Friday, August 17, 2007
AR Race Video by Animoto
LOVE this site...
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Holy crap... I'm doing Primal Quest!
I just learned yesterday that I've been accepted as the navigator on Team Goonies for Primal Quest 2008. More to follow, but I find that I've been watching videos from last year's PQ on my computer repeatedly...
Saturday, August 26, 2006
2006 RAID Eco Endurance Aventure
A couple of weeks ago, the nice folks down at PDX Adventure Racer posted a message offering to sponsor a team to the 2006 RAID Eco Endurance Aventure near Quebec. After scrambling around a bit, I managed to put together a team consisting of Matt Hayes, Chris Bark, and Misha Lee. A flurry of emails ensued as only Misha and I are in Seattle (Matt lives in Kitsap, and Chris lives in Ottowa). After much agonizing and many trips to REI, we packed up and flew off to Montreal. Misha had the luxury of getting in on Wednesday evening, while Matt and I arrived with our respective piles of gear the following moring after flying first to Denver and then to Boston.
We were soon met by Chris, together with the two kind souls who had agreed to do support for us, Justin and John. We then drove to the local UHaul to pick up the team vehicle, a '96 Ecoliner van with 250,000 km on the odometer, known variously as The Mystery Machine and The Beast (depending on who was driving and how tired they were). We then swung BACK by the airport, picked up all Matt and I's gear (together with Matt), and then picked up Misha and HER gear before heading out of town. Having just gotten off a red eye flight via four different airports, I unrolled my trusty Thermarest in the can got three hours of shut eye amid the shifting gear and gas and exhaust fumes in the back of the van.
We rolled into St. Raymond at a bit after 2:00pm in the afternoon, and after hitting the local grocery, parked The Mystery Machine at the hotel where race checking-in was taking place and began to unpack and assemble the bikes.
At 3:00pm, we were able check in with the race organizers and get the first round of paperwork for the race.
We peddled out of the TA just ahead of several teams and wound our way back down to the campground where we had started the canoe the night before. We arrived at around 7:30pm, and had to wait a bit for our support to crew to join us (they had made a run into town to get more food).
We were informed that we would have a night leg that would kick off at midnight, and that we would be leaving at 10:45pm to drive up to the start point. The night course involved trekking down a valley to the head of a lake, getting CP20, swimming the length of a lake, trekking further down the valley, and then swimming to an island in a second lake to collect CP21.
Day 3
We rolled groggily out of our sleeping bags on the final day of the day, all of us digging deep to muster the will power to mount our bikes and head off from the start at the campground.
The course entailed a short mountain bike ride to a long climb out of the valley on a fire road, which all but the top teams walked. At the top of climb, we quickly found CP22, and then set off on a downhill leg into the next valley. The plan was to take a hard left after crossing a small bridge. According to the map, we should then have found a fire road to take over the next ridge to CP23. However, the fireroad no longer existed. We tried probing for two other roads on the map farther north, but were turned back by dense brush. We finally backtracked to the bridge and found a fireroad that actually WAS on the map and followed it over the its to CP23. The race staff manning it was happy to see us, as we were second to last in the pack (the last team ultimately dropped out of the race).
We then peddled along to fire roads towards TA8. Somewhere along the way, it started to rain, and it came down harder and harder as the afternoon wore on. We finally crossed and old bridge and reached TA8 where we switched to trekking gear. We had to trek up a fire road to TA24, then turn off onto a track up along a mountainside until we reached a large stream. We were then to follow the stream uphill to CP25, and then trek back down an old fire road to TA8. We found TA25 easily, but were thrown off by the 1:50,000 scale of the maps, resulting in use turning up the wrong stream. We figured out our mistake, traversed across to the right stream, and startedup the mountainside.
On the far side, we learned that the last two legs of the race (a whitewater canoe section and an adventure swim into St. Raymond) had been cancelled because too many people were coming out of the water with hypothermia. Instead, we had a short six mile downhill ride on paved road into town. At a small dam, we waded the river with our bikes, and made our way through the back yard of the hotel where we had checked in to the finish
A couple of weeks ago, the nice folks down at PDX Adventure Racer posted a message offering to sponsor a team to the 2006 RAID Eco Endurance Aventure near Quebec. After scrambling around a bit, I managed to put together a team consisting of Matt Hayes, Chris Bark, and Misha Lee. A flurry of emails ensued as only Misha and I are in Seattle (Matt lives in Kitsap, and Chris lives in Ottowa). After much agonizing and many trips to REI, we packed up and flew off to Montreal. Misha had the luxury of getting in on Wednesday evening, while Matt and I arrived with our respective piles of gear the following moring after flying first to Denver and then to Boston.
We rolled into St. Raymond at a bit after 2:00pm in the afternoon, and after hitting the local grocery, parked The Mystery Machine at the hotel where race checking-in was taking place and began to unpack and assemble the bikes.
Team Sole, one of the top teams in the sport, stopped by to chat with Misha, who had previously attended one of their fine adventure racing camps.
We then stopped by the local theater, where the race organizers gave a bi-lingual spiel on the race and called each team to the stage to pick up race jerseys.
Afterwards, organized chaos insued as the first batch of race maps was handed out in the lobby.
We then retired to a local pizzaria to stock up on carbs and plot course for the first day.
After driving up to the campsite which would serve as the start point for the first day's festivities, we pitched the tents and crashed out for seven or so hours of sleep.
The next morning, we arose bright and early to get a bite to eat...
and get a race briefing from Daniel Poirier, our cruise director...
The next morning, we arose bright and early to get a bite to eat...
meet the locals...
and get a race briefing from Daniel Poirier, our cruise director...
We then suited up and loaded into the van for a drive up to the race start at a beautiful little lake about 50km north of St. Raymond in the mountains.
After the usual pre-race fanfare and frantic preparations, all the race participants plunged into the water and made their way out to the first CP (Check Point) near a yakak in the middle of the lake. The more savy teams had brought small dingies, and this turned out to be a major time saver on the numerous water legs of the race.
Fortunately, we had grabbed two of of the surf mats we's brought (although only one of them was inflated). I jumped on the inflated one, carried the second one, and we all set off.
On the far side, we got out of the water, deflated the mat, packed our flippers in our packs, and put on our trekking shoes.
The next leg involved bushwhacking up the side of the mountain you can see in the background of the lake pictures above to CP2.
In most of the other adventure races I've done, bushwacking was something you occationally did as a shortcut, or something the race organizers threw in to add spice to the course. In this race, trekking = bushwhacking most of the time...
We then scrambled down the far side of the mountain and onto a fire road, where some discussion insued about whether it was on map (a common occurance when most maps are 10+ years old).
We then scrambled down the far side of the mountain and onto a fire road, where some discussion insued about whether it was on map (a common occurance when most maps are 10+ years old).
After a bit more jogging on the fire road, it was off into the bushes again for a climb up a stream bed to CP3, which la at the outlet of a small lake (there are lakes EVERYWHERE in this part of Canada).
We then bushwhacked down to another fire road and followed it around to a somewhat larger lake. There, we put the fins back on, inflated our two surf mats and set off to get CP4, which was in the middle of the lake.
After getting the CP, we paddled to the edge of the lake, repacked our gear, and set off again.
After hiking along in the shallows a bit, we bushwhacked uphill (predictably) in search of an old fire overgrown fire road.
which we were fortunate enough to find
which we were fortunate enough to find
With the end of the first trekking leg in sight, hit a fire road and jogged to CP5 which lay out the outlet of another (surprise!) small lake
We then skampered down to TA (Transition Area) 2, which was at the same site as the race start, where we refilled the water bladders in our packs, restocked on food, and switched to mountain bikes.
We road a long loop through the hills around the loop, some of which involved fairly steep pitches.
On of the points involved getting off the bikes and trekking and bushwacking around the edge of a lake through some fairly mucky water
We then had a long ride down the the main valley, roughly following a river. At TA3 near a campsite, we dismounted, switched to trekking shoes for a hike across a suspension bridge and up the to a waterfall.
There, Matt and Chris ascended up the side of the of the waterfall while Misha and I hiked around to meet them at the top.
We then quickly changed into our paddling gear and lugged a canoe down to the lake. The weight of all four of use brought the gunnels dangerously close to the water as we paddled around to CP14. There, Matt and I had to jump off a small cliff into the lake (Matt executed a graceful 360 on the way down).
We then paddled down to the end of the lake where Chris and Misha rappelled down a dam at CP15. They had to then swim back the length of the lake to TA6,
while Matt and I paddled and portaged a long loop through several lakes. In the process, we managed to pass two teams, moving from 14th into 12th place, and we arrived back in the TA anxious to maintain this lead.
The view was pretty spectacular in the twilight (it was getting on to evening at this point), and Misha and I were able to take a few minutes to rest while we waited for Matt and Chris.
Once Chris and Matt rejoined us, we hustled back down to TA4, where we loaded into two canoes and set off down the river at around 8pm. It was now dark by this point, so we were forced to navigate around rocks and other river obstacles using our headlights, and increasingly (as our batteries died) by feel. The latter part of the trip was punctuated by cries of "ROCK!", often followed by the sound of a canoe grinding around boulder in mid-stream. We finally reached the campsite where we had started the day at around 11:30pm, where we gorged ourselves on the warm spaghetti John and Justin had waiting for us, prepped for the next day (loaded our packs, plotted the CPs, determined our route, and did some basic gear maintenance), and finally got to sleep at around 1am.
Day 2
We arose at around 6am, got a bite to eat, and mounted our mountain bikes for a 7:30am start. The first leg entailed riding a few hundred yards, and then dismounting to lug our bikes up a steep hiking trail that wound up the ridge on one side of the valley.
road down fire roads to TA5 where we changed into our trekking gear and set out on a bushwack (surprise surprise) up to TA12, which lay near a small lake.
Once Chris and Matt rejoined us, we hustled back down to TA4, where we loaded into two canoes and set off down the river at around 8pm. It was now dark by this point, so we were forced to navigate around rocks and other river obstacles using our headlights, and increasingly (as our batteries died) by feel. The latter part of the trip was punctuated by cries of "ROCK!", often followed by the sound of a canoe grinding around boulder in mid-stream. We finally reached the campsite where we had started the day at around 11:30pm, where we gorged ourselves on the warm spaghetti John and Justin had waiting for us, prepped for the next day (loaded our packs, plotted the CPs, determined our route, and did some basic gear maintenance), and finally got to sleep at around 1am.
Day 2
We arose at around 6am, got a bite to eat, and mounted our mountain bikes for a 7:30am start. The first leg entailed riding a few hundred yards, and then dismounting to lug our bikes up a steep hiking trail that wound up the ridge on one side of the valley.
We were finally able to re-mount our bikes an hour and a half later just after finding CP11, and
We then went over the summit and down to a CP13 which lay on a small island near the end of a lake.
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We then paddled down to the end of the lake where Chris and Misha rappelled down a dam at CP15. They had to then swim back the length of the lake to TA6,
We were informed that we would have a night leg that would kick off at midnight, and that we would be leaving at 10:45pm to drive up to the start point. The night course involved trekking down a valley to the head of a lake, getting CP20, swimming the length of a lake, trekking further down the valley, and then swimming to an island in a second lake to collect CP21.
We then would swim to the end of the lake, where we had staged dry clothes, and mount the bikes for the long downhill ride back to the campground where we had started.
We ran into problems with the hike as Chris, Misha and I could have pushed harder given the shortness of the course. We had dropped to near last by the time we hit the point where we should have started bushwhacking into the woods to find CP20. This is the point where we should have all just shut up and listened to Matt, our very compitent navigator. Instead, a debate insued which resulted in us bushwhacking back out to the road in hopes that it continued around the lake. Instead, the lake ened 300m later, and we had to climb back down to the lake and start our swim dead last. In the process of bushwhacking out to the road, Matt's swim mat got a puncture, such that he had to swim in the chilly water while the rest of us kicked on our mats. The upshot was that he was mildly hypothermic by the time we climbed out and put on our trekking gear. We were now hustling less to catch up to the pack than to keep Matt warm. We finally reached the second lake, and kicked out to the island to get CP21. We finally reached the bikes dead last, and had to figure out how to load all our wet clothes, swim fins, and deflated mats, into our small race packs. Thus burdened, we set off downhill to the finish, arriving at around 3:30am. We managed to get to bed at around 4am for two hours of sleep before getting up at 6am to start the final day.Day 3
After some hunting, we located CP25, and then headed back down the road to the TA, where we were greated by happy race staff (as the last team, they got to pack it in as soon as we cleared the TA)
We were soaked, cold, tired, and so ready to be done that we could all feel the finish line pulling us home.
We now had a ten mile, deathmarch sort of ride through the rain and mud to TA9. The releif we all felt in getting there was indescribable. We waded the river while our bikes where hauled across on a traverse line.
On the far side, we learned that the last two legs of the race (a whitewater canoe section and an adventure swim into St. Raymond) had been cancelled because too many people were coming out of the water with hypothermia. Instead, we had a short six mile downhill ride on paved road into town. At a small dam, we waded the river with our bikes, and made our way through the back yard of the hotel where we had checked in to the finish
Our total time for the race was 42:34:56, and we finished 16th out of 22 teams dispite our last place finishes on the final two legs of the race.
