 92 I was stumbling and ended up vomiting the contents of my stomach on the road north of 92. My physical condition reflected the pace from 92 to 81 and the fact that we skipped 56. At this point I wanted to get the team back to the hash house for recovery, but that was not an option as we were a solid 12K as the crow flies from the hash house - so we stuck with the original course plan skipping 56.<br />
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Leg 5 - I was essentially useless this leg, delirious and sick. I know I vomited again somewhere along here. It was dark and I was just following. I am not sure how Brian found 46, I do remember stopping a few times and then he gave a reassuring - "I know it is this way" and then I was punching the control. We never found 63 - I simply remember searching for a while and there being a lot of re-entrants. The team did let me rest here and I even think I slept for maybe 5-10 minutes. The total time from 46 to 106 was nearly 130 minutes. When we came out to the road at the stream road intersection - I felt better and even navigated the 106, which I did overshoot - but easily corrected from the backstop. The road section north and the water stop gave me even more recovery, but my strength was definitely near gone - and I had no food or water in my system.<br />
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Leg 6 - The potential climb(200 meters) to 48 was near impossible in my condition, so we re-routed and headed to 42 and 70. There was a little bit of debate as to route, but Brian mad some corrections and I was at least in good enough condition as the sun started to come up to actually navigate.<br />
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Leg 7 - Some good route choices by Brian and a bit easier terrain was helping my physical condition, though I really wanted to be done here - the team was supporting me well, carrying my pack and even getting some food into me. I had been able to hold down a 12 ounce water bottle, so I was a lot less dehydrated. Brian and Sean looked very strong and were keeping me moving.<br />
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Leg 8 - A lot of road here - which was good. I think Brian went down hard at 73, I heard something, but he was back up and moving as we left there. I wanted to contour around toward 104 from here - but we instead went down to the road. I did note some other teams did successfully contour this section. We attacked 104 across the saddle - and that was probably my favorite section. The entire course had deadfall, and it was bad here - but there was no point in complaining about something that was pervasive all through the course. After 82 I wanted to head back the the HH, but the team talked me into 61, 51 - which turned out to be a good call.<br />
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Final leg - We probably could have optimized this a bit better - but we managed to get 51, 32, 23 and make it back with plenty of time to spare.<br />
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Overall assessment - Brian and Sean both were physically stronger than me, and having that assessment at the start could have helped as we distributed the weight of food, water, and gear. The point density to the north was higher, and it possibly could have yielded more points had we started that way. But - I really liked Brian's strategy if hitting the high point controls - even if we did not get as many points overall, the high pointers were much more interesting legs - and added to the overall enjoyment of the race.<br />
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I would definitely do more Rogaine races - and overall the race was well organized. The maps did lack some details I think they could have had - especially with unmapped roads, which made some route choices a gamble. Brian and Sean were great team-mates, understanding and supportive when I was sick - but encouraging enough to keep me going.<br />
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<br />Ron Eaglin, Adventurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08115631046197741573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22736495.post-1343272236189313242014-07-28T11:30:00.001-07:002014-08-01T06:31:09.564-07:00Luminescent Adventure Race 2014Not much to write here - the race went well, though we had to delay the start of the sport race until 2:30 AM as the elite teams were not in by 2 AM.<br />
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The elite race started with a 4 hour Rogaine paddle with 15 control points. No teams cleared all 15, but teams did visit all 15 controls. The luminescence was "insane" - with fish darting all over leaving trails through the water.<br />
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The sport teams had the same map - but only 2 hours. Not to make some elite teams feel bad - but one Sport team (Sheriff's Posse got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 14, and 15) got 8 controls in 2 hours. The best elite team got to 10 controls (Rainbows and Unicorns got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11) in 4 hours - they were both using the same map.<br />
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After the paddle - the teams biked to the Grove TA picking up controls along the way. There they headed out on foot to do a trek. No teams cleared the trek/bike - in fact no teams cleared the trek. A lot of rain in recent days made it incredibly wet and challenging. <br />
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Results are at <a href="http://pangeaadventureracing.com/event-details/events/2014-luminescent-ar">http://pangeaadventureracing.com/event-details/events/2014-luminescent-ar</a> - Congratulations to Rainbows and Unicorns for their first major win. Congrats to Blood, Sweat, and Beers for a 3 minute race in the Sport division.<br />
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Some pics and video<br />
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See everyone next month at the <a href="http://pangeaadventureracing.com/event-details/events/2014-nocturnal-challenge-ar" target="_blank">Nocturnal Challenge</a> - looking for another real challenge! Ron Eaglin, Adventurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08115631046197741573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22736495.post-15922325895380296972014-07-23T08:34:00.002-07:002014-07-23T11:13:52.930-07:00Twelve Points 2014I put most of this into the video segment - so enjoy;<br />
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Also here are some pictures from the event and a little video<br />
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And a Video of the "Rattlesnake"<br />
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<br />Ron Eaglin, Adventurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08115631046197741573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22736495.post-64267522263494371472014-07-07T09:00:00.001-07:002014-07-07T09:00:29.926-07:00Climbing Mount Rainier<h3>
Fun in Seattle</h3>
The Mount Rainier climb was for me combined with a family vacation in Seattle. We took maximum advantage of our time in Seattle, checking out all the local sights - taking a tour of the sound, going up the needle, going to the fish market - experiencing the city;<br />
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<h3>
Paradise</h3>
After a few days in Seattle - it was time to head up to Paradise, the staging area for our climb. This is at 5000 feet and is (usually) a beautiful drive. Unfortunately it was mostly rainy and foggy and we really could not see much on the drive. Here are some pictures from after the climb after it was sunny.<br />
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<h3>
Training</h3>
Once we got to Paradise the teams needed to train for alpine and glacial conditions. Besides learning how to work on a rope team we also got to toss ourselves down a steep snowfield and stop ourselves with an ice axe. There are 4 different ways to plunge down the ice field - head first, feet first, belly up, and belly down. The most disconcerting is to throw yourself backward (facing uphill jump backwards head first) - it is also the most fun. We practiced them all on and off rope, by the time we finished on the snow field I felt comfortable with our team ready for the climb.<br />
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<h3>
Climbing to Muir Camp</h3>
The plan was to climb to Camp Muir (10,000 ft) and then summit (14,400 ft) the next day. We all underestimated the climb to the camp (nearly 1 mile up) - it was very UP.We trudged through the fog for about 5-6 hours and by the time we saw the camp we were ready to be done. Jeff and I found places in the bunk house at Muir Camp.<br />
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<h3>
Climbing Day</h3>
The next morning teams started heading up the mountain at 10 PM, we finally got started up the mountain at 1 AM. Crossing the Cowlitz Glacier was pretty easy and the first real obstacle was Cathedral Rocks. These were just challenging wearing Crampons as there was some technical climbing in the rocks. After the Cathedral Rocks we crossed the Ingraham Glacier where we got our first look at some of the deep Crevasses, though we only had to go over one small one (we avoided the others). At the end of the Ingraham Glacier we started up the most intense part of the climb - Disappointment Cleaver. This mixture of rock and ice is very steep - and goes up for over 1000 feet. It was on the Cleaver I started feeling sick - though I concentrated extremely hard on keeping the progress up the cleaver moving - knowing that there is really no alternative. <br />
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At the top of the cleaver I knew I had Acute Mountain Sickness (and so did David - who had me bagged and tagged) - stuffed inside a bivy and tied down to a rock with a member from another team who was also suffering from AMS. This was some time between 4-5 AM. <br />
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I stayed there until I started feeling better after the sub came up and then ventured from the Bivy and talked with climbers passing through in both directions (the top of the Cleaver was pretty much grand central station of climbing). Around 10 AM I saw my team heading back down from the summit - there is really no technical climbing after the Cleaver - just snow field - so I could see them a long way out.<br />
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The trip back down the Cleaver was quite exciting - down is much more dangerous than up, and we could see the sheer drops and crevasses we did not see in the dark. We also took a slightly exciting route - with a glisade down a hand rope that nearly gave Jeff and Dave a heart attack.<br />
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It was still a long way down (hours) - but the more altitude I lost, the better I felt. After reaching Muir - the Muir snow field was a lot of fun going down and we slid on our butts for much of it. I would say Glisade, but that assumes you are under control.<br />
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We finally finished and had a large dinner and reminisced about the climb and the adventure. And of course - started planning the next one.<br />
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<br />Ron Eaglin, Adventurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08115631046197741573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22736495.post-57534862201611840002014-06-02T19:03:00.002-07:002014-06-04T06:34:16.761-07:00Atomic Adventure Race 2014It took a while to put together teams for this one, but an odd
combination of circumstances with different team mates left 2 3 person
teams together for this race. I was racing with Craig Sheriif who joined
Junos Reed and me after Jeff Leininger was injured in a race the week
before. We would race as Tequila <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1250254755" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">on Tuesday</span></span>. Julie Ardoin, Joe Deutsch and Dustin would join as a second team - Honey Stinger.<br />
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Jeff had rented a cabin, so we would be starting the race well rested
and ready to go. Some logistics problems had the initial prelude
canceled, so 35 teams were ready to head out on a long bike leg just
after 9. We started near the back of the back and by the time we got out
of the TA the leaders were completely out of sight. We headed to the
forest road out of the TA neighborhood and started the the long climb up
to the IMBA bike trails, picking up a couple of easy CP's along the
way. As we were biking along Checkpoint Zero passed us on bike, and then
were followed by a series of strong bike teams. As it turns out they
had missed the short trail that lead out of the TA and had taken a long
way around up to Georgia 60, adding about 4-5 miles to their biking.<br />
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After about 2 hours of going up we had bit of downhill that went fast
and we started into the bike trails. I had previously biked many of
these in the USARA race when it started in Blue Ridge and remembered
quite a few of them. Of course that was no help with the navigation
here, but it did give me a level of comfort. The course had us doing a
huge loop to the west before hitting the TA, we would do the loop to the
west after a foot leg. The navigation in this section was challenging,
but working with a group of teams we never spent more that a few minutes
on any control. Julie was hurting a bit through here, and it was
getting quite warm. After about 4 hours Craig was suffering from the
heat, and was pushing the edge of heat exhaustion. This turned out to be
advantageous though as one of the frequent stops to cool off in the
streams allowed us to find CP21 that was misplaced and had not been
found by many teams. (Greg would later give teams credit for this
control if they had done CP20). The bike leg took us 5 hrs 58 minutes.<br />
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We pulled into the Bull Mountain TA tired but ready to head out on the
next orienteering leg. We decided to go clockwise (reverse order) as it
appeared to have better attack points for most controls. The rainfall
also started along this leg. The approach to these was really to find
the best attack point, hopefully close to the control and the. Head in .
This worked well until CP24 where were attacking from CP25. We were
with the Canyoneeros at this point and had a fun little section where we
decided to follow the creek, essentially canyoneering. We split up
after that and after some fumbling around in the woods we decided to
just head south to the trail backstop. We crossed the re-entrant where
the control was but did not spend any time looking and never found it.
Canyoneeros did essentially the same route but found the control.
Overall the foot section took us 6 hrs 58 minutes.<br />
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It was tough getting back on the bikes, we had another long bike ride in
front of us, and it was now raining. The most challenging control here
was 32, located on a saddle. Many teams were looking for this one.
Eventually I punched up to the ridge, located a solid 200 meters from
the trail where the CP was mapped, and found it. Most teams had given up
at this point. That was a high point, we blew by the next control that
we heard was easy, and after a half-hearted try to find CP34, we head
west on Moss Creek trail. By now it was raining hard and snakes and
rattlesnakes were crawling across the trails. Yes, snakes - it was cold,
rainy, and "snaky". There was some fun in the rain, as we were biking
we came across the Super Frogs who were warily eyeing a swollen creek.
Craig decided he would be able to bike across it, and only had to drop
when it reached his seat. The rest of us carried our bikes. Super frogs
crossed followed us across, but biked faster than us after that at least
I think they did. It was hard to see the single track with all the fog
and rain, I was leading and could barely see the ground 10 feet in front
of the me even with my super light rig.<br />
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After we decide to bail on the remainder of the single track, we still
had to make it up to the top of the mountain and the next TA. After
CP37, this was pretty much a 6k slog up the hill. At this point we were
beyond riding, Junos stomach was doing flips, and we simply slowly
pushed the bikes upwards. It was foggy with about 20 foot visibility,
and raining and miserable. While trekking we all heard the loud sound of
a tree cracking. Craig, Junos, and I headed for the opposite side at a
full run until we heard the loud crash of the tree falling. It is
amazing how quick adrenaline can make you move even when you are
exhausted. It took nearly 2 hours in our condition to make the top
where we were able to finally ride into the TA. The total bike leg took
us 6 hrs 17 minutes. The fast teams who got to do that section before
the rains hit probably enjoyed it a lot - those trails would have been
pretty nice before they got muddy.<br />
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By now it was raining hard, but we had a big dry u-haul trailer at the
TA. The team joined about 5 other teams sleeping and resting in the
u-haul (2 hrs and 46 minutes). I was sleepy and passed the time chatting
with other teams about the course and how we were tackling the other
checkpoints. We entirely skipped the second orienteering, and I gave my
map to the Canyoneeros who had somehow lost theirs. After some rest
everyone was recovered and we headed out some time after 7. The
remaining bike ride was easy and thankfully downhill. The only event was
me trying to convince the team we needed to get CP11.<br />
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The sun was now out and the rain had stopped. We made quick work of the
final bike checkpoints, I had mapped them on a wet map so they were
barely visible on my map. Dustin had done a better job of mapping them
and navigated this section nicely leading us to the final leg, the
paddle.<br />
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The paddle leg was pure fun for me. We only had a few mile down the
Toccoa, but we going to be able to do the rapid under the Benton-McKay
swinging bridge. Craig was steering from the back of the boat and Junos
was in the front. I usually sit in the front with Junos in the back when
we do whitewater, so it was fun to watch Junos pick the lines. We did
not hit that many rocks, and only got stuck a few times. Luckily I had
the video camera our for the best ones. I even got out of the boat to
film, we were completely out of race mode as we new we could beat the
cutoff. The Honey Stingers had surged ahead of us in the water (1 hr 48
min) and were waiting when we finally pulled out of the water (2 hr 21
min).<br />
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Full Results at <a href="http://pangeaadventureracing.com/event-details/events/2014-atomic-ar">http://pangeaadventureracing.com/event-details/events/2014-atomic-ar</a><br />
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Dustin also had a great video of the course<br />
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And here are some of the teams that were out there<br />
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Rib Mountain Racing - <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ribmountainracing" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/ribmountainracing </a><br />
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Canyoneros Blog - <a href="http://canyoneros-ar.blogspot.com/2014/06/pangea-atomic-ar-elite-30hr.html">http://canyoneros-ar.blogspot.com/2014/06/pangea-atomic-ar-elite-30hr.html</a><br />
<br />Ron Eaglin, Adventurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08115631046197741573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22736495.post-91443524536346340092014-04-22T18:44:00.003-07:002014-04-22T18:44:48.015-07:00Dixie Conquest 2014Here is the writeup of the Dixie Conquest that I raced with Jim Gorton and Courtney Spratt. The race was held in Bayard Conservation area near Green Cove Springs. The weather was perfect.<br />
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<b>Prolog</b> - We started with Jeff leininger putting us all in a little circle marked with tape and we had to start the race by finding 4 plastic Easter eggs hidden in the bushes. We were pretty fast in finding the eggs and were quickly on to the initial orienteering run. A large group of teams headed out to CP1, due to some really good initial mapping of the bearing and distance on CP4 - we had the lead leaving CP4, but lost it due to missing the trail leading to CP5 - though that only cost us about 30 seconds. We thought we had regained the lead as teams took a wrong turn just after CP6. We did not see them, but Endeavor and Team Jax put a 3 minute lead on us and we were the 3rd team into the TA. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyVuBuAIKVTIobCW2NuY13TVjDiC5_vYxblyzAHKj6mB5L3uogTTNY__hnT6iMytL0jfBz8-dOwtemfalbE0fc0mlS-S5skfjzRYCBJoxYMqyPOCO7BCKxbThjOaCy1UO49OmHdf7D4w/s1600/GOPR0142.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyVuBuAIKVTIobCW2NuY13TVjDiC5_vYxblyzAHKj6mB5L3uogTTNY__hnT6iMytL0jfBz8-dOwtemfalbE0fc0mlS-S5skfjzRYCBJoxYMqyPOCO7BCKxbThjOaCy1UO49OmHdf7D4w/s1600/GOPR0142.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a><b>Paddle 1 - </b>We were in great spirits as we left the TA on bikes and headed for the boats. The first few points were easy and fun and because of the out and back nature we could easily discern the 3 minute lead of both Jax and Endeavor. We also were able to tell where the teams behind us were. None of the lead teams hit 12 before jumping out of the boats to go after the 3 inland controls (13, 14, and 15). We pulled up due east of CP13 and headed west - unfortunately not finding it quickly - so I bailed and we grabbed CP14 and CP15 to the south on foot. Coming back to CP13 we found it easily the second time (not sure how we missed it the first time) - and headed back to the boats. The miss on CP13 cost us more time than I had though, probably 15 minutes total and we were about 15 minutes behind Endeavor and Jax as we got back to the main TA.<br />
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<b>Orienteering </b>- We headed out on bikes, our plan was to get CP16 on the way to the orienteering section and then get the remaining bike CP's on the way back. This allowed us to toss our bike shoes in our packs and use trek shoes for the first part of the bike, only switching shoes once after we finished the trek. CP16 was easy - but did require travel on some very wet and unrideable trails. At the Bayard TA - we headed out on foot. It took me a few minutes to realize the north on the map was not the typical straight up - but that did not cost us much time. I think we had the fastest time on this leg, and we really had no issues finding any of the controls, though some of them did require swimming and bushwhacking. If anyone is interested in our approach - let me know. The order of CP's for our team was CP27-28-29-31-32-34-35-33-30. Because CP30 was a bearing and distance I measured it out, found it took us to the edge of the marsh west of CP30 and we headed straight for it. We left CP30 via the road which gave me the chance to plot the bike course on our run back to the TA.<br />
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<b>Bike - </b>I had planned the bike course and even done preliminary measurements to find the CP's. We quickly found as we hit CP17 that the scale was not completely accurate. This cost us a few minutes on CP17 and about 10 minutes on CP18, though after CP18 I pretty much had the scale down. We got CP17-18-19 and headed to the east entrance to head to CP21. The trail to CP25 was completely flooded so we bailed to the railroad tracks and rode along the the tracks - bushwhacking back in near CP25. The trail was still under a LOT of water, but got better towards CP22. We continued on to CP22-23-24 and overshot 24 by quite a bit (or it was placed too far north). CP26 was another quick find. Courtney requested that we "hammer" the ride back so we let her set a 23-24 mph pace and simply hung on to the finish line (no real navigation required). We ended up edging out AR Militia, they had left Bayard TA before we passed it - but took a slightly shorter but harder bike route back to the main TA. Dash had led Team Jax to a solid performance to take first.<br />
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The results and more write-ups are at<br />
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<a href="http://www.pangeaadventureracing.com/event-details/events/2014-dixie-conquest-ar">http://www.pangeaadventureracing.com/event-details/events/2014-dixie-conquest-ar</a>Ron Eaglin, Adventurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08115631046197741573noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22736495.post-78868772788300922332014-04-06T14:55:00.001-07:002014-04-06T14:55:24.444-07:00Myakka Mud Slide - 2014This one took me a while to get up, but here is a short description of the race. I raced with Jim Gorton and we had a great race. We raced as Tequila on Tuesday<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Prolog Map</td></tr>
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<b>Prolog</b> - We started with a Prolog Orienteering Course using the map above. We quickly got (in this order) 4, 2, 3, and 5 and completed it in 19 minutes who started out with control 6 which would definitely have been shorter. We did, however get trail for almost the entire prolog so it was nice warmup run. <br />
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We then had about a mile run to the boats, we chose not to get any controls on the way as did the other teams in the lead as they made a lot more sense to get on the return trip.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yJP2nUgb3bA/U0HEMtl_xvI/AAAAAAAAP8s/JkZUxYFmQ-8/s1600/20140330_173742.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yJP2nUgb3bA/U0HEMtl_xvI/AAAAAAAAP8s/JkZUxYFmQ-8/s1600/20140330_173742.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paddle Map</td></tr>
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<b>Paddle</b> - We put a lot of effort into the paddle leg including a portage from CP14 back to the river that saved us a couple of minutes. We caught up with Endeavor and Endeavor, SWIM, and our team came out of the water within minutes of each other and started on the trek back to the start/finish. We did come out of the water at the Power TA. SWIM and our team tied for fastest paddle times at 1:23.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">To/From Paddle</td></tr>
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<b>Trek to S/F</b> - Some trail running and a solid bushwack to CP17 and from CP17 to CP18 but us into the TA within seconds of Endeavor. We both ran this in 35 minutes. SWIM took a longer route to CP18, coming in from the north that cost them about 7 minutes.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZQGo52fktD6WI2MUbExHaGa6lZnHiQn1i4JZMWGSZmT1rs7DDQNi-y1vWX6qQtuoYrp5tt-hrb6FBQU7qw6HBPPKbcxvCI7ny1RRpxRP8FVBd9Hf7TdlHLOJWTO1FW6bkCQXA-7TrRg/s1600/20140330_173815.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZQGo52fktD6WI2MUbExHaGa6lZnHiQn1i4JZMWGSZmT1rs7DDQNi-y1vWX6qQtuoYrp5tt-hrb6FBQU7qw6HBPPKbcxvCI7ny1RRpxRP8FVBd9Hf7TdlHLOJWTO1FW6bkCQXA-7TrRg/s1600/20140330_173815.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bike Leg</td></tr>
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Bike Leg- We went full hammer on the bike leg. Some bike troubles slowed Endeavor early and they took a slightly different route choice. We took the exact highlighted route on the map. (also here is a trace of the route) We finished this in 1:33, which the fastest time).<br />
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<b>Orienteering</b> - Coming in off the bike first gave us some comfort on attacking the last orienteering leg. I figured it would take us roughly an hour - but we attacked every control conservative taking a counter clockwise route starting with CP6. At first the map scale threw me - but I quickly recovered and we finished this in under an hour to complete the course in just under 5 hours.<br />
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Results and Pictures are at <a href="http://pangeaadventureracing.com/event-details/events/2014-mud-slide-ar">http://pangeaadventureracing.com/event-details/events/2014-mud-slide-ar</a><br />
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<br />Ron Eaglin, Adventurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08115631046197741573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22736495.post-85185792246844180162014-02-16T17:03:00.001-08:002014-02-19T18:07:41.272-08:00Pangea Sea 2 Sea 2014I'll cut right to the chase on this blog posting - and all adventure racers know these situations. <br />
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The first legs of the race were tough, but we were still strong and had hit every CP as we trekked into the Alexander Springs TA. The highlights to this point were incredible; the paddle on Rainbow River, the short trek through the Rainbow River Park, The muddy and cold early trek into Silver Springs, the night single track in Santos, What the heck is a Vent (oh that!), all incredible highlights of the race. Everyone who raced know these, for those who did not here is a short synopsis;<br />
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Our times on each section are in hours:minutes<br />
* Paddle (2:17)- Moved to Inglis Locks when the initial paddle had conditions that were too windy. Paddle from the locks to the US41 bridge and back. <br />
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* Trek (0:56) - Short trek to visit CP's in the park south of Inglis Locks<br />
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* Transition to bike (0:10) <br />
* Bike (no time) - Straightforward road ride to KP hole on the Rainbow River<br />
* Transition to paddle (0:09) <br />
* Paddle (0:29 to Rainbow, 0:37 in Rainbow Springs, 1:09 to blue hole) - Beautiful Paddle up to Rainbow River with a short orienteering at Rainbow River State Park, with a huge waterfall! Then back in boats and south to Blue hole south of SR40.<br />
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* Transition to bike (0:08)<br />
* Bike (0:20) - Short bike to Pruitt Trailhead<br />
* Transition to trek (0:13) <br />
* Trek (2:26) - Start of the real part of racing and starting to get dark, some details of CP's are below This was from Pruitt to Ross and had some excellent orienteering<br />
* Transition to bike (0:21) <br />
* Bike (9:11) - Ross Prarie trailhead is where we started the first long bike leg - the full single track of Santos, then all the way through Marshall Swamp to the Marshall Swamp trailhead. Very challenging navigation.<br />
Transition to trek(0:38)<br />
Trek (2:46) - From Marshall Swamp an in initially very wet trek through swamp, but ending up beautiful as we hit Silver River early on morning 2<br />
Transition to paddle (0:14 ) <br />
Paddle (3:59) - Paddle down Silver River then south on Oklawaha River to Oklawaha prairie.<br />
Transition to bike (0:49 - got new maps)<br />
Bike (5:31) - Tough bike leg through Ocala National Forest finishing up at Farles just east of the Avon Park bombing range, some incredibly sandy trails!<br />
Transition to trek (0:22) <br />
Trek (3:38) - A trek from Farles, primarily along the Florida Trail to CR445 and Alexander Springs.<br />
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So here we were arriving into the Alexander Springs TA around 11 PM on night 2. We had some physical challenges up to this point. Junos was having some serious tendonitis in his Achilles tendon and was not able to keep any food down. Joe had some serious swelling in his left wrist that looked like he had broken something. It had been terribly cold the previous evening and it was really cold now. I got the tents that Greg had stashed away for racers and set up the big family tent. Once set up teams that were cold, tired, and sleep deprived started migrating to the tent. I hopped in and got a solid hour of sleep until my own shivering (I had a sleeping bag but no ground pad). I also had done pretty bad job of setting the tent up delirious and at night.<br />
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<i>Some side suggestions at this TA for Pangea - they did a great job, these would have simply made the race a little easier for some of the teams (mostly mid-pack)</i><br />
<i>(1) <b>Allow teams to choose to do the paddle or trek first</b>. - As cold as it was during the evening sections, getting out on the boats was inviting hypothermia or misery, the ability to trek when it was that cold would be nice</i><br />
<i>(2) <b>Have a tent set up and ready to go for teams that need rest</b>. - I had a bivvy in my gear bin so setting up for me to sleep was easy. The U-hauls were another sleep option, but their metal floors will have you hypothermic in minutes. Since there is not enough room in most gear bins a tent at the TA is just a nice thing. Luckily they did have one and I really did not mind setting it up, it was just hard to do cold and tired. I slept in it and then gave my sleeping back to another team when we went out on trek.</i><br />
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A really good thing was they had some warm pasta here and that helped us quite a bit.<br />
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We opted to completely skip the paddle, which had seemed to be allowing Junos tendonitis to flare up and we headed out on the orienteering. This started out great, we nailed the first 5 controls, but as we approached CP6 on the trek - Junos had to stop (completely). We set him down and allowed him to sleep for a couple of hours at the trail intersection near 6- meanwhile I gave Julie an orienteering lesson so she would understand what I was doing on each control. I think she got a new appreciation for the navigation challenges, especially with the high level of map uncertainty - we spend near 2 hours going over how to get CP6 which was not even 100 yards from where Junos was laying. At this stage it appeared the race was over for us, and it was doubtful we would be able to finish. I felt Junos would be able to bike even though Junos did not.<br />
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<i>For any Florida teams that would like navigation lessons, especially in dealing with map uncertainty - let Greg or me know and I will be happy to set up a little training session.</i><br />
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After a couple of hours we were able to get Junos walking and we limped back to the TA (we were able to visit 7 of 20 controls) and started to work out a plan that would get us to the finish line (intact and as a team) - this was going to be pretty tough, Junos could barely walk, and was only able to use on leg for biking. That would be enough and Greg presented an option that would get us home. We skipped the bike to the final paddle and headed straight to the finish line (still 75K away). Along the route we decided that we would go ahead and head to the Highbridge TA - we ran across Mia's Misfits along this section at the Kangaroo at US17 and SR40 they were hurting, but would make it to the finish line.<br />
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We headed to High Bridge (a pretty ride) and were passed by Rev3 about 1/4 mile from the TA. We headed down the beach and were passed by Checkpoint Zero about 30 minutes later. <br />
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Here are some orienteering highlights;<br />
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We took the limerock road from 484 and attacked this on foot. I used the trail bend dimple on the north blue trail to drop the bikes and attack, I used the trail bend on the southern blue trail to finalize my attack and took a bearing and went to it. Joe had followed another team to it when I spotted it, but he was already there.<br />
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This one was incredibly challenging. The southern trail bend and the northern trail bend were both subtle - meaning any measurement off them to create an attack would be challenging. The control was 75m off the trail and the forest had a lot of tall pines and was thick - thus making a dead-on attack crucial. This control took us a solid 30 extra minutes.<br />
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This control will be infamous - The plowshare. I first mistakenly took the spot where the trails crossed the road to be the underpass and used this as an attack. However the mapped trail here was NOT what the trail did, and we figured this out after wasting 45 minutes. At this point many teams were giving up on this one - eventually I found it by (1) going out to paved road, (2) using the contours along the road, (3) finding the "old" trail crossing at the road - which I knew was real as there were old signs along it, (4) shooting a bearing from this crossing. The team had been arguing here and I was extremely frustrated at this point - but we did find it.<br />
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None of the remaining controls gave us much trouble, we did have a short challenge at CP22 - though once we figured the line thickness of the trail lines obscured some of the detail - we found the vent and solved this.<br />
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I had no issues on any other CP's so if anyone wants my strategy on any of the other controls - just post a comment and I'll give my strategy.<br />
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Pangea sets another incredible and challenging course - and I truly enjoyed each section - thanks much!<br />
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There it is - the entire set of maps for the 2014 Pangea Sea to Sea.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsnyIlL0YY9BZ8a24-0y_ml_3Dgqk6PadW7IVvvSdK11sTWDUXxTtzowaA4Gc7EgJA9BX3jbxsURWZ_HuRRiVVTLU_I61-jwVs1tRgB9bJ6o2D9K6YKcBBLmGiMdlmb-M5XFzLaOCR7Q/s1600/COurseMap.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsnyIlL0YY9BZ8a24-0y_ml_3Dgqk6PadW7IVvvSdK11sTWDUXxTtzowaA4Gc7EgJA9BX3jbxsURWZ_HuRRiVVTLU_I61-jwVs1tRgB9bJ6o2D9K6YKcBBLmGiMdlmb-M5XFzLaOCR7Q/s1600/COurseMap.jpg" height="119" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Overview Courtesy of We Blame Pangea</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
We blame Pangea blog - <a href="http://canyoneros-ar.blogspot.com/2014/02/pangea-sea-to-sea-ar-72hr-expedition_3276.html">http://canyoneros-ar.blogspot.com/2014/02/pangea-sea-to-sea-ar-72hr-expedition_3276.html</a> <br />
<h2>
Gear Check </h2>
<br />
I was testing some new gear for this race and have some great recommendations - I have other things I do not recommend, but I love testing gear that works!;<br />
<br />
1. Lights - I finally settled in the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/SecurityIng%C2%AE-Headlight-Headlamp-Bicycle-Packaging/dp/B009QX8B2Q/ref=pd_sim_sg_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=1N6E6PWACAQXDC3FST91" target="_blank">SecurtiyIng 3800 lumen Cree</a>. Customers have complained about the lack of instructions in the packaging (none) so here it is - charge battery, plug into light, turn it on. This light is just the right bright and runs all night on the battery in #2 here <br />
<br />
2. Batteries - I have now tried and tested about 8 battery sets - and here is the one you want sold on Amazon<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AAQOV5E/ref=oh_details_o06_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1" target="_blank"><br /></a>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AAQOV5E/ref=oh_details_o06_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1" target="_blank">6600 mAh Replacement Bike Light Battery</a><br />
<br />
These kept my first 3800 lumen light going for 10 solid hours. It does not give you a lot of warning before it goes out, though the LED in the back of the light will turn from green to red about 15 minutes before it dies, though that does not do you much good if it is on your head.<br />
<br />
Before a race run them through a few cycles to get a feel for their time with your lights. <br />
<br />
3. Bike Map Holder - They finally got it right - just read the Amazon reviews I agree, this is by far the best map holder for navigating on a bike (from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0015P71L0/ref=oh_details_o08_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1" target="_blank">AR Navigation Supplies</a>)<br />
<br />
Also here is a picture of my pack, left water bottle held Perpetuem, the right one Gatorade, and the bladder held water - I stayed very hydrated which also kept me warm.<br />
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<h2>
Maps</h2>
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<br />Ron Eaglin, Adventurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08115631046197741573noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22736495.post-47324153088186243902014-01-19T17:14:00.001-08:002014-01-19T17:14:52.354-08:00Resolution Adventure Race - Honey StingerA last minute cancellation from our female team-mate Caryn had me scrambling at the last minute to find a replacement - though we did have an alternate plan - Jim and I could race as a 2 person male team. Luckily Caryn's sister - Jeanette was free and one more call finished out the team with Jim Gorton, Jeanette Ciesla, and Erik Wise - a solid team.<br />
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We headed out from Deland just before 5 AM and Erik was driving behind me about 30 minutes into the drive when he realized he had left his gear bin. Not a problem, between Jim and I we were able to get all the mandatory gear necessary from just the spare stuff we carry - so we were on time and I was able to start on the maps just after 6 AM. It was cold - around 36 degrees at the start with that biting humidity that seems to make the cold in Florida burrow into your bones. Still we had work to do and we got it done - and were ready for the 8 AM start.<br />
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<b>Foot 1</b><br />
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The race started with a roughly 2 mile run to 2 CP's to break the teams up before we headed out on the bikes for The paddle. There were about 5 teams heading out at the same time on the bike leg, a fast transition had us 3rd out the door but within seconds of the other top teams.<br />
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<b>Bike 1 - Paddle - Bike 2</b> <br />
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There were 5 checkpoints on the bike section which you could get on the way to the paddle or on the way back. There was a pretty logical north route and south route - and the teams likely split 50/50 between the 2 routes. We chose the south route and even chose to go a little farther to stay on the gravel road. We arrive at the paddle TA just as Good'Nuff was dropping their boat in the water. We chose to portage directly to CP8 - and so did Super Frogs who arrive at the boat TA about 30 seconds behind us. CP8 and CP9 were in a small channel with some of the nastiest water I think I have ever seen. Both Super Frogs and our team headed out into Lake Apopka and a pretty healthy headwind. The waves weren't too bad, but the wind was seriously cold and being just a little wet - it was pretty chilly.<br />
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We paddle across to the canal entrance leading to CP10, CP11, and CP12. As we approached CP10 we passed a team that looked like they were wet and their middle paddler looked like she was shivering pretty bad. They had tipped their boat so they were all soaked - and with the cold wind they were not warming up. We saw them again at CP13 and Erik gave them his heavy rain jacket. We heard later that helped keep them in the race. On the way back across the lake I could get an idea of where we were relative to Super Frogs and I knew as we left the water they had gained a 6 minute lead. We completed the paddle in 1:39, respectable - but a bit slower than Super Frogs (1:31) and Good 'Nuff (1:35)<br />
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The ride back to the main TA was uneventful - controls were easy and it was warming up a bit.<br />
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<b>Foot 2</b><br />
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We headed out on the second foot leg - which had no real navigation to speak of. It did require some route choices to avoid heavy vegetation. We took this at a slow jog (43 min) - Good'Nuff showed how fast it could be done blasting through this in 32 minutes.<br />
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<b>Bike to O-Course</b><br />
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I had strongly suspected the O-Course would make or break the teams and also would be the most deciding segment of the course. We changed out of cold weather gear and took off on the bikes - I felt we were in striking distance of both teams in front of us - but were also keeping the team at a reasonable pace. After snagging CP18 - Jim announced that he had a flat tire - and it was really flat. We are pretty quick on tube changes and we blasted through this one in about 5 minutes and were back on bikes heading for the O Course picking up one more CP en route.<br />
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<b>O Courses</b><br />
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I was hoping for brutal (our strength) and was not disappointed. There were really no trails to speak of - so I had to use bearing and distance and the few clues I could gather from the aerial maps.<br />
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We bashed through and kept a pretty straight line - hitting each control pretty much dead on. <br />
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As soon as we got back from the O Courses we discovered that Jim had another flat. Luckily we had another tube but we were a bit slower in changing this tube. We had the longest bike of the race ahead of us - and though it looked like we would have a lot of fast riding I was not 100% sure what conditions we would face. As we approached CP21 we noticed that Jim's tire was low again and by the time we made it back to the berm road it was completely flat. We had passed Super Frogs on teh way to CP21 - they had taken a dead end route coming back from CP21 and their lead was about 8 minutes. It was about to get much longer - we were out of tubes and the only 26 inch tube we had was a Schrader (and Jim has Presta rims). After fiddling around with patching the existing tires - we finally stuffed my 29 inch Presta tube in his tire and headed out. We were now at least 20 minutes behind Super Frogs - with about 30-40 minutes of riding to go. We did not know where Good'Nuff was - but we knew there was a good chance they were close to the Frogs.<br />
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We came up on the wrong side of a dead end trail at CP24 but easily bashed through to the other side and it looked like a few other teams had done the same thing.<br />
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<b>Finish</b><br />
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We arrived at the finish and did not see Good'Nuff, but JJ from Super Frogs was waiting for us. They had missed one CP and had gone back to get it. I felt for them - we made the exact same mistake at the Blue Springs race last year and it had bumped us 2 places. We were second - and a few minutes later Good'Nuff showed - not looking too happy about missing a CP, but in AR literally anything can happen (and usually does).<br />
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Results are available at <a href="http://pangeaadventureracing.com/event-details/events/2014-resolution-ar">http://pangeaadventureracing.com/event-details/events/2014-resolution-ar</a><br />
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Race video:<br />
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<br />Ron Eaglin, Adventurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08115631046197741573noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22736495.post-3979822316216080212013-12-15T15:38:00.000-08:002013-12-15T15:38:15.236-08:00Xmas in XmasHere is a little video of the race - best viewed in HD;<br />
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<br />Ron Eaglin, Adventurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08115631046197741573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22736495.post-91125840501209708172013-12-01T15:46:00.000-08:002013-12-02T08:20:42.013-08:00Turkey Burn 2013Results and short race summary at <a href="http://pangeaadventureracing.com/event-details/events/2013-turkey-burn-ar">http://pangeaadventureracing.com/event-details/events/2013-turkey-burn-ar</a> See the tale of the Canyoneero's - anyone who knows Snow Hill will be impressed they survived a fall off the great cliff - <a href="http://canyoneros-ar.blogspot.com/2013/11/pangea-turkey-burn-ar-elite-12hr.html">http://canyoneros-ar.blogspot.com/2013/11/pangea-turkey-burn-ar-elite-12hr.html</a> <br />
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Team Honey Stinger is Ron Eaglin, Jim Gorton, Junos Reed, and Wanda Timmons. We came into this race with the intentions of racing as hard and as fast as we could possibly go. I was also determined to make the race as clean as possible with solid navigation. The start was at UCF which had just defeated USF at home the night before the 4 AM start. The parking lot was still full of beer cans, trash cans, and port-o-lets - but it was nice to have some asphalt to set up our TA in - not that we would see it during the race.<br />
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We started with a short run up a parking garage, back down just to spread us all out before the bike leg. A few teams took off here - we took our time and moved cleanly onto the bikes and headed out towards CP1 on the UCF campus. Teams were already looking for the CP when we got there - but we zoomed in it quickly and were able to get out as the other team converged on our location. CP2-CP4 were uneventful but did provide some nice double track riding in the dark. As headed off campus Nature Calls was the only other team we saw, and we arrived at the boat TA just behind them, but with a few more teams just behind us. <br />
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We headed south on the Econlockhatchee River and found CP5 quickly working with other teams. After we came out we dropped the boats at the mouth of the Little Econlockhatchee and trekked to CP6 and CP7. Mojitos paddled this section and as it turned out that was probably a better choice as there were only 3 deadfalls to get around. Oh well, we came off the south paddle and headed north on the Econ River just behind them. We also saw a team ahead of us - I was pretty sure it was Super Frogs.<br />
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The paddle section on the Econ River was great. It did require meticulous navigation, but at night I always keep very tight contact with the map. I really just wanted to avoid costly mistakes - so we paddled a little slower than usual, but at the same time navigated this section flawlessly. Controls were also spaced very well to provide challenge and keep us from just dropping into "go" mode.<br />
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We got to Barr Street with Mojitos on Monday and headed out on the first orienteering section with them. The sun had just started to top the horizon, so I was able to ditch the headlamp - and we were on an orienteering map. We made quick work of the first 3 controls working with Mojitos. A couple teams caught us at CP13 as were a bit too far south looking for it - but it was good to have a few eyes looking through the woods - and this early in the race it makes sense to work together. At some point Mojitos decided to take a trail route to one of the controls - where I decided to punch straight through, and that was the last we saw of them. At one control Junos twisted his ankle and landed hard - he was right next to one of the controls and we likely would not have seen it had he not gone down. On one other control I spotted it right in the path of Junos and Jim and then watched as they walked right by it - so I was thinking I was seeing things. On closer inspection (I went to check out where they had just walked) it was the control so I gave them a hard time about not keeping their eyes open. In their defense - they were walking through raspberry stickers. We ran the last section of this trek hard and came out of the woods to the boat TA with Team Endeavor. From this point on it would be a 2 team race.<br />
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The next paddle section had some really awesome control locations, and paddling the Econ in general is pretty great. it is a very interesting river. We came out at the next TA and transitioned to bike, making it through the TA just a little faster than Endeavor. I did not even need to consult my map in this section (except at the end to make sure we had to go back to the TA). I've ridden Snow Hill single track many times and there is really only one word to describe it; fun. Endeavor did catch up to us in this section and just as quickly disappeared. They re-appeared as we switched control cards at the Snow Hill TA - but stopped to do something - so we were a little ahead as we headed to the Bridge TA. They arrive at the bridge TA just about 20 seconds ahead of us - we both transitioned to foot together and headed out to do a second orienteering. We had been working together well and we were pretty sure we had at least a 30 minute lead on the rest of the teams. We knew at some point we would switch from cooperation to race mode, but for now we were still working together.<br />
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The next orienteering section had some really challenging points, and even though it looks like we did the course in the same order - we took totally different attacks on the CP's. As we punched the last CP in this section we ran into them again on the Flagler Trail - they were about a minute in front of us - and were about 2 minutes behind when we got back to the bridge TA and transition back to bikes.<br />
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We had to mark 4 CP's on our map from a master map - and then head out into some technical single track. I still had local knowledge here of the trails, but the navigation was going to be challenging. We spent some time on the first CP (CP48) - but at the same time Endeavor had overshot it and were doubling back when I found it. The next to last CP in this section (CP50) got us a bit confused, simply because there were so many unmapped trails. At this point we were working with Team Endeavor and even some local bikers that ride Snow Hill every week tried to help us (it didn't help - that had no idea the trail CP51 even existed). We decided that we would go to the last known point (which was the last CP) and try again. This time we found the correct trail and then the control. As we got CP51 and headed back to the Flagler Trail we had no idea where Team Endeavor was, as we reached the Bridge TA for the last time, we were informed that Endeavor had not passed through yet - so we had a slight lead heading back to UCF.<br />
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That lead did not hold long - it was only about 10 minutes and Endeavor had caught back up with us and passed us, we passed them again just before CP52 and we both headed out on the road ride together. I took the lead and set a pretty fast pace hoping that Jim, who was towing Wanda would be OK. Endeavor was about 50 yards back of us for this section. When we approached the turn onto Lockwood - disaster struck. I looked for clear, seeing one car, and then looked again and saw clear so I called the crossing to the left lane to turn left. As Jim and Wanda (Jim towing Wanda) crossed a Motorcycle slammed into the back of Wanda, and I turned to see Wanda sliding along the top of the motorcycle and the Rider sliding to a halt. Endeavor was right behind us and immediately went into assist mode. About a dozen people called 911 all at once, and we were able to get assistance to Wanda and the Rider quickly. The fire trucks from Station 48 (one mile away) came about a minute later. Once the paramedics were on scene we told Team Endeavor to continue (they wanted to stay). The police quickly assessed the situation, the motorcyclist was OK, but would be taken to the hospital to be checked out. Wanda had a good sized hole in here ankle, and a nasty burn on here rear where she had landed on the motorcyle muffler.<br />
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Once we were cleared to continue (it took a while because they could not find records of Wanda and she had been hurt) we very shakily headed back out on the bike. We made it back to UCF shaken but in one piece. Wanda was clearly in pain - but was determined to continue and finish the race. She had a broken ankle - though she did not know this at the time, and the burn on her rear I think was hurting her more than the ankle. We used a mixture of carry and tow to get through the last section, finishing 2 minutes in front of Mojito's for 2nd place, and winning the point series. A very hard fought victory. I really love this sport; you meet incredible people, do incredible things - but the greatest thing is the sense of camaraderie. Thanks to everyone who was out there - and a big thanks to my team! <br />
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And best wished for Wanda to get better - you are one tough girl!<br />
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Video of Ditch Trek</div>
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Getting a CP in woods</div>
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Crossing grassy plain in LBE State Forest</div>
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A Nasty Swamp lake with CP</div>
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Wanda is really hurting but will finish</div>
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<br />Ron Eaglin, Adventurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08115631046197741573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22736495.post-67944441420571293322013-10-20T17:12:00.002-07:002013-10-20T17:25:43.160-07:00Lighterknot Adventure Race 2013I originally as not planning on racing this race as it was falling during a very busy time for me. However - knowing that Sheriff's Posse always puts on a great race and the new location at Haw Creek - we put together Honey Stinger with Courtney, Junos, and Jim and decided to make a strong go of it.<br />
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<b>Foot 1</b><br />
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At the start teams could choose to do a bike or a foot leg - we chose foot and we also were assigned a starting time that would make us the only team choosing to do it backwards (you can go in any order). This worked out quite well at first as we moved through the first few controls with just small corrections as I adjusted to the map scale (1:20K). We made it to the special challenge at the boat TA with no other teams around and just USAF coming off the water in front of us. Shortly after that we saw a large number of other teams coming from the other direction - they had clustered a little bit as they worked through the challenging controls at the start of their direction.<br />
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When we got to where I thought CP8 was - we simply could not find the control. After about 15 minutes of searching we went to the "last known location" strategy. In this case we actually headed north up the trail rather than backtracking because I knew there was a distinctive large intersection north. Because CP7 was also near that intersection we picked that one up and also decided to get CP6 while we were there. We worked with FLXtreme/Hunter as they had completed the bike leg and were now doing the foot section. After finding CP7 and CP6 - it was quite easy to find CP8 and some compass work and pace counting put us right on the control. We headed back to the TA to learn that after the first leg of the race pretty much every other team was now 30 minutes in front of us.<br />
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USAF 0:45 <br />
Rink Side Sports 0:50 <br />
AR Milita 0:58<br />
BikeWorks 1:00 <br />
Honey Stinger 1:25 <br />
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<b>Bike 1</b><br />
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The first bike leg had very simple navigation and a lot of road miles. It was a simple set the odometer and ride hard in a tight bike line to the control. We made up a little of the lost time on this section - but were still significantly behind the pack when we finished the bike leg and headed to the boats for the paddle.<br />
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AR Militia 0:56<br />
FLX Hunter 0:57 <br />
USAF 0:58<br />
Honey Stinger 1:00<br />
Bike Works 1:02 <br />
Rink Side Sports 1:06 <br />
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<b>Paddle </b><br />
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Haw Creek is simply awesome paddling and there were enough side channels to make the navigation interesting. The only control to give us any trouble was CP14 - we blew right by it as it was down a creek a small way and not terribly visible. The clue was creek within a creek. I quickly realized we had gone too far and we spotted it as we backtracked out. It was a long out and back paddle to CP19 - and we pushed hard. The creek was good paddling and we could see Bikeworks and Rink Side Sports in the distance as we would hit straightaways. In the end we pulled up into the boat TA just as Bikeworks was leaving for the next leg - estimating that we were probably 2 minutes behind them at this point.<br />
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USAF 2:05<br />
Honey Stinger 2:07<br />
AR Militia 2:13<br />
FLX Hunter 2:14 <br />
Rink Side Sports 2:27 <br />
Bike works 2:30<br />
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<b>Bike 2</b><br />
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I changed a lot of strategy as we approached this bike leg - we would start with CP24-CP25-CP26 and then come back around and do the first loop that was intended by the cotrol order. We had a little bit of trouble with CP25 - I rode to the gate on the map and then backtracked 100 meters - but the control was more like 90 meters so it took a few extra minutes searching. We planned on taking a trail straight across from CP25 to CP26 - but never found so ended up going back to CP24 an taking the trail straight due south. None of the trails were very bikeable in this section, it was mostly slogging and bikewhacking. Still we were moving fast and nailing each one. We also made a great decision on the last bike whack (CP22). The WP had us going east into the heavy dog fennel. We got the control and pushed on past it to a very good road on the east boundary of the park. This took us directly to CP23 and then it was a road ride in to the main TA. <br />
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USAF 1:30<br />
Honey Stinger 1:34<br />
FLX/Hunter 1:33<br />
Bikeworks 1:54<br />
Rink Side Sports 1:57<br />
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<b>Trek 2</b><br />
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This trek was all about navigation and strategy. I felt pretty good about the map at this point and was determined to make no errors. We hit pretty much every control dead on and I had pre-plotted the bearing controls which allowed us to go straight for them. I started with CP27 due south down the berm to the small trail. Easy find. Then it was a bearing to CP28, dead on. Then due south to the river and follow river to "Bluff" and CP29. Again easy find. From there it was back to the main road and right at the trail heading toward CP21, I had already plotted this so we headed straight for the marsh - found the marsh (clue was west side of marsh) and then found CP30. CP31 was a bearing from CP30 - dead on, found it easily. We bushwhacked out to the field and the campground - took a bearing from the NE corner of the field and went straight to CP32. From there it was pretty much due north to the mowed road. We went to the WP, took the bearing and once again were dead on the control. I was nearly exhausted as we made the final run back to the TA - but felt we would be in a decent position, we had no ideas where the other teams were at this point and pretty much gave everything we had to bringing it in hard.<br />
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USAF 1:09<br />
Honey Stinger 1:17<br />
Rink Side 1:23<br />
Bike Works 1:25 <br />
FLX/Hunter 1:39<br />
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<b>Finale</b><br />
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In the end - USAF ran a perfect race, fast and dead on in every section. we had a great race after the first foot section, not quite as fast but the navigation was solid. The course was fantastic with a little mix of everything - swamp, woods, trail, road, and incredible paddling. Making up the early time was also really gratifying to the team - we never gave up or even got down, we just kept going at 100% and it paid off in the end. <br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/qqMqcwrEq9c?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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Here are some scenes from the race </div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvebXAxNjSu3RyI_NVUzMBY6lvp_bJhdVra85u7chZDew34ZULRQK59fQhXn_etNJQzUdDgeokDF1jKSE9nUITZjIlHswfa_5nHlL9R9OyfZdb2ZGcjUv7XqUkv0JWIfOq9NSGlebxug/s1600/20131019_182602.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvebXAxNjSu3RyI_NVUzMBY6lvp_bJhdVra85u7chZDew34ZULRQK59fQhXn_etNJQzUdDgeokDF1jKSE9nUITZjIlHswfa_5nHlL9R9OyfZdb2ZGcjUv7XqUkv0JWIfOq9NSGlebxug/s320/20131019_182602.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We ended up 2nd overall and 1st coed</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
All results at <a href="http://pangeaadventureracing.com/event-details/events/2013-lighterknot-ar" target="_blank">http://pangeaadventureracing.com/event-details/events/2013-lighterknot-ar </a>Ron Eaglin, Adventurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08115631046197741573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22736495.post-18565525513242523782013-10-06T18:10:00.001-07:002013-10-10T07:52:04.754-07:00USARA National Championship - Team PangeaI knew a lot of folks were waiting for this - the writeup of the USARA National championship. Team Pangea consisted of Ron Eaglin, Greg Owens, and May-Li Cuypers. We would be racing in an extremely competitive Masters category and against the best teams in the country. The race was in Nashville Indiana, and incredibly picturesque town in Central Indiana.<br />
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Greg and I actually rented bikes (29") from a local bike shop (Hesitation Point Bike shop). We arrived before checkin, got our bikes and headed to the checkin. Brown County has an incredible set of single track bike trails and and IMBA Epic designation - so we were looking forward to some wonderful single track. We were also looking forward to some great weather - highs near 80. lows near 60.<br />
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We received our maps at 6 AM Friday morning, 2 massive 1:24K scale topo maps, and 20 points to plot. I got to plotting while May-Li and Greg got to planning. We finished at 7:45 AM and were just in time to make the 8 AM start time. <br />
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<b>Start and Leg 1</b><br />
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We started with a 1 mile cross country run to split the teams up before hitting the single track. This would be followed with a 15 mile marked single track bike course. We went out incredibly fast with the strategy of getting a good placement heading into the single track. Of course so did 180 other top class athletes. We flew through the run and the next section was pure concentration, flying single track at all levels (beginner through expert), no CP's - marked course and some fast biking. It was also for me - battling cramps (many other experienced cramping due to the ultra-fast start). After 15 miles of screaming single track - we arrived at Hesitation Point and CP1. From this point on it would switch from a bike race to an adventure race as we would be navigating.<br />
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Despite the early cramps we were moving well and picked up CP2 quickly, though not as quickly as I would have liked, since I was still getting used to the map and the terrain. I handed the map to Greg to find CP3 - while I concentrated on controlling my cramps. (I don't remember anything from this section at all other than pain). After what seemed like hours (it was probably 15 minutes) - I was feeling better and took the navigation back - and we took an interesting off-road bush-whacky route to the road leading to CP4 and CP5 which was a long out and back. As we headed south to CP4 we saw some of the lead teams heading back (and biking at an unbelievable pace). CP4 and CP5 went without incident - and we were with a number of other teams at that point. Interesting because we did not see any teams due to route choice from CP3.<br />
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From CP5 it was north to the TA and the start of the paddle. We would be passing through a small town called Helmsburg and I had high hopes for a convenience store. It worked out pretty well, there was a corner store where we purchased Gatorade and Milk - which we drank in the TA just a mile from the store.<br />
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<b>The Paddle</b><br />
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From the looks of the TA there were at least 40 teams in front of us at TA1. The instructions were to drop the bikes and take our boats and head for the water. Well water would be a strong word for it, the sliver of a creek on the map was just that, a sliver of a creek. We proceeded with the boat-whack/portage section of the race. After Patagonia 2012 no portage looks hard and Greg worked hard dragging the boat along through the shallow water. In some spots we were actually able to get in and paddle - but the real paddling did not start until we reached the wider channel east of Lake Lemon.<br />
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<b> </b><br />
<b> </b>The checkpoints on the lake were pretty easy, especially since the prior racers had really turned the routes into foot trails. We had fun with CP9, where we had to squeeze through a culvert to get a point where we were allowed to drop our boats. It was all pretty straight-forward and we were feeling pretty good when we got to CP10.<br />
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<b>Split Up</b><br />
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As we approached CP10 we could see 2 person teams rafting from CP11 to CP10. We were not sure what this meant - but we soon found out. At CP10 the team was split up. I headed out into the darkness 2 checkpoints (blue dots I drew on the map) and Greg and May-Li had to paddle the canoe across the lake to CP11 where they dropped the canoe and then rafted back. Even though it was dark I had no real trouble with the 2 checkpoints - there were lots of other folks out there looking for them, and we worked together to find them. It took me nearly 45 minutes - much more than what I estimated it would take Greg and May-li to paddle 1 km, drop a boat, and paddle back. Sure enough they had been waiting for about 30 minutes when I came jogging in. Had we planned it better I would have gotten the map and took off while they messed around with gear (the opposite of what we did). Now back together - we headed out on the long trek and our only issue of the race.<br />
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<b>Long Trek</b><br />
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The <b> </b>next section was a long trek 5 checkpoints. We did not get off to a great start here. We attacked CP12 from the south re-entrant - and did it again. And again. Eventually after about 90 minutes of attacks and re-attacks we gave up and moved on. The remaining controls proved much easier and we even took some risky route choices - including an almost direct route from CP15 to CP16. This leg still took us nearly 7 hours and we were really happy to pull into TA1 again.<br />
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<b>Orienteering</b> <br />
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At TA3 we were given and Orienteering map and we headed out on my favorite - orienteering. This was pair orienteering - so some strategy was involved. In pair orienteering you are given checkpoints in pairs - and you must collect both points in each pair for them to count. So there will be a CP A1 and CP A2 - you must visit them both to get credit. The strategy is that we only needed to collect 4 of 7 controls pairs - so you must decide which ones to visit. We completed this section in just under 3 hours - my legs by now were toasted - though we still were jogging a lot of the downhills.<br />
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<b> </b> <b>Bike to Start/Finish</b><br />
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The sun came up during the orienteering, and now it was early morning with 2 sections left, a bike ride to the main TA with 4 checkpoints (CP17-20)<br />
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and the final orienteering. The bike leg was easy - Greg navigated it and we had one minor error. We ended up at the main TA with 2 hours left to race. We only had enough time to get one checkpoint and chose to get AA (it was far, but easy).<br />
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<br />Ron Eaglin, Adventurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08115631046197741573noreply@blogger.com0