The BEAR 2007

BEAR 2007 Adventure Race – Team TCO

When I found out that the BEAR would be held this year in Guana Reserve (north of St. Augustine) instead of Hanna Park (where it had been for the previous 8 years) I decided that this was too good an opportunity to miss; a classic race in a new location. I had a little bit of experience with Guana – we had passed though it in the 2007 Coast to Coast and I remembered it as an incredible area.

Greg and I are both veterans of lots of adventure races so we simply decided to throw our gear together and give this one a go. The pre-race was at 7:45 Am and contained the usual safety and course items and then we were off. To split up the pack before the initial bike ride, we had a special test requiring us to assemble mandatory gear at posts about 1/8 mile down a trail – carrying the team-mates back and forth. At the completion Greg and I hit the bikes mid-pack and started to the first bike leg. It was mostly wonderful and fast double track – with no real navigation (which did not stop me from making one wrong turn) to the coasteering (with bikes) section.

Coasteering (or coastaleering) is simply hand-railing a coastal section to a checkpoint. This first part of the coast was rideable, but soon mud and oyster made it into a bike push. As we continued downed trees made for a nice maze of over and under carrying the bikes. Greg and I saved times saved time by hoisting the bikes onto our backs and simply walking though the waist deep water off the coast. The section was really neat – especially with the light wind and shade through most of it. After coming to the end of the coasteering we were back on the bikes and we hammered the short ride back to the TA.

Finish
Viking: 0915
BAMF 0916
2 stooges 0917
Jax #1 0919
Jax #2 0919
TCO: 0920

We got the instruction for the next portion of the race (in the BEAR – you never know what the next leg will be). It was about a mile portage and what looked like a 4 mile paddle. I had forgotten my portage wheels at home (which would have saved us some time and effort) – but we took that in stride and headed out. A wrong turn on the portage gave us an extra five minutes, and we hit the water about 10-15 teams back. We could see the lead teams in the distance and Greg was worried about being so far back in the race at this point. That did not stop us from hammering the paddle – though. We had a pretty fast boat (Kevlar Pamlico 160) – which was perfect for the water conditions. As we round the point of the Tolomato River and headed into the Guana River there were only 4 teams in front of us – and they were in range. The Guana River was beautiful, calm, and glassy and we exited the water 3 minutes behind the lead team and made the TA in a close second (around 11 AM).

Stage Finish
Jax #1 1106
TCO 1110
BAMF 1114
Viking 1114


It was now getting quite hot out, and the next section was a trek. We quickly ran the roughly 1 ½ mile to the first CP and then I misread the map and headed us due west to the next CP along a vague trail (where following the main trail would have been a direct route). We did come back out to the main trail, but then being in the front I took one trail too early to the west again towards the Capo Creek Tower. As we got to Capo Creek (and no tower) – I spent a few minutes getting my bearings and reading the turns in the Creek, realizing we were about 300 meters south of the tower. Our choices were to double back and use the north bearing trail – or simply punch north through the marsh along Capo Creek. Anyone who knows our team – knows the bushwhack was our route, and the race directors who had been watching teams come in along the (drivable) trail to the tower from the east – were surprised to see us jogging along game trails in ankle deep water in the marsh. We had lost a few places and about 15 minutes in our unique route choice. It was very hot, and sandy, and no shade on the 2+ mile run back to the TA and we simply used speedwalking and dead-mans trot back to the TA.

Stage Finish
BAMF 1210
Jax #1 1214
Viking 1216
Bonham 1219
Jax#2 1228
TCO 1231


I really had no idea of our place at this point, I though there were 3-4 teams in front of us, but not far and we were entering a long bike leg. Greg and I are both strong bikers – and this looked to be a very long ride on hard sandy trails. We headed out onto the single track section of the ride and were close with 2 other teams – who seemed to have some local knowledge of the area. It was cooling off and it was obvious we were going to get some heavy rain (for which we were all thankful). The roads were ride-able sand simply requiring some hard peddling to hold a 6-10 mph pace.

Looking at the map I noticed 2 parallel roads and there were forest roads going back and forth between them every ½ mile or so. We cut over to the parallel road which turned out to be worse – so we headed back over to Hammock Road, and were now along – but we could see tracks from about 6-10 bikes in front of us. The instruction had us turning at the intersection of McNeil’s Road and North Road – and there was some uncertainty as to the exact location with the large number of forest roads – but this intersection turned out to be marked with a race sign. As we made the turn we saw 2 teams directly in front of us and we rode with them for the loop back for the next 2 miles.

I had been feeling bad during the start of the ride, but I knew that with cooling off in the rain and a few miles of riding I would feel better. Since most of my rides in races are longer than 6 hours (12 hours not being uncommon) I am used to pacing and also started feeling stronger as we continued. We had passed 4 teams in the loop and as we exited and headed back south on Hammock Road we only had one CP to find and I had only one team unaccounted for in front of us. We saw them coming from the final CP, though they looked to be hurting some. We hammered the ride back to the TA – Greg was having some problems with his back and could not get comfortable on the bike. I was feeling the best I had felt the entire race and was really starting to get into my “groove” – which is typical after 6-8 hours of racing.

As we came into the TA there was one team in the TA working on the puzzle of the bike leg (we had to spell a word with the letters along the way – G R D I A N) – Greg and transitioned quickly and headed out for the next leg – a paddle. I gave the team a little hint as we went out, and I think they had it solved as we portaged our boat for the paddle on Lake Ponte Vedra (about 1/3 mile portage). We hit the water, it was cool and cloudy, and the paddle was short. At this point I thought we might be in the lead – we were both feeling well and there was no way anyone would catch us on the water.

Stage Finish
BAMF 1500
TCO 1520
Viking 1520
Wiseguys 1529

We paddled to a CP at the water’s edge were we had a logic puzzle to solve and then a short orienteering loop. After solving the logic puzzle – Greg noticed there were 2 boats already at the location. As we headed out on the orienteering – Team BAMF (made up of Jacksonville Beach life guards) came up the road, having completed the orienteering and starting pulling the boats out to the water. I was not sure of how long the orienteering was – but they had at least that as a lead on us. As it turned out, we moved through the O course in about 12 minutes. As we headed back onto the water towards the TA – we passed a lot of teams heading out. We were second across the line, about 10 minutes behind BAMF – with another group of teams 10-15 minutes behind us. Having the close competition really made the race that much more enjoyable. We finished in just over 8 hours – though I don’t remember the exact time.


Finish
BAMF 1630
TCO 1640
Wiseguys 1651
Vikings 1655

A special thanks to all the teams we had fun racing with and against. It was good seeing “Wise Guys” again. Also Team BAMF was fun racing against, even though we never saw them until the end of the race. Thanks to the folks at Performance Multi-sports for putting on another high quality and well designed and challenging race.

A work day, play day

This weekend I had a speaking engagement at Sanibel Harbor Resort and Conference center. This became an opportunity for the family to visit Sanibel, Captiva, and beaches in that area. I am not a big fan of resorts - I like to park my own car and would rather be able to walk to my car just out of the door of the hotel (pictured - looking out at our view at the resort). I also like the ability to eat breakfast for less than $20. However - Everyone at some time should visit the beaches at Sanibel and Captiva. Incredible shells and beautiful blue water (pictured swimming and shelling in the warm gulf waters).

After that it was to Fort Myers Beach staying at a little motel "Carousel Inn By the Sea" which was more to my liking. We could walk to the beach, cook our own food (full kitchenette and a grill outside of our room) and at the beach there were more sand dollars than I could imagine. At dinner that night I saw the "Lobster Claw", for $2 you could use a claw to try and catch your dinner (pictured). On Saturday we went to Lover's Key State Park (Florida State parks are awesome), and got there at park opening - the girls went crazy with shell collecting and there were lots of great shells.

SCAR 2007 Maps and Passports

SCAR Long Course Passport Instructions (start at 8 AM)

Obey all traffic rules on bike. Helmet must be worn at all times while on the bike, PFD’s must be worn at all times while on the paddle. Do not cross Lockwood near the S-F, you must go under the river bridge and go up the hill on the east side.

Stage 1: To receive map #2 you will need to retrieve two chips from controls at C1 and C2 as shown on Map 1. No travel along the golf course is allowed. After retrieving both chips return to the transition area 1 (TA1) to receive map #2.

Stage 2: After receiving your passport bike to transition area 2 (TA2). At TA2 you will receive a second passport. This passport will be zip tied to the canoes and must remain tied to the canoes until you return to TA2 and is removed by the TA2 volunteer. You must take the canoes to P1 through P4 (any order). You may visit any other controls you wish to visit along the paddle (these are punched on this passport). After completing the paddle return to TA2.

Stage 3: Bike and Trek to B1 through B8 (in any order). Use any route and method of travel (biking or trekking) to visit these checkpoints. After completing these checkpoints return to the start-finish for further instruction.

C1 – about 75 meters due south of fallen platform
C2 – South of River confluence

P1 – Downed tree across river just east of Lockwood bridge (may be underwater)
P2 – Sand bar at river bend up off river
P3 – East side of small lake near broken birdhouse

B1 – Trailhead kiosk (50 meters at 90 degrees from kiosk)
B2 – Pine Trees southeast corner of intersection
B3 – Streambed north of trail intersection
B4 – Wetland area – tough bushwhack (orange ribbons will take you to CP)
B5 – Bushwhack to Red Andy Jackubin Stables sign in woods (Git er done!)
B6 – Holly tree near dead small tree at double track trail end
B7 – Look under boardwalk near north end of boardwalk.
B8 – IN Ditch near culvert behind transformers

SCAR Short Course Passport Instructions

Obey all traffic rules on bike. Helmet must be worn at all times while on the bike, PFD’s must be worn at all times while on the paddle. Do not cross Lockwood near the S-F, you must go under the river bridge and go up the hill on the east side.

Stage 1: Trek to control C1 as shown. Retrieve 1 chip per team from control. To find control look for trail opening at south end of open retention area due west of the trampoline in yard.

Stage 2: Bike and Trek to visit controls B1, B2, B7, and B8. Use any route and method of travel (biking or trekking) to visit these checkpoints. After completing these checkpoints go to TA2 for the paddle section of the course.

Stage 3: After receiving your passport bike to transition area 2 (TA2). At TA2 you will receive a second passport. This passport will be zip tied to the canoes and must remain tied to the canoes until you return to TA2 and is removed by the TA2 volunteer. You paddle the canoes to P3 and return. You may visit any other controls you wish to visit along the paddle (these are punched on the passport given to you at TA1). After completing the paddle return to TA2.



C1 – about 75 meters due south of fallen platform

P3 – East side of small lake near broken birdhouse

B1 – Trailhead kiosk (50 meters at 90 degrees from kiosk)
B2 – Pine Trees southeast corner of intersection
B7 – 187 boards south of north end of boardwalk, under boardwalk
B8 – IN Ditch near culvert behind equipment

Seminole County Adventure Race Bruiser Passport Instructions

Bike travel along Lockwood Blvd allowed on bike lanes or shoulder only. Helmet must be worn at all times while on the bike, PFD’s must be worn at all times while on the paddle.

Start: Follow the trail along the river leading to C1. To get to the trailhead cross the open field and then go to the northernmost picnic area. The trailhead leads into the woods near this picnic area. Go in and follow the river trail south which will be against the current. You will have a few wet crossings of side streams. When you get to the open retention area there will be 2 ponds. Continue along the forest boundary to the far south end of the open area and enter the woods crossing over a downed pine tree. There should be a trampoline visible in a backyard due east of you. About 75 meters in you will see a fallen treehouse platform in an area where the kids play paintball. From the platform go due south 100 paces and you will see the control on the back side of a tree. Take one poker chip per team from the bag and return back to the Start Finish area.

After retrieving the chip return to the Start-Finish location.


Bikes: Get on bikes and bike north to the lower (west) side of the bridge over Lockwood Blvd. just north of the start finish area. Cross under the bridge (walk your bikes and it is slick) and then up the hill on the other side to Lockwood. Ride along the sidewalk at Lockwood (you can shortcut across the parking lots) County Road 419 and follow the sidewalk east. At 419 cross over the bridge and go right on the south side to the underside of the bridge to TA 2. You will need to cross over the bridge on your bike as the river is currently high and a difficult swim. This is TA2.

Paddle: From TA2 Paddle south on the river to P2, staying east (left) at the river confluence. You will be paddling to P2 which is on a sand bar on the east (left as you go upstream) of the river. It is visible from the river – but you will need to be looking for it. The other races used this control so look for where teams might have pulled their canoes out of the water. You will need to get out and punch P1 on your passport below. After punching P1 paddle back downstream to the Transition area.

Bike back to the start finish area to finish the race.

Coast to Coast Swamp Points

This was the swamp points (one and two) that were incredibly difficult. The terrain was challenging and lack of any close attack points added to the challenge. We used multiple attacks on the first one.

C2C CP 4 to CP5

These 2 legs of the first long bike ride were 2 of my favorites. Detailed navigation, but good locations.

Florida Coast to Coast 2007

This was the 9th installment of the classic Florida Coast to Coast Adventure Race. I’ve raced 7 of them, finished 6, and helped directed one. This was also my first time as a relay racer – since I really wanted to try this format where 6 team-mates race with always 4 of the 6 on the course. My team-mates were Rod Price, Dave Brault, Bob Denney, John Hollingsworth, Jim Fuedner – and we would be racing as team Dirty Fish.

Many of the teams had a hard time finding the start, so the 6 AM start time ended up being pushed back to 6:30 (hmm….). We started with a 3 mile run down A1A where we entered The Guana Forest. John and I ran the first road section and then waited for first Dave and Bob to catch up, enjoying the facilities at the entrance of Guana. Once entering Guana we were greeted with wonderful shaded trails and relatively simple navigation. Towards the end of the trek we decided to shortcut across the saltwater marsh as the tide was low and the water was very shallow. This turned out to be a good move as it saved about 20 minutes, however as we reached TA1 at 11 AM our “walking only” pace had put us already 2 hours behind the lead teams, which had arrived and left at 9 AM. I vowed to not look at the TA splits after that.

A quick road ride of about 20 miles left us at the edge of the St. Johns River and the first paddle section. It became obvious that the team would not transition quickly as we spent nearly 45 minutes preparing to enter the water and start the paddle. I sat out this section, which was advantageous as I needed to do some bike repairs. I also was able to go by Publix and get some Fried Chicken – a real treat for an adventure race. We drove to the TA (fighting nasty Jacksonvillle traffic) and soon after the team arrived. We heard stories of teams capsizing their boat on the heavy chop on the St. Johns – as it turns out our team was one of those, but it must not of hurt them tremendously. We had another slow transition preparing for the next leg which would be a long (we estimated 12 hours) bike ride. This would also require tricky night navigation (my strength) and I was determined to bring our team back up into the front pack.

TA4 was relatively easy, though the correct road from CP4 was tricky as it looked like a driveway in the dusk and our small group (2 teams) was reluctant to take it. We entered some nice single track as it was getting dark and got to the final dirt (and sand) road leading to CP5 just as Bill Jackson’s was coming out. A quick consult with them confirmed my strategy – to use trails to get as close to the river (either one) as possible and then handrail the river to the control. We ran into Jason (Team Hoof-hearted) who had been searching for 3 hours and was thinking about bailing – I told him to come along and I was confident we would find it relatively quickly. He dropped his bike (I promised to bring him back to it) and we found the flag in about 15 minutes.

On the way out from CP5 we decided to use the western trail (hoping to avoid the sandy trail coming in) and were rewarded by a rideable trail back out from TA5. We also got to be yelled at by some redneck lady who claimed we were trespassing. We basically ignored her and got out of there. In my experience paranoid folks who live deep in the woods are paranoid for a reason, and though there was no threat of her calling authorities (they also don’t want cops around these activities), they do sometimes decide to protect their turf.

The ride to CP6 was easy, with rideable roads. We took 15 minutes extra at CP6 as there were 2 yellow gates about 50 yards apart and we thoroughly searched around the first one until one of our group found the second gate. CP7 and CP8 were also uneventful. The ride from CP8 to CP9 was rough as we ended up on Sapp Road which had 8.5 km of ride/walk/ride/walk sugar sand. CP9 to CP10 required very close attention to the map which is always fun past midnight. We totally missed the north trail leading in to CP10 so the team slept for 20 minutes while I rode back and found the trail entrance. I found the entrance just as another team was leaving, we quickly regrouped and also found the CP quickly – though it was in a tricky spot for the night navigation. When we got to CP11 we found that it had been cancelled and that no teams had successfully found it. This was a relief as the only attack point I could find required a 1 km dead-reckoning bushwhack. The terrain looked tough, so finding this control would have been tricky (though I was ready to try). We biked into TA4 just as the sun was cracking the horizon to start the second part of the course.

At TA4 we received a set of new maps. We would start out with a trek that had three very challenging checkpoints. Most of the lead teams were in the TA and I knew if I could get the team moving we would be with the race leaders. I was not able to get the team moving and we spent over an hour in the TA – which was OK as it gave me time to plot the locations of the next few sets of CP’s. We were now ready to start the trek toward the three “Swamp Points” and then a long trek to TA5.

At the first SP we ran into Nature Calls who had been working on the CP for a little over an hour. Our first attack was unsuccessful so our team decided to attempt it from the pond edge about 500 meters north of the control. Travel in the swamp was slow and erratic. We leapfrogged to keep our bearing, but had no luck on the second attempt. We eventually ended up with a large group of frustrated teams and after much discussion decided to bail-out. We trekked over to the entrance of SP2 and I found 2 trails that got us within (by my calculation) 250 meters of the control. I paced the attack point out and entered the swamp and ran directly into Nature Calls who were exiting. They had found SP1 and also told me SP2 was due north of my location (which is why I chose that attack point). We decided to spend only 30 minutes searching and with 2 other teams gave it a shot. The thick vegetation made finding controls like finding a needle in a haystack and we soon expended our 30 minutes and headed out. At this point the team decided to also bail on SP3 as it looked to be the most difficult of the three SP’s. (As it turns out we were correct and teams spent hours on this control with no luck).

The rest of this leg was a hot dry death-march, and we had expended most of our water supply. I was able to shorten the trek some by taking an unmapped trail across a section that looked like it required a dog-leg on paved roads. This provided shade and more interesting terrain. The next TA required a transition to bikes for a relatively easy bike leg (at least navigation wise) as most of the checkpoints were cancelled for this leg. This was too bad for me as I was familiar with the area and knew the location of one of them. We settled in for a long road ride and pace-lined the section with no problems.

At Suwannee Springs we were able to get the teams into the water quickly. I was going to sit this leg out. It turned out to be a wonderful night paddle on the Suwannee River and the team had stories of passing many river partiers. For me I was able to drive to the Suwannee River Campground and was looking forward to my first sleep in the race. We were the third crew into the Suwannee River State Park, we set up camp I marked and checked the maps, and even set up the laminator and laminated them. After that I took a nice hour long nap on a real cot and then after waking up I went to the river edge to wait for our team and help them get ready for the next trek leg. The team had paddled for 6 hours (about 30+ miles) and had obviously enjoyed this paddle. We decided to wait until morning to trek out of the TA so the team got a little sleep and also a nice breakfast before heading out a couple of hours later.

I was really looking forward to this next trek. It looked to have great terrain and also the 2 traverses across and back the river. The navigation to the next CP and the traverse were easy and we were way ahead of the cutoff (arriving at 7:30 AM to beat the 8 AM cutoff). I knew teams behind us would be struggling to make these cutoffs. I demonstrated how NOT to traverse, immediately leaping off the edge and thudding into the ground. I stood back up and tried again hitting the cool morning water for a refreshing dip. The team did the traverse quickly and we trekked to the second traverse which was a bit more challenging, but provided us an opportunity to climb the cliffs. The next checkpoint was a little tricky – but as it was located on the intersection of 2 horse trails, I made it a lot harder than it had to be meticulously pacing where I could have just stayed on trail.

The next CP, on the side of the river should have been easy. If we had stayed on the Orange Blaze trail (as suggested in the passport) it would have been. Instead I decided we needed to bushwhack east to it. This would have also worked except… Some of the other teams might have noticed this – but at some points along the river the compass north arrow points at the river. Great – but also impossible, and the second time I’ve seen a magnetic anomaly in a race. Of course this one, with one hour of sleep in 2 days had me confused and also caused me to send the team north on the river when we should have headed south (figure it out, if east is north, etc…). I sat down and recalculated where we were and started the other direction, finding the flag within 150 meters south of where we had hit the river. The next CP (on an abandoned vehicle) simply required hand-railing the river and was pretty easy.

You would think finding the TA from the last CP would also be easy. However all the roads I was relying on from the map petered out forcing us to bushwhack. I am sure if I went back and did this fresh I would laugh at how easy it was. Luckily John (Fish) who is also a good navigator was with us and working it out together – we not determined our location, we hit the road and with 2 minutes Greg from Sleepmonsters drove to us (which really confirmed our location). About 15 minutes later we were in the TA. The next section was a portage (about 2 miles) followed by a relatively short paddle (18 miles?). I had not paddled and wanted to do this one – so there was a little debate as to who would paddle. In the end I was teamed up with Dave in the boat and we hit the water.

This was a lot of fun. The river was scenic (with wildlife, people, springs) and it was still daylight. We paddled alongside Team Relentless most of the paddle at a modest pace. I knew the next bike leg would be challenging as I marked it. John was also waiting and had rechecked my marking (I had done the night before). This just confirmed it would be challenging. We also picked up soloist Greg who would ride with us this section. We reached the area of CP25 (or was it CP23, the passport said both) and I found a good attack point 300 meters north and 250 meters west of the distinct waypoint (gate across road marking the hunting club area). The attack turned out to be very good as we hit the control nearly dead-on pushing our bikes. After that we had a long bike-whack and as we finally exited the woods when we found a trail – I realized we were pretty much lost. We tried to relocate – both John and I stopping to check every intersection. We even called Dennis who suggested we bail to the main road. I was pretty sure at one point we were at the intersection I wanted to CP24 – but the team had ridden ahead, so I continued on. After hitting the paved road, we found the road/Steinhatchee river intersection which gave us a known location and 8 km later we were back on the road having found CP24. The team at this point decided that CP25 was a bad idea and we headed towards the TA, doubling back to CR51 and heading south. As we neared the TA – it was only 2 AM and I knew we had enough time to get CP26 and make the cutoffs, so the team decided to go for it.

Our first attempt was completely off, sleep deprivation was getting to me and I simply was just going on random. I led the team in a few circles and was delirious when Dave decided I needed to get back to the last known location and try again. This proved a good strategy as I immediately snapped back to reality, saw the mistake, and took us to the railroad trestle leading to CP26. Our approach was probably different than the RD was anticipating – taking the railroad berm – but we found it and headed back. On the way back we ran into a delirious Team Relentless who appeared to be completely lost. I told them to follow us into the TA. At the gas station at 19 and 51 I stopped my bike without unclipping and went over. Basically it looked like I fell asleep on my bike (I might have). Eventually we arrived at the TA around 4 AM.

It was now cold, though I was warm from the exertion. I dismounted my bike lay down on a cot and was asleep in under one minute. I woke up about 45 minutes later from my shivering – I was delirious, but I also recognized that I was borderline hypothermic. Dave threw some clothes to me – but I was shaking so hard I had a hard time putting them on. I got up, walked to a car, got inside, and fell asleep in seconds. The next day I found out that the car was occupied and Linda (our crew) even talked to me – but I was snoring before they could complete a sentence. Dave woke me at 6:45 AM and a cup of hot chocolate later I was good to portage the boats to the river. All the teams hit the Steinhatchee River pretty close together, and I was going to sit out this short 12 mile paddle.

After packing up the TA we drove to the waterfalls (3-4 feet) on the river, but the teams had passed. We then drove to the end and Dave and I entered our spare boat to paddle back up the course and join our team. They arrived shortly and we all paddled in together finishing in 3 days, 4 hours, and 40 minutes.

For those considering relay – do it! It is an awesome way to race, you get to experience the course with minimal pain. My team-mates were great and we did just about everything correctly. This was close to the most challenging C2C I had done (though not quite). It was definitely the most fun.

Maps for Talon

This is map showing the main transition. Doing the south loop (shown next) was worth 8 points, where as doing CP 40 - 43 would have been worth 9 points. Our strategy was to get both and since CP 41 and 43 were near the main TA we would have been able to return quickly as we approached 5:30 PM. Unfortunately we ran out of time while heading to CP41 after making a small nav error in estimating the location.

Our strategy was after the orienteering sections to do this loop. We did 36 (just north of map), 38, 37, and then 39 in that order. Our plan was to return and get 43, 41, and 42 with the remaining time.

This was the first orienteering leg of the Rogaine section. We parked our bikes near 24 and did 24 - 25 (up in tree) - 26 - 23, went back to bikes and rode to 32 where we crossed the ditch and then came back.

This was the 2nd orienteering section we did on the Rogaine leg. We parked the bikes south of CP 17 and did 27 - 28 - 29 - 30 - and 31. We moved through this section very fast.

The first orienteering section - note that 15 is off the map to the east, and 18 is not shown (off map to the west). That is simply the scan. We ended up doing 15 - 16 - 20 - 19 - 18 and then looping back around for 17.

The passport - note that CP 30, 31, and 32 were hard to read as it was raining when we wrote them down. CP 31 (3 points) was not credited to our team as I mistranscribed the letter onto the final sheet.

The Talon 2007

The Talon 2007

This was one of those races that could only be described with a wow. Jim Hartnett was trying out a new format for the races that really allowed all teams to get the most out of the entire race. Their would be a mandatory course that all teams would complete and then after completion we would start on a Rogaine format course that would allow teams to accumulate points. The top teams were expected to be able to complete the course within 5-6 hours and then get another few hours of intense racing collecting the bonus checkpoint.

I was racing with long time race partner Greg Corbitt, we’ve raced together many times so are pretty used to each other on the course. Shortly after 7:30 AM we did a quick half mile run to spread the pack and started on the single track bike section. Greg and I placed ourselves well on the run and entered the single track as the third team – ensuring that we would not be stuck behind other teams. I was pacing well and Greg was in front of me as we went through River Loop, Rock Garden, and then the Sand Pine trails. These are nice single track sections and with the exception of Rock Garden relatively easy single track. We crossed over the power lines where Greg spaced me a bit and entered Roller Coaster. Roller Coaster has some solid drop and rollouts with steep slopes and rocks and turns making it a relatively tough course. Here I would have a spectacular crash, though I am not even sure what happened, breaking my map board and putting a slight bend in my back tire. Greg was ahead of me and did not hear the crash. As I sat up stunned, I did the usual broken bone check (OK), bleeding check (just some skin off my knee), and then checked my bike. My back tire was slightly bent and not rolling so I was either going to have a lot of fun with a chain tool, or I’d get lucky. Sure enough I got lucky and a hard smack on the tire popped it back into skew. I was now off again – though a lot more cautious and shaky this time. I walked a few rollers that would have been a lot of fun to ride, still being shaky from the fall.

Luckily all this occurred real close to the transition area and as I came in Jim informed me that Greg was just in front of me on the “second loop”. I’m not quite sure what this loop entailed as when I got out on the course it looked like teams (which were somehow behind me) were pedaling both direction on all the trails. I took the trail that looked like the intended course and heard Greg’s voice ahead of me – who was coming towards me. Since we had all bike checkpoints we headed for the TA.

We had 2 small orienteering legs at the TA. We blasted through the first one and quickly caught up with the lead pack. On the second one we got to the final bearing (125 yards at 310 degrees) which took us up onto a large Gypsum piling that was being thoroughly searched by the lead pack. After 15-20 minutes of searching we headed back to the control that had the bearing to learn that the distance was off. (In reality it was more like 75 yards at 320 degrees). This served to flip the pack – the earlier lead teams (who spent a lot of time searching) were now behind as we biked to the canoes.

The paddle started south where we had some open water paddling eventually ending up in a narrow channel (think bumper boats) and CP10. We turned around (more bumper boats) and headed back to the canoe launch. There we would climb up a cargo net to the bridge and down the other side on wood posts and start the second half of the paddle. Because the punch was attached to the boat and there was not much water in the “river” this leg turned out to be a boat drag for about 1 ½ miles (up and back). I was feeling really bad (still shaky from the crash and nauseous in this leg), and Greg came through by doing most of the dragging. I was hoping I would recover, as I was extremely weak and also nauseous at this point – which at the level of exertion we had been at (not high), did not make sense to me. We finally made it back to the canoe launch and biked back to the TA for the last mandatory leg of the race, the orienteering.

Alafia River State Park is lucky enough to have extremely high dirt piles left by the mining industry from years past. These pilings have now become completely canopied and grown in with ferns and other plant life. Going through these areas – you would think you were hiking the Appalachian Trail. It also makes for great orienteering as teams now had to scramble up steep slopes, travel ridge lines, and cross mucky streams at the base. Greg and I flew through this section and I also started recovering my energy at this time. As we returned to the TA to complete the mandatory course I was in great spirits.

The Rogaine started with pretty much all the lead teams within 30 minutes (we started right around 2 PM) of each other (every team had a pretty good chance of taking the race at this point). Our strategy was to go for the greatest point densities – which first meant completing the special tests. These went very quickly, and I got to even scale the pole which was the “ropes course”. We dropped our bikes near CP 24 and then easily found 24, 25, 26, and 23, with a little challenge on 25 as Greg had to scale a large tree to get to the punch. We returned to the bikes and then biked to near CP 32, swam across the muck pond and then back, and finally biked around to near CP 27 and did (in this order) 27, 28, 29, 30, and 31.

With about 2 hours of racing left I decided we would make a loop (for 8 points) and hit CP 36, 38, 37, and 39 (also in that order). We spent too much time on 36, originally overshooting it and then searching for the flag. CP 37 was a lot of fun as we crossed the fence and found the concrete bridge which required (me this time) a balancing act to get to the conduit chase about 20 feet away from the bridge where the flag was hung. The strategy was to do this south loop, head back to the TA, and if we had enough time hit CP 41 and 43. We arrive back at the TA with 15 minutes to spare – but I selected a bad attack point for CP 41 (too much hurrying) and we eventually had to head in. By my calculation we had 44 points that should put us well into the standings. My original plan would have given us 7 additional points (51 total) – but time did not allow that.

I transcribed the letters at the end, where I made an error transcribing CP31 (which for some reason sitting in front of me now is very clear), writing E instead of U. This dropped us from 44 points to 41 points and from 2nd to 6th in our division (bummer) and even though it was clear we had visited the CP, the race officials would not credit us the points (double bummer). However, I come to the races for the adventure and my wife won’t let me keep the trophies anyway (I’ve already had multiple trophy purges), so having my fill of adventure for the day I still left happy.

As always, It was great seeing all the teams – special thanks to Village Bike, Bill Jackson’s, Gecko, and Jim’s Bicycles who we spent a lot of the race with. It is always great to race alongside fun teams who also enjoy the adventure and the competition. And also a special kudo’s to Jim Hartnett who really found a winning formula in the race format. I was happy to get a full 10 hours of racing (in past years we finished in well under that and spent a lot of time sitting around for awards). And the best thanks to my team-mate Greg who pulled me through the rough time I had in this race.

Squiggy Classic

The Squiggy Classic AR March 11, 2007

This was my first time doing the Squiggy classic and the fact it was on a Sunday allowed me to be able to make it to the race. I am very glad I did, as I was able to experience a wonderful race in a fantastic location. I raced this with team Are We There Yet – the classic team of Captain Will Murphy and a fairly new racer Gwilym – whom we now have christened as “G”.

From the starting line which was really just the parking area at Morris Bridge TA’s we were bussed to another location (John B. Starkey Park) where we were greeted by Kip Koelsch who basically counted down the race start and then threw the instructions in the air. We grabbed one set and were greeted by three relatively easy questions; (1) Name of the Squirrel who is mascot for the Wilderness Parks, (2) What is the term for the lines on a topographic map that define areas of similar elevation?, and (3) What is the name for a linear feature such as a trail, stream, road, or lakeshore that closely parallels your route and may be helpful in navigating? The questions were quickly solved and the using the letters of the answers we were able to get a set of bearings and distances to follow to retrieve 3 tokens.

We moved quickly to the first location and located the bucket which contained a “bead” which we pocketed and then started towards the second bearing and our first mistake. A mistake made by many of the experienced teams was to take the second set of bearing and distances from the location of the previous one – which unfortunately was wrong, we needed to return to the start location to head for the second set of bearings. I of course still think the instructions were vague (“Starting Point is the Iron Ranger next to the Please Donate Sign” – with no mention of “for each bearing”) Oh well!, after realizing our mistake after much unnecessary bushwhacking, we headed back to the central location and quickly located the other 2 buckets of tokens. Some teams had been able to turn our mistake (we weren’t the only ones though) into a 10 minute lead and had their boats in the water even before we realized our mistake. From the boats still on the ground – I estimated we were between the 50th and 60th team (of 70) to hit the water.

Once we did get our boat in the water – Will, G, and I moved into one of our strengths. Even though we were using a supplied canoe (not necessarily speedy) – three good paddlers with wing paddles can make a boat flat-out move. Combine that with our determination to make up most of the ground before the end of the paddle – we were hitting it hard. As we approached the first CP on the paddle I looked at the clue sheet and read the instructions, “Record the number of knots in the rope at PP1”. As we approached the checkpoint I could see the number of knots was three and said – “It’s 3, turn around”. This caused confusion and we were still paddling towards it. After a bit of explaining the team was all on board with the fact that the first 3 checkpoints were question and answer.

The remaining paddle was a session of hammering the water, passing boats, a little bit of bumper boats, and preventing ourselves from capsizing. I estimate we had our 16 foot fiberglass canoe up to a solid 6-7 mph on some straight-aways which made hitting the submerged logs pretty interesting. Though the boat had a couple of tips that put the edge within an inch of the water – we were not only capable of keeping it upright, most of the time we did not even break a beat in our paddling. We had resigned ourselves to the fact that if we tipped, we tipped and we would simply jump out, right the boat, and hop back in. We had even gotten to the point that we accelerated into some logs that were across our path – like we planned to bunny hop them in a boat, most of the time we would get across without the obstacle completely stopping us.

We had obviously done something right as we left the water in 11th place, and even though I had not counted the teams we passed – that did seem to make sense. We had a scare as we dropped one of our little beads from the earlier navigation and it disappeared down into the water – but the volunteer manning the CP saw it and let us through to the first special test. As I prepared the maps for the bike leg and changed shoes – Will and G tossed a turnip into a bucket and G retrieved it with his mouth. It took us all of 20 seconds to complete and we were in and out of the TA within the planned 3 minutes including the special test.

The next leg was a mountain bike leg and we got to see a few of the teams that were competing in the other race (the Squiggy Dash) and cheer them on as we biked in the opposite direction of where they were running. I was familiar with about the first half-mile of trails on the ride and I knew that teams in front of us probably had a high familiarity with the trail network in the area. We quickly got our legs under us and got into a biking rhythm. We did not make any navigation errors in the biking section, but I did need to spend time actually navigating. Three times we overshot the control and we overshot one turn, but never by more than 200 meters and we always quickly caught our mistake. Most of the navigation I was able to do while moving on the bike so I did not lose too much time to stopping to read the map. I really enjoyed this section of the course as it was all off-road biking and we only had one interruption for a special test that had us running up and down a hill with each piece of our required gear. My favorite control was the “hidden pond” that forced us off our bikes for a short distance and required us to use the map and read features to get to the control. We did probably lose about 5 minutes on this one searching – but mostly due to me relying on a blind bearing rather than map reading.

We came off the bike ride in 7th place, another jump – but except for two teams that had a good lead – this part of the pack was very tightly grouped with maybe a 10 minute spread between 5-6 teams – great racing! We were now in my element – foot navigation and we took off at a light trot. We made quick work of the first three checkpoints – and we used direct (rather than trail routes) for them. As we were heading for CP4, both Will and I agreed that we would be better off doing 4-7 in a different order – so we headed from 3 to 7 passing by the TA and a grinning Kip Koelsch who was watching us make a possibly race killing mistake. The passport stated that we needed to complete the CP’s in order and we were heading in the wrong direction and for an hour penalty as we bushwhacked towards CP7. We reached the trail which the checkpoint was along and for some reason I went totally brain dead and directed us to go along the trail the wrong direction and also for a long distance. We did catch our mistake and come back and find CP7 – but an easy control that would normally take 2 minutes had cost us an easy 10 minutes. I was resolved after that not to make any more mistakes and was puzzled at myself for making this one (had I lost that much concentration?). We started for CP6 doing the “backwards” thing when we ran along Team Flight heading towards CP7. Mike was puzzled to see me going the wrong direction and I was puzzled to see them just now completing orienteering section. I quickly calculated in my head the amount of time spent in small chunks navigating the bike section and our differential in speed (having raced along side Mike and his team I know they move much faster on bikes than we had) and had them at least 45 minutes ahead of us – which did not mesh with their current location.

Mike quickly explained how they had gotten into this location in the pack, they had done the course out of order and had been forced to redo control 4-7 or take an hour penalty. He also let me know that I was about to do the same. He gave me some hints (helpful) on the upcoming controls, and though I had nothing to offer, he knows I’ll return the favor in some upcoming race. This is (by the way) what adventure racing is all about. For those who wonder about helping out other teams – I have towed members of other teams, gone back and helped lost teams, stopped to render assistance many times and feel that this is what really makes a good adventure racer – more than just winning. I also have seen this in folks like Mike and his team and many other racers – and it is what makes me proud of this sport.

Anyway we were quickly back on track and hit CP4 – CP6. At CP6 we ran into an entire host of teams who were looking at the aerial map that had the location of the actual control. A quick glance and I knew the location and we headed off with a large group of teams. The funniest moment on this was when Jim from “Team Jim’s Bicycles” started crowing – which I guess was the signal they used to signal they had found the control. I simply yell – “Over Here! Found It”. Will was a bit tired at this point – but we were still able to keep a decent pace to CP7 and back to the TA as a large group of teams including Gecko and Jim’s Bikes all ran into the TA and we all took off together on bikes.

I’m glad most of the other teams have confidence in my navigation. We reached one point where a few trails headed off into different direction and I had to determine the correct trail. Many times when there are a lot of teams – the whole group slows down waiting for someone to take the navigation lead. This was not the case here, I directed Will through the trails somehow getting slightly off, but also quickly correcting and we picked up the last bike Checkpoint and started the sprint to the finish line. After leaving CP I we saw one team who we had biked with and ran with earlier heading back the opposite direction. We had no time for explanation – but I was willing to bet they had forgotten to visit CP I. Ouch!

Only one navigation decision remained – as we reached the river I stopped to confirm that we needed to head to the road and cross the river. Will had headed the wrong way so I biked after him to pull him back and some folks followed me. Other folks were at the intersection looking confused. As I came back to the intersection and headed down the correct trail I simply shouted to the other teams “This Way to the Road!” and we all hopped off our bikes as we got to the road and pushed them up the hill and over the guard rail. Will, G, and I were the first on our bikes with a large pack behind us. I was ready to sprint in to the finish, now less than ¼ mile of actual riding. We all came across the finish line within seconds of each other.

In the end we finished 5th, with 4th place going to Lenny (a solo racer) who crossed the finish line with us. We did win our division (3 person male) and I was very happy with our team performance. I had not navigated a perfect race (a very elusive thing) – but had navigated well. For those navigators out there, they will understand the compulsion. As soon as you finish any race – you are eager for the next one so you can avoid the mistakes you made last made looking for that perfect race. I think that is also the lure of golfing!

Thanks to WeCeFAR for a great race and a good time. I’ll be back for this one – and yes Mike I think you should set it, and I’m looking for a real navigation challenge! And special thanks to my team-mates Will and G - yes I do want to race with you again, it was great.

Swamp Stomp 2007

Swamp Stomp 2007 Adventure Race

I always look forward to a good adventure race, and having raced and finished this race for each of the last 3 offerings – I knew that this would be a good race. A hard decision for me was how hard I would compete – in the past I worked hard to prepare and race at 100% - though having dealt with high levels of stress at work and family and kids and all the other things that go on in life, I simply wanted to enjoy this race. I also wanted to bring a full team across the finish line, which I had only done once in the past Swamp Stomps (I‘ve always finished – but not the entire team) .

At the pre-race our team won one of the one minute head starts. Even though this would not make any real difference to our race performance, it did let us start the race outside of the madhouse crowd at the deepwater start. Thankfully we also had maps that were “mostly” marked so we were also to be spared the long night of plotting UTM coordinates. It was cold at the pre-race, and unfortunately team-mate John Sherwin got caught in traffic so would not be able to check-in until late, which meant I was going to be working on our race strategy out on the picnic tables in the cold at the pre-race. Finally late into the night we got the entire team to our (warm) hotel room, got our course marked, and were able to get some sleep to prepare for the early start on the water.

Team-mate Neil was suffering from nausea and vomiting Friday, which cast some doubt on our ability to finish. Hopefully the sickness would subside by the next morning – but since he was unable to keep anything down, nutrition might also be an issue with him. We were not planning to go all out, but a 30 hour race is still a challenging proposition under any circumstances.

We arrived at the start at around 7:30 AM, Jessica Koelsh was in front of all the teams giving last minute pre-race instructions. I joined in and got some information about the race and John and Jamie got us organized and into the water for the start. The one minute head start was nice, but shortly into the race Team EMS bumped John and Neil sending them into the shore, Oh well – we were in the lead for a short while at least. The paddle to CP1 was uneventful and mostly we said hi to teams that passed us as Jamie and I watched different wildlife and enjoyed the scenery. As we reached SR 48 and CP1 – we pulled ashore received and quickly plotted a UTM which took us up river a bit more. The CP1 flag was easily spotted by both the boats there. It was muddy so I jumped out of the boat which dismayed Jamie as it got my feet wet (which does not seem to bother me as much as it does my team-mates).

The real fun was still yet to come. We paddled a bit more and turned in to get Bonus Point A to see a bunch of boats on the shore. Most of the paddlers seemed to have decided to walk along the shore for this CP. This threw me off a bit as we paddled up the river to the mapped location of the CP and hopped out of the boat to get the CP. Had the boats not been there we would have found it faster as it was on the river, but a quick search out of the boat did at least let us stretch our legs. We were back into the boats with a quick paddle to CP2 where it would really get exciting.

(Map included) At CP2 we had the ability to pick up 3 bonus checkpoints. An easy trek from CP2 led us to BCP B, from there we decided to trek to BCP D – a 2 km trek due east across the dry swamp. As it turned out – it took us about 45 minutes to cross the swamp and we landed about 300 meters north of the CP. At this time there were boats and teams on foot heading to the Bonus Point. Not knowing which side of Jumper Creek the CP was on – I swam across (it was muddy and weedy) to get a better look. A team on the way back told me it was on the east side so I swam back and we joined team Trail and Error (Melissa) to get the CP. We then spent another 35 minutes crossing back across the swamp to our boats and CP2. All the teams at this point had left CP2 – we trekked down to BCP C and then headed back. We were now in the very back of the pack (but we had all checkpoints).

There were some teams at CP3 when we arrived there. I gave the maps to John and said go for it. We overshot the control a bit – but that was pretty cool as most teams never got to see the really cool grove of Oak trees on the ridge (and we did). We circled back to the cave, found the control – took the bearing and located the punch with no problems and were joking as we headed back to the boats. We got there to find we were still dead last behind the pack, and Kip was there with the airboats. They just missed getting us to pick up the flags.

We then paddled to BPE, with one detour to a big upright cypress just before the big downed cypress (the clue was inside the cypress). John and Neil got hung up on a submerged log so Jamie and I abandoned them to get visit BPE and map the location of the first waypoint necessary to get the bonus point. We crossed the river hopped out of the boats and ran into Kyle who basically said “it sucked”. They had spent a lot of time and did not locate any of the points. Well that was all we needed to hear so we got back into the boats and decided we would pretty much go straight to CP4 with no detours. We were still enjoying the river and even saw a small flock of Roseate Spoonbills – we pointed them out to John who replied “tastes like chicken!” Neal just looked at us with the greenish hue he had been having up to this point.

There was a restaurant and biker bar at CP4 which gave us a little respite. Also there were these nasty organic bars which we used to show how strong our stomachs could be. I tried a few flavors before I decided to stick to my safe diet of Vienna Sausages. Of course I dropped my water bladder and found that when you drop an open bladder on the ground it will splatter all over your team-mates shoes. Sorry John.

The rest of the paddle was straightforward and except for the fact we knew there was a mile long carry portage waiting for us, pretty pleasant. I even think Jamie was enjoying it as she was not whining about how much she hated paddling. We arrived at CP5 at about the same time as the lead teams coming from the bonus points in the other direction. Jamie and I tried out a few methods of carrying the boat as she did not like carrying it over her head. I finally had her take the paddles, got under the center yoke and lifted. I was doing pretty good solo and even passed the other team TCO (well at least Blaine) for a few steps. We were pretty much tired of carrying the boat by the time we hit the TA. We spent some time chatting with the folks at the TA, but finally decided to get on our bikes and ride. All of us were looking forward to some biking. After crossing over the little bridge we found the road that was the southern route to CP6 (you could go 2 ways), another team that left with us wavered back and forth at the turn – but finally decided that they would go our route against the will of their navigator. We had no trouble finding CP6, though I hear some teams wandered around a bit before reaching it and we had a great time climbing and rappelling and also finding the CP6 flag. We spent about an extra 20 minutes here as we chatted with other teams and the folks manning the TA. Everyone was friendly and the atmosphere was pretty conducive to fun. We also knew we had a little ride in front of us to CP7.

We did not ride hard to CP7, it looked to me like Neil was starting to feel worse – but he never complained once, so he was pretty hard to read. It was all pretty much road anyway so at least that made it easy. We actually got in and out of CP7 pretty quickly (15 minutes) considering our times at every other spot we stopped. This was partly because I would not let the team buy any soup – though it did look good. We went to the hunt station first and followed our plan to head east to BPM (the Mother Oak). The roads were pretty chewed so we trekked it with Team NV. At the T intersection near BPM I let the team go hunt this one down. I was interested in looking at the maps a bit and memorizing some of the trails. I also was interested by some of the reflector patterns the hunters had placed on the trees. These would not be visible by day – but I noticed them at night, there were different geometric patterns of reflectors on certain trees. The team returned from the BP before I could figure a pattern and I convinced them to try do BPT on foot before heading to the bikes we had dropped. As it turns out the vegetation was pretty thick and we decided to bail hit BPT (Welch’s Grove) by my original plan – attacking it from the 90 degree bend north of the location.

When we arrived at the road bend, there were a few bikes and lots of headlamps all wandering around in the bearing of the flag. John set up base and led me on a bearing toward the control (more to your right, Ron !). We pretty much nailed it – but I left the passport with John, so I had to call him to the flag. Of course all the other teams converged when I yelled “Got it”. This always irritated my team-mates as we would find the flag and have teams converge on us. We repeated this process for the next five CP’s, (BPS, CP9, BPR, BPQ, BPP) bike to it – stop, find it, I’d yell “Found it” and all the wandering headlamps would head towards me. I was having fun with it. After getting all the CP’s and BP’s on the east and north we headed to BPN (End of fenceline). Our plan was to get BPO and N, and we ran into TCO again as we headed out to N. We decided to skip O as we had overshot the trail on the way back from N and just decided to head south towards CP10. It was here I made my only real navigation error. I missed the right turn that would have kept us on the railroad grade and instead ended up following the property boundary marked in gray (dashed) on the map. For some reason (probably because I wanted it to be true) I refused to believe I was off the grade even though all the navigation signals told me we were off. We eventually ran into Melissa from Trail and Error at Pendarvis road and we just followed her to the CP. I let her figure out the stream crossing to head to CP8. We all crossed (6 of us), rode to CP8 where there were a lot of teams either looking for CP8 or looking for BPL. It was raining at this point, though that was only a minor annoyance. We simply punched and decided to head back to the hunt station for water. Melissa told us she was going to get BPK, and though we had enough time to get it – the team decided stopping at the station for some food sounded more attractive. We met back up with Team TCO and chatted with them as we ate cold hamburgers and gel. The water at the station was a sulphur smelling stuff – but was not so bad when you added Gatorade and we had an entire container of dry Gatorade that Neal had been carrying (for me). The coolest part of this section was the howling Coyotes that were all through this forest – they added an incredible ambience to the race.

We went back to CP7 and they were pretty much out of soup. We saw Melissa again who had arrived with BPK about 5 minutes ahead of us. She took off towards SR44 and the mandatory route to CP11, CP12 and the next TA. We were about 2 minutes behind them and rode together and then apart for most of that section, eventually getting to TA2 around 5 AM. Jamie was excited as she new daylight was near and that is her favorite part of the race. The team did not want to run so we simply headed to CP13 (where once again we ran into TCO) and easily found CP13 and CPY. We headed from Y over towards CP16 when I saw some stationary lights in the general direction of CP16. We headed over to find Kyle and team-mate sleeping/resting and waiting for daylight. They got up and followed us to CP16 which was a bit tricky, though some clues from Melissa (who had just found it) were helpful. We made quick work of CP14 and CP15 with one minor mistake at CP15. Neal’s stomach was at this point producing a thick gaseous substance that made it hazardous to walk behind him. The other teams around us quickly separated themselves from us after our jokes about body parts, fluids, and functions. On the way back we picked up BPAA (pretty easy) and would have picked up BPAB – but since it would have required us either backtracking or getting our feet wet – we decided not to.

It was really turning out to be a beautiful day at this point. When we got back to the TA2 we heard that it took Jessica 3 hours to ride this section (we had 4 ½ hours) without having to navigate. The team was nervous about getting back before the deadline and we still had the unknowns of CP17 and the conditions of the trail. As it turns out CP17 was pretty easy and the mandatory orange trail route was very bike-able. Most logs were even hoppable so we had to get off our bikes only a few times. We went to 17A (a monument in the woods) and 17B – which pretty much told us to go to the main road. When we reached the main road the address given at 17B did not make sense, and the pack of 5-6 teams we were now with wandered around a bit looking for the 8700 address. I had not actually gone to the CP17B and read it – so was getting the info second hand. After questioning someone who had I decided that we would probably be going back the same way we came in so I headed for the house where we came out and sure enough it was 8700. We crossed the cow pastures and now it was just a flat out ride on pavement. Of course since there was a convenience store along the route we did have to stop and purchase “supplies”. The return trip on the Rail trail was long – but easy. The team stopped a few times to stretch, which was a bit irritating to me as all I wanted to do was hammer it in and get some real food. I breathed deep every stop and relaxed and it was not long until we got the last bonus point (easy) and biked through the finish line.

In the end we felt great and I had the best time I had ever had in a race. I can truthfully say that except for the portage (they always suck) I never suffered. Jamie also enjoyed herself immensely and even John and Neil had a great time, though I can’t claim that they did not suffer.

Of course it was once again a classic course. My only regret was that we did not have time to visit all the bonus points. Each one was very cool and enjoyable, but at the pace we were keeping there was no way to do them all.

Skiing in Park City

Ski Utah – Eaglin Ski Vacation

This year for the family vacation we decided we would go out west and see if the snow in Utah is really the greatest snow on earth. We had a red-eye flight on Sunday that got us into Salt Lake City around noon. As we picked up our rental car we asked the local folks how to get the best deals in Park City and immediately found out one great piece of advice – buy your lift tickets in Salt Lake. The Park City Mountain resort tickets in downtown Utah (which was essentially deserted on Sunday) were $56 compared to the best available price in Park City of $75. I was wanting to ski for all four full days that we would have to ski so we bought tickets and some goggles and were ready to head up to Park City (about 30 miles from SLC). Hint #1: By your ski passes in SLC and save some money.

The whole area had just gotten a solid blanket of snow (about 2 feet) over the weekend – and both Catherine and Anna were eager to play in this substance they were seeing for the very first time. They were able to basically completely soak themselves and spent even more time playing in the snow after we arrived at the hotel. The girls also learned another lesson about snow – it was water and it was cold, they quickly found this out as they soaked their clothes and had to endure the frigid temperatures. After a dinner at the local Pizza Hut we retired to bed early to get the girls to their ski lessons the next morning at 9 AM (mountain time, of course it was 7 AM by our East Coast time clocks).

The next morning the sun was shining and it was a beautiful 15 degrees with a high around 24 F. Excellent skiing weather. The girls had scheduled lessons starting at 9 AM that would keep them until 3 PM, about 5 hours of skiing with a break for lunch. I decided to work with Linda who was definitely a ski bunny and did a great job of moving down the bunny slope. Our one attempt at a slightly faster slope (also green) had her zooming down the hill pretty much out of control. At least I was able to ski beside her during this one exciting run and give her words of encouragement. After that she decided the bunny slope was just fine. Meanwhile Catherine and Anna were polishing their skills and Catherine’s natural athleticism was apparent as she mastered all the “green” level skills. Anna had a harder time mastering the skills – but I also new her general fearlessness would have her doing advanced slopes by the end of the week. By about 8 PM that evening 4 exhausted Eaglins were pretty eager to hit the sack and be ready for an early day of skiing the next morning.

The next day was a lot of fun and the girls got to exercise some real independence as we simply let them go. I stayed with them some as they mastered steeper and steeper slopes. Linda meanwhile practiced her wedge turns and stopping. I did break a way to take the two high speed lifts to the top of the mountain where I was awed by the view. The girls were still very apprehensive about the high speed lifts that seemed to take skiers off into nothingness (you could not see where they went after they crested the hill). We also committed at lunch to hearing the timeshare “pitch” for the Marriott resorts (they had 2) in Park City. We already have one time-share in Las Vegas so I am not adverse to the idea of purchasing time share. It is hard to gage them as an investment – but they have been instrumental in helping us choose great destination spots and getting good accommodations. My only complaint has been the “must decide today” tactic. Any enterprise that requires you to make a decision involving multiple thousands of dollars without giving time to think it over is best avoided (of course I say this have bought one timeshare before). In the end we ended up getting $100 towards dinner that night which we had at an excellent restaurant, Chimarro (of course the bill was more like $200 – which seemed pretty normal for the good restaurants on Main Street in Park City. Still the food and service were incredible.

Wednesday was yet another day of skiing. Anna finally decided that she was going to make the trip to the top of the mountain with me for some longer ski runs – though Catherine was still a bit timid around the large lifts. Catherine finally met up around lunch time with a friend she had made at ski school. They wanted to have lunch at the top of the mountain and the other girls father was pretty nice saying it was fine with him – if I was OK, and they were off to the Summit House. Linda was still doing her bunny slope loop – but getting much better, We all had lunch while Catherine was off with her friend, but after lunch Anna was yearning for some challenging runs. We did all the Green trails we could find on this side of the mountain. I was still a bit apprehensive about letting Anna on any advanced slope. Her style of skiing was to turn the skis downhill and try to go as fast as possible. She seemed to have good control and rarely fell, and even then only when attempting some trick. Still – the grade of slope we had been on was keeping her speed down and thus keeping her out of any serious danger. She had also had some trouble making the tighter turns on the narrow slopes. By the end of the ski day we were pretty tired and we met up with Catherine at the Summit on one of her runs. Her friends father was ready to hit some more challenging slopes – Catherine was still not quite ready for the blue slopes, and was being extra cautious after taking some hard spills on the more advanced green slopes she had tried. After that we did a few more easy runs (you can get almost 4 miles of continuous skiing in a single run at Park City). We decided to retire to the hotel and get ready for the highlight of the vacation.

Wednesday evening Linda had scheduled us for a sleigh ride to the “Snowed Inn” lodge where we would have a cowboy dinner. We met at the bottom of the mountain for the short sleigh ride to the inn (visible about ¼ mile up the mountain). The ride, though short added an incredible ambience to the entire experience and our driver was great (we had our one sleigh even though there were about 50 folks going up for dinner). The Inn had a roaring real wood fire and waiters and waitresses in full cowboy gear bustling about. A cowboy was playing guitar and singing country music and we were greeted with warm mugs of cider as we were led to our table. Shortly the chef, also fully decked in cowboy gear, rang the dinner bell and told us the menu of soup, chili, filet mignon, chicken, trout, and assorted sides. The food was good, but the real pleasure was the atmosphere. With the cowboy and crowd singing Christmas tunes, the fire, the full surroundings, I simply sat back – warm and happy and took it all in. It was too soon when our sleigh had to take us back down the mountain, there is something to be said about a full belly and a warm fire. The dinner was probably the most expensive I had ever had (at about $80 a head) – but it was worth the experience for all of us and was one of the real highlights of the trip. We took the bus back to our hotel and quickly crashed for the evening. Thursday would be our last day in Park City and I was looking forward to another full day on skis.

The next morning Linda and Catherine decided they would rather shop (Park City has a lot of really cool shops on their main street) while Anna and I were going to ski. By this time Anna was ready to tackle pretty much anything I wanted to do. We made a few runs mixing green and blue slopes and pretty much decided the Home Run green level slope was the most fun when done “our way”. Our way consisted of taking the green portions of the run and at certain points “shortcutting” down unmarked blue level cuts through the trees. We would hurtle down these powdery paths and rejoin the green slope at a spot down-mountain, effectively cutting off portions of the green trail. Some of these were quite steep (aka nearly vertical at least at the start) and we had some hilarious falls into the deep powder. Anna’s bindings were quite loose and at one point one of her skis flew off making a beautiful arc through the air spearing into a snow drift backwards with a nice loud “poing!” Anna was fine on each of these – though I had one scare as I was hurtling back onto the green, a lady decided the point where I would re-enter the green trail was a good place to stop and rest. I flattened my body out (I was hurtling straight downhill) and skidded to a stop at her feet on my rear. One of the safety patrol just happened to be there and commented “nice stop” which was of course preferable to wiping out the poor girl.

Anna had wiped out on the same run, but as soon as we were on our feet we hurtled down the hill at full speed laughing about the way we both had flown through the air. We next decided to try a few more advanced slopes and for the first time we were going to be getting onto the small 2-person old-style lifts. The big difference in the old style lifts are (1) there is no safety bar, and (2) it does not slow down as it approaches you. I had learned on this type of lift – but the first time the chair hit Anna in the rear she slid forward and I found myself grabbing her and hoisting her onto the chair with one hand while I gripped the back of the lift chair with the other hand. She of course loved the lift because after you became airborne it would swing back and forth drunkenly. We did successfully learn to mount the lift – but got to have another scare as a small boy in the chair in front of us did not successfully get seated and fell about 20 feet into (thankfully) a snow bank. Of course everything came to a halt – but after it was determined the boy was OK, he was back on the lift and we were off again.

By this time Anna was pointing to some slopes that she wanted to try, one of which was Black. She had solidly made it down a few blue slopes and the black slope was boxed up on both sides so there was no chance of her dropping off the mountain so I decided to let her try it. On the approach to the black slope she somehow got up onto a ridge which required her to do a free drop of about 8 feet and also where I had to catch her to prevent her do about another 10 feet of free drop. She actually managed the drop well and stayed on her skis. I was apprehensive – but we were also committed, the only way to avoid the slope at this time was to go back up the hill. I coached her a bit, “keep your speed down and stay in control”, “go across the hill not straight down”. I might as well been talking to a tree – she saw the drop – turned her skis into it and was off. The initial drop was shallow (about a blue level) – but it was deceptive as there were deep moguls the entire way down. She read the slope fine, but was not prepared for the terrain. For about 50 yards she bounced up and down like a poor rider on a trotting horse. Her hat flew off, then one glove somehow came loose and flew into a drift. She landed on her rear and skidded the remaining 150 yards until the slope leveled out. I hurriedly headed down, scooping up both the hat and glove on the way down. As I reached Anna at the bottom worrying about how the experience would leave – I soon realized I need not worry. I was greeted by her wide smile and “That was awesome! – lets do it again!” Realizing that she was truly enjoying this we went full blast to the lift and headed right back up. The second time down was pretty much a repeat of the first run, but no less fun. At least this time she kept her hat and glove! It was getting late – so we did one last full mountain run, racing each other through the steep parts.

During the day we had incredible luck, the one time we got stuck on a lift (Silverlode) it was directly above the downhill trick race course and we got to see a race from the best vantage point possible – directly above it !) Getting a chance to spend an entire day skiing with my 8 year kid was great. It probably will not be long until they are ready to take off with their friend and leave boring old dad behind, but for now we can still race and stand on the edge of a precipice daring each other to go first. After the last run we bid the mountain farewell, called Linda and then headed back to the hotel. That night we ate at Grub Steak – another excellent restaurant.

Park City is awesome, flying into Salt Lake – you can drive there (highway the entire way) in about 30 minutes, or you can take a shuttle bus. Once there, you can get anywhere in the city in minutes, and with 3 incredible resorts within a few miles (Deer Valley, Park City Mountain Resort, and Canyonlands) it is a ski paradise. We hope to get back as soon as possible and enjoy more of the “greatest snow on earth.”

Kelly Park FLO

Here are the notes from my flag pick-up at Kelly Park. This is to let others know what I was thinking and why I selected various route choices. I dashed my route in dark red.

S - 1: All trail and also an area I was familiar with. I ran by one as I was planning on having another helper pick it up.

1-2: The plan was to simply continue south at the trail bend and follow to the flag. A better route would have been to follow the trail past the dashed green and avoid the palmettos that left me with some pretty mice "fan" cuts as i was travelling fairly fast.

2-3: Maintaining a south bearing I simply headed to the visible border of the dark green and hopped onto the trail. The white wooded area in the middle of the green was obivous and I simply looked for a "hole" out of the southern boundary of the green and came right to the thicket and the control.

3-4: I planned to attack 4 from the dirt mounds along the trail ENE of the control, these were easy to find and the control was about 15 m E of the mapped distinct tree, but clearly visible from it.

4-5: A southerly bearing took me to the "wet" area 100 meters north of 5, it was dry, but it was also the deepest point in that depression in the (orange) open area. Due south from that led me straight into the control. I took a pretty good fall and twisted my ankle on this leg - but as my tendons are pretty much rubber bands from so many twists, it did not slow me much. CP 5 was on the north side of the control circle.

5-6: Due east with a plan to grab the trail and simply turn into it. The area north of the trail was painted green so did not match the map, so useless for attack - but the line of thickets and the vegetation boundary was visible from the trail, so this was relatively easy. Also the subtle contours were readable and had the control near the top of the low ridge.

6-7: The plan was to hit the trail and get some fast running. I hopped off the E_W trail near the ridhe top and planned to contour into the depression NE of the control, however the running was more open on the west side of the ridge. I attacked from the small depression and easily found the open (orange) and simply handrailed it to the thicket.

7-8: I used a bearing and got lucky enough to find the small hole in the green vegetation to the south. I emerged within sight of the control and even though it did not appear to be on a thicket (as described) I did not hang around long enough to look closely.

8-9: I had planned to simply pick up the first (subtle) hilltop and take the saddle across to the other one. The fennel was very thick in this section and was doing a real number to the open cuts on my legs (from section 1-2). I was not paying close attention to the hilltop attack and blew right past the hill backstopping at the trail. I located the ditches on each side, ran S along the trail to the mapped earth berms and re-attacked the control following the contours that had it in a shallow depression. Once I saw the depression the lone thicket was obvious.

9-10: I abandoned a quicker direct route as the fennel was now causing me some serious pain along my legs. My gaiters only protected my lowere legs and my thighs were pretty much a mass of blood and dirt - not a problem until you run sharp tall fennel weed along it at high speed. I bailed to the trail and wanted a fennel free route to 10. Luckily the earlier runners had trampled a path that took me relatively close to the control and I avoided the majority of pain. The control was realtively simple as there were few thickets and the shallow re-rentrant on the mpa was readable from a distance.

10-11: Ths should have been really easy. Once I hit the first trail I somehow got confused and though I was on the back trail and also that I was heading for 12. Realize I did not look at my map at all after leaving 10 (I was contouring and looking for an obvious depression). For some reason my brain skipped ahead to 12, but after 30 seconds on the trail heading north (uphill) - I slapped my head and went "duh!". I ran back - picked up 11 and then went to the more western and correct trail to go to 12.

11-12: My original plan was to use trail the entire route, but once I hit the first intersection - the woods were wide open so I bounced to the first thicket and then to the cloverleafed shaped oneand punced out to the trail. One i saw teh earth mound I attacked off the trail reasoning with a faiirly large depression behind the control - this would be pretty easy (and it was).

12-13: Plan here was to use trail as much as possible and my legs felt pretty good so I turned on some speed. After crossing the hilltop I attacked heading downhill, passed the small depression and then moved right into the control.

13-14: North to the trail and then follow trails.

14-15: Had mylegs not been shredded by palmettos and fennel I proably would have punched through the light green, but my leg muscles were realtively fresh and I simpyl went around the trails. Locating the flag was pretty easy on the deeper of the two depressions and dues south of the (visible) ranger station.

15-F: I hopped out to the road and sprinted in.

Overall - trying to tie the controls and stuff them in my backpack probably cost me some time though I kept moving at the same time. I was unable to keep track of my own time as my solar watch (which I really like) decided it was time to "recycle", which is a bad habit it has - it goes into some mode where it responds to nothing for 1-2 hours. Also it was important to get a good heading as I left a control as I was going to be concentrating on the tying the flags and not navigating for that period of time. I really enjoyed the course - it was long and relatively challenging.

Wild Turkey Burn 2006

Turkey Burn 2006
Team Travel Country Outdoors (Ron Eaglin, Greg Corbitt, Jamie Sheriff, Ken Richmond)

Wow! The Turkey has always been one of my favorite races, complex navigation, challenging terrain, strong competition – all these come together to make up an incredible experience. This year’s burn was held on the Tossohatchee State Preserve – one of the most incredible pieces of land bordering the west side of the St. Johns River. One of the factors that makes the TB such a challenging race is the Linear Rogaine format. For those of you not familiar with Rogaine and Linear Rogaine, in a Rogaine style race teams are allows to “get” checkpoints in any order with a minimum of rules. In Linear Rogaine there is a basic course made up of mandatory checkpoints – but the real race lies in getting as many of the optional or “bonus” checkpoints you can. Both of these styles have a time limit, so the challenge is in optimizing your time to gather as many as possible – while still making it to the finish within the time limit.

This year the race featured a 4 AM start – guaranteeing the teams some early darkness in the race. The real race for me though started at 3 AM when we received the maps, the time between 3 and 4 AM is a frantic effort to mark your maps, plot the unplotted checkpoints, make sure you have all the gear you need or want for the race (and have it packed and ready), make it to the starting line and then go all out. After receiving the maps we went to Greg camper (parked across the street from the start in a camping area) and worked non-stop until we heard the actual start. At that time I threw the maps in my map case and we took off running to the start. There were still a few other teams straggling in to the start, but the bulk of the pack had taken off pushing their bikes (for the first mile our bikes were disabled by zip ties). We grabbed our bikes and headed off at a trot – currently about 5 minutes behind the main pack.

We took a well trodden road heading north along the western fence line of the park – heading for the power lines where we would turn east and go to where we would receive our bike control card and get the zip ties cut off our bike. As we reached the power lines we could see at least 20 sets of bike lights due north of us, it appeared that a large number of teams had not turned correctly and were now running back. The team hesitated slightly – but I reassured them we were going correctly and soon we saw Nicci at the bike punch location who gave us our card and told us we could start riding.

After heading east and then north we found the vague trail that would take us to MB1 located just after a small bridge crossing. In the dark we passed up the control – but I sent Greg to the bridge, Ken down the trail west, and Jamie east and within a minute we had found it – with an extra minute to get the control cards (with Jamie) to the control to punch it. The trail from MB1 to MB2 was quite ride-able and we were moving well (losing the trail once for about 2 minutes) and also having to slow for teams that somehow were coming from the other direction. The continuation from MB2 to BB1 and all the navigation choices we quite easy and we moved quickly towards the Y intersection preceding BB2 very quickly. At this point we also had a long trail of bike lights behind us with at least 3 teams within ¼ mile. After taking the eastern turn we overshot the southern trail heading towards BB2 and got into a very wet section of road where Greg and I both took a good dunking as we tipped over on our bikes (solidly clipped in) when the water got too deep to maintain forward progress. It too us much too long to realize our mistake and even longer to make the correction – we lost 7-10 minutes going back and finding the correct turn. Meanwhile the huge group of bikes behind us had been sitting at the Y intersection (we could see the lights) and ended up taking the southwest heading road after they saw us returning. Also at this point Jamie’s lone bike light gave out. Luckily I had 2 spares (because of the rush at the start I simply threw everything into my pack including 2 headlamps and 2 extra bike lights). The trail to BB2 and then to MP3 was moderately ride-able, with lots of logs where we had to stop, and jump the logs. As we rode/walked we saw Team Nature Calls buswhacking in to BB2 from the road – I mentioned that it was an unconventional route – but it was working for them. As we left MP3 (it also took us about 2 minutes there to actually turn around and notice the control sitting obviously on a tree) we rode with one team with wonderful HID lights (we had nothing bright on our bikes) 0 but still had a hard time keeping the trail and ended up bushwhacking to the road – which did allow us to go after BB4. Unfortunately it also meant a long (0.6 mile) backtrack along the trail to BB3. Finding the true entrance to the white blazed trail leading to BB3 also cost us a good 5 minutes and now the time was starting to add up. We ended up dropping the bikes part way on this trail and running the remainder to BB3 and along this route we ran into Nature Calls and ran (with them biking) alongside of them the rest of the way out from BB3.

From here is was pretty good riding until crossing under 528. We spent too much time (about 5 minutes) deciding to take the frontage trail to BB5 (and then BB6) and did most of this ride (it was mostly rideable) with team Dirty Fish, who we rode with all the way to the bike drop. At the bike drop we learned that Team Flight had also gotten all the CP’s but had a solid 30 minute lead on us (I was estimating that they would only be 20 minutes up at the time – but also knew that we had made enough mistakes to have cost us well over 30 minutes on the ride (if we had done it without the mistakes and pauses). We now had light and it was still wonderfully cool out – though for some reason we were slow in this transition (almost 10 minutes). Nevertheless we were heading out on a trek with challenging navigation (my favorite). We quickly found BT8 and then used the vegetation boundary to slowly make our way to BT7 (fairly thick terrain). The ground was pretty open from BT7 to the road so we headed southeast and then took an attack point to BT6 that would allow us to identify the marsh (shown on the map) and attack it from the west. Open wood from BT6 to BT5 allowed us to essentially do a direct bearing and we nailed both BT5 and MT1. From there is was basically a run – though we did spend a little extra time on BT1 as the clearing described in the passport (northwest of clearing) did not (to me at least) match the actual location – though the physical location of the flag was exactly as it was on the map. As we jogged back to the bikes I read the passport and realized that we might not make the 11 AM cutoff at the power lines – which I had thought was the cutoff to the boat pick up.

We mounted bikes quickly and rode hard – as we rode Greg got a flat tire, but we decided on the sand and mud roads, with a cutoff looming over our heads – was not worth changing until after the paddle.

The paddle started with a long (over a mile) portage down a grassy road towards the river. This also would be a huge time cost and I was quickly realizing that barring a miracle or a southerly gale force wind – we would not make it to the cutoff by 11 AM. A few shortcuts on the river did help our time, but it was 10:27 AM when we actually put our boats in the water. We reached BP1 at 11:05 AM and the power lines at 11:20 AM and were informed that 4 teams had made the cutoff. This took some of the pressure off our team – we had only missed one CP at this point (BT4 as I forgot to take the map it was on with me on the trek). I also had not even looked at the maps for any part of the race after this point, all I knew is we had more paddling, a trek and then a bike. The diversion to short course did take some pressure off our pace and we were now traveling with multiple teams in the second half of the paddle.

This was the most enjoyable part of the race for me, we got to truly do navigation on the river as we had to find the various lakes and side streams and oxbows that would lead us to each of the bonus points. We were able to hop out of the boats at various points and jog along the edge of the streams to most of the bonus points. There was no place where the water was more then thigh deep so even when we were on the wrong side of the stream from the control (we were on BP7) it was no big deal to wade across. We finished the paddle with a small armada of boats and the finish and the incredible scenery at Jim Creek (I cannot even describe it – you simply have to see it) lifted the team spirits quite a bit. As we portaged our boats to the final boat drop we had a little scare. I saw a snake a few feet ahead of us in the grass, Jamie screamed a hollered “Rattlesnake!” My response was “That’s not a rattlesnake – it’s a water moccasin.” Nevertheless it was still a poisonous snake and it was scared and coiled to strike so we called to the boats behind us to divert around the frightened snake – which slithered off as soon as it had an opening. Amazingly Audrey Nettlow’s team of three women had dragged their boat right over the snake (probably waking it up).

We were now once again on foot – along with a lot of other teams. We took an extra couple of minutes in the transition fueling up and all the other teams were trudging along the power lines headed west as we caught up with them in a trot. Since we were low on time we headed towards BT11 (but decided to bail on BT18). We picked up BT17 purely by accident (I had not plotted it) – but it was directly along the route we were taking to MT11. We were still jogging and sloshing (it was quite wet out there) along this route. We spent about 10 minutes searching for BT13 and as I learned later we were literally on top of it – but somehow did not find it. I did not want to waste a lot of time so I called the search for BT13 short and we headed back. Our plan was to pick up BT12 on the way back – we did find it, though somehow it seemed to me (at the time) to be east of where I plotted it (of course it could have been my plotting – since I was doing it on the run). We jogged a solid pace all the way back into the TA. On the way back we saw Team Flight for the first time in the race – they were biking strong. We still had a flat tire to change, so while Greg and Jamie changed the tire – Ken and I helped change their shoes and get us ready to do the short (6 miles?) bike back to the start. We decided to simply bring it in and not fight with any more CP’s (we had plenty).

In the end missing the cutoff cost us, though Ken and Greg were 2nd place male and Jamie and I preserved a podium finish with 3rd place coed. More important though is we raced what we though was an excellent race. We did not push ourselves to the point of exhaustion as we normally do in a very tight race – but spent some time enjoying the course. My favorite parts were the challenging navigation and the incredible terrain. The entire race was extremely well-organized and flawlessly executed. The level of challenge was exactly what each team made of it. Once again Dave and the Sun-tek crew proved they can provide a race that challenges all of the teams at all levels.