USARA National Championships 2010

It wasn’t on my race schedule for 2010, but when I had the chance to join one of the three Remington MountainKhakis teams at Hidden Valley, PA for the USARA nationals, I jumped at the chance. Previous races I had done in the season had contributed to the overall team ranking, the number-one position going into the final race, so it felt good to be part of the last-ditch effort to keep our ranking. Also, being in a race with three teams would be fun. I felt that hanging out with eight other team members who you have either raced or trained with throughout the year was sure to be a blast.

Pre-race brief

Having said that, before heading to Pennsylvania I swung by the airport to pick up Sheila–someone I had never met nor trained with before. She was a last-minute sub for Cassie, who unfortunately had recently broken her foot. We were going to miss that mountain biking powerhouse we have come to know and love, but she could not subject her still tender foot to untold trekking miles on rough terrain. Seven days prior, through a chain of requests and a flurry of email, Sheila had bravely bitten the bullet and volunteered her time to come and join Jeff and me on our 24-hour adventure. To jump on a plane in Texas and come race with complete strangers takes some serious guts. Hats off to Sheila.

We arrived in Hidden Valley to find most of the rest of the crew had arrived and checked in. Maps were not going to be distributed until an hour before race start, which has both its advantages and disadvantages. It’s good in that you don’t stress about route choice and strategy all night long, but you have the added pressure of plotting, prepping, and heading out in a very short time frame. (Many would disagree and hate me for saying it, but I prefer the late map distribution.) After gear check, dinner, and the pre-race meeting we all hunkered down for an as good night’s sleep as your mind will let you before a race.

With three teams for Remington MountainKhakis\Trakkers racing we were able to help each other out during the crazy map plotting the next morning. We had a masters team (Chris, Jose, and Pete) and two coed teams (Mike, Dave, and Veronica and Jeff, Sheila, and me) working on plotting and setting routes. The hour from map distribution to race start went by in the blink of an eye. We only managed to plot a route through CP6 and would be doing the rest in the field.

Prolog O-Course

The prologue consisted of a short O course on the ski resort with an initial “sprint” up a ski run to get O course maps. We cleaned the course as a unit of three teams and headed out in bikes to the first main CP somewhere mid pack. At this point we split into our separate teams and continued on the initial bike section. Our route took us along fire roads to the top of Seven Springs ski resort and then more fire road before a section of single track to CP3. Route choice was key here, and hitting CP3 from top to bottom of the trail proved a lot faster than bottom to top. Luckily we took the easiest route. The next few CPs were along roads and fire roads. We found ourselves caught up with some of the lead teams and then missed a left turn onto a hidden trail and were alone in a mess of overgrown snow mobile trails. Obviously wanting to keep us company we ran into Mike, Dave, and Veronica, who also missed the turn. After about 20 minutes of fierce bush whacking (deepest thoughts go out to Veronica’s torn-up legs) we corrected our course and located CP5.

As we punched into CP5 a lot of things happened all at once. First Jeff realized we mis-punched at CP4 and Sheila, who was behind us merely seconds ago, was no longer with us. Jeff and I decided to punch CP5 in CP4 and also at the bottom of the passport. Doug, the race director, had mentioned something about allowing one misplaced punch, but we couldn’t quite recall the details, so we punched the “mulligan” spot too and hoped for the best. Next to find Sheila. We rode about 50 yards back up the trail to find she had taken a nasty spill. After straightening out her bike and patching her leg, we were off again but with Sheila’s confidence understandably shaken. We moved onward through more roads and fire roads through CP6 and CP7 to CP8 and the paddle section. Jeff in his true powerhouse style towed Sheila through the hilly section (i.e., the whole course). It is just insane how strong that guy is on a bike. He is towing and I am struggling to keep up and he is passing other riders on the hills like they are stationary.
Paddling. Jeff and I feel the same away about this discipline: disdain. After paddling to the first water CP and experiencing a torrential downpour and witnessing 16-foot canoes being blown along the shoreline like my kid’s Legos, we checked the rules for method of travel to get the canoe checkpoints, found none staying you had to get them by boat and promptly took off on foot. We figured with our lack of paddling prowess this would be the best choice. As we trekked into paddle CP3 we figured it had paid off as we a caught Mike, Dave, and Veronica who we last saw at CP5. After picking up one more checkpoint, getting back to the boat, and returning to the bike transition we figured we cut about 45 minutes off our time. I am sure if we had paddled the whole thing we would have added at least an hour. The additional trek ended up being about 10k but give me that over being in a boat anyway. The big frustration was that Jeff and I carried paddles for the entire race and used them for about an hour total. Not doing that again.

Warming hut post O-Course

After CP8 I was on familiar territory. The next part of the race covered a large section of the same course that I had done about 8 weeks prior during the Lion Heart. A time trial up a rocky 5-mile trail saw us catching and passing a few teams. Light faded as we passed through CP9 and onto CP10, where all the Remington MountainKhaki teams were reunited. We decided to head out as one squad for the O course. This proved to be one of the most fun sections of the course. Although we didn’t manage to hit a few of the checkpoints as cleanly as we would have liked, we did clear them all. I can also only say that looking back. It didn’t necessary feel too fun at the time. The most memorable moments were locating OP4, wandering around the woods for quite some time, and descending the very steep reentrant to hit OP5. Dave did a good job taking the lead and navigating us around as what times felt like a herd of sheep. By around 2 am we were back to CP11 and the warming hut and out of the cold for a short rest before the ride home. Once again we split into three separate teams and rode the roads and trails for a while in our individual units but eventually all linked back up just before the final CP. The ride back seemed endless and the hills no less punishing or steep than the ride out. There were points where any of the three teams could have taken off on their own, but we all stuck together as nine riders strong. This was a great feeling and will probably for me be one of the most memorable for 2010 race season. Even though everyone was pretty tired, with nutrition and energy flagging, there was an underlying unsaid feeling of a strong team unit, all of us out there having fun together and fighting the personal demons that go hand in hand with this type of race.

I mistimed my nutrition for the last hour of the ride and was running on empty. A shared Snickers moment with Veronica got me through the last 45 minutes of riding. I totally appreciate that share. We rolled into the resort just over 24 hours since we left on our bikes the previous day. With still another O course to complete by noon we knew we did not have time or the energy to clear it, so we opted to first grab some breakfast and then head out and get some of the nearest points. The masters team for whom it was Jose’s and Pete’s first 24-hour race hit the showers and then took a well-earned nap. The coed teams ventured out again, picked up out two points, and finished at around 11am.

It was a great race. We unfortunately moved to second place in the national ranking, but there is always next year, right? The after party was fun. It was great to be with such a large number of like-minded folks and share the stories of the day.

Thanks go out to Sheila and Jeff for being solid teammates. All told we did around 135k (88 miles on the bike), minimal paddling (probably about a mile and a half), an estimated 30-35k on foot, and just over 16,000′ of total elevation gain. Those are some serious stats for a race.

USARA Adventure Racing National Championships

USARA Adventure Racing National Championships
Hidden Valley, PA
October 15-16, 2010
Weather: Cold and wet to start, sunny through the day, cold and windy during the night

Race Report by Jeff Dicky
To close out my season, I’ve been doing some long distance racing – the Shenandoah 100, an 18 hour adventure race at the end of September, and most recently, the USARA Adventure Race National Championships in and around Hidden Valley, PA.  The national championship race is a 30 hour co-ed event for teams of 3 that included something like 150k of mountain biking, 3-4 hours of kayaking, and a whole lot of running/trekking and orienteering.
I was racing with my adventure racing team, Team Remington-Mountain Khakis/Trakkers, a team I’ve been with for a few years, who had fielded two co-ed and one masters teams for the event.  Going into the race, the R-MK/T team was the #1 ranked team in the US.
Unfortunately, the pro mountain bike woman who I was to race with broke her foot a few weeks before the race and we were just able to find a sub for her before the event started.
The race started off cold and early with a short orienteering course around the Hidden Valley ski area (this was after we had less than an hour to plot out all of our checkpoints on two huge maps and try to determine the best route). We ran to the top of the ski area to get our orienteering maps and got all of the first checkpoints in quick order and back to the finish to begin the first bike leg of the race.
We got out to a good start (perhaps 12th out of 35+ teams) and eventually made our way to the top of Seven Springs ski area, a few miles away.  From there, we bombed down some fast roads, onto some trails and found our next checkpoint.  After that point, I began towing Sheila, our substitute teammate who is from Texas and not used to hills or wet rocky trails or roads. I hooked up a bungee cord from my backpack to her bike and motored along (probably all-told, I rode this way for 50 or so miles – talk about a power workout!).
After an hour or two of riding, we caught up to the leading teams on a huge paved climb, but we missed a turn and got lost on the top of a mountain that was covered in ropy thorns.  By this point, the second of our co-ed teams caught up to us, and after 30 minutes of bushwhacking through deep thorns, we found our way again.  On the next descent, Sheila crashed heavily and I think she lost some of her nerve for east-coast riding.  But, she soldiered on with us and we made it to the start of the paddling leg of the race at around 1pm – a 4 hour ride….  I was eating GU packets like mad – trying to keep up my energy for the day and into the night (my favorite flavor is Mint Chocolate - I think I ate 17 of those during the course of the race).
We had to get 3 paddling points, but the Ohiopyle river reservoir was so low, paddling was difficult.  While we were on the water, a fierce squall blew in and we could see canoes blowing up into the air and rolling over and over.  It was hard to paddle and we had zero visibility.We decided to ditch our boat on the shore after the first checkpoint and trek 20k to the next two points and back to our boat. I really dislike paddling, but it was tough to carry a kayak paddle in my pack for almost 15 hours and only use it for an hour of paddling…
After the paddle, we determined that we’d made up 40 minutes with our route choice and we rode to the next transition area – nighttime orienteering.  When we arrived at the orienteering start at 7:30pm, it was dark and cold.  We had also caught up to the third of the Trakkers teams and all 9 of us went out into the night.  I was using my Lupine Tesla 5 headlamp (thanks Bill of Gretna Bikes!) which put out a huge amount of light – so much so that it was easier finding checkpoints at night than during the day.  After getting some of the points easily, and others not so easily (one tough one involved a 1,500+ vertical descent and return down a river valley), we headed back to the bikes at 2am for a long ride back to Hidden Valley.
Our teams were getting really tired out and I was wishing I had some more chamois cream, if you know what I mean (I’m glad we have Enzo’s ButtonHole Chamois Cream on board as a sponsor for 2011 – no saddle sores for me next year).  After a long ride with some missed turns and a lot of hills, we got back to Hidden Valley at 9am.  It was kind of a tough ride.  I started drifting off to sleep while riding uphill and pulling another rider.  Not good at all…
When we got back to the ski area, we grabbed some breakfast and I drained a lot of coffee and headed out to get 2 of the 9 possible optional orienteering points on the final leg of the race - we were too cooked to get any more than that.
We finished up at 10:30, 27.5 hours after we started.  My Polar watch said that we’d climbed 16,000+ vertical feet and I’d burned something like 14,000 calories. I’m still tired out almost a week later…
We placed second overall for the season and 17th in the race.  Not the finish we had hoped, but it gave everyone motivation for next year.
Next up for me is another 30 hour race – this time in Moab, UT on October 29 for the Checkpoint Tracker National Championships.  This one involves a bunch of kayaking, riverboarding, mountain biking, a huge Tyrolean traverse/rappel and a bunch of trekking and orienteering. I’m already shivering, anticipating the 2-3 mile swim (probably in the Colorado River).  Hopefully, it doesn’t snow!

The Perfect Race - Black Beard

After Seven Years of Adventure Racing I have never completed a perfect race.  It’s almost an impossible feat.  That is why we Adventure Race.  The concept of Adventure Racing is making adjustments as new challenges are thrown at you during a race.  The team that wins is the team that goes as fast as possible and makes the fewest mistakes. You cross train by trail running, mountain biking, canoeing, swimming, orienteering, map reading, race strategies, and climbing.  I now have 75 races behind me and one perfect race. 

We have been racing as the Trakkers Adventure Racing team for the last two years and have gained a lot of good experience during that time.  We are fortunate enough to be ranked #1 in the USARA ranking in 2010.  With good results comes national attention and we have gained new sponsors because of our results.  As of last week our team name changed to Remington\Mountain Khakis – Trakkers.  We added two new premier sponsor to the Adventure Racing team.  The Black Beard Adventure Race in Nags Head, North Carolina was to be our first race under our new name.

Remington\Mountain Khakis - Trakkers Adventure Racing team

I was racing in the co-ed division with Veronica Ivey and Greg Voelkel.  Veronica’s is in her 20’s, Greg’s in his 30’s and I’m in my 40’s, so we were representing a 20 year age gap.  The race course was considered a sprint adventure race.  This means the winning team should finish the race in less than eight hours.  The race consisted of an 8 mile beach run to a transition area.  You grabbed your kayaking gear (paddles, pfd, throw ropes, pack and supplies) and then ran 1.5 miles to another beach on the sound to grab a kayak and navigate your way across the bay through an island to a checkpoint 3 miles away as the tide was on its way out.  This is where teams make their first mistake.  Navigating on an island through creeks is almost impossible.  After we crossed the choppy sound and battling the current we hit the island and Greg guided us through the island and we hit the point in first place.  The only other person in front of us was Timm Phillips another one of our teammates who was racing as a soloist for this race.  We made the turn and paddled back to see all of the 150 competitors still paddling out to the checkpoint.  Now we had the lead and we knew where everyone was on the course.  The tide was on its way out so the water was only a few inches deep in some areas.  We had to jump out of the kayaks and push them through the mud.  We were sinking down over 12 inches into the mud as we pushed.  We finally made it back into open water and back to the kayak launch.  We pulled our kayak out of the water and portaged them into the staging area and grabbed, our gear and ran the 1.5 miles back to our bike transition.

Biking along the beach roads

We changed into our biking shoes and tired to wipe off as much mud as possible before we took off on our bikes.  We had an 11 mile flat beach road ride to a park where we needed to hit two more checkpoints on our bike before we started our orienteering course.  The three of us averaged 17.5 miles an hour on our mountain bikes for the ride.  We hit the park and rode our mountain bikes another 5 miles to get the two checkpoints in the park.  At the last checkpoint we were given five more checkpoints to find in the park.  We changed into our running shoes and grabbed our packs and water and hit the trails to find the five different checkpoints.  This is where teams typically slow down because you need to read a map and follow a compass to find your different checkpoints.  Greg laid out a strategy and Veronica and I followed along to hit the points running.   We had two points without any problems and needed to hit the other three points before heading back to the finish line.  We passed the second place team as they we’re receiving their orienteering maps.  We were already two points ahead and if we could hit these points without any problems we could head back to the finish line.  Greg’s navigation was flawless and we hit all three points head on which is almost impossible.  We were now on our way to the finish line.

We transitioned to our bikes and had an 11 mile ride back to the host hotel and then a 250 meter beach dash to the last checkpoint.  We hit the beach road and averaged 21 miles an hour for the full 11 miles back on our bikes.  We dropped our bikes and dashed down the beach to the last checkpoint.  We hit the checkpoint and turned in our passport that verified that we had hit all the 10 mandatory checkpoints and the five orienteering checkpoints.  It was the perfect race.  We didn’t have any injuries, we didn’t get lost, we didn’t break any equipment, and we fueled our bodies for the full race and ran every opportunity we had.  The second place team was 1 hour and 20 minutes behind us and the first soloist was 1 hour and 30 minutes behind us.

The new Adventure Racing team of Remington\Mountain Khakis – Trakkers has won its first race and through our eyes; it was PERFECT… 

Night O training with new gear

Last night Mike, Dennis, and I headed out to Hemlock after dark to do the fixed orienteering course. We were looking to bone up on our night O skills but also try out some new gear that our sponsors had sent us. Mountain Khakis sent us some newly rename  Granite Creek Covertible Pant (Formally Snake River Convertible Pants) and DeFeet sent us some socks. When racing I always wear convertible pants with tri shorts beneath. I find they not only offer the best protection when bushwhacking through heavy undergrowth, but also provide the flexibility of being able to remove the legs in warm weather and not having to increase the load in your pack by too much. In the past I have used both North Face and REI branded convertibles and was keen to see how the Mountain Khakis held up.

DeFeet had also sent us some of their Trail 19 socks. I am a big believer of the new style wool blend socks and was looking forward to testing another brand apart from my standard Smart Wools.

We met at around 10pm and set out to individually clear different sections of the course before meeting back at a central checkpoint. The evening was perfect. It was a warm and clear night, and although there were a few bugs, if I kept moving, they didn’t bother me too much. The wild deer eyes that lit up in the night were sort of creepy at first but were overshadowed by the large number of cobwebs that I kept plowing through. I somehow managed to miss my first checkpoint but fortunately ran into my second point, which was almost on the same bearing. From there I cleared two more points before making my way to the meeting point. I met up with Mike who was on his way to another point and realized we were not quite where we thought we were. After getting to a known good point and reshooting a new bearing to the last point we located the meeting checkpoint. By that time we had been out about two hours and figured Dennis has probably gone back to the cars.

Heading back we met Dennis on the trail. He was sporting his latest fashion accessory, a large snake. That guy is crazy. He found it on the trail and thought we would like to meet it. Check out the picture. 

Back at the cars we reviewed the new gear. The pants were excellent. The evening had been very hot and we had been sweating heavily. My other pants had always tended to cling and become heavy in those conditions but the Granite Convertible had stayed light, did not cling, and did not try to drag themselves off my butt. With lots of pockets for utility items and great performance, I will certainly run my next race in these pants. The DeFeet socks were great too. They were extremely soft, wicked well, and kept my feet dry. Although we probably only trekked a few miles, they felt like they would be great at preventing blisters. It was a fun evening and it is always good to get out in the dark and test navigation skills with good friends.

Lionheart 2010

On August 8th Team Trakkers competed in the 3rd Annual LionHeart 24-Hour Adventure Race at Ohiopyle State Park, PA, hosted by American Adventure Sports. I was teamed up with Dennis and Cassie for a great weekend of racing that was filled with many highs and lows.

Dennis picked me up on Friday and we headed up to Ohiopyle, a very cool little town that I had never been to before. The trip took about 4 hours, and when we arrived we hooked up with Cassie at Falls City Pub for some food and to chat about the race. I had never raced with either Dennis or Cassie before but had trained with them both, saw how they raced with others, and was excited to be part of such a great team. Dennis is multi-talented: a great climber, kayaker, mountain biker, and adventure racer. Cassie, ranked the number one mountain biking female in West Virginia, is just an outstanding rider and over the next 36 hours humbled both Dennis and I with her fitness and mountain biking skills.

After food we checked in at our lodging, a single-wide setup at the top end of the town owned by a friendly old man who told us a few of his life stories as we watched about 50 hummingbirds fly around a nearby feeder. The digs weren’t called the Humming Bird Nest for nothing.

At 7pm we headed down to the Wilderness Outfitters HQ for packet pickup. We received our map and then transposed the checkpoints and out-of-bounds areas from a communal map. I don’t really like this method of plotting points because it can lead to transposition errors. It also makes for a crowded and crazy 30 minutes as everyone tries to copy down the information. We were also given the UTMs to check our work.

We headed back to the Humming Bird Nest to pack after reviewing the course and making sure we had everything copied correctly. The race was going to have us coming back through the main transition area a few times, so that helped with packing somewhat light. Cassie made a great list of points to remember and CP summary items to ensure we didn’t forget anything on the way, and we kept it with the passport. We managed to hit the hay before 10pm, ready for a 6:30am start.

We set up in the transition area at 7:45am, headed over to the pre-race brief by Doug at 8:30am, and then lined up on the bridge ready for the start at 9am. There were 7 teams in our division, and we knew we had good competition from all of them.

The race started promptly at 9am and we headed out along the flat for the first 3.2 miles to CP1. We stayed in the lead pack and managed to bag CP1 first. Dennis did an amazing job almost falling/flying down a 50′ ravine to get the CP in record time. We headed back to the transition and were the first team to head out on bikes to CP2. We took the Bagman trail, a steep technical climb. I think many of the other teams opted for the Sugarloaf trail, which was probably a better route choice.

Halfway up the trail my calf muscles began to cramp. I had never had this problem so early in a race and I thought I was in big trouble. But the cramp worries were soon vanquished as soon as my rear derailleur snapped. I couldn’t believe it. We were about 2 miles into the first biking leg and I just lost my bike. We quickly set up the bike as single speed. Dennis and Cassie were great. We knew this was a huge blow so early in the race and I know I had doubts about continuing. My bike worked incredibly well in single-speed mode, and with some help from Cassie pulling on the downhills and flats we, amazingly, were the first team in to CP2 closely followed by a duo male team. This is where our lucked changed. One of the guys from the male team, who I owe our race to, had a Specialized derailleur that fit my bike. Gratitude cannot be expressed enough to this team. As we remounted the derailleur (in about 7 minutes flat) team iMonpoint and the two SOG teams blasted through the CP.

Back in action we rode out to CP3, where all the other lead teams were either still in transition to the trek or just about to head out. We quickly transitioned and checked our Cassie list and made sure we had our bike helmets with us for the river section. Onto CP4, which was about a 7-mile down hill trek to the river. We put on a fast pace to catch a few teams and prevent the lead expanding of others.

We arrived at the boat put in with three teams ahead of us and another close on our heels. We filled our water up from a hose and then were told that is wasn’t potable. We dumped the water and I grabbed mine and Dennis’s water bottles and headed over to the bathrooms to find a different spigot. Dennis and Cassie selected some boats and got them to the water. By the time I got back we were ready to launch. We had a two-person ducky and a single ducky. I started out in the single. No matter how hard I worked I could not keep up with Dennis and Cassie, and the other teams were slowly disappearing out of sight down the river. After about an hour I swapped out with Dennis and he also had trouble powering the single ducky. It felt like trying to paddle a dead whale. Later we found out that the other lead teams managed to get single duckies that were the same style at the two-person duckies and were a lot easier to paddle. The paddle took around two and a half hours, which was actually shorter than we had estimated.

Next we moved onto the rappel. We charged into the transition, threw on our harnesses, and headed over to the rappel station off a bridge neck and neck with a 4-person team. I jumped on the line first and dropped the 60 or so feet. When I got to the bottom one of the race crews asked if we had a left a map at the boat put in. My mind raced and then my stomach plummeted. I couldn’t remember having the map with me on the boat. We had dropped all our mandatory gear at the transition so I would not be sure we had it or not until we got back to the rest of our gear back at the top of the rappel area. Cassie and then Dennis came off the bridge with ease and shot down the rope. As they arrived from above I told them about the possible map situation. They were visibly gutted. After running back up to the transition area, my worst fears were confirmed. No map. How could I have been so careless? In the last race I lost the passport and this one the map. Unbelievable.

Quickly we regrouped. I found out that we could not get issued a new map. We either had to get our map from the boat put-in or race with another team. We knew where the next checkpoint was where we would be back on bikes and we knew that we would be biking to a checkpoint about 3 miles from the put-in so we did our best to stay positive and headed out on the trek back to our bikes. We made good time back up the hill and to the next checkpoint. When we got there we found the next stage would be a time trial. We could get checkpoints 8, 9, and 10 in any order. The fastest time would be awarded bonus points. This would probably determine who won the race. The team having the fastest time and clearing all the checkpoints would win.

I checked with the support crew and to my frustration found our map was no longer at the put-in but was now back at the race start. We knew we needed the map or to hook up with another team to go on. IMONPoint was just about to head out on the time trial and I asked if we could follow them. They graciously said we could, but, as I am sure they did too, we wanted to go it alone. We found out that our map was being transported to our current location, but we would have to take a 1 hour 45-minute time penalty for having “outside assistance.” That was better than nothing, so we waited for our map, which got there in about 15 minutes, and told iMonpoint to go ahead without us. Still down from the map mishap, we gathered ourselves and took off on the time trail being as positive as possible.

We hit CP 10 without a problem and then night drew in as we headed for CP9. We fired up our lights and continued on. We stopped too short for CP9 and lost a few minutes. During the hunt for CP9 I charged into what I thought was a side trail only to be flipped straight over the bars as my front wheel stopped dead on a large log. Luckily there were no injuries or an equipment breakage, which was a good thing at that point. Between CP8 and CP9 I made a silly navigation error and we failed to take a turn and added about 15 minutes onto our time.
The gamble we had taken for the route we took was that we would have to bushwhack for about 1k to get from CP8 back to the road and it paid off. At the exact point where we were going head into the undergrowth there was a trail that was unmarked on the map. Joy. Bush whacking with a bike is no fun and the trail we found was clear and headed in the right direction. As we exited from the trail and back to a known path we spotted a CP that we did not have on our map. This could only mean that we were going to be given that point later in the race and would be back to get it during another stage. After a quick ride back on pavement, our time trial was over. I still have no idea what our time was or how we ranked.
Suspicions confirmed, at the CP we were given three additional checkpoints to get on foot. To be able to continue any further in the race and be able to get the final three optional checkpoints it was a requirement to find all three O points. After a quick transition, we were off again. We had no problem finding the O points and were back to the transition within about 3 hours.
Because of the map time penalty we were going to have to be at the finish line an hour and forty five minutes before the real race cut off to prevent losing any points, so we planned to be finished by 8am. From the transition at the top of Sugarloaf Mountain we looked at our options to collect the final three checkpoints, which had weighted values. Although CP13 and 14 were close together, we knew terrain was steep and nasty. CP 15 was a long ride out on the flat with a short, very steep hill at the end and probably an easy find. It was 4:30 am and we decided we didn’t want to lose any points because of cut-off time (you lose 10 points for every minute you are late back) and decided to get CP15 because we thought it would be a sure thing. From CP11 we swung back down the trail I mashed my derailleur on, which was a lot more fun going down than up. Dennis and Cassie set a blistering pace in the dark on the technical downhill. We made a quick stop at CP12 to get some supplies. At this point we had been away from the main transition for about 8 hours. The ride out to CP 15 was nice–totally flat on crushed gravel. The final climb had Dennis and me walking while Cassie rode the whole thing. At the top we ran into both the SOG teams and IMONPoint, who we assumed had collected CP13, 14, and 15 and were in a race back to the finish.
We lost some time trying to find CP15. All the other CPs had been out in the open and relatively easy to find. CP15 was well hidden in the bed of a stream. When I had transposed the points from the source map I was off by about 1mm for CP15, which made all the difference.

The ride back was good–a steep descent back to the flat trail and then an 11-mile ride back to the finish. We rolled in at around 6:45am. We would not have had enough time to go and get CP13 and 14 and were happy to be back, clean up, and grab some breakfast.

All things considered it was a fun race. Once again I managed to let the team down with a stupid mistake. Losing the passport in the last race was bad and losing the map in this one was equally as bad. Dennis and Cassie get huge props for hanging in there. The mental strain on a mistake like that is huge.
Two lessons learned from this:
• Always clip the map to your bag. I have always done this in previous races. In this race I was using a new map case that hangs around your neck.
• Always carry a spare derailleur hanger.
When the results were released we ended up coming in fourth in our division. Competition was strong and with the map mistake and the mechanical issue, this is not too bad.
It was a good race format and great location. I went back to Ohiopyle last weekend with the family and rafted on the river as a more leisurely pace. It’s a great little town.
I hope to race with Dennis and Cassie again. Those guys are strong and experienced and we really gelled as a team throughout the race. The more races I do I realize it’s the people who you do it with that make the whole experience worthwhile.

Odyssey Sprint Adventure Race

by: Michael Spiller

Adventure Racing family fun

The Trakkers Adventure Racing team sent two team to the Odyssey July 24 race.  Our 24 hour team finished second in the One Day Race and our sprint team finished 1^st in their race.  It was a great family friendly activity for both teams.  Michael, Greg, Timm, and Veronica raced in the sprint race.  The race consisted of a two mile mountain climb prolog run followed by a quick transition to an eight mile run\trek to find two checkpoints.  After the trekking section we ran to the river for a three mile paddle.  The river was really low so we had to drag our canoes over the rocks at least 10 times.  Once we exited the water we were still in the top two teams.  We jumped on our bikes and pulled ahead of everyone.  We hit the first checkpoint and then head back down the mountain for a river crossing.  However the map had a road crossing the river that was torn down 20 years ago and we were now on private property.  The owner tracked us down on an ATV and let it be known we were on private property.  We let them see our maps and let them know about the race and asked their advice about routes and they decided not to shoot us and let us mover along to the next checkpoint.  We got to a rail to trail path and arrived at checkpoint 9 and moved along to CP 10 and 11.  We had pulled ahead of all the other teams by several miles at this time and now soundly in first place and getting ready to start the orienteering course and finish the race.  However after discussing the course with some of the race staff we were informed that we had to take a required jeep trail to CP11 at the top of the mountain. I didn’t want the team to get disqualified because we wanted the points to keep our first place USARA ranking.  We were informed that we had to redo out path to CP11 via the jeep road to the top of the mountain and re-punch the checkpoint.  Now we were in serious trouble of not making the race cut off time of 6:00PM and not getting any national points.  We took off on the bikes for the 10 mile trip and made it back to the finish line with 20 minutes to spare.  Greg plotted the orienteering course and we took off to get at least one point.  We saw several other teams on the course looking for the same point.  Greg was able to keep us on track and find the point.  We dashed back to the finish line before the cut off time and were the only team to complete the course with all the required points.  Most team faltered in the 100 degree weather and was not able to make all the mandatory checkpoints.  It turned out to be a great day and we won the race with an extra 10 miles of mountain biking.  Timm, Veronica, and Greg are awesome athletes who battled the heat and terrain to pull off a great race and victory.

1 Day Roanoke Adventure Race

by: Monika Sattler

If one of the races I have done describes all facets of Adventure Racing, this is it! Our team experienced the lowest low and the highest high in 24 hours. Nothing of this race could be described as easy and nothing was predictable, which made the race an interesting challenge.
The 1 day Odyssey Adventure Race started on Saturday, July 23^rd at 12pm and went until Sunday 12pm. It was about 96 degrees at the start time, no question that the heat was a determining factor how well teams will do. 41 teams signed up for the race taking the challenge to survive heat, 100mi racing, and an elevation change of 25,000 feet.

After we got the maps at 8:30am on Saturday, we planned our race. The race looked like the following: 2 miles running prologue, 40 miles mountain biking, 27 mi trekking, 15 mi paddling, 19 mi biking, orienteering. The numbers are estimated because as I will describe later, we never made it to the paddling section! The race director gave us a cut-off time for the first mountain bike part. We had to be done with the first section at 2am; that meant 14 hours to bike 40 miles. We thought that was plenty of time to bike 40 miles. But we learnt soon enough that a lot of team struggled with that cut off.

Our team started with the prologue running the 2 miles and we finished as one of the first teams. We put our biking gear on and started our 40 mile bike leg around 12:30pm on Saturday. We estimated to be done in around six hours. As it turned out, it took us ten solid hours to complete 40 miles of biking. The mountain bike section started with a half an hour steep climb up a mountain followed by a two hours not-so-steep uphill part. If I recall correctly, basically we climbed the entire time, I do not really remember downhill…maybe because they lasted only 30 seconds while the climbing part took us forever.
We made a very good time in the first three hours and were third or fourth place that time. Unfortunately, the heat cooked us and one of my teammates started cramping (quadriceps)…so badly that he couldn’t even do a pedal stroke anymore. That meant walking for him. Despite massage efforts and rest times, his leg did not cooperate. However, he kept a cool attitude and we kept on moving…though slow.
Realizing that we were losing a lot of time, we doubted we could finish the race. We felt the heat and our slow progress challenged our high spirits. The terrain was rough…jeep trails with very rocky parts that made it impossible to tow someone. Our goal was to finish the mountain bike part before dark. That didn’t happen. We made it to a check point that was located at a lookout. We reached the lookout right at sunset so we had a great view when the sun went down. However, that also meant that we had to keep going in the dark. After two hours riding in the dark we finally made it to the transition area…at 10pm after 10 hours ride and hike-a-bike.
Ahead of us were 20 miles of trekking. At the transition area, we changed into our trekking gear and got water from a creek. We all ate good portions of our food. I realized that I had too little food with me so I had to plan carefully how much I ate the next hours. We still had 14 hours left to race. We left in high spirits and were able to set a fast pace the first five miles. I was celebrating that we got one fourth of the trekking section done when our navigator recounted the miles on the map realizing that it was actually 27 miles instead of 20. This would take longer than we thought. Moreover, our pace slowed down because the paths were overgrown and we had to bushwhack. The next checkpoint was six miles away. With an average speed of 2-3 mi/hr we would take at least 2-3 hours. I think it actually took us 4 or 5 hours because the navigation was tricky to get there. We did not see any team until we actually got close to the next check point. We were wondering what other teams were doing because it became obvious that the race course was way too long for 24 hours. We knew that we were in the front somewhere so we were wondering if other teams even made the 2am cutoff for the first bike section.
Having finally arrived at the checkpoint, our goal was to get to the next manned checkpoint as quick as possible so we can get out of the woods at 12pm. We knew we will never finish the trek section or any part after that. It was about 5am when we were heading about 2 miles to the next checkpoint which took us again longer than expected. The following checkpoint was not easy as well and the sun came up. At about 7am we arrived at the last checkpoint before we saw volunteers who could transport us out of the woods. It took us another hour or so to find finally the volunteers in a driveway. I was anticipating a van transporting us to the finish line and real food waiting for us. However, the volunteers told us that the van will drive us to our bikes which we have to take for 19miles to the finish line. Ok, not really what I expected. We barely slept during the night. I fell asleep for two or three minutes when navigational choices were discussed but that was it.
One of the volunteers drove us to our bikes where we saw another team leaving the transition area. Being exhausted we did not try to speed up to catch them. We took our time to mentally prepare for another 19 miles. We left around 9:15am and had 2:45h to make 19 miles. No problem, one would think. Not if the first miles was basically bushwhacking through brushes….with bikes. This killed my mood. However, after that arduous mile we could ride on a paved road. But it was 10:30am and we still had 14miles to go. We sped up and made good time. At the last mile, we suddenly saw the team which left the transition area when we arrived two hours ago. Both of us sped up the pace and raced to the finish line. After 23.5 hours racing basically a time trial pace was quite a challenge. We arrived about five seconds before the other team and thought we won.
What we completely forgot was that we could get points in the orienteering section because we still had 20 minutes left until the race would be done. So, we quickly plotted the points and left to do the orienteering. The other team seemed to do the same. After we found the first checkpoint we called it a race and headed back and we found the other team hanging out at the finish line never having left to orienteer. That meant we got more points than them. Since no other team has arrived at the finish (out of 41 teams) we waited until 12pm with the hope no other team would arrive because that would mean we would win. At 12pm, sure of our victory we went to get food when another team pulled in. They were originally ahead of us during the trek part and apparently received time credit for being ahead of us, which we didn’t know. So they were declared as winners. After 40 minutes the team, which was ahead of everyone arrived. Despite their time credit they came in late and were disqualified. We ended up being second place which is incredible considering what we went through. 12 hours before, we were considering pulling out of the race and now we got second. We were told that more than half of the field gave up in the first 12 hours and even more pulled out as time went on. I don’t know what happened to those who are still walking in the woods trying to find a manned checkpoint.
It was a tough race, mentally as well as physically but that is what adventure racing is about, you never know where you are until you finish.

Sheltowee Extreme Race Report

Chris, Danielle, and I met up in Stearns, Kentucky and headed out the prerace meeting at the local 4H camp. We were there to race in the Sheltowee Extreme 24-hour adventure race. With only seven teams competing in our division, our goal was to complete the race and maintain a point lead in the USARA rankings. With the other competition in the division the goal was to finish 4^th, but any placement would give us the points we needed to keep Trakkers with an overall lead in the USARA rankings. 

We received maps an hour before race start, and the prerace brief outlined the general flow of the race but did not give any details. We loaded our bikes and canoe in transport, so that they could be moved to Transition Areas (TA), and we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep.
We received our maps at 7 am. The map outlined the overall race route with major transitions and methods of travel between the TAs. We would be receiving additional check points (CPs) at each TA as the race progressed. We loaded into buses at 8 am and rode to the race start.
 The race stated out with a prologue across a trestle bridge to get a supplemental map and the location of the first four check points. All the racers were bunched and the energy was as high as the heat of the day. All the checkpoints were on trails and easy to find. It was a good warm up and let Danielle, Chris and I feel out our team dynamics and the other racers on the course. CP4 was a 100’ free rappel. Danielle who had never done a rappel did an amazing job. She was totally calm and didn’t pause for a second as she went over the edge. Chris, who I know is not too keen on heights, did a fantastic job too. A rappel is always fun but can be a little frustrating waiting in-line to get on the rope but 10 minutes in the scheme of a 24 hour race is pretty insignificant.
After the initial trek we headed to the boat ramp to start the first canoe leg. At the first TA we got our first two check points. I plotted them, and they were located just off the river between TA1 and TA2. We loaded into the boat and headed down the very warm river. The water must have been at least 80 degrees. Chris, Danielle, and I had not paddled together before, but we quickly found a good rhythm and made good time on the water. There were only a few rapids, and they were probably just class 2 but that didn’t stop one of the rapids getting the best of us and we swamped the boat on an undercut rock. We were thankful we had put all of our gear in dry bags and had strapped it in. It made for good entertainment for the family with the preteen kids who easily navigated the rapid in their kayaks.
CP5 was an easy find except I managed to complicate the search by not orienting the map as we headed up the wrong stream. After this 15-minute long navigation error, we were back on track. CP6 was further down the river up another stream we had to scramble up, but we hit it without any problems.
Next was TA2. We pulled out our boat and received our next set of coordinated for CPs 8 through 10. This section was located at Yahoo Falls. We picked off the check points, working clockwise around the park on a mixture of trails with some heavy bushwhacking to get to the CPs. CP10 had some very heavy bush whacking and many teams had difficulty finding the CP. We spent about 40 minutes looking for it before we found it. The undergrowth was so dense you had to be right on top of it to be able to see it. Danielle and I got attacked by hornets at this CP. I got by lightly with one sting. Danielle took four. They hurt like hell.
After CP10 we headed back to the boat put in and paddled the last 3-4 mile stretch to TA3. It was around 4pm as we reached TA3, and we got ready for the first bike section. We received our next three CP coordinates and headed out on what looked like would be mainly road riding. CP11 was a breeze, located at a road intersection. Finding CP12 was a total wreck. We missed a trail turning and ended up about 3 miles north of where we needed to be. I don’t think a section of roads was marked on the map and that totally confused me. We eventually got reoriented and with some help from the very nice locals backtracked down a trail we should have come up and hit CP12 just as night fell, so we fired up our lights.
CP13 was an easy find along a major route and we rolled into TA4 at around 10pm. The next section was a trekking leg forest to get the last five mandatory CPs and then three optional CPs. As I plotted the points I knew that with night upon us, the CP locations, and my limited night navigation experience this was not going to be an easy leg. We set off with the goal to get at least the five mandatory points before moving on to TA5.
My initial thoughts on the navigation were confirmed as I struggled to locate the points. There was a huge amount of deadfall. Trailheads were totally obscured and large areas required major scrambles over down trees. For CP14 we stopped short on the trail to begin with and wasted time searching in the woods and then when we finally got to the right tack point didn’t initially go far enough up the side of a hill to find the rock formation we were looking for. It was only by seeing another team leaving the area who confirmed the CP was indeed somewhere near where we were did we manage to locate it.
 CP15 was the only feel-good moment in the woods as we hit that check point dead on first try. It was located off a reentrant of a reentrant so not so easy to navigate to. CP16 was located up a stream that was obscured and took some major hunting to locate. CP17 and CP18 never materialized. I took our team up the wrong reentrant for CP17, and we spent a large chunk of time looking for a CP that would never materialize. As we begrudgingly gave up on CP17 and headed out toward TA5, the sun was coming up and daylight finally returned to break the darkness of the night but not our moods.
At TA5 we transitioned back to bikes and plotted a few checkpoints that we knew were on the way back to the finish. Because of cut off times we were not going to make it to the next trekking leg, and without the last two mandatory checkpoints we knew there was little point in collecting out of the way optional check points. We had about a 17-mile ride back to the finish and we would be done.
As we rolled into one of the optional CPs I needed to empty some of the 100 ounces of water I just added to my pack and handed off the map case to Chris to go and punch the passport. As Chris hunted through the map case we, to our horror, found that we no longer had our passport. The sense of total deflation, frustration, disappointment, and anger at myself was insane. How could I have possibly lost the one thing that showed the progress we had made over the past 24 hours? Losing a passport is usually an instant disqualification. So having made it to within 45 minutes of the finish I had totally blown the whole race. All we had to do was finish to maintain a lead in points with USARA and now that was in jeopardy. I know the last time I had seen the passport was at CP16 and since then we had wandered around the wood for hours and could have dropped the passport out of the map case at any time. I should have known better and kept the passport separate from the map. That is the usual protocol, but I had failed to follow it to our detriment.
 We rode back to the finish and did our final check in at 10:30 am. We had been out on the course for 25.5 hours but without the passport, we had little to show for it except tired and dirty bodies.
 Unfortunately there is no happy ending to this story–just lessons of hard knocks as follows, unfortunately all of which I already knew:

•  Always keep your passport separate from your map case and check on it often.
• Distances at night are deceiving–all my navigation fell short. Always go a little further than you think you need to go, but not too far.
• Never eat food you have not tested before (Chris had a reminder of this).
• A canoe will sink very easily of you broadside a rock in fast-flowing water.

On the positive side:

• We did not have any mechanical issues.
• We did not have any major injuries (scrapes, gouges, stings, and small cuts don’t count in an adventure race; they are just par for the course).
• I learned a lot more about night navigation if only through mistakes.
• As a team we worked well together and overall enjoyed the experience of racing together (although and I am not sure Chris or Danielle will want to race with me again as the navigator any time soon). 

Looking forward, Lion Heart is on the schedule and I plan to take what I learnt during the race and hopefully redeem myself one way or another.

Fat Otter Raid 3-day Adventure Race

by: David Ashley

One of our team members, Barb Blackburn, wrote up a comprehensive and humorous race report from our recent 3-day raid in Wisconsin.  I’ve included it below, enjoy!
Established in 1957, the Black River State Forest encompasses approximately 68,000 acres of public land in Jackson County. The area’s geology helps make the Black River State Forest unique among the state forests. The property lies at the edge of the glaciated central plains, east of the “driftless” area of Wisconsin. Hiking to the top of Castle Mound provides views of the former bed of glacial Lake Wisconsin, as well as the unglaciated buttes, sandstone hills and castellated bluffs that dot the vast forest landscape.

Left to Right Barb, Dennis, and Dave

The Fat Otter Raid 3-day race was held near Black River Falls, Wisconsin in the Black River State Forest. I was originally entered with my teammate Heff to run it as a 2-person team. A few days before the race, Heff had to withdraw. I e-mailed every racer I knew…and sent group messages out to the orienteering club, adventure racing group and the race director looking for a teammate. Just when I was about to give up my search, Dave from Team Trakkers called to talk about the possibility of racing on their team. After a few phone conversations and e-mails, I was very excited to find out I’d be joining their team! Our “Team Trakkers” (right to left) included Dave (team lead and superman navigator), Dennis (mountain biking king and paddling guru) and me (expert eater?).
The race started at noon Thursday and the cutoff time to finish was noon on Sunday. The estimated mileages were 75 miles on foot (trek, run, orienteer), 175 miles on bike (single track, road, 2-track) and 55 miles of paddling aluminum canoes. The race was unsupported (no support crew needed) so we each had specific sized bins that would be transported for us to each transition area. My bin was full of required gear, trail food and most importantly, Mountain Dew and cans of soup (to eat in the transition).

The race would be divided into multiple sections of trekking, biking and paddling. We were not provided details or maps until we arrived at each section of the race. The teams would be ranked based on the number of checkpoints obtained in the shortest amount of time. There were mandatory and optional checkpoints for each section. If you did not obtain the mandatory checkpoints, you would not be ranked with teams that did.

We arrived at the race start for pre-race gear check around 8 am on Thursday. After our gear check we were given the first of many maps to come. Dave had generously agreed to let a 2-person team tag along with us since they were unsure about navigation. So Dave plotted our first set of checkpoints while instructing the other team on map plotting.
Race Start – Noon Thursday
It was a hot and sunny start. The first race section was a Prologue (basically a short event to spread out the teams – a loop out and back to the start). The Prologue consisted of a land navigation section about 15 miles long with 4 check points that were to be obtained in any order. We were allowed to leave our packs for this section only – so we each had a bottle of water in our hands and no other gear. We took off running at a pretty good pace, as did other teams. We were surprised to be the only team taking off in one direction – but we figured other teams were getting the checkpoints in a different order than us. We came to the area we were sure there’d be a checkpoint and looked for a few minutes. We decided to move on to the next checkpoint and try to find it on the way back to the race start. We got the next checkpoint quickly and then moved on to another. Again, we were certain we had the right location but no checkpoint was to be found. After Dennis and I collaborated with Dave on the map, I suggested we check the plot location. Turns out a couple of checkpoints were plotted wrong; an easy mistake transposing the UTM coordinates. (Dave was probably distracted by assisting the other team or maybe it was the attractive young woman on the other team ) We re-plotted the points and were on our way. It was hot and sunny and we didn’t bring enough water since we were out longer than expected. One of the members of the 2-person team was having difficulty with the heat, so we slowed the pace a little. We finished the Prologue about 60 minutes behind the lead teams. We transitioned quickly (I pulled at least 10 wood ticks from my ankles) and were on our bikes for the ride to the Castle Mounds land navigation section.
On the Bikes – 3:30 pm Thursday
It was a 3-hour ride on some very hilly roads. Our tag-along team was having trouble keeping up. They offered to let us go ahead…they would try to find another team to help them along.
Land Navigation – 7 pm Thursday
We arrived at Castle Mound Park at 7 pm and were greeted by the friendly race volunteer and his two 3-legged dogs.
We filled up on water and ate some food. Dave plotted the points – there were 5 checkpoints, only 1 was mandatory. Even though it was getting dark (which makes land navigation difficult) we decided to get 4 of the 5 checkpoints. The first two were on and near some steep cliffs. To get the next two points we had to run out of the park, through town, through a trailer park and then into a wooded area that looked like a place for serial killers to take their victims. It was dark and the woods were dense. A creek ran through the area and there were intermittent and faint trails. The checkpoints were not easy to find, but after a few attempts and Dennis’s excellent rabbitting, we got the points and headed back to the park.
Bike to Lake Arbutus – 10:30 pm Thursday
It was now 10:30 pm. We got our next set of maps and Dave plotted our course. I pulled another 10 or 15 wood ticks from legs. We were back on our bikes for a couple of hours headed to Lake Arbutus. Along the way we stopped at a gas station and had delicious microwave sandwiches and Mountain Dew (aka Magic Racing Juice).
River Traverse – 12:30 am Friday
The next section was a traverse across the river and the south end of Lake Arbutus. Dave went first and made it across in record time (according to the ropes volunteers). I was next…I had help hooking my pulley to the rope (I was too short to reach it). I pushed off and flew across about half way. It was then a hand-over-hand backwards pull up to the other side. When I got there Dave had to help me disconnect…again I was too short and not heavy enough to weigh the rope down, my feet didn’t reach the platform/tree stump on the other side. Dennis was next and zipped across like a pro. We then did a short run to the paddle start.
Lake Arbutus Paddle – 1:30 am Friday
The three of us were required to be in one aluminum canoe. It was cold and very dark (cloud cover obstructing the half moon) and there was some light rain. I sat in the middle of the canoe while Dave and Dennis paddled (I felt like Queen Nefertiti). There were 4 checkpoints – only 1 was mandatory. We decided to get 2 checkpoints. The first checkpoint was difficult to find…it was up a small tributary for which we had trouble finding the mouth. The second point was easier to find. An hour and a half of paddling and we were back on dry land. We changed gear, ate food and Dave plotted our next course (oh, and I found more ticks).
Epic Trek and Rappel – 4:30 am Friday

We left the paddle transition area at 4:30 am for what was listed on our map as the “epic” trek. It was over 20 miles of travel on foot on gravel ATV trails and roads. It was raining and we were still cold from our paddle.

Dennis and I had asked Dave a various times during the race how much further to the next point…his response was always “a couple of miles”. It was always a lot further than a couple of miles! We joked that those must be “Wisconsin Miles” which are much longer than regular miles.

Part way through the trek, we had a rappel on Wildcat Mountain. We arrived at what appeared to be the rappel, but didn’t find it. This time we went straight for the map and checked the point. It was plotted wrong…we were on a hill just south of the hill with the rappel. Instead of heading back out to the trail, we scrambled down the hill, across a swamp and climbed up the actual hill at Wildcat Mountain.
Dave and Dennis were first down the ropes. I hooked up and started backing over the edge…but I suddenly slipped on the wet carpet that was protecting the rope. I was now hanging upside down! I had my brake hand in place holding my position and Dennis was on belay to stop me – so I was safe. It took a couple of minutes to get back upright…I had to slowly lower myself so I could get my feet planted on the cliff.

Levis Mounds Single Track – 2:00 pm Friday

We arrived at the location of the mountain bike single-track section. The race volunteers greeted us with a bon fire and hot soup – it was the best! We changed our socks/shoes and took our first nap of the race. We were 26 hours into the race and it was time to get some sleep. I laid on a picnic table and zonked out for 20 minutes. I got up and quickly ate a can of Chunky soup and guzzled a Mountain Dew (I did that at every transition). Now it was time to get out on the mountain bike course.
We were given a map with a highlighted route to follow. There were 3 checkpoints placed at secret locations. We’d have to bike the entire route to find them. The biking was very technical – lots of sharp turns, up and down steep hills, bridges, obstacles and rocks. (I was regretting having a belly full of creamy soup and 24 ounces of Mountain Dew.) Leaves covered the trail which made it very slippery. There were narrow trails that ran across very high summits – it is not a place to be if you are afraid of heights. I was very nervous…and actually wiped out on a downhill section. I got a pretty big gash on my inner thigh, but it didn’t bother me too much for the rest of the race. It took us almost 4 hours to complete the course. We got the next map, ate more food (more soup!), removed more ticks, geared up and were on our way.
Bike ride to the Epic Paddle – 10:30 pm Friday

We took off on our bikes about 10:30 pm. It was getting cold and there was a foggy mist in the air. We biked a couple of hours until we found a piece of public land where we could take another nap. It was a fishing access parking area. It was low-lying near a body of water that looked like a swamp. We unrolled our emergency blankets/bivy sacks (basically a big tube of thin, but stiff, poly material). I put on all the clothes I brought – fleece jacket, rain jacket, gloves and hat. I left my wet shoes on and climbed into the tube. I pulled the tube completely over my head (so rain and fog wouldn’t bother me) and left a small opening at the top so I wouldn’t suffocate. I could feel a couple of ticks crawling on me…but I fell sound asleep immediately. I woke up about 20 minutes later and I was shaking uncontrollably. The inside of the bag was completely wet with condensation from the rain/fog, my breathing inside the bag and my wet shoes. It was like a stinky swamp steam room – but extremely cold. I tried to move around to warm up – but the bag was making really loud crinkly noises and I was trying not to wake Dave and Dennis. We had hoped to get an hour of sleep. I repositioned the bag so my head was out and the bag was tight around my neck (hoping to get some heat to build up inside). I closed my eyes and tried to get some more sleep…but the shaking kept me from falling back asleep (my teeth were chattering). After what I think was an hour I had to get up and move around – I needed to warm up and I couldn’t worry about waking the guys. Turns out Dennis had the same problem…but Dave said he was toasty warm.

After almost 2 days of racing...gear boxes are from Heaven!

We quickly gathered our stuff and got back on the bikes (I think it was about 2 am by now). The rainy fog was making it impossible for me to see through my glasses so I had to take them off (btw, they are prescription). My bike headlight was getting dim. It was a miserable ride. We rode until the sunrise when we arrived in Black River Falls (that was a lot of Wisconsin Miles!). We got to our favorite gas station about 4:45 am. The sign on the door indicated they opened at 5 am. We were just fine with camping out and waiting for them to open so we could have some hot food. There were 3 other cars of locals also waiting for the doors to open – I’m not sure why it was so popular. The store clerk saw all of us waiting and opened the doors early (she might have regretted that after she smelled us!). We were happy to use a bathroom with running water and to get food, coffee and of course Mountain Dew. We got our sandwiches microwaved and sat at one of the two tables they had setup in the store (a pseudo dining area). I quickly ate my sandwich and then went back for another! A family sat at the table next to us (they were literally inches away – my back was hitting the back of the person behind me). I’m sure we made their breakfast a little undesirable by our smell. They were speaking in another language – I would have like to have known what they were saying  I still think it’s strange that they would pick the gas station for their out-to-eat breakfast (there were many restaurants within a couple of miles on the highway).
Epic Paddle – 6:30 am Saturday
We left the gas station and biked a mile or two to the start of the “Epic” Paddle. We weren’t given any details on the paddle section until we arrived. We got the map and the race volunteer explained that the paddle was about 34 miles down the Black River. He went on in detail about how the river current is running about 3 miles per hour and that we should be able to leisurely paddle to increase our speed to at least 6 miles per hour. He estimated it would take us 5-6 hours. We asked what other teams had done it in…none had completed it yet so he didn’t know. This was the same volunteer that told teams it would only take 1.5 hours to complete the Bruce Mound navigation (and it took most almost 3 hours). Needless to say, he was again off on his estimates! It took us about 9 hours to complete…the fastest team did it in 8.5 hours and the slowest in 11 hours. We chocked it up to “Wisconsin Miles”.

It was cloudy and cool, so we put on all of our warm clothes and rain gear for the paddle. We were provided with life vests and one seat cushion. Both Dennis and Dave had sore butts from all the biking…so Dennis used the seat cushion, Dave sat on his life vest and I used a home-made seat I brought (3 kneeling pads duct-taped together).

We got on the river and the current was non-existent…there was no “3 miles per hour” happening. The water was dark (hence, the Black River) and was very shallow. We had to navigate through many sandbars, getting stuck quite often.
About an hour into the paddle the sun came out. It got quite hot and humid. We stopped twice on the shore to take a bathroom break and give our butts a rest…and remove more ticks. We were extremely tired and the constant rhythm of the paddles and the movement of the boat put us all into a trance. I switched places with Dave a couple of times so he could have a break and try to sleep. It was not easy to sleep sitting up in the bottom of the canoe without leaning to one side and tipping the boat. But Dave managed to fall asleep a couple of times. There were lots of tourists paddling the river with rental kayaks and canoes. We were very jealous of their day on the water with coolers of beer! I’m sure we were a sight to see… Dave was passed out in the middle of the boat – he had on his bright red headband, sunglasses, race shirt and bike shorts. It was like Weekend at Bernies! I’m sure people thought he was passed out drunk. One woman was looking concerned as we passed by…but I told her we brought him along as an anchor. She laughed.
There was one optional checkpoint on the paddle. It was on a cliff along a tributary into the river. It was a beautiful site – a narrow canyon that seemed to disappear back into the wilderness. Dave got out and climbed his way up the cliff to get the point. He was really moving fast up some precarious ledges – Dennis told him to slow down and not get hurt. Dave made it up and back quickly and we were on our way again.
After about 4 hours we kept asking Dave “how many more miles”…and you know the response by now…”only a couple of miles” (Wisconsin Miles!). At this point we were still under the impression the paddle would only take 5-6 hours. So Dave studied the map and calculated our current speed and gave us the bad news. The paddle would take over 9 hours and we were only half way through!
We got stuck on sandbars many times…when Dave was in the middle of the boat we were stern-heavy and got stuck more often. Dennis decided to stand up and paddle (to give his butt a break and to spot the sandbars). It actually worked well – but we had to be very careful not to make any sudden moves and tip. We had wondered how teams behind us that would have to do the paddle in the dark would navigate the sandbars.
At about 4:00 pm we were so happy to see the canoe take-out – Dennis joked that he was going to kiss the ground when we arrived. We arrived at the River View Inn in North Bend. As we were changing gear for our next section (biking) the race volunteer told us the bar just up the hill served hamburgers. We bee-lined it to the bar! It was the typical Wisconsin bar. There were about 15 stools at the bar and 3 high-top tables. There were about 5 people in the place and they were very curious about what we were doing. Dave brought the maps to plot while we ate. We had pizza and beer – Leinies Honey Weiss (when in Wisconsin you must partake of the State’s famous brew). I also had a chicken sandwich and fries with my pizza and beer (after all, I am the self-proclaimed expert eater on the team).
Bike – 5:00 pm Saturday
Now it was a bike back to the location of our vehicles (the first time we would loop back to the start). We were not real excited about more sitting… It was a fast 4 hour ride on mostly paved roads with rolling hills. We donned our headlamps and bike lights at dark.
Back to the Start Location – 9:00 pm Saturday
We were happy to arrive back at the race start location. We were able to sit in our vehicles and had access to our cooler with turkey sandwiches, Gatorade and cold Mountain Dew! We ate, changed out some socks/clothes and got our next race instructions. The first challenge was an optional on-foot navigation using an aerial photo to get 3 checkpoints. We decided to skip the optional section. Much to our dismay, the next section was MORE BIKING!
Bike Loop – 10:00 pm Saturday
This bike section was a loop to get up to 5 checkpoints – only 1 checkpoint was mandatory. Since our race strategy was to get mostly mandatory checkpoints, we biked out and back to the closest one. It took us about 1.5 hours.
Land Navigation – 12:30 pm Sunday
The next and last section was a loop land navigation section. It was in the area of the single-track mountain bike trails with steep climbs with ridges and ravines. There were 10 checkpoints – only 1 mandatory checkpoint. We were pretty brain dead at this point. The navigation became more difficult. The first checkpoint we attempted we plotted wrong…we searched up and down the steep hills and ravines with no luck. At one point we made our way out of the park onto a road to re-attack the point. I shined my headlamp into the field across the road and saw red glowing eyes. I’m pretty sure those were bear eyes…
Once we realized the point was plotted wrong, we moved on to the next checkpoint. We bushwacked a little to get the point, and found it with relative ease. We had a team discussion on whether we should continue to get optional checkpoints or head back to the finish. We had accomplished our original goal of finishing the entire race (no short course!). Any points we obtained might move us up in the ranking – but would not put us in a top three position. Dave was hoping to get home to see his family (he had a 7 hour drive) and I had a 3 hour drive to get Dennis to the Minneapolis airport (if we continued to the time cutoff – we would have to leave immediately from the race to the airport with no rest or shower). So the decision was made to head back and finish the race. We were the first team to finish (we finished 8 hours ahead of most teams). We took 4th place in our division and 7th place overall.