Odyssey Wild Wonderful 24 Hr

Odyssey Wild Wonderful West Virginia

Racers: Dave Ashley, John Courain, Aaron Courain, Emily McDonald

Report by: Aaron Courain

Photo Credit: Fredrik Goransson

The weekend of May 18 brought the Rev3 Adventure/MK team to the New River Gorge in WV for the Odyssey Wild Wonderful 24 hr.  After much travel, the 4 of us met at the ACE adventure resort to register and attend the pre race meeting to hear about what we were in for.  Maps weren’t to be given out until after the race start, so that meant we would able to sleep that night and not be wondering if we had spent enough time preparing with the map. 

Prologue

6 am Saturday the teams gathered to start the prologue, which would decide starting order for the guided whitewater rafting section.  The prologue consisted of a 5 point foot orienteering course within the ACE resort, with a 1 hr time limit, and penalties for finishing late.  Teams were given maps, and we had 5 minutes to look them over before starting.  When the gun went off, we ran to the highest point first, to get that out of the way and hopefully avoid a long line of racers trying to punch. Dave was navigating this race, having been here multiple times, and did a fantastic job of keeping us on point.  Our speed as a team was well matched and we finished the leg with a few minutes to spare.  Only 4 other teams were able to clear the prologue, so that put us in a good position for beginning the rest of the race.

Paddle

The paddle for this race is on the New River, with up to class V rapids.  I’ve got to say this is the most fun that I’ve had on a paddle leg.  Rev3 got assigned to the first heat, and we shared a boat with the Howler Monkeys.  We all got comfortable with each other early on and were able to work well as an 8 person team, paddling with minimal effort, but high efficiency.  Our guide kept us in the fast moving water and avoided some of the larger hits that would slow us down more.  All this led to us being in front for a good portion of the paddle, and we were able to be the first boat out of the water.  The 15 miles of paddling went very quickly.  I found myself wishing for a bit more!

 At this point though, the race was on.  We had to transition into some dry clothing and get our maps.  Dash took the lead, looking over the maps to figure out which leg would be best to attack first (there were 3 legs, which could be done in any order)  we decided to go for the trekking leg, which had the most off trail orienteering, and therefore could get it done in 100% daylight.

Leg1 – Trek

After our quick transition from the paddle, we were off on the trekking leg.  We needed to get back across the river and up the opposite side of the gorge to access the trail system that the CP’s were on.  There were two ways to do this: we could swim, or we could go slightly out of the way to a footbridge which would then take us across.  As a team, we decided that the footbridge, though further, would be the safer option, so as teams were running into the river, we went in the opposite direction.  Unfortunately we would later find out that this would eventually cost us a large amount of time in the race.

We made it across and started the climb out of the river, visiting the checkpoints on our way.  There were 9 marked CPs for this section, with 2 of those having additional UTM coordinates for 2 bonus CPs that could be plotted for a section total of 11.  Dash’s navigation was dead on.  We had very accurate bearings and pace counts, and no CP gave us any real trouble on this leg so far. 

By the 3^rd or 4^th CP, we had found our first set of bonus coordinates.  We plotted them and found that they would lead us out of the trail system and into a nearby town.  It was a pretty large out and back distance, so we decided to go straight for it, and then finish the CPs on the other side of the trail system. 

It turns out that we plotted the bonus CP incorrectly, (and didn’t copy the original UTM coordinates)  when we found ourselves searching for it on a residential street.  We took a few minutes to talk about the situation and decided to keep moving, but pass by a location where we thought it was possible for it to be.  Turns out our intuition was right and we found the CP on the way back.  That was a big relief to know that we didn’t just waste 40 minutes for nothing.  We made a quick stop at a gas station before leaving town, to fill up on water and Gatorade, and then headed back into the trails. 

As we attacked the next few CPs on the map, we came across our 2^nd set of coordinates.  After plotting we realized that we made a pretty big mistake.  Both bonus CPs were located in the town.  In order to clear this section, we would have to make the trip back into town and get the other CP.  Knowing that would add at least 30 minutes to this leg.  We all got a little grumpy at this point, but none of us foresaw this issue, so we just had to keep on and keep pushing. 

The last point turned out to be a real pain to get.  It involved bushwhacking several hundred feet down a steep reentrant, full of waterfalls, to find a triple tiered waterfall, where the CP was located.  I quickly learned that the safest way down was NOT down the water and rocks themselves, after I slipped and was taken for a ride off of the edge of one of the  waterfalls.  During that moment, I wasn’t sure if our race was about to be over, but thankfully the drop was only about 6 feet, and I was able to get myself turned around so I landed on my feet.  Water parks may be fun, but that was scary.  We all made our way onto the steep sided banks of the reentrant and kept fighting our way down, through the brush.  We finally located the CP after some trouble spotting it from the banks.  This is where we also realized how much time we wasted by not swimming across the river.  If we had chosen to swim in the beginning of this leg, we would have been able to attack this point from the bottom, and it would have been in plain sight far sooner.  Oh well, lesson learned.  Time to move on.

Our 2^nd trip out to the town to get the last bonus CP was quick and uneventful, thankfully.  It was now time to go back across the river and up to our Transition area to take on the next biking section.  This trek took us about 8 hours to clear, which is what we had expected.

Leg2 – Bike

At the transition area, we were coming in on foot, as team SOG, Odyssey and Checkpoint Zero were all coming in on bikes.  Due to the rogaine format of the race, we did not know exactly where they stood in relation to us, but after a few exchanges, we found that they all had not only cleared the first foot section, but also the next bike section.  We were about 4 hours behind all 3 lead teams now which was very disappointing to find out.  We realized how much time our race strategy actually cost us, but what was done was done, and we had to keep moving and racing.  We got on to our bikes shortly before sunset, and headed out.

 This biking section took us through some fantastic single track.  2 of the 6 checkpoints were a little off the trail, requiring a few minutes of foot travel to obtain, but we were very efficient in our attacks and had no real issues.  Unfortunately our only issue became time.  We still had another section after this, and a 35 mile mountain bike leg to get to the finish.  If we finished 1 minute after 9 am, we would be unofficial.  So we had to make some tough decisions to drop 2 points from this leg, head back to the TA, and head out for leg 3.

Leg3 – Bike/trek

Leg 3 involved a combination of biking and trekking, so we picked up our new passport and our trekking shoes for this section and headed back out into the night.  There were 7 total CPs on this leg, we were going to do what we could, but we needed to be on our way back to the finish by 4 am.  So we had a cutoff we needed to enforce on ourselves.

 Most of the orienteering here was on point and uneventful.  however, we were pushing into the 2 and 3 AM hours and starting to feel the exhaustion set in.  We found ourselves searching up and down a reentrant for a point that didn’t seem to be there, after I double checked the map with our altitude, I realized that we were looking in the wrong reentrant, and needed to be in the adjacent one.  We actually over corrected this, and again went too far the other way, searching once again for a point that wasn’t there.  One last time we looked at the map, re-situated ourselves, and then were able to walk straight to the point.  It can easily get frustrating when you think you are in the right spot and just start wandering to look for the CP, but being able to stop yourself, assess the situation and re-attack the point is always the better decision than getting flustered and angry.

The rest of this leg brought us to some pretty fantastic climbing cliffs late at night.  We had to descend some ladders bolted into the rock and weave our way down through the caves to get to the base of a wall, where we found a checkpoint. We also found ourselves traversing under an enormous cliff band and finally finding the trail to the top overlook, where our last CP for that leg would be.  We might have been pretty exhausted, but we were definitely able to appreciate the amazing terrain that we were finding our way through in the dead of night.

Time once again was not on our side and we ended up leaving 2 more CPs out on the course.  We headed back to the TA for the last time .

Leg4 – Bike

We made our self-imposed 4 am cutoff and headed out for the final 35 mile bike leg to the finish.  Somehow this leg felt like FAR more than 35 miles.   We started out on the road, which was pretty uneventful.  a few climbs here and there, but the most difficult thing was to stay awake, we all found ourselves weaving a bit on the road.  Eventually the paved road ended and the dirt road began.  The sun was just beginning to come up at this point, which always brings a second wind.

 It turns out that we would really need that second wind too.  The dirt road started climbing, and did not stop climbing.  The only change that we found was that the road went from hard packed dirt, to mud, which slowed uphill progress even more.  All of the gas in my tank was really draining at this point, but we were still pressed for time, unsure if we were going to make the 9 am cutoff or not.  We couldn’t stop.  No breaks or time outs.  Just keep pedaling.

After a couple more days of pedaling uphill through mud, we finally came to the crest and left that awful road behind us.  Now we began the fun part: descending.  We needed to make up our lost time from going so slowly uphill, so instead of catching our breath and coasting down, Emily turned on her insane mountain biker switch and began hammering down the road.  Our gears were topped out and our legs were spinning.  I was running on fumes at this point.  We were literally keeping our tires on the brink of traction around most of the turns.  For as long as we climbed, it felt like we descended for twice that.  The road just kept going and going and going. 

We finally reached the river.  Now we just had to cross and travel another 6k or so to the finish line.  all of us except for Emily were really feeling it.  I kept my legs going somehow though, however slowly that was.  At this point we knew we were going to make it in time.  The rush we put on ourselves for the last few hours paid off and we had a cushion of time to finish in.  Just get there.  Slowly but surely.

We crossed the finish line at 8:35.  We were able to punch 29 points total, which would secure us for 3^rd in the 4 person coed division, and 4^th overall, behind Odyssey, Checkpoint Zero and SOG, who were all able to clear the course.  As a team we were happy with our performance and ability to work together.  This was the first time that I had raced with Emily or Dave.  It was obvious that we chose the wrong race strategy early on, and that played a large part in our finishing status.  But we kept it together well otherwise and thoroughly enjoyed an adventure in the wild and wonderful West Virginia.