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.

Wild and Wonderful 2010 Race Report

This weekend I competed in the Wild and Wonderful 24 Adventure Race hosted by Odyssey Adventure Racing. The race was important to get additional points in the Check Point Tracker AR series and keep our first place standing in the USARA rankings. It was my first race this year and with a team that had never raced together before and with some members I had never even met. No pressure.
 The drive down to West Virginia took about 5 hours. The race was head quartered at ACE adventure. I managed to find Timm, one of my team mates from the North Carolina tags on his truck, and Greg found me as I was wearing a Trakkers shirt. A bit strange thinking I was going to be racing with these guys I had never even met before.
 We managed to pickup our maps and start the check-in process as we waited for Veronica. Greg started to plot points and work out the route. Veronica arrived with her boyfriend, Tucker, and the team was complete. Tucker was volunteering and going to help on the race course.
 We reviewed the course which started with 10 miles of class 3-5 white water. We would then transition to trekking to locate CP2 through CP8 on the East side of the New River Gorge. At CP8 we would transition to bikes and ride back to the West side of the New River Gorge and down the Fayetteville trail to CP12. At CP12 we would transition to a trek, collect four more check points before returning to CP 12/16, transition back to bikes and head back to the main HQ (CP18) via another check point (CP17). At HQ we would do a 13 mile timed bike loop on single track that was used the previous weekend for the Xterra race. The fastest time in each division would pick up two extra points. There were to be two groups in the time trial, riders who started before 8pm and those who started after. This was because pre 8pm riders would have a daylight advantage. Anyone reaching CP18 after 2am would not be able to do the time trial and would be short coursed. After the time trial there would be a trekking O course with 2 mandatory and 3 optional points followed by a biking O course with 2 mandatory and 5 optional points. The winner would be the team with the most check points. A tie would be broken by fastest time.
 After plotting and strategizing we assembled some of our gear and staged the bikes that would be transported to CP8. We attended the pre-race brief and Ronnie did his usual excellent job of outlining the course and letting us know how brutal the following day was going to be. As we headed to bed Veronica noticed that she had some problems with her rear brake and after I looked at it I noticed she was missing a rear brake pad. With help from Timm we managed to swap in a set of pads with some that I had on my 26” bike I had brought along as backup. It was a total miracle that the brake pads were the same and fit correctly.
 After listening to most of the camp site party until 2:30 am and the trains roll through the valley blowing their horns at 4am I arose at 5am refreshed and ready for the day. We assembled, dropped off gear for pick-up post white water, suited up with life vests, helmets and paddles and were loaded onto busses bound for the river. We headed down to Cunnard boat landing and the race began.
 There were three waves of five rafts. We were in the second wave and after the prolog where one person from each raft had to run up stream 100 yards and then swim back to the boat before we dug in hard and began our paddle down the gorge. During the last class 5 rapid everyone in the boat got dumped except the guide. We did have an amazing recovery and were all back in the boat within 60 seconds with only one paddle missing. The guide was impressed.
 After the exciting rafting experience we did a quick transition to foot and headed out at a fast pace up the road and out of the gorge. An initial wrong turn took us and a lot of other teams on a fruitless bush whack back to the same road we had been on. Luckily we didn’t pass CP2 and punched in with a lot of other teams. We passed quite a few teams and then the trail began to fade. We got to a point where the main trail took a sharp turn down and the trail that continued around the gorge looked very sketchy. We decided to stay high. Topo on the map showed CP3 was at the top of the gorge. We scrambled through the rocks and undergrowth and ended up at the foot of a climbing area. I think a lot of teams followed the trail down which would later cause many to drop out. From the climbing area we found a climbing trail to a power line which we were used as a navigational backstop. We followed the power lines and found a trail that, after a few false starts and about turns, brought us to CP3. The clipboard at CP3 showed we were the first team to check in. From CP3 we hit CP4 and CP5 off trails. From CP5 to CP6 Greg did an amazing job following a bearing and doing pace count over 1300m while bush whacking to CP6. A short trek brought us to CP8 which we passed straight through to do some heavy bush whacking through Rhododendron to optional CP7 which was right next to a most beautiful and welcoming stream. Retracing our steps we headed back to CP8 to bike transition. I managed to shoot out a tweet and some pictures. This was pretty cool and was one of the first adventure racers I have been able to do this on. Ronnie allowed tweets from any manned check points. You just had to stand in front of the staff while you tweeted to make sure you were not using GPS or asking for assistance from someone else.
 Veronica and Timm were doing great at this point. I think our pace was a little fast but to have the lead was a great feeling. It was nice to transition to bikes and get off our feet. The ride to CP9 was a pre-subscribed route along paved roads. CP9 to CP10 took us from one side of the gorge to the other via the bottom. The ride down to the bottom of the gorge was awesome. We had two cars pull over to let us pass.
 The ride up the other side was not so fun. The first part was on paved road and then we moved to single track and some hike a bike as well as some technical riding. We had a slight detour that gave us the opportunity to fill up with water from a hose bib but on the turnaround disaster struck and Veronica lost her rear brake. On inspection one of the rear pads had popped out again. We spent a fruitless five minutes looking for the brake pad before regrouping with Greg boldly riding on the bike with only a front brake and Veronica taking Greg’s bike. We rolled into CP10 shortly after, happy to find we were still the lead team. Tucker was there to great Veronica which was a nice surprise and we got to see Ronnie again and let him know how great the course had been so far. I had previously ridden the section from CP10 to CP11 in last year’s Wild and Wonderful and gotten lost along the way. Fortunately that did not happen this year. We rolled into CP11 happy to see the volunteers who were great and full of enthusiasm. Greg’s front brake was beginning to fade which I knew would be a problem as we headed on to the Fayetteville trail. As we headed down the double track looking out across the amazing views of the gorge, Greg found he had to ride with his front brake fully on and drag his foot to prevent himself from running away. To prevent injury and also speed up our decent we did a reverse tow. I clipped Greg into my bike and as we descended I provided his braking power. As crazy as it seemed to do at the time the technique worked really well and we were able to get through the main decent of the trail without Greg wearing his shoes completely out or killing himself riding off the edge.
 We arrived at Cunnard and took the orange trail into the ACE property. The track was rock strewn and steep. We spent some time pushing our bikes up the trail and ended up taking the first decent break since the start at CP15, which we would later return to on the next trek section. It’s always a bit demoralizing knowing that you are going to have to retrace your steps to the same point but also comforting that you know where one of the next check points is. Biking onwards we came to a clearing and a short way from CP12. We noticed another check point flag up on a rise and rode up to see what it was. It ended up being CP29 which would be an optional mountain bike checkpoint for the O course later in the race. From here we hit CP12. On arriving we found two other teams pulling into the check point. I was shocked. How had they caught us? Then we realized the nasty single track we had followed from Cunnard was not the only route to CP12. There was also a gravel road. Kicking ourselves we quickly transitioned to the trek and headed out to CP13 ahead of the other teams, one which was team ROC racing in our division and at this point our main competition. From CP12 we took a series of trails and cut a few switch backs. As we cut one of the switchbacks, Veronica howled in pain as she badly twisted her ankle. I thought we would be out for sure but to my amazement she limped along and within 20 minutes had brushed it off and pushed through the pain. After finishing the race her ankle swelled up to about three times its normal size and took on a purple hue. Looking back CP13 was a “give me” check point but we managed to kill about 45 minutes looking for it. We didn’t travel down a trail far enough (by about 50 yards) to see an easy trail to an overlook. Instead we stopped short and hunted down the side of what can only be described as a cliff for the majority of the time. With other teams doing the same thing we thought we were on the right track. After rechecking the map and eventually finding CP13 we easy hit CP14, 15 and 15A with some bush whacking and about 7 miles of fast trekking. On the way back to CP12/16 we got to trek on the gravel road we could have rode on early. I figure we lost about 30 minutes by taking the single track instead of the gravel road with our bikes earlier in the day.
 Another quick transition at CP12/16 and we were back on bikes. Night was approaching fast and we powered on our bike lights. We followed a double track to CP17 which was next to a pond. The wild life at the pond was truly deafening. Frogs and other chirping creatures were so loud we literally had to shout at each other. Here the map became a little sketchy as there were a lot of unmarked trails and also a lot of marked trails weaving all over the place. We rode the same trail three times before we finally found the right route back to HQ and CP18.
 With some time to regroup we managed to get the brakes fixed on Veronica’s bike ready for the time trial. Team ROC had already checked in and had been out on the mountain bike time trial for 40 minutes. We refueled, took on more water and headed out on the time trial. We knew with two points at stake we had to go as fast as possible. No one had made the 8pm cut off for the time trial and so everyone in the same division was competing for the same two bonus points. Even at night with the trail lit from our lights the single track was excellent. ACE resort is very hilly but the trail was setup with relatively few long climbs. With lots of turns and trail crossing the clear trail markers made the path easy to follow. We took it in turns to lead and made great time. Veronica and Timm are very new to mountain biking and did an outstanding job. Greg who has only just recently switched to clipless peddles had more wrecks more from not being able to unclip than anything else. Timm had a nasty fall on Rigormortis, one of the nastiest sections of the trail. It was one of those falls where there is a steep drop off on one side and he came off his bike and disappeared over the edge. His bike remained on the trail but he fell about 10’ off the side. Shaken up and with cuts on his legs, Timm shook off the wreck and carried on. Outstanding. After what seemed like an endless amount of time we completed the time trail in 2 hours 16 minutes and ultimately had the fastest time overall and earned two extra bonus points. ROC had already headed out on the trekking O course so we knew they could pick up extra points there.
 Greg made quick work of plotting our points and we were off again on foot. By now it was 2am. With this being Veronica’s first adventure race and Timm and Greg’s first 24 hour race everyone was doing great. There had been some low points with hydration and nutrition but everyone had got back on track and at this point felt pretty good. Greg continued to do an outstanding job with navigation and we hit the two mandatory trekking O points and decided to head back, plot the biking O points, get the mandatory bike check points and with whatever time was left get as many optional bike points as possible. Also Ronnie is the king at putting trekking O points where heavy bush whacking is mandatory. We figured that the biking O points would possibly be on trails and easier to find.
 We rolled back into HQ with the sun on the rise and found ROC was still out on the O course. We quickly plotted the biking O points and were heading out when ROC came in. We tried to figure out how many O points they had but they wisely did not let us know. I figured if they had picked up two optional O points we could get the two mandatory biking O points and beat them back to the finish and win on time. I was counting on the fact that the optional O biking points would be too far for them to get. For the final biking leg Greg sported a bike shoe on his left foot and a trail shoe on his right foot as he was so frustrated about not being able to unclip and we did not have time to look at or adjust his peddles. I figured at this point whatever works, go with it.
As we reached the first main intersection to locate CP25, the first mandatory biking O point, team ROC caught us. We all charged up the trail to a radio tower where we had to write a letter down on our passport from a trailer serial number that was parked next to the tower. Greg read the number off but didn’t write it down as ROC crested the hill and we headed back down. He yelled “don’t let me forget to write zero as the answer on the passport”. We tore down the double track and back onto a gravel road and onto CP26. It was located down a section of single track we had previously ridden on the time trial. During the plotting I had transposed the CP location from one map to the local trail map and plotted it in the wrong location and thought we had ridden past it and not seen it. We stopped on the trail to check maps. As we were checking the map ROC tore down the trail past us. We decided we were doing the right thing and the CP was further down the trail. We continued on down and found ROC checking their maps also. We continued on passed them now confident that the CP was further down the trail. When we got to the end of the trail we found the CP on the other side of the creek. Greg leapt off his bike and bounded across the stream. With his one biking shoe and one trail shoe setup he was able to quickly climb a steep rock and punch just as ROC arrived. Greg came back across the stream making a daring jump across a water fall making a solid landing and once again being saved by his one sneaker shod foot. We franticly pushed/rode our bikes back up the single track and back to the road and onward to the finish line. We quickly debated on how many optional O points ROC may have and if they would have time to get more if we punched in. As we frantically decided what to do, ROC came through the finish line. Greg quickly handed in our passport remembering to add the clue for CP25 at the very last second. ROC submitted their passport right behind us. ROC had done an amazing job and collected two optional O points on the trek putting us in a tie for points. I think their strategy was to hope that we had been in the first wave of rafts put into the river a full 24 hours earlier and have a 5 minute time advantage on us. Fortunately we all were in the same raft wave and ended up taking 1^st place by seconds. Truly a nail biter
 Full kudos goes out to the rest of the team. Veronica, Timm and Greg were awesome. We worked well together through the entire race and I would happily head out for another 24 hour race with any of them again.
 The win moved Trakkers into first place in the Check Point Tracker series (very briefly) and maintained our first place standing with USARA.
 Ronnie and his team once again put on an excellent race and a big thank you goes out to the truly tireless work of all the volunteers that helped out with the race.
Congrats to all the teams the participated and addition pats on the backs to those who finished

SPROUTE AR

by: Tim Manning

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.

Team TRAKKERS after the SPROUTE AR victory