Untamed New England AR
100 Mile
Wilderness, Maine
June 18-22,
2014
Rev3/MK
Team: Britt Mason, Jeffrey Woods, Greg Voelkel
On Monday before the race, Greg and I traveled to Jeff’s
home in Connecticut and made the road trip to Maine together the next day after
some last minute gear prep. We would be carrying packrafts, PFDs, and paddles
for the majority of the race and made sure we all had quick, easy, and secure
systems for stowing and carrying it all. Talk about heavy packs! Tuesday night
at the prerace brief, the excitement was palpable as the course was revealed in
the flyover video. The course was definitely all it was hyped up to be and then
some, from the mountain summits, to the Abenaki Lost World bushwack, to the packrafting
sections. Once we received our maps, we headed back to our cabin tent to start
planning our adventure. There was still a handful of maps we would receive out
on the course, including maps for both packraft sections. It was the biggest
race yet for Greg and me, and the first race for us against an international
field. Jeff was a UNE veteran with
a lot of expedition experience. Our goal as a team was to finish the official
course, gathering all CPs along the way. Around midnight, we called it a night
and went to bed.
Leg 1- Northern
Moosehead Lake traverse and island hop
After last minute gear bin weigh ins, we loaded buses to the
start at the Birches Resort along Moosehead Lake. It had been a rainy night and
morning, but it set us up for gorgeous weather for the next 4 days, cooler with
not a drop of rain! The race started with a quick 3 point prologue on foot.
After that, we grabbed a canoe and headed across Moosehead Lake to Little Kineo
Mountain. Because of the potential for having to carry all paddle equipment for
long distances, I borrowed a 3rd sling seat from my brother that his
friend and teammate had created. Weighing in at a whopping 323 grams, it was
more comfortable than any commercial seat I’ve used. Definitely need to get one
of these! At the summit of Little
Kineo, we were treated to amazing views, which we really had a chance to savor
in our hour+ wait for the rappel off the other side. We got there early, and
there were 8 double lines. The system wasn’t working well though, and a ropes
section 2 hours into a race is sure to have a backup. We took a break, ate
lunch, then hustled back down to the boats when it was our turn to get on a
line. After that, a 3 mile paddle took us to Kineo Island for a trek around its
perimeter. Back in the boats for the final 16 miles of paddling in Leg 1, we
had a fantastic tailwind that allowed us to surf a lot of waves. I think Jeff
was happy to not be getting lapfuls of water from my paddle from the crosswind
earlier in the day! We pulled into TA1 not long after dusk, where we enjoyed
some delish vegan chili from Good-to-Go as we transitioned to bike.
Leg 2- Biking through
the Barren Range and the 100 Mile Wilderness
We headed out on bikes on a mix of roads and trails for 75
miles of riding. At this point, we had a solid lead on teams we regularly
compete with and were making good time. Early on, a young moose came out of the
woods and raced Greg down the road for a couple hundred meters. First of 7
moose sightings! After grabbing the first CP of the section, we continued on
grassy doubletrack intermixed with lots of big puddles. Greg rode through a
deep puddle, hit a log, and went over the handlebars, coming down hard on his
drivetrain. Snap! Broken derailleur hanger. We had a spare, but it was about 65
miles away in our gear bin. We quickly went to work making his bike
singlespeed, and it held for the next 30ish miles. The chain integrity was
compromised, and Greg burned a lot of energy both mentally and physically. Good
thing he’s a beast. He ran up most of the hills, and we pushed him on the flats
when we could. This section also included a gnarly bikewack through the Notch
that seemed to never end. Untamed takes place right around the summer solstice,
so it was fully light out at 4:30am. I have the hardest time staying awake in
the dark, so a short 7.5 hour night was fantastic. As the sun came up, we ran
into the road we were looking for and got back in the saddle. After one more
bikewack through a clear-cut section of forest, we arrived at the Gorman
Chairback Lodge and the site of the orienteering relay. Oh, and PANCAKES. This
was the low point in the race for me. I felt like we weren’t even able to
compete now due to a mechanical, and we still had a lot of biking left. As it
stood, we were in danger of missing the first cutoff. Jeff gave me a good pep
talk and snapped me out of it. We would keep racing our race and make the best
of it. I grabbed a quick nap after running the first O leg. Greg pushed hard on
the 2 long O courses, and we regained our position on several teams who had
passed us. Meanwhile, Jeff spoke to his friend Mike Sarnowski who runs
Madathlete.com. He was volunteering for the weekend and happened to have his
bike at the lodge. Without hesitation, he agreed to trade bikes with Greg for
the rest of the race. New life! We can’t thank you enough, Mike. We set up
Mike’s bike for Greg as he finished up the final O leg. With the huge boost in
morale, we headed back out on our bikes for another 30 miles. At one point, we
dragged our bikes through a rather swampy area created by an elaborate beaver
dam. We also saw a female moose and her calf, who ran in front of us on the road
for several minutes, with the calf even stopping to nurse. Greg managed to keep
his bike rubber side down, and we rolled into TA2 in the late afternoon. We had
been going back and forth with Checkpoint Zero, Odyssey, and Raidpulse, and
that would continue to be the theme throughout the race.
Leg 3- The Abenaki
Lost World trek and packraft
This was the make-or-break section for teams around us in
terms of making the first cut-off, which would be at 1900 on Friday. Leg 3 was
about 40 miles total. The first third was a mix of packrafting and trekking,
and last 2/3 was trekking with a bushwack that didn’t disappoint! We received
the map for the packraft section, and Greg and Jeff made a plan of attack. The
plan was promptly changed when we got a look at the water and the large
whitecaps of the lakes, called The Roach Ponds, we needed to cross. Instead of paddling from point to point,
we ended up paddling out and back to the first 3 CPs and trekking in between.
It was time consuming but necessary with the wind and waves. Greg and I were
sharing the 2 person Alpacka Explorer 42, while Jeff was using the Alpacka
Denali Llama. These boats were fantastic, even though we never got to use them
quite as they were intended, either due to weather or darkness. You can bet by
the end of the race we were pros at set up, tear down, and storage of these bad
boys! The sun went down before we grabbed the 3rd CP of the section,
and with it, the wind and waves died down. We paddled into a creek with some
small whitewater that was a fun challenge at night with fog. We basically let
the current take us down, steering whenever we got breaks in the fog.
Finishing the packraft, we transitioned quickly and pressed
on to head for the 3 mountain summits. Number 4 Mountain (that’s really its
name) was up first. It had a nice trail including rock steps that led us all
the way to the top. Piece of cake, right? The sun had just risen on Day 3 as we
headed down the other side enroute to Baker Mountain. We caught a trail nap
before heading into the woods again. To give you a sense of the bushwack, take
two young pines shoulder width apart, then move them 6-12” closer together. Now
swim through those for hours. Our packs were set up well enough that all we had
to pay attention to were paddles. The forest ate a lot of other teams’ gear
that day. I wore 2XU tights, North Face shell jacket, ExOfficio hat, and
glasses all day. Both my gear and body came through unscathed. After Baker, we
headed to Lily Bay Mountain. Once we got up on the ridge line, we could see
Lily Bay, which was northwest of our position on the ridge. The great visual
from that spot made it easy to navigate to, albeit painfully slow going through
the forest. From the CP, there was a flagged trail down the backside that took
us to the established trail and eventually to the road. Such a relief to leave
the woods for good! Jeff said he has never had a tougher bushwack, although he
has had some equal to the Lost World Trek. All were in Maine. Trekking into
TA3, we made the first time cutoff with about 30 minutes to spare. We were
informed that the ensuing 25 mile paddle was cancelled due to water conditions,
and the cutoff was extended until midnight. This allowed a few more teams to
continue officially and kept the competitive juices flowing for us. We took
advantage of the Kelty tents in TA to bank an hour of sleep. From there, we had
a short ride to the town of Greenville for some urban orienteering. We arrived too
late to visit the town’s finer establishments (pizza, ice cream, CREPE TRUCK),
but we hit up the convenience store across the street for a feast of whoopee
pie, BBQ chips, Coke, Starbucks, and hot chocolate. After a tour of Greenville,
we continued out of town on foot to a trailhead that took us into the Moose
Mountains. This was a beautiful technical trail (one of those you never truly
appreciate in a moment due to sleep deprivation and darkness) that took us past
bluffs and lakes enroute to Big Moose Mountain. Once again, Day 4 dawned with
gorgeous weather and mild temps. We ascended Big Moose from the back side,
using a trail often cut out of the rock. This was the first race I got to
experience sound hallucinations, and they were in full affect as we topped out
and started our descent to Big Squaw Area. Here’s a sampling of things I heard
over and over for about 2 days: my text message alert, people’s voices, and a
vuvuzela in the Kennebec Gorge. Anything can happen when you sleep less than 3
hours in 4 days. The descent was on ski slopes all the way down to TA4. Ski
slopes are much more fun on skis…
Leg 5- The Whitewater
Wilderness
Next up was a 30 mile ride through a maze of logging roads
and old trails along Indian Pond, ending at the Kennebec River whitewater
section. It took some time to ascertain which roads/trails on the map actually
existed, but once Greg ruled out a possible route or two, he nailed the CPs. It
felt like we made good time in the section, but somehow CPZ came out just ahead
of us. Nuts! We had been leading them for over 24 hours. While waiting in line
for a raft, we were informed that we had been ranked Unofficial since Day 2 and
the bike swap. This was news to us. It is fairly common in AR for racers to get
replacement gear, especially bikes, and still continue as a ranked team. There
was nothing else for us to do at that time but hope we could get it sorted out
at the finish. We were paired up with CPZ in the raft and had a great guide. He
thoroughly soaked us on our trip down the guided upper gorge. That woke us up!
We dropped off the guide and headed down the lower gorge unguided. We chatted
and took a welcome break from the race, paddling occasionally. They had bumped
the water levels up on both the Kennebec and Dead just for the race, so it was
really moving.
At the takeout we received a map for the final trek/packraft
section. The wheels really fell off for us here. Morale had taken a bit of hit
due to the unofficial ranking, we were very tired, and we would hit the
packraft after dark. We spent a long time in transition, and it took us awhile
to get moving and warm back up. We had already decided that due to the speed of
the river and that fact that we would be paddling in the dark, we would portage
across to the CPs but trek the rest of the way. It was a 10k trek up to the
first CP. The other 2 points were on the opposite side of the river. The first
was not visible from the water, but the second was. We were moving so slowly
that at one point when we thought we should be nearing the CP, we realized we
were only halfway there! Time to pick it up. We took a short 10 minute sleep. After
the first CP, we prepared to cross the river to get the next one. I was very
worried about the crossing. Greg was having a hard time staying awake, and we
were looking rough as a team. There were reports of teams being rescued via
helicopter, and a lot of teams had gone overboard. The river was pretty much a
yard sale of gear, boats without racers in them, and racers without boats.
Unbeknownst to us, they closed the packrafting section not long after we left
the TA. Worries aside, we made it a short distance downriver and across with no
problems. We found the CP after a short search and got back in the packrafts.
We wanted to paddle downstream about a kilometer to a place where the trail
dipped close to the river. We abandoned that plan after getting pushed around
by some hydraulics and settled for the steep hike up to the trail instead. Greg
gave up the map and got some sleep on his feet on the way to the final packraft
CP. The guys were battling sleep monsters, but I was wide awake for a change.
We passed several teams in various states of hypothermia warming up on the
trail or looking for gear downriver. At one point, I looked back to find Greg
and Jeff talking about the cabins they saw down in the gorge. Ahh, the fun of
group hallucinations. Catching a glimpse of the CP from our side of the river,
we crossed and punched it. While
tearing down our paddling gear for the final time, we took advantage of a large
campfire to dry out. From there, we shuffled back to the Forks campground, the
guys taking turns falling asleep and running to catch up. Finding the
campground was surprisingly difficult, as none of us could remember what the
entrance looked like. Eventually we caught sight of the Kennebec and our turn.
We saw Grant in the campground and spoke with him about our race status. Jeff
posed a very articulate argument in our defense, and we were able to get our
official status reinstated, provided we not place before any other team who
cleared the course. We appealed to the spirit of adventure racing, people
helping each other and being resourceful when necessary to continue on a course
of this magnitude. It meant a great deal to us to be considered official, as we
had worked very hard despite some setbacks to get the chance to travel the full
course.
With that weight off our shoulders, we cruised the final 12
miles in good spirits. We had not anticipated the packrafting leg to take us 11
hours, and we had been rationing food the entire night. Stomachs growling, Jeff
found 2 Pro Bars to split with us. At one point, Jeff stopped for a bathroom
break while Greg pedaled ahead to see if the next intersection existed. I had had this weird feeling for most of the race that we had a 4th teammate.
As I was riding Greg’s direction, that mystery teammate pedaled past me going
the other way. I turned around to follow him, stopping where Jeff was. I looked
at his bike, facing the opposite way I was headed, and said, “I’m going the
wrong way, aren’t I?” Wow, I just followed a ghost. Greg deciphered the map
with its phantom roads with ease, and we crossed the finish a bit before 8AM on
Sunday. We officially finished in
12th place as the 4th American team, as well as 1st
in the Open Division. We accomplished our goal of completing the full course
and had a strong showing against a tough international field. Even better, I
had a great experience with Greg and Jeff and made a lot of cool memories. Hats off to Grant Killian and
the rest of the staff of Untamed New England, along with the host Northern
Outdoors. We couldn’t have asked for a better race experience! We would like to
give a shout out to our sponsors, Rev3Adventure, Epic Kayaks & Paddles,
PowerBar, Honey Stinger, Pearl Izumi, The Right Stuff, and Sawyer. Also, a big
shout out to Dusty and Jacque for catching us after the race with a feast,
showers, and warm beds (I only made it to the couch!) and for packing up all
our dirty, smelly gear. You guys are the best!
