Team TRAKKERS place first in the 3 person/co-ed division and second overall in the SPROUTE AR on Saturday. On the team were Monika Sattler, Greg Voelkel and me.
On Friday night we set up camp, dropped off the canoe, plotted the coordinates and came up with a tentative game plan. The pre-race meeting was at 7:30am, and then the race organizer met with the team captains at 7:50 to give the remaining set of coordinates which were key to planning our route. We had reviewed the map and guessed on where these unknown coordinated might be, so when we got the list and plotted them, we knew which routes we would take. We were the 4th team to hit the course after plotting.
Onto the bikes for some dirt road and paved county byways for about 90 minutes of hard riding and collecting some easy checkpoints. Then we dropped the bikes in a state park and did some bushwhacking for about checkpoints. Greg had calculated the distance and azimuths the night before and he did a fantastic job navigating, our pacecounts were sometimes dead-on. A few checkpoints gave us some trouble, but by putting our heads together we were able to figure it out and clear the course. We had dropped our bladders for the run, and although it was hot, no problems and it was a relief not carrying that extra weight.
At that point, Team Too Many Kids was slightly ahead of us, but we heard them in transition after the o-course that they missed checkpoint 17. OK, we thought, we just have to have flawless nav and clear the rest of the course by cut-off time and we’ll win!
The race officials did random gear checks at some of the checkpoints, including a bike headlight. Greg had forgotten his, so that morning he had zip-tied a micro-light to his handlebars, and they accepted it.
Back on the bikes for some more road riding. We killed Too Many Kid’s lead when they got stopped by a train, then Greg managed to tow Monika up the hills and drop me and Too Many Kids at the same time. In mid-afternoon, we pulled into the paddling transition area and left the bikes after a total of 47 miles. Thank God we had portage wheels for the canoe, since we had to portage that thing for about a mile. We had decided to not put in on the smaller channel, but run cross a bridge onto a large island and portage another half-mile to the main river. It was a steep put-in but it paid off. Most teams put in at the channel but when we got to the place where the channel and the main river merge, we saw that we were about 10 minutes ahead of Too Many Kids.
So then a long, windy slog with only two of us paddling…the bucket for the middle person collapsed but Monika grabbed the map and saved us about 5 minutes with some great navigation. After 90 minutes of being blown around on the river, we beached the canoe, fueled up and transitioned for the zip line and last o-course. The zip line landed us in a lake so it was a good chance to cool off and drown some ticks. We now had three hours to hit 10 checkpoints. Again, prior planning, pacecounts and azimuths, and Greg’s navigation all paid off. One point gave us fits, but we cleared the course and were at the finish line a few minutes past 7pm, after 11 hours of non-stop forward movement.
Here’s what I think are some key lessons:
- Plotting the distance/azimuth on the o-course maps the night before saved us some time while on the course.
- Portage wheels!
- Gear…it was a one point penalty for each missing piece, so two missing pieces could have cost us the race. The night prior we went over the list a few times and passed some gear around to make sure we all had what we needed. A lot of race directors don’t check, but don’t risk it.
- Teamwork. Greg was the lead navigator and did a great job, but for a lot of the points it was a team effort and we can all take credit for at least a few skillful (or lucky) finds that saved us some time.
On Friday night we set up camp, dropped off the canoe, plotted the coordinates and came up with a tentative game plan. The pre-race meeting was at 7:30am, and then the race organizer met with the team captains at 7:50 to give the remaining set of coordinates which were key to planning our route. We had reviewed the map and guessed on where these unknown coordinated might be, so when we got the list and plotted them, we knew which routes we would take. We were the 4th team to hit the course after plotting.
Onto the bikes for some dirt road and paved county byways for about 90 minutes of hard riding and collecting some easy checkpoints. Then we dropped the bikes in a state park and did some bushwhacking for about checkpoints. Greg had calculated the distance and azimuths the night before and he did a fantastic job navigating, our pacecounts were sometimes dead-on. A few checkpoints gave us some trouble, but by putting our heads together we were able to figure it out and clear the course. We had dropped our bladders for the run, and although it was hot, no problems and it was a relief not carrying that extra weight.
At that point, Team Too Many Kids was slightly ahead of us, but we heard them in transition after the o-course that they missed checkpoint 17. OK, we thought, we just have to have flawless nav and clear the rest of the course by cut-off time and we’ll win!
The race officials did random gear checks at some of the checkpoints, including a bike headlight. Greg had forgotten his, so that morning he had zip-tied a micro-light to his handlebars, and they accepted it.
Back on the bikes for some more road riding. We killed Too Many Kid’s lead when they got stopped by a train, then Greg managed to tow Monika up the hills and drop me and Too Many Kids at the same time. In mid-afternoon, we pulled into the paddling transition area and left the bikes after a total of 47 miles. Thank God we had portage wheels for the canoe, since we had to portage that thing for about a mile. We had decided to not put in on the smaller channel, but run cross a bridge onto a large island and portage another half-mile to the main river. It was a steep put-in but it paid off. Most teams put in at the channel but when we got to the place where the channel and the main river merge, we saw that we were about 10 minutes ahead of Too Many Kids.
So then a long, windy slog with only two of us paddling…the bucket for the middle person collapsed but Monika grabbed the map and saved us about 5 minutes with some great navigation. After 90 minutes of being blown around on the river, we beached the canoe, fueled up and transitioned for the zip line and last o-course. The zip line landed us in a lake so it was a good chance to cool off and drown some ticks. We now had three hours to hit 10 checkpoints. Again, prior planning, pacecounts and azimuths, and Greg’s navigation all paid off. One point gave us fits, but we cleared the course and were at the finish line a few minutes past 7pm, after 11 hours of non-stop forward movement.
Here’s what I think are some key lessons:
- Plotting the distance/azimuth on the o-course maps the night before saved us some time while on the course.
- Portage wheels!
- Gear…it was a one point penalty for each missing piece, so two missing pieces could have cost us the race. The night prior we went over the list a few times and passed some gear around to make sure we all had what we needed. A lot of race directors don’t check, but don’t risk it.
- Teamwork. Greg was the lead navigator and did a great job, but for a lot of the points it was a team effort and we can all take credit for at least a few skillful (or lucky) finds that saved us some time.
Team TRAKKERS after the SPROUTE AR victory
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