Best Orlando Area Race (BOAR 2008)

I got the call from Rob (Team SWIM) the week before the race. Hey – you up for another race, we need a 4th for the BOAR. Well of course – I’m always up for a good race and also with a good team. The BOAR has been a race that for 5 years running has highlighted some really cool areas and this would be the first time we would be racing at the Orlando Wetland Park, so the team (Rob, Sheri, Stefan, and I) lined our bikes up for the mass start early morning on Saturday, March 1.

The race started with what looked like a 6 mile loop around the wetlands park on hard packed berm roads.

Note the tight bike line!

Two team (Village Bike and SWIM) pushed the early pace and established a pretty strong lead on the remainder of the pack as we cam around past the TA and received our first set of race instructions.Village Bike lost some time as they had left their trekking shoes in the TA and had to go back and get them as we would be trekking later in the race without a chance to return to the TA before that. It was off to the boat pickup, another few miles where we would do a challenging navigation paddle to Hatbill Park. The day was gorgeous and there were lots of folks on the river (or should I say rivers) – this section of the St. John’s River is really a complex maze of streams cutting through grassland flats with lots of gators. We made all the right navigation choices here and made it to the CP at Hatbill Park where we hopped out of our boats early and ended up giving ourselves a little swim (hey it is in our name).

The paddle had some shallow portages and clear water

We passed Village Bike who also hopped out of their boats early on the little island as we did and I chuckled as I knew they would also need to do a little swim.
As we returned we saw teams everywhere on the river. The tricky navigation had teams moving in all directions through the maze of canals. We missed one turn heading back, but quickly caught our mistake and recovered. The camera crews at the boat drop got some great shots as we decided it was easier and faster to run our boats through the shallow swift current near the boat drop rather than paddle that section. We were able to leave our boats at the boat launch, and quickly transition back to bike to head to the orienteering. We decided to do the O in the order 1, 3, 4, 2 (we could choose our order). This required a tricky bushwhack from 1 to 3. We found both the first and second streams but my “aiming off” on the nav was off and we headed east on the stream when we should have gone west. This was compounded a bit by the flag location being (slightly) off on the map, still mostly our fault. After nabbing 3, we had no trouble with 4 (near a fence on the treeline) or 2 (easy attack point from the forest corner SW of the control). We took Florida Trail back to the bikes and began the most grueling leg of the race – the cow pasture bike.

The next leg had us doing a roughly 5-6 mile loop to find 5 checkpoints (easy navigation) in the cow pasture. Most teams were unable to ride through the thick grass and mud – we simply geared down and chunked along. Except for a few cows running in front of us and the occasional section where we would have to carry our bikes (in other words very wet) we moved well through this section. WE did have one interesting section where we biked across a small canal feeding a pond and startled an amazingly large alligator (for a small pond).

A team with a nice tight running formation - this does not work on narrow trails though.

When we arrived at the TA we received our next set of instructions and passport, a 5-6 mile run with a short paddle in the middle. The first part of the run was to our bikes (we had done this route before) – so we put our heads down and dropped into a nice pace. My pace was a little less than the team pace, though we were running well – I knew I was holding them back a little. We had not seen Village Bike for a while, so we knew we had a decent lead (I get much more motivated when there is a team right on top of us). The paddle was a short paddle to a control on Bear Island and then back. We ended up punching our instruction sheet as our punch card was safely back in the TA where we had left it, I think we could convince the RD we visited every control. The paddle and punch took 18 minutes and we arrived back at the boat drop just as Village Bike was heading out.

I think this was leaving the boat drop - good spirits here

We had a 3 to 3 1/2 mile run back to the finish with one CP along the route. We were supposed to take the North Woods trail which despite being wet in a few places was a really nice run. I was still feeling good and was not slowing the team too much through this section. We came out of the woods at the berm road at Lake Searcy. The road weaves around the lake and we could see across the lake. We kept a light pace and the muscles in my back that had never healed from the swamp stomp started giving me some real pain. We decided to take the South Woods trail instead of running the berm the entire route. We were trying to beat 5 hours which we just barely missed as we came into the finish line.

As I dropped my pack, Rob hollered to put it back on as we had another section of the race to go. Mercifully it was a short out and back run on the trail we had just left, but Rob carried my pack for me as just putting it on caused me some nasty back pain. We finished the race in 5 hrs and 23 minutes, followed shortly by Village Bike (Jason and Marghi) at 5:43. It would be a while till the remaining team, which were really spread out at this point, made it in.

Another great race for Pangea http://www.pangeaadventureracing.com/race_archive.php?r=3 and a fun race with Team SWIM.

Swamp Stomp in Pictures

Robert's photography and video did a great job of video documenting the Swamp Stomp race. A great way to get a feel for the race and the area is to read through the 2 page photo story of the race at

Page 1 - http://www.englewoodbay.com/swamp-stomp-2008.html
Page 2 - http://www.englewoodbay.com/swamp-stomp-2008-2.html

supposedly we will soon have a DVD of the race, I look forward to that, it is always fun to go back and look at the race went.

Swamp Stomp 2008 - Part III

The mile posts shown on the map were actually physically marked posts out there on the trails. This really did help a lot with the navigation – whenever you would find a post, you would no where you were. The problem with that is many of them had been renumbered. We quickly figured this out as we ran into posts that were not on the map or were obviously wrong. But this was not the real cause of our problems and the problems of many other teams. That would be the trail to marker 60. Since nearly all the teams were coming from CP21 – we had all plotted the shortest trail distance to get to BP16 which would take us down that road. When our team arrived, there were a few teams that were obviously bailing out on that route. That is never a good sign. We were pretty sure we knew where we were and there was a road heading that direction. The trail was at first rideable, then pushable, then it was a bikewhack, and then it became a carry. We got within site of our destination across the swamp – but knew as it grew deeper that we would probably have to turn back. So like many teams after wasting 1 1 ½ hours we bailed out.



After we exited we still wanted to get BP16 (and the other two BP’s near it, 17 and 18). Rob who lives in Sarasota pointed out that the power lines just north were fast riding. So we headed for them and sure enough, they were fast (and a little wet) as well as the other trails leading around from the back side. After having wasted almost 2 hours – it felt good to snag these bonus points. It was a quick ride to CP23 – except we realized that we had not gotten CP 22. At this point Sheri was hurting and did not relish the going 5 miles out of the way on horse trails to grab this CP. But Rob and I were having fun, and the riding was pretty fast. We picked up both CP22 and BP 19 and then headed to CP23 and the start of bike leg 2.

It was getting pretty late (10:15) as we arrived at CP23. I had calculated we would have just enough time to get the mandatory CP’s and make it in on time. We were told that the two difficult CP’s had been removed, so now we had a choice. We could do the run (which I figured at 30 – 40 minutes) and then pedal back. This would have been an easy 4 points boosting us to 23 points. At the same time we knew we were out of the running with a lost team-mate and a lost passport. Sheri was also hurting a bit and she would have had to run at least one of the miles, though Rob and I would have been happy to run 2 each – I don’t think the rules allowed that.

We also had a fun discussion with a park ranger about the missing road back at BP17. He confirmed that the road had flooded and that they had ceased mowing it – allowing it to quickly get overgrown. He thought it was pretty humorous we had tried to get through it, at night, with bikes….

So we decided to head straight back. Local knowledge came into play here. We knew we had enough time to even pick up some BP’s on the way back, but again we were being prudent and Sheri kind of looked like she was ready to puke. I was getting pretty hungry – having not eaten very much the entire race. Even Rob was starting to show some signs of fatigue. The fun here was passing other teams, we were catching teams about every 5-10 minutes. It gave us a chance to say high and see how others were doing. Our pain and misery (I was now nauseous as it started to get hot) was being shared by plenty of others. Rob and I teased Sheri by telling her that people were behind her – and since she was too tired to turn around and look, she simply kept peddling.

We even saw Team Relentless again. Lisa had kept Paul moving after an incredible recovery – they were biking strong. We crossed the finish line about 11:30 (a full 1 ½ hours to spare). After we crossed the line Sheri even asked if we could go back out and get the closest BP (the answer was no – and that was from Rob and I). I wanted to get my stomach settled – it was hot coming in, and that made it tough. I also enjoyed seeing some folks from other teams I had raced with in the past. Following the race that EMS and Snickers had with each other showed that it was an epic 2 team showdown, and Snickers won it with Michael Moule leading the navigation.

The next big race (for me) will probably be the ACC. I’ll be coaching soccer on Saturday’s and being a good dad since my family is letting me race in the PQ. My team was great – I really felt Greg’s pain, and Rob and Sheri just took every setback in stride. So if you wanted to get a feel for our finish – we had 19 points and finished at about 11:30.

Swamp Stomp 2008 - Part II

The next leg of the race was a shorter paddle that headed south on the Myakka towards deep hole. We looked to see if anyone at the TA wanted to join us – but in the end it was going to be 3 of us in the boat. The race was not really going well for us; lost passport, bonked team-mate; at this point it was all about pride. We were still in racing mode, we had not entered that nether mode that occurs in long adventure races; survival mode. In addition we had learned that the course director had removed to CP’s from this leg (quite a blessing). We grabbed a few pads and put Sheri in the middle of the boat and started paddling hard. With three of us paddling we were making awesome time through the twists and turns heading for South Myakka Lake. We also got to pass and say hi to many of the teams heading back towards the TA who I am sure were curious about our three person team. After hitting the end of the long winding river section a due south bearing took us right to the next CP (17). Of course we had to walk by it a few times before seeing it – but that can be completely normal for this point in a race. We paddled back to pick up the bonus CP (BP14) on the north side of the lake, which was off the lake a bit. Sheri at this point was shivering really bad so we stopped to put on some clothes (she donned a heavy rain jacket she had in her pack). It was probably 55 degrees, but we were soaking wet from the paddling and the fog.

We got to the spot to and Rob found the control though Sheri and I liked a different tree that fit the control description better (Tree in Wetland). Still we had found it quickly – and it had appeared that there were a few teams roaming the swamp looking for it when we got there who quickly moved in on it after we found it.



The paddle back was fun as I went ahead and put my headlight on (I had not used it for the paddle to this point because the near full moon gave lots of light). With the light on I was able to spot the hundred of orange looking eyes peering back at us from the water on the shore. Gators – and they were thick. It became fun counting the number of gators in each little cluster of them. And then we passed the bridge and were back to the TA.

Back at the TA there were teams in every condition. Paul from Team Relentless who had completely bonked and was puking back on the trek where we had last seen them was resting (amazingly he would finish the race – we would next see him on the bike leg). Some teams had obviously bailed as the TA was missing a lot of team spots that had been there earlier. I was feeling completely recovered from the trek, my stomach was fine – and a couple of Red Bull’s from the TA folks had my energy back up as we headed off on the bike.

There is something so right about getting onto a bike and riding. As tired as I was the feeling of turning those wheels was good – I was truly enjoying the ride at this point, though that would not be the case 10 hours later. We snagged CP 19 (and easy one), headed south to the mandatory crossing point. We passed Eco-choice (Rod and Fish) going the wrong way and that confused us a bit – though we did get to the correct crossing. I was feeling good and it looked like Rob and Sheri were solid at this point also.

We made a strategic navigation error here, we should have collected CP22 before CP21, but missed it as it was on another map and headed straight to CP21. This (CP22) would cost us some effort later as we would have to bike an extra 5 miles to pick it up where it would have cost us less than 1 ½ miles if we had done it before CP21.


Note the line down the center of the image is the two different maps, we passed right by marker 25 on our way to CP21 - oh so close to not see it. Lesson learned is to be sure to point these little things out to yourself before the race as they are easy to miss in the dark when you are tired.

We found CP21 and the haunted shack and headed for the cluster of 3 bonus points on the far east side of the map. This is where things would get hairy and scary. We had stayed out of the water for most of the bike ride, but this was not going to last and this was also going to be the proving point for many teams that wanted these bonus points.

To be continued in Part III – the finish.

Swamp Stomp 2008 Part I

As always the swamp stomp did not disappoint, there was plenty of stomping and plenty of swamping. I would be racing for the first time with Team SWIM (Sarasota Wellness and Internal Medicine) My team-mates Sheri and Rob were both doctors, so now worries about needing medical help. Greg filled in at the last minute for a hurt Jamie, who was filling in for a hurt Melissa – but we had our four racers.

The race started with a prolog, that was simply a short run along the river to a point and back to get in the boats. We made it to the boats with the lead pack and started up the Myakka River. The control points heading north looked pretty easy, the first one CP1 requiring us to hop out of the boats and go to the top of this really cool double tower with a spring suspension bridge between the towers. We made some serious time there and it was us and EMS in the boats and heading up river. As we got through a winding section of the river I noticed we had missed a small river shortcut and made a mental note to use that on the way back. The lead teams all regrouped as we hit BP1 and BP2 as we group searched for these. The course was made up of mandatory (CP) and bonus (BP) controls – though we had decided early on we were going for them all.

BP3 looked like it would be a pretty challenging control as it was located a good distance off the top of Upper Myakka Lake. As we beached the boat, Rob flushed a 6 foot gator right into me, so I had to do a little dance around to avoid an unpleasant encounter in the shallow water – it did get the heart racing. We lost a little time here as we hit the “described” vague trail near BP3 and went the wrong way. We could see that the lead pack had made about 5-10 minutes on us.



The paddle to the BP4 and BP5 was really neat, though the river was narrow with a incredibly strong current (we were going upriver). We had a little bit of bumper boats jostling with the returning lead teams - . The weather was now warming up and we were paddling hard to catch up with the lead team, we had gotten all the CP’s and BP’s on the way upriver so now it was simply head back and push. CP6 was a take-out and a short orienteering. We nailed each point easily – bushwhacking across the cow pastures. Rob and I each had a set of maps and the double orienteering was working well – we passed a lot of teams in this section. As we hit the boats – the first disaster struck. Sheri looked for the passport only to realize that she must have dropped it. We were not sure what penalty we would get – but we were sure that it would be painful. We had done all the BP’s and would probably not be able to get credit (except for the manned ones). Ouch.


Here is a picture of Sheri just before we lost the passport - yep that is it in her hands. Too bad she did not hold it up to Mark taking the photos. We had gotten all the CPS's and BPS's on the passport.



Here is an even closer look - hmmm looks like it is all punched...

We paddled back in and transitioned for what would be a long trek (25-30 miles) and told Jessica about the passport. We would await the decision on the penalty for the loss of the passport.



The trek started out strong - it was 2:16 PM and we were right where I like to be in the race (EMS was leading having left at 1:48). We caught up with the lead pack (the first teams had about a 20 minute lead at the TA) that was having trouble with the first CP on the trek. This was our section – we had 2 solid navigators and we used that to our advantage. We made a clockwise loop easily nailing every CP. As it started to get dark – Greg started to really hurt. I knew that we were in trouble. We finally made our first mistake at BP12 – over-running the turn into the swamp (it was dark). We doubled back and found it pretty easily after that thanks to thesolid trail left by the teams in front of us. We had had dry shoes up to that point, but BP12 was a slog in knee deep water. It also had a BP12+ that was shown on a map at BP12. The direct route to BP12+ looked too thick so we went around – but gave up after a short search. Greg was now really hurting and was having a hard time keeping up. We decided to get back and skipped BP13 – we knew that would take us out of the hunt, but we also knew that Greg might have to drop, and we had lost the passport. Rob put Greg on a tow rope (we had about 10 miles to go) and we made it back to the TA around midnight. Greg dropped at this point and we sat him in a chair and headed out for Paddle #2. Any normal human we would have put on an IV – but Greg is strong and he would recover with rest.



And then there were 3 – to be continued….

Race Director - Resolution and UCF Race

I was recently the race director for 2 races and in both cases I've got some great pictures and video. The first race was the Resolution put on by Pangea Adventure Racing. The results of this race along with some great video are available at the Pangea Site - click on the video link to see the video I created. Also - Mark the photographer for Team Race Photos was out and shooting photos of this incredibly scenic area. They are at the Team Race Photos site. These photos are worth a look even if you don't race - they are incredible photos of a scenic area.



The other race that I directed was the UCF adventure race. Once again I took some video footage which is available at Trail Maps. In addition Mark was out at this race and again took some great photos that are at Team Race Photos. So even though my blog may not be too busy - I've still been pretty active. While you are checking out these sites - take a look at the trail maps wiki, if you are from Central Florida we are starting to get some nice pages created.

Jamie Sheriff making the leap

Swamp Stomp 08

Watch here for a race write-up on the swamp stomp - but until then follow the team I am racing with - SWIM/TCO on the checkpoint tracker - hopefully there will be more here soon from me. Right now I am putting together my gear, food, clothes and getting everything ready for the trip Friday to Sarasota to race. The race will be in the Myakka State Preserve - a huge area for racing.

More on Primal Quest

So now the PQ is partly a challenge for the mental aspect. One thing that is pretty cool is that it is named one of the 7 most difficult. The coolest thing on this is that the endurance folks can look at it and see what the other 6 are.... So now I am contemplating how I can compete in the others. The Hawaii Ironman looks like a pretty easy second. The Badwater - though incredibly challenging might also be one to shoot for. I'm not sure about events like Dakar (I'm not a driver) or the Idarod (not a dog sledder) - but who knows, maybe there is time to learn.

Anyway - this one is worth checking out. And stay posted for info on the Swamp Stomp and be sure to check out my mapping at http://trailmaps.pbwiki.com/

7 hardest events

Eco-Primal Quest

One of the interesting things about talking to folks not in the adventure racing community about doing the Primal Quest is explaining the race to them. These two video's pretty much sum it up...

Black Hammock Wilderness Area Trail Mapping

This is a detailed trail map of the Black Hammock Wilderness Area (click on the map for the original printable file). The BHWA is a Seminole County WA - info at http://www.seminolecountyfl.gov/leisure/natland/bhammock.asp

I created this trail map of the Black Hammock Wilderness Area trails during the 2007-08 Christmas break. To create it I used my Garmin GPS 72 set on track mode (this is automatic) and simply carried it in my pack as I ran and biked the trail network. The best GPS units now for doing this are the Garmin 60 CSx or Garmin 76 CSx - they both track and have very good antenna strengh - critical for not losing coverage under tree cover. I am sure there are a few trails I missed (this was done in three successive workouts) - and if so I will be going back and filling in the blanks later. After each workout I downloaded the trail network to my Topo! software ( http://maps.nationalgeographic.com/category/Outdoor%20Recreation%20Mapping%20Software/?cid=3&tid=0 ) - at one point it looked like they were going to have a nice online capability of sharing the TPO files, but this seems to be a lower prioirty for them now. No worries - if they don't do it someone else will eventually. Anyway - I download the track (as a freehand route without waypoints) to the software and overlay it on top of the USGS topo maps from the software. The printout should print at a 1:15000 scale (not the original1:24000). I did some editing - deleting duplication of some tracks and defining the trail style before printing.

This is pretty much the type of maps we are producing for adventure racing in Florida, most all the race directors (Elias Jiminez, WeCeFAR folks, Greg Owens, etc... ) are familiar with doing this mapping now - so we are getting some pretty nice maps. Anyone with other good mapping tips (also ones that can be done easily) or software, please feel free to comment on this post. I am probably going to set up a wiki of the local trail maps and hiking as soon as I find someone to host it for free (or convince CFAR folks to pay fo the hosting).

Family Adventure Vacation - Stowe Vermont

Stowe Vermont – Family Vacation

Sunday Dec. 16

The travel to Stowe was not looking good as we boarded the plane to JFK. Two major snowstorms had been in the forecast for days – and the travel advisories were up in full force. Sure enough as we arrived at JFK around 3 PM, it was snow turning to rain. All the northbound flights from JFK were cancelled, except one – ours to Burlington Vermont. We only faced a 2 hour delay which gave us time to explore JFK’s food choices. We arrived in Burlington around 5 PM (it gets dark around 4:30 PM) and picked up our rented Mitsubishi Galant to head to Stowe at the tail end of the snowstorm and 2 full feet of Snow. The drive up to the Trapp Family Lodge (a family business of the Trapp family from the “The Sound of Music”) was a nailbiter. As I kept the gas on the floor with the wheels spinning and the motor revved at 100% - the car was slowing to crawl. It must have been pure luck – the little car made it up the mountain. After a nice dinner at the Trapp Lodge – we headed to our cabin, turned on the TV and wound down – tired from the excitement of the day long travel.

Monday Dec. 17

This was the least eventful of the days. The snow was still not cleared from the roads – but we did venture to the grocery store where we stocked up on food for the week and also bought some snow disks for sledding. That afternoon we tromped through snow, sledded down hills and explored the area around the lodge which was still pretty much snowed in.

Tuesday Dec. 18

It was time to learn how to do cross country skiing. The Trapp Family Lodge is known for some of the best XC skiing trails in the country and also expert instruction. The entire family got to learn all about XC or Nordic skiing – our instructor (Larry) was great and we made it through our lessons. After some skiing and lunch (we could ski right to our cabin)– Catherine and Linda decided to do the snow shoe adventure while Anna and Ron tried their hand at the ski trails. XC skis are “squirrely” to say the least. We moved well – but Anna spent the better part of 3 miles on her butt, and I was having trouble with controlling the skis on the downhill. Still we had fun and were quite tired by the time it got dark. Time for some relaxation as Tuesday would be the start of downhill days.






Wednesday – Friday

Mt. Mansfield had 3 feet of natural snow and also plenty more man-made. Linda started with lessons getting good instructors on both Wednesday and Friday. We put the kids in mountain adventure school, and they learned both skiing (Anna’s strength) and snowbarding (Catherine’s strength). Linda improved so much from lessons – that I decided to take a morning lesson on dynamic skiing (thanks to Jonathan, my instructor – he was awesome). After the lessons even the hardest slopes that I had found challenging earlier – were now easily handled. All the nuances that I had been missing were now solid. I spent the afternoon trying all the slopes that looked too steep or slick – and never felt uncomfortable or out of control. I did fall once – it is still tough to hit a mogul on a steep incline. Linda had improved greatly also – she still does not like steep – but she controls the ski’s on the green slopes. Catherine had mastered the basics of the snowboard. All three days had good weather with temps ranging from about 5 F – 15 F, good ski weather.




Saturday Dec. 22

This was our last skiing day and I wanted to give XC one more shot. The weather was also a lot warmer – about 20 F. Anna and I headed out on some more strenuous slopes, while Linda and Catherine went off in snowshoes again. After 3 days on alpine skis I found the XC skis difficult to handle, they love to slide all over the place, I even feel 3 times though not from going fast – simply slick ice and snow and unstable legs in the skis. Anna fared much better, mastering all the down-hills and up-hills we faced in the XC skis. We then picked up some snowshoes and went back and did a family snowshoe hike. Just for reference – you still sink in the snow and even a short distance in snowshoes is quite a workout. Another good night of sleep.





Sunday Dec. 23

Traveling in the north in the winter is always a challenge. We stopped by the Ben and Jerry’s Ice cream factory for a fun tour on the way to Burlington. At lunch I got a phone message from delta that our flight from Burlington to JFK was cancelled due to bad weather in the area. A heroic effort from a Delta gate agent diverted us to Cleveland and then to Atlanta where we missed our connecting flight to Orlando. Luckily we were able to book a later flight (lots of flights between Atlanta and Orlando on Delta) and finally make it home.

Kelly Park Orienteering - December 2007

The routes are exact based on a GPS I carried in my pack. Total time 79 minutes 25 seconds, total distance 5.6 miles, equivalent road distance 8.9 miles.

S to 1 – Trail run to attack point. I originally was going to attack from south of the green area. The white open looked good and it was not hard crossing the splotchy green. Came out just west of the flag, though the control description “terrace” was not too useful.
1 -2 – My mistake of the day. My bearing was slightly off and the lack of features was apparent. I saw the trail, ran too it and used the hilltop to attack. I misread the contours thinking the dashed contour was the bottom of the low area, instead it was a sub-contour and the flag was on a tree on the hillside. I corrected as soon as I saw my mistake (which you can see from my route.
2-3 – My plan was to beeline the control, but the terrain was really bad so I used the east trail as a backstop and attack and relief from the uneven ground. As I got into the low area I did not see the control which was on the northern edge of the low area and well hidden.
3-4 – This was pretty easy and the spur top and trail was apparent, though I did have to do some weaving through the thicket areas.
4-5 – I was proud of myself – finding the little gap in the dark green to the control east, cutting through and quickly finding the control.
5-6 – Plan was to hit the trail T-intersection and attack from there, bulls-eyed it.
6-7 – Never saw the vegetation boundaries (2 dashed circles), but the flag was obvious from 100 meters.
7-8 – Headed North until I got tired of the terrain – headed to the trail and put on the burners. Location was pretty obvious in the white finger protruding into the thicket. Attack point (depression) was also easy.
8-9 – Just run hard, looking for the easiest route and terrain, easy find on an obvious thicket.
9 – F Sprint to trail, and in.

Results (how are these for close results ! - 50 seconds separate the top 3):

Bob Putnam 78:35
Rob Kohnen 79:10
Ron Eaglin 79:25
Tim Buchholz 80:00
Jeremy Hauff 81:40
Wecefar (Kip and Jessica) 82:15

Kelly Park Orienteering

I figured I'd at least post my GPS track from the Floida Orienteering Championship. The event was an awesome race, with at least 5 competitors within 2 minutes of each other. Each of us made at least one mistake (mine was on #2 - which was in retrospect a pretty easy control compared to some of the more challenging controls that I did get. On Monday I'll scan and post the actual map with my route on it. I ran the entire even with a GPS on tracking mode in my backpack.

I am able to transfer the route to my Nationa Geographic TOPO software, which in turn I am able to print at 1:15K scale and trace (using a light table) onto my orienteering map. Unfortuantely my home scanner is not working (damn HP printers/scanners), but my scanner at work does work OK. Anyway - Here is the USGS version of the map, I'll also give my thoughts on various controls and where I made my mistake on #2 (which won't make much sense looking at the USGS map). Total off-road distance 5.7 miles (a tough 5.7 miles) and a travel time of 79 minutes 25 seconds. I did run too conservative as I had too much energy at the end, which at least made controls 8, 9, and F pretty fast.

Primal Quest Bound

I figured this is as good as a place as any to announce something this big. I am joining Team Blue on their epic adventure that is Primal Quest ( http://www.ecoprimalquest.com/wp-primal/ ) . Of course this is more than just entering a race. On any given day I can simply show up and complete an iron distance triathlon event (they actually seem kind of short - like a long training day) - though I am still amazed at how much they cost ($400-$500). This is different, this requires starting in ironman shape and honing to a level well beyond this. It also requires certified skills in ropes, climbing, first aid, navigation, swimming, whitewater, and paddling. Of course to that end you have to do the certifications (I will be going with my team to Camp XStream http://www.gravityplay.com/campxstream/index.html for the certs).

The commitments are more than just physical, the cost ($12,500 per team) is also pretty intense. To that end I will probably be hosting seminars on everything from navigation to paddling - all for the SDR2PQ - "Send Dr. Ron to Primal Quest" fund. Watch this space - I will be testing myself to some higher limits to ensure I am ready for this goal. I've already started upping distances, laying out a more severe training schedule - doing what needs to be done.

I join 2 other Floridians (Blaine Reeves and Don Nettlow) who will be racing for my normal team (Team Travelcountry.com) in this PQ preparation effort. I have 200 days, I will be ready...

Turkey Burn Maps

Turkey Burn Rogaine Adventure Race

Turkey Burn Rogaine Adventure Race
Race Director: Dave Brault/ Team Sun-tek Skylights.

BB = Bonus Bike, MB = Mandatory Bike
BP = Bonus Paddle, MP = Mandatory Paddle
BT = Bonus Trek, MT = Mandatory Trek

To understand what it is like to race in a Rogaine adventure race, you must understand Rogaine. Unlike most races where you complete a course and the fastest time wins – in a Rogaine, you already know your time, the objective is to complete as much of the course as possible. In the TB Rogaine control points are a mixture of mandatory and bonus. All teams must complete the mandatory CP’s, and as many of the bonus CP’s as possible. The Turkey Burn is a Rogaine style race of this type, which is a great format as all teams can compete at their levels and they all finish at roughly the same time. This was also the inaugural race for Pangea Adventure Racing (www.pangeaadventureracing.com) which was the company formed by Greg Owens to handle the challenge of setting adventure races in Central Florida.

Team TCO (Travel Country Outdoors, www.travelcountry.com) was made up of Jamie Sheriff, Ken Kandefar, and Greg Corbitt and we were ready to race, kind of. Greg was coming off a stomach virus that had kept him down all week so he was not starting at 100%. I was feeling pretty good, but had raced literally the last 2 months on races ranging from 4 hour to 30 hours, though I was looking forward to a break after this race for at least a few weeks. Adventure racers are tough stuff so it was that we got about 4 hours of sleep and headed out to set up at the race TA at 2 AM. We were given maps at 3 AM and for me the race was on. Planning and plotting of the course took us the full hour (and about 3 extra minutes) as we missed the start gun and spent the first little run section catching up with the pack.

The race started at 4 AM with a wonderful moonlight paddle on the Wekiva River. There was no navigation on this paddle, we simply paddled to Katie’s landing and back. We arrived back and immediate headed off on bikes for the real racing. It was about 5:30 AM when we headed out, and our plan was to collect BB5 first. A route choice of taking the northern jeep trail was bad as the trail turned sandy quite early, though the southern road might have been just as bad (though I suspect it was better). We slogged about 2 km through the sand and punched BB5. From here it was pretty easy riding East Northeast to Sandy Road and then north to MB1. This was good road and after the bridge the ride up Pine Rd. was fun. BB4 was next and it was pretty easy (though it was off the road a ways). We headed south to BB1 which was pretty easy. We headed back north and picked up MB3 on the way to BB2, which was pretty easy. The trail north from BB2 to the intersection at the end of the railroad grade was packed with head high dog fennel (a tall grass). At this point I reset my odometer, of course I should have paid attention to it as we missed the turn for MB2 and had to double back about 200 meters to it, and then it was to TA1.

The transition to trek here was slower than I would have liked, but we were heading out on foot and it was a beautiful day. BT3 and BT4 were our first two control and were found pretty easy (though the clue to BT4 was in pretty bad shape). From there it was south on the old forest road – now completely overgrown – to MT1. From there it was West Southwest to the southern trail to BT2. We walked right past the flag twice before finally nailing it and heading to BT1. With the clue of a vegetation boundary east of the trail we also found BT1 pretty fast. Since the woods were pretty open we decided to bushwhack back over to the N-S trail. This ended us up near the creek intersection on the N-S trail. A left turn and a little more bushwhack and we were heading north where we had biked earlier that morning. We had kept a pretty good pace throughout the trek, but now we were wearing down and ended up walking the last bit into the TA. So far we had collected 50 points and hit all the mandatory CP’s for that section of the race.

At this point I knew that time would be critical. We still wanted to get BB3 on the way back to the Main TA and that looked to be quite a bit of extra biking and we had been warned that the last half mile of the trial to BB3 was very sandy. After getting back to Pine Rd. we took the right onto the railroad grade (Grade Rd). At this point I switched the Seminole State Forest map. We took a convoluted route towards BB3 staying on the best of the rideable roads (see course map with overlay). We reached the sand road, dropped our bikes and headed down the sand road on foot (from the earlier bike tracks we knew that others had made this choice). Hoof-hearted and SWIM where the other 2 teams to go after this 15 point control, though I was beginning to suspect this was a bad choice. We wasted about 10-15 minutes with some extra looking here – but found the control and headed back to the TA at the fastest clip we could carry.

At arriving at the Main TA we had to scale the wall, paddle 8 miles, bike to the horse barn, do an orienteering course, and get back – all in 3 hours. We scaled the wall quickly and headed out on the paddle. We hammered the paddle as fast as our arms could take us. Greg was in the boat with me, and I could tell he was having some serious back spasms. We saw other teams heading back as we approached the mandatory paddle CP, found it and headed back which was much easier (downstream). I knew I needed an hour to complete the orienteering course under ideal condition (fresh) – and we were not fresh and we only had 40 minutes to bike, run, and then bike back.

Still we had a job to do, we skipped the transition and simply hopped on our bikes – BUT Greg’s front bike tire was flat. The bike was only 1 ½ miles so we pumped it up, prayed it would hold and took the big bike pump with us. The tire held to the barn and we were off and running. We only had time to hit the 2 mandatory and there was no time to have trouble finding them. We nailed both of them – but we were not running well. I was hurting so Ken and then Jamie took my pack so I could concentrate on the navigation. Greg was hurting from simple lack of fuel (remember he had not eaten much of anything since Wednesday and being sick). The 4 PM deadline passed as we were limping back to the bikes about halfway between MT12 and the bikes. We were now losing points, one for every minute. We had been going at 100% for the last 6 hours. We hit the bikes and re-pumped Greg’s bike tire and took the last 1 ½ miles at what could only be called a reckless all-out pace.

In the end we finished at 4:20 (losing 20 points of our 65 we had painstakingly gathered) – and in second place. We had pushed as hard as we possibly could – how we wished we could have gotten back some of those easy minutes from the first half of the course. Congratulations to Manny and Jason of Hoof-hearted, who had done a wonderful job of pushing hard and making all the right choices, even picking up an extra 5 points on the orienteering section. They took the overall win – and I think we were in second behind them.

Of all the races in the past few months – this was the one that hurt the most, we pushed with everything we had for a solid 6 hours and that was following 6 hours of pretty hard pushing. Everyone on the team came through when they had to and once gain we raced wonderfully.

LEACH Maps

LEACH Pictures

The full set of pictures from the LEACH are available at http://www.clubscrub.org/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=600

Here are pics from the teams in this LEACH race report.

LEACH - Loxahatchee Eco Adventure Challenge

LEACH 2007 – A tale of 3 teams

While sitting at the banquet table at Nationals over Bourbon shots and Beer, Melissa and I made a commitment to race the LEACH, one of the premiere races in South Florida. And so it was this Friday I was packing up the family to head to a cabin we were lucky enough to get in Jonathan Dickinson State Park (awesome cabins in a beautiful park – definitely worth trip for those looking for a fun family getaway). I would be racing with Chris in what would pretty much be his first sprint race and his second ever adventure race (having raced a multi-day race in New Caledonia - http://www.sleepmonsters.com/racereport.php?race_id=4311) as Team TCO. Melissa would be racing as a 3 person coed team with Jim Levine and a new racer, Dave – who was a colleague of theirs from work (and also covered for Jim on his trip to Nationals) and Team Trail and Error. Melissa had injured herself the week prior doing a competition and was limping on a bad hip before the race even started. She would be racing on painkillers and her own natural determination. Anyone who knows Melissa, also knows that there is a lot of that…

We got the maps and passports about 15 minutes before the race start and some quick instructions. Pretty much I gathered info that one course route was evil (bad trail) and the area was a lot wetter than the previous year. We quickly laminated the maps and passports with contact paper (they were plain paper) and made it to the start with about 30 seconds to spare before the “Go”.

The race started with a short (3/4 mile) run to CP1 where we were greeted with a swim, at least for one member of the team. I shed my backpack and tossed it to Chris and leaped into the water which was pretty chilly (it was a chilly morning at JD). The flag was suspended on a line over a creek and the water was deep enough that this was a real swim. To save time in the pack I swam around the back side of the control to punch it – and with a little teamwork from other teams (one hand on the rope, one hand on the punch, one hand holding the passport – see the problem here?) was able to punch and swim to a spot where it was less crowded and exit the water flopping my body up the wet, slippery, and muddy bank. Jim had essentially jumped right into the water with the Trail and Error passport and we headed back to the TA in mid-pack.

After reaching the TA we scaled the “Wall of Death” which as walls go was moderately challenging, though teamwork made it a lot easier. We grabbed our boats and were on the water for checkpoints 2, 3, and 4. Because the wall and the CP1 had been pretty tight bottlenecks we hit the water about 10 minutes behind the lead teams – but knowing both teams were strong paddlers, I was pretty sure we would put some distance on the field. Sure enough before hitting CP2 on the south riverbank and the short run to CP3 and back, the teams in front of us had been reduced to 5 teams. By the time we reached CP4 at Trapper Nelson’s we were down to a lead pack 4 teams. As we headed back Team “Are We There Yet” led by Will Murphy and our team had put some distance on the field.

As we exited the water the next special test was to fill a water bucket, throw the water to our team-mate and then they would use the water to fill a 3rd bucket and lift a gallon jug of water (with a pulley attached to the bucket) off the ground. After a little trial and error I figured that throwing the water up in a nice arc, caused it to land cleanly in the bucket Chris had – and we finished the special test in a few quick minutes.

It was then on to bikes where we would head out, not to return to the TA until the end of the race. We got everything together quickly and then waited a couple of minutes for Melissa and her team to enter the TA before heading out on bikes. We biked an easy road 3 miles to CP5 where Melissa caught up with us and we had to dismount and do a short (3 mile) run course. According to JJ who was at the CP, RWTY had left 6 minutes prior. Melissa was limping pretty bad – but we decided to run as strong as we could and caught up with RWTY at an unmapped intersection just west of CP7. We worked together to get CP8 (which also required another navigation decision on an unmapped road and it was back to the CP5, which was also CP9.

From CP9 we instead headed north along the railroad tracks and cut across on a trail directly to CP10, shortcutting RWTY who had taken a longer road ride to CP10 and the lookout tower. After climbing the tower and getting our picture taken at the top (yes this was part of the race), we went down for the next special test. A 2 mile cyclocross trail had been set up and the person (not team) with the best time would get a special prize at the end. Chris and I took this pretty easy (Chris at 8:10 and me at 8:24). After finishing I forgot to go back on the short cut we had taken from CP9 to CP10 and ended up following RWTY along the road route past CP9 and to CP11. We arrived just seconds ahead of RWTY at CP11 and the next special test – the “Spiderweb of Death”.

This was a team test where we clipped onto a rope that we had to follow through an obstacle course (and with the team-mates clipped to each other). Our team-work was going strong and we completed the course just and Melissa’s team arrived. RWTY left second before us heading west on the road. I decided to take a route north on the power lines – pretty much the opposite direction. We arrived at CP12 at pretty much the same time and made a silent agreement to work together on the next few controls.

From CP12 we had to bikewhack west across into the swamp, across the creek, up through thick palmettos to get to the trail we needed. It was a pretty tough bikewhack especially since the creek was not only deep – it also had a muck bottom. I got snagged on a tree and any effort to lift myself over by pushing down with one foot just sunk that foot down into the muck. What I really need was a free hand to push off the submerged tree I was caught on – but the hands were busy holding up my bike. A strategy of holding my bike with one hand and using both feet and my free hand to “3-leg” through the downed tree eventually got me out. Of course the other 4 racers coming through with me were smart enough to stay off the tree. Coming out the other side of the creek was also tough with a solid wall of green followed by palmettos. Willem (I’ve raced with both Will and Willem of Team RWTY) found a good spot to bash through and we were finally out and racing again.

The ride to CP13 was pretty easy and we all rode together. We worked together to find the CP which was just off the Florida Trail in a pretty interesting (ready swampy with many water crossings) section of the trail. Rding from CP13 to CP14 we saw Melissa’s group, which had gained another rider somehow, heading towards CP13. We leapfrogged with RWTY a few times heading to CP14 and were the first bikes to arrive. (from what I understand all the other teams skipped CP13, which was a bonus CP to make the 3 PM cutoff at CP14). At CP14 we had another special test, the orienteering course.

The course was not a true orienteering, as an orienteering is a sport which has a special map and rules. The was a bearing course and it would take both of our teams into some pretty thick and interesting terrain. On one of the OP points we did have to form a search line – which quickly got us to the OP (I think it was OP4 which was 30 meters east of the creek we kept crossing). Luckily we had kept close track of all the clues (15 degrees, 25 meters) to lead us to the last control. One other team had arrived in the mean time and we worked together to get the final OP (CP15) before memorizing the map hung there to return us to the bikes.

At the bikes I tried to note whether Melissa and the other team were there – but by this time a LOT of bikes had arrived. Chris and I mounted up and I called to Will to see if they were ready. Their team was looking at the maps, I had memorized the route back to the TA while we were running from CP15 to the bikes so we headed out. (This was not really that hard as we simply stayed on the westernmost trail all the way back). On arrival we had one more task to complete. We were given the location of the final CP (16) which looked to be an easy out and back mile long run. Jason warned us that long pants might be a good idea – so we knew it would not be that easy. I tried to take us on a shortcut route (I could see a yellow blazed trail that looked like it diagonalled across to the CP – but it was quickly apparent it did not). We simply hit the power line and headed east on the Township/Range fenceline to CP16. As we got there we learned that it would not be that easy – the control gave us a bearing and distance that would put us in the middle of a wire and trip grass swamp. We fought our way into the swamp to the clearing which was on the map and was right where the bearing and distance were taking us. Instead of keeping a straight bearing I tried to weave us around the thickest of the stuff, relying on hitting the large clearing and seeing the flag. Sure enough we could see daylight and the flag was right there on the north side of a huge open wiregrass clearing. We got to it, punched the flag, painted our pinkies and headed back following our path in, back out.

After exiting the swamp we had an easy mile run back, passing RWTY on the way into the swamp. We kept an easy light jog back into the TA and ended up finishing at about 3:30 (beating the 4 PM cutoff). RWTY arrived about 20 minutes later, followed by Trail and Error another 10 minutes after that. It looked like we were the only three teams to get all the controls and beat the cutoff. It was an incredibly exciting race and the cutoffs and the competition were tight enough to keep us moving hard. Team RWTY raced a solid race, running fully on all the (many) foot legs, paddling hard and keeping us moving on the bikes. It was a great race. I should have the maps up by Tuesday (Melissa is scanning them and sending them to me). I have one more race for the season - The Turkey Burn, a solid 12 hour Rogaine style race in one of the most incredible areas of Florida – Wekiva Springs and Blackwater Creek. Watch here for the latest.

Bubba Goat 2007 - Florida Orienteering

The Bubba Goat is an orienteering that is different from a standard orienteering as it is a mass start and it is also very LONG. The 2007 Bubba Goat starting at Kelly Park advertised a race distance of 17.5 km which means that we would be running at least 20-25 km for the entire race. As we lined up at the start my team-mate Jamie, and another adventure racer Nick decided we would work together on the course. This outlines some of the methods (with the map attached) how we handled many of the controls (24 total) in this long race.

S-1, 1-2: These were both quite easy with obvious attack points.
2-3: As this was a relatively large feature we paralleled the E-w road to the south. The sparse features were relatively easy.
3-4: Pretty much due south using the small depression just south of the road to verify direction.
4-5: Decided to head south and use the trail which allowed for some pretty fast running.
5-6: Back to the trail, since the marked vegetation boundary was visible from the trail, an obvious cut across.
6-7: Again hit the trail, used the depression as an attack point to diagonal across. Once hitting the Florida trail we used the open (orange) areas to simply guide us to the control.
7-8: Basically bushwhack to the trail to the south. Use the depression on the trail to attack to the south.
8-9: Trail and attack from the saddle. Since it was so subtle (the saddle) this was a bit challenging.
9-10: South to the trail, then use the depression on the edge of the trail as an attack. The first attack was unsuccessful so we decided to double back. On the way back I headed south to attempt to find the open area south of 10, found it and then used it to attack 10 from the due south. This time successfully.
10-11: This was a long trail run with a long attack point (rough open on trail, with one cross trail), however was on a large feature that made the approach quite easy.
12-15: These were all pretty easy with obvious attack points, we nailed each one. 13 would have been the most challenging because the terrain was thick, but it was due north of the visible hilltop making it easy to find by a reverse bearing.
15-16: The attack off the trail after the shallow depression worked well. The objective was to find the hole in the green thickets and attack from there. We nailed it.
16-17: The original plan was to attack from the west (going around) , the bend in the trail was obvious enough that we diagonaled across to the re-entrant (which was very shallow).
17-18: After hitting the trail (too far north) we used the depression again, however we missed the flag too far to the north. The backstop (N-S trail) gave us a nice attack, the distinct tree west of the trail south of the berms.
18-19: This was pretty subtle terrain after leaving the trail. We got a bit lucky with our attack off the hilltop, but we did hit the flag almost dead-on.
19-20: This was pretty easy from the road intersection attack point.
20-21: Jamie and Nick cutoff and headed back here, Jamie needed to get back (after 3 hours of continuous running) for a tennis match. Because the rules allowed us to skip 2 controls, Nick started for CP23, CP24 and the finish to meet his wife and kids. CP21 was essentially a handrail along the open (orange) area.
21-22: I was getting pretty tired at this point. The thickets from pretty obvious and the trail bend south of CP4 was a pretty good attack.
22-23: After leaving CP22 I hit the trail heading east and ran back into Nick who had overshot CP23 and was coming back around for a second attack. Unfortunately I was paying more attention to this and missed the north trail cutoff and had to double back. After that we used the subtle green “blob” as our attack (and it was very subtle), but we did nail the control.
23-24: This was really easy, but it did require that we run back to the gate and then back to 24 adding a lot of distance to both Nick and my tired legs.

In the end we both finished in about 4 hours (nearly exactly). As it turned out, Nick and I were the only two to finish the entire course and I was the only one to get all the controls. It was a great preparation for adventure racing and the upcoming races the next two weeks (the LEACH and the Turkey Burn) – watch this space for details on both these races to come.

Also for the Bubba Results - they are at http://www.floridaorienteering.org/results/2007-bubba.htm

USARA Nationals Checkpoint 4-5

No major adventure race is complete without the fake CP. In this race CP4 was it - we got there and got to plot another location further up the trail. Instead of staying on the trail we took the road and then bushwhacked back to the trail from above. As the drawn Berryman trail is an approximation of the actual trail - this was pretty challenging. From CP4 we chose to bikewhack to the road and then again to the trail leading to CP5. This was a great section of the race for us. We had not been pushing the pace so had plenty of energy, the weather was nice and it was afternoon and relatively warm.

USARA Nationals Checkpoints 10-12

CP10 was easy but CP11 was tricky with no obvious attack point. For those teams hitting it with daylight it was a simple matter of counting re-entrants to the south of the trail. For teams hitting it at night - the trail was located in a small valley and the re-entrants were not visible from the trail. We did end up hitting the re-entrant east of the correct one. We realized our mistake and headed over the ridge to the correct re-entrant eventually dropping down teh re-entrant to the control. The other challenge here was after paddling was portaging down the spillway to the water in the dark. It is amazing how things that are so simple in the sunlight can be so challenging at night.

USARA Nationals Checkpoints 15-21

This was one of the more challenging sections of the race for many teams. For one, nearly all teams worked through this section in the dark (as did we). CP15, 16, and 17 were deceptively easy. Even though CP18 was in an obvious location - the trek from 17 to 18 on an unmarked trail was tricky. CP18 to CP19 and then CP20 required some tight attention to detail and a good choice of attack points. CP19 had us start into it one spur early until I gave Melissa the map, rested my brain. She chose an attack from the 3rd stream trail crossing, took a bearing and led us straight to it. I took over at CP20. I attacked from the trail where it started west and aimed off a little to the east to hit the re-entrant above the control. This worked quite well and we nailed the control easily. CP21 was a TA and also quite easy with obvious backstops.

USARA Nationals Initial O Course

This is the first initial map for the USARA Nationals (actually it is just a scan of part of the map). The O-Course was not that terribly difficult. We did have issues with CPE. The drawn road north of the CP ended on the hilltop NE of the control and another unmarked road followed the ridgeline towards G. Both F and G were on unmarked roads that followed the ridges. Still we had a good time even though we wasted about 40 minutes using wrong roads.

USARA National Championships, Potosi Missouri

USARA National Championships, Potosi, Missouri

Of the experiences that everyone should have in their life, competing in a national championship should be one of them. Whether it is in football chess, scrabble, or, in our case, adventure racing, being there is simply on of those great experiences. So there we were; Melissa, Jim, and I listening to Robyn Benincasa (one of the all star professionals of our sport) telling us about how hard it is to relate to these things until you have experienced the same. Just a day and a half earlier we hard started on a race/journey that would be one of the great experiences of any life.

I had only raced with Jim twice, having hooked up for the Croom Crusher and then after that the “Howl at the Moon” where we qualified (with Melissa Watson) for the Nationals. I had not planned on going, but a little arm twisting from Melissa – you wanna race ? – had me changing my plans and heading to Potosi, Missouri. So there we were; Melissa, Jim, and I; sitting in the pre-race briefing Thursday night at the Trout Lodge of the Ozarks.

It was great to see all the teams in the pre-race. Some teams looking for top 10 finishes were intent on gleaning every bit of info to have a solid race. My goals were a bit more pragmatic – a solid race and finishing. As with most adventure races we would not really know what the course would be until the next morning when we got our map and passport. Maps would be handed out at 5 AM, then a 6 AM second pre-race, and then a 7 AM start. After the map handout we did the usual course plotting (2 hours, 13 orienteering CP’s, and 25 course CP’s all to be plotted). We finished with a few minutes to spare and headed to the start just as the race began. Then the real fun began.

Jim had to run to the top of a hill (with all the other teams) and then meet Melissa and I at the south end of the lake near the start where we would be paddling. Jim took off and Melissa and I worked through the bottleneck of boats heading to the meeting point with Jim. The temperature was cold enough that water splashing on to us and the boats froze within a minute creating a nice sheen of ice on the gunnels. Fog rose from the lake in huge columns that swirled through the air as the armada of boats paddled south. As we picked up Jim and headed towards the first paddle checkpoints – the sun crested the eastern mountain top illuminating the hilltops to the west in a brilliant blaze of fire and golden fall hues. The first 2 checkpoints were along the paddle, and we stayed in the back of the pack – pacing ourselves and enjoying the scenery.

After exiting the boats after maybe 3 miles of paddling, we started the orienteering course. We were allowed to do the points in any order and we selected a route that took essentially clockwise around the lake. The only one that gave us any trouble was the second one (E - Boulder) as I was relying on the mapped roads on the map to actually be as shown. This was of course after a strong warning the day before in the pre-race not to rely too heavily on the locations of those roads. After switching to reading contours we picked it up quickly and finished a beautiful (and fun) orienteering course without too much trouble. The course had offered some incredible views and scenery. Another cool thing was Melissa found a pretty cool piece of trash, we thought it might be part of a still. The trash won us the ARFE best trash award!

When we arrived at the transition area, there were only a handful of bikes left, as most teams had long ago come and gone from the O course and headed out on bikes. We were in great spirits, we had not pushed very hard on the orienteering and were relatively fresh. The sun had warmed things up nicely so we pulled off a few layers of clothing and headed out on the first bike leg. The first couple of checkpoints (CP 1 and CP2) basically had us climbing the mountain and gaining some elevation. Of course with all of us being flatlanders – this was a bit brutal on our Florida legs, but we found ourselves passing teams on some of the climbs. The real fun of the bike leg started when we entered the single track of the Berryman trail. The bike terrain was pretty awesome, I’m a decent mountain biker and found myself easing cautiously through many of the switchbacks and rocky areas of the course. Our first surprise came at CP4, which had us plot another point a few miles up the trail for the “real” CP4. We decided to take a riskier route than the straight trail ride that would lead us to CP4, which had us navigate to above the CP by road and trail ride back down. We found the control, but it became obvious that the mapped trail was simply an “approximation” of the actual trail. Still the risk paid off as the teams we were with when we found the first CP4 location had not arrived at the new CP4. We had an easy time biking to CP5 and then following the mandatory route along the Berryman trail to CP6 (which was an awesome, mostly downhill, trail ride). We saw team BAMF (also a Florida team) heading out from CP5, which as it turned out was their second time, having taken an illegal route and having to redo a portion of the ride. We passed BAMF just before CP6 changing a flat about 100 meters from CP6. Also CP6 was a great location as an artesian spring with good water allowed us to refresh all our water.
The rest of the bike ride was uneventful buy nice trail to road ride. We chose another risky route, but again it paid off as we passed a few more teams arrived at CP8 and the start of the next trek section in good spirits.

The trek would have 2 checkpoints that would give us a bit of trouble. The first one (CP9) plotted about 100 meters from the drawn trail we were using, however it was actually located on the trail. We spent about 20 minutes looking around the woods for the flag, before returning to the trail and running right into it, just meters from where we had gone in (so much for relying on the mapped trail). CP10 was in an easy spot and a quick find. CP11 gave us (and a lot of other teams) trouble. In the dark and it had us finding a re-entrant at night looking south across a large stream bed. In the daylight the re-entrants would have been quite obvious, but at night it was much trickier. We found what we though was the correct re-entrant, but realized that we had to be “one over” so we crested the ridge and dropped into the second re-entrant and quickly found the checkpoint. We had trekked/walked the entire section and were feeling really good when we arrived at CP12 and the paddle.

By now it was about 9:30 PM and temperatures had dropped quite a bit. We had heard the water conditions were pretty low, so we had donned rain jackets, waterproof pants, seal skins socks and layered up for what would be a cold wet paddle. We first paddled across a small lake and down a steep spillway heading for the creek we would be paddling. The paddle looked to be a little over 10 miles, so we estimated worst case scenario at 4 hours.

We quickly realized that the worst case scenario was a lot worse than we had reckoned. Though the creek was pretty with swift moving water, it was also shallow. We would paddle hard where we had water, scanning the river with our lights for the deep water. We would hit the rock bars and shallows with scrunching noise that we quickly learned to dread. Bottoming out meant either poling our boat (with the paddles) off the shallow, or jumping out of the boat (I should mention into the cold water) and pulling it off the shallows. When we arrived at the CP13 location we pulled out on the wrong side of the river, so I walked across (remember shallow) and climbed the telephone pole where it was hung. This had given a few team (again, only in the dark) at night some trouble not looking up to see it in the air. I also had some trouble punching it – hanging from the pole with one hand I got the electronic dipper stuck and it beeped 4 times instead of one. This was supposedly bad – but I still did not worry too much.

We did have one amazing encounter on the river. At one point we saw what looked like a tree branch swimming across the stream. Our first thought (all Florida team) was gator, and then Jim said Tarpon!, but it was a beaver dragging a tree branch. He swam alongside of us for a while as we stared, dazed at him dragging the tree branch as he swam along completely ignoring us. After 5 hours of paddling and portaging, and scooching, and dragging – we made it to the takeout. At this point we were cold, wet, tired, and the fire at CP14 was quite a luxury. We spent some time drying out our gear before heading out on the last trek, a relatively long 16 mile trek.

We had heard that some teams had trouble with the checkpoints along this trek. By the time we got to the challenging ones (CP19 and CP20) we had daylight. That was a kind of sweet revenge – the fast teams had hit many of the early challenges in daylight which we hit later at night. These later controls they had darkness, while we hit them in the daylight. I did have a brain freeze on CP19, but simply handed the map to Melissa whose “fresh eyes” took us right to it with no problems at all. Our bikes were at CP21/CP8 – at this point we could “smell” the finish (last leg syndrome). It was probably obvious that we were having a good time as we strolled into the TA and started getting our bikes ready for the last big ride. We were joking and were feeling pretty good coming off the trek.

After a long transition we took the road up to CP22. As we arrived at the CP22 location a team came from the other direction and hinted for me to look at the passport. As it turned out the road was an illegal route to CP22, so we had a choice (1) go back and take the mandatory trail route, a 2 hour ride, or (2) take a 4 hour penalty. As it was getting late the team made a decision to take the penalty which would hopefully get us in around noon. I was glad as my Florida bike legs were now approaching a state of rubber and a 2 hour single track mountain bike ride was not something I was looking forward to at the time.

We headed on to CP23 and 24. The ride from CP23 to CP24 had the steepest climb of the race and I am quite proud to say I did not drop on it, though I did pay for it later. We saw other teams as we headed for CP25 (an out and back). At this point (around 29 hours of racing) we were pretty tired and were looking forward to the finish line. In the end we would finish after 29 and ½ hours of racing and take a four hour penalty and a solid 48th place finish. Jim had completed his first 24+ hour race, Melissa and I proved that we were a solid navigation team, and we had done what we came to do – had a great time.

(I’ll have maps up as soon as Melissa sends them to me)