By Mark Harris
“Long” is an understatement for the time it took to drive from Northern Virginia to Beattyville, Kentucky for the Fig adventure race put on by Flying Squirrel Adventures but every mile on the road was worth it for the resultant race.
After around 10 hours on endless interstates I arrived at Pine lodge located somewhere near the Red River Gorge and checked in with Stephanie the race director. Chris and Julie my fellow team mates had checked I earlier and were also able to take part in the pre race brief. No maps or coords were to be distributed until an hour before race start so there was no pressure to plot or stress over course and tactics until the morning. I was going to sleep with the staged canoes and keep an eye on them but checked in with my team mates before heading off down to the river. I had not met Julie yet and this was to be her first Adventure Race. I knew from the first meet and greet that she would be up to the challenge. A happy disposition and fun attitude goes along way out in the wilds. I headed out from Pine Lodge and left the rest of the teams staging bikes and setting up tents and relived the volunteer who had been patiently waiting for me at the canoes. Down at the river there was a low cloud. Everything was moist and slightly blurred as the mist rose from the water. I was very quiet and I finished packing my gear for the following day and hit the sack in the back of my truck. Instead of my usual air mattress I had grabbed Sammy’s single bed mattress, sheets, blankets and pillow and thrown it in the bed of my truck before I headed out (my kids found this hilarious). Great night’s sleep apart from the freight train at 11:30 and midnight that passed by about 20 feet from my truck. It scared the bejesus out of me the first time it rolled through.
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| The Team |
An early start at 5am and I head back to Pine Lodge for map and coordinate distribution at 6am. Chris had Julie all prepped with gear and food which for a first time racer is a great help. 1:24,000 maps with 22 coordinates to plot. We had all the points down and checked within 30 minutes and started to take in the race rules of travel and looking at route choice. First off was a 2-3 mile ride to the river picking up one mandatory CP. Then a paddle with 2 mandatoriess and one optional. Transition back to bikes and a 3-4 mile ride to a TA to a foot O-Course with 3 mandatoriess and 4 optional, back on the bikes with one mandatory (in a cave!!!) and 3 optional, another TA to foot and 1 mandatory and 2 optional on foot. Back to bikes picking up 2 mandatoriess on the way to the finish. A great design to keep advanced teams and first timers on the course for a full 12 hours and roughly all together.
Just before the race start at 7am we were given the coords for the point where we would run to get out punch cards on a prolog. As I picked up my pack my bladder spilled everywhere and I had to run to my truck and refill missing the plotting of the prolog points. Not a great start to the race. Chris had the prolog point plotted and we headed out a short way down the road, picked up our punch card and headed out on the bikes. It was still dark and the train of blinking red lights from all the racers filed down the road on onto gravel double track, to the first checkpoint and then on down to the river. The view across the valley was beautiful. The sun was breaking the horizon and the clouds hung low in the bottom of the valley. We quickly descended into the mist, dump bikes and loaded into the canoe. We knew that we were not going to get the optional canoe checkpoint. It was a long way up river and although the current was almost non-existent, the water and air was cold and the idea of starting the day with a long, miserable paddle was not a happy prospect. We headed down stream to CP03 and on the way I realized the GoPro Cam I was planning to carry for the day must have ended up in the drink when we launched. Not good. Hoping that I would find it somewhere in my pack (or at the put-in) I put it to the back of my mind. The team bonding was in full swing during the paddle. For about an hour I got to know Julie and she got to hate me splashing her head with cold water with every stroke of the paddle. CP03 was an easy punch on the river bank and we headed back up stream about the same distance past the put-in to CP02. CP02 was up a very small creek and was logged jammed with teams trying to get the punch. We pulled up slightly down stream and I scrambled up the steep and slippery bank and managed to circumvent the boat jam and snagged CP02. We dug in and paddled hard back to the take out and the TA not looking back at some of the brave souls that set off for the optional paddle to CP4.
Back on the bikes we warmed up quickly as we climbed up out of the valley. We punched CP05 at a cemetery on the way to TA02 via some overgrown double track. On the way we passed Stephanie and her crew on their way to set up the transition. As we changed into trail shoes I also copied the clues down off a spare passport. Ours got trashed on the river. Note-to-self in future races write all the clues next to each CP on the map as you plot them. Much easier to reference and consolidates information onto one spot.
We headed out on foot to CP06 via a route less traveled losing a few minutes (always take a trail rather than rocky reentrant) but found the first CP06 and knocked out CP07, 08 and 09 with no problems. With no trails to any for the optional checkpoints we took a bearing and bushwacked about 1k to CP10. We slightly missed the mark but with help from a coed duo team found the point. More shooting bearings and pace counts and CP11, 12 and 13 were in the bag and we headed back to the TA.
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| TA02 Post O-Course |
Back on the bikes we headed up more overgrown double track and ended up taking a river bed to CP14. I think Chris and Julie recalled that we were advised to take the adjacent trail rather than suffer a large boulder strewn route that was 99% unridable but who wants to take the easy route? At the top of the trail/riverbed we ran into a few teams hunting for the cave and we found it relatively quickly. It’s always fun having to go into a cave and find stuff. Make you feel like a kid again. The point was down about a 6 foot drop, 100 feet in the back of the cave. We all headed in and I got to drop down and get the punch. The course design was really proving its worth as we were still surrounded by lots of teams, most who had opted to do the mandatory O points only.
Back on the bikes we picked up optional CP15 and 16 on the bikes. Both were out and back rides. Uphill out, fast downhill back. We initially missed the turn for CP16 and had to back track and do some mileage to locate the turn and lost about 30 minutes. With still an O-Course and the ride back to the finish to contemplate we made the call to axe getting CP17, another optional out and back bike CP and rode on to TA3.
At TA3 we transitioned to foot and picked up CP18 with no issues. CP19 and 20 were optional but we knew we had time to get them. Most of the trails in the area were not on the map. A large amount of 4x4 trails wound through the area making navigation via trail features almost impossible. Using main feature trails and topo we circled round to CP19 and tried to cut up to CP20 but failed. We ended up back tracking and attacking from a different angle and after about 20 minutes found CP20 at the base of a ladder ascending a cliff face. I should have taken my normal advice for this one and gone the distance that I thought we should have gone and then cover that distance again. We spent some time looking for the point too short on the trail. FYI Kentucky has a lot of old abandoned oil wells, everywhere.
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| TA03 |
There was no trail on the map leading from the top of the ladder but I figured it must go somewhere so we climbed up and then bushed wacked a short distance before finding the trail that led us back to the TA. On the way back we were caught by Team Forum Dental, another 3 person Coed. We had no idea how many points they had collected so we ended up running back along the trail keeping up with them and managing to head out of transition after a quick change ahead of the pack. We were doing great for time and had about two hours to get back to the finish. With two checkpoints to locate and some nasty hills to climb, we were still in great shape to finish before the cut off at 7pm.
Julie had a quick spill over the bars on a super steep technical section (kudos for the effort and brushing it off), and then we headed down dirt and gravel trails to a quick road section to pick up CP21. Following more gravel and after a quick river crossing we were back onto dirt trails. We were riding with around 5-6 other teams and Forum Dental had caught us. After a quick exchange of information we found out that they had picked up all the optional CPs and so we eased back off knowing we did not have to press them to the finish. They ultimately took a well deserved first place finish.
The final climb after CP22 was brutal. I locked into the granny gear and managed to churn out the climb with a few breaks on the way up. Light was fading fast and after the climb it was a short ride back to the finish and the final punch.
We managed to pick up all the points bar two optional. Three other teams cleared the course and we were left holding 4th place in the 3-4 person co-ed division and a spot in the 2012 USARA National Championships. Not a bad way to start the year. Julie had a great time for her first race and I am looking forward to racing with her and Chris later in the season.
The drive back was just a long as on the way there. I took advantage of having a single bed in the back of my truck and slept on the boarder of Kentucky and West Virginia in a rest stop for a few hours on the way home.
The Flying Squirrel Adventure volunteer crew was excellent and was always happy to help. Stephanie, as always gave 150% effort in organization and planning and put on a first rate event.
