Race the Phantom, Dalhousie NB, August 2024

After my 7-year absence from the Canadian AR scene, Reed and I decided to head well north of the border, to the northern-most town in New Brunswick, Dalhousie, to tackle Natural Selection's premier event Race the Phantom. It was an easy, fairly scenic drive. Just across the border, we met up with out friends from Strong Machine and grabbed a solid lunch at a gas station/diner. After arriving in Dalhousie, we checked into our Airbnb cottage in town and quickly headed to race HQ to grab maps and subsequently, load up on pizza. Plotting the CPs took a long time and this pushed back bedtime a bit, but we were able to grab sufficient sleep (5+ hours) before heading out in the AM to the race start/finish/HQ.

Race HQ was located on Native American land, the Eel River Bar First Nation. Here we received a blessing from an elder of the tribe and then set off on bikes for the first leg of the race.

Heading north over the Eel River Bar with Quebec in the far distance across Chaleur Bay.

We completed the bike leg with a couple snafus, including a bee sting (Reed) and becoming concerningly separated for 10-15 minutes while navigating some coastal trails. Soon enough, we reached TA1 and set off on foot to find a couple fairly easy trailside CPs. The only snag we had here was my poor recall of the race instructions and accidentally navigating to and punching a bike CP for the upcoming leg (we would have to revisit on bike 1-2 hours later).

We rode trails for a while, picked up a few CPs in town and then headed down to the canoe put-in in Dalhousie. We dropped bikes and set off into the placid marine waters of the Chaleur Bay. Our first target was the scenic lighthouse. Then we paddled into the mouth of the Eel river, which, due to the timing of the tides, was directly upstream. The current and shallowness of the approaching low-tide led to some pretty slow paddle kms, but we eventually made our way upriver to the next TA in Eel River Crossing.

Up the shallow Eel

We had been noticing some ominous clouds approaching from the west as we neared the TA and were hearing some occasional thunder but so far, the weather had missed us. From the TA, we decided to go grab a bonus CP, which looked to be about a 45 minute out-and-back round trip. We found the location of the CP fairly easily, but when we arrived and searched the area indicated on the clue sheet (SE of bridge), we found nothing. We spent the next 30-40 minutes fruitlessly bushwhacking around the area to no avail. Returning from a random northern attack from the bridge, Reed happened to spot the CP, barely visible right under the bridge. 

I was fumbling with buttons on the camera and ended up with this strange hybrid image.

From the TA, we headed out on bikes via a circuitous route of dirt and paved roads west toward Sugarloaf Park. Within minutes of leaving the TA, we got whacked by a serious thunderstorm.  This delivered 20-30 minutes of driving rain and thunder as we rode along road shoulders. We didn't really mind this cool-off, as the weather had been a little warm and humid for our tastes thus far. After finding  a couple CPs over a couple hours, we arrived at the dirt road heading into the park (below) and slowly grinded uphill for a long time through variable precipitation.

We worked through the saturated dirt roads toward the park for the next several hours into early evening, finding a couple more CPs.

We eventually reached the TA, located under powerlines at the edge of the park, and switched to foot mode.

Pretty landscape and skies at the beginning of the night trek.

We hiked initially on dirt roads, after choosing our route, and targeting the first few CPs. The sun set and we continued trekking, eventually ending up at a CP which required this fun waterfall traverse. We commented that this was one of the best CP locations we'd ever experienced.

We continued on park trails and roads. We noticed how well-maintained and well-signed the foot trails were, even in this fairly remote part of the province. The US definitely can learn something from Canada about having appropriate tax funding to provide for quality infrastructure .

 

We trekked on through the night, skipping 2 CPs and eventually heading back to the powerline CP to retrieve our bikes. After gearing up, eating and giving some TLC to our soaked muddy bikes, we set off (after addressing a surprise flat tire). We biked on muddy roads, through foot-soaking puddles before eventually regaining pavement en route to the TA at Eel River Crossing, where our canoes were waiting.

Nighttime bike CP in an abandoned RV

We arrived at the final TA just before dawn and, after gathering our paddle gear and enduring some moderate mosquitoes, we were back on the Eel. This time, though, we had the benefit of a nice downstream current. So, the sunrise return trip to race HQ/finish was quite a bit quicker. We had plenty of remaining time so we made a side trip to grab a bonus CP which was on the north bank of the river down an inlet. We ran into our friends Strong Machine friends here, who ended up clearing the course. A short paddle from here had us at the finish line.

All told, we covered 81 miles of maritime Canadian terrain, while accomplishing 8000+ ft of climbing. We had a very pleasant race, mostly free of bugs and without any of the excoriating bushwhacking that I had previously experienced at RTP. Thanks to Troy and the rest of the NSAR team for organizing this great event. We'll be looking forward to our next trip north of the border!

Sorry, bike. I'll make it up to you

Scoring some sweet swag from RD Troy Johnston

NYARA The Longest Day, 6/29/2024, North Creek, NY

 This year's TLD was being held a mere 4.5 hours away, included guided whitewater rafting and was taking place within Adirondack Park, for the first time. For these reasons, plus the fact that we know that we can count on NYARA for a quality event, this was an obvious choice for a summer race - our first of the year.

For a summer race in the northeast, you never know what's in store. Depleting hot humidity? Thunderstorms? Gorgeous dry air? Insect swarms? As race day approached, it became clear that we would be in for some solid rain - over an inch was predicted during the race period. This prediction turned out to be absolutely correct.

The day prior to the race, by contrast, was gorgeous - breezy, warm dry air. Since this race included a short orienteering prologue following registration, the day prior to the race, we got to enjoy a little of this. This consisted of 3 checkpoints in the woods around the Ski Bowl in North Creek, NY. I got a little turned around and cost us about 10 minutes but this was otherwise straightforward. Having not packed another set of race clothes, I ran in cotton boxers and cargo shorts.

After a nice dinner in quaint North Creek, we got to bed fairly early in preparation for the early alarm to get to race HQ - back at the Ski Bowl. We woke to the rain which would come and go with varying intensity throughout the race. We spent an hour or so with the maps, dropped our bikes and then drove ourselves to race HQ #2, Garnet Hill Outdoor Center. Here we dropped gear bins, got some race info and then boarded busses to Beaver Brook Outfitters. Here we picked up rafting gear, stood around and then got back on the bus to reach the put-in. 

At the put-in, we met our raftmates, our raft guide, got more instruction and then got in line to hit the water. We learned some commands on the water and soon after we were on our way down the Indian River to its confluence with the Hudson. Reed had a good bit of whitewater training during his Outward Bound trip a couple years ago and he took the point paddling position (front right), while I, a newb, sat across from him in the front row. I had been tasked with GoProing the river section by race media man Jeff O'Connor and I wanted to have a front row seat.

This was a scenic, fun, interesting and, at times, exciting race leg. We survived rapids up to class 3/3+  while covering 16 miles over 3 hours or so. We rafted at the normal, safe, recreational/instructional pace that the guides were used to, stopping to regroup after the sections of rapids. We also had a mid-trip break on the shore, to eat, use the bathroom, etc. For the final, flatter section of the river, we were allowed to "race" the other boats. Reed and I dug in and tried to boost the pace, but it wasn't really possible to gain any significant time in this way.

We left the river a little cold and hungry, so we were happy to grab some food out of our waiting backpacks at TA1 and get walking. Everyone was transitioning very hurriedly. We had been awake for almost 10 hours at this point without really racing, which felt a little strange, honestly. Everyone was very ready to get out and put some of the hard part of the course behind us.

We set out on pavement and then dirt road toward the entry point into the woods, a little over 2 uphill miles away. We ate, warmed up and got wet on the way.

Now, ahead of us, was a big hilly trek. We could attack the CPs of this trek during this leg and, because of the loop shape of the course, again on the penultimate leg. We elected a plan of grabbing a good chunk of these now. Our plan was to get most or all of this trek done, with fresh legs in the daylight, as we'd probably not have time left to re-attack the wilderness later

We grabbed the first 3 without issue, navigating through open forest and later, a bit of trail. The forest was fairly open and not too difficult to traverse. We had occasional contact with a few other teams who had also chosen this route.

After the 3rd CP, we made the decision to undergo a long trek on trail to 4 CPs which were located around the heights of Gore Mtn. Ski Resort. This began as a straightforward, mostly uphill trek. After a while however, the trail became harder to follow, dumping us into boggy meadows and leaving us searching for the non-obvious linear tracts of ferns which defined the trail. We began feeling the first twinges of fatigue as the steepness of Gore Mtn loomed ahead. Reed was also feeling some early chafing from trekking in wet bike shorts for hours.

We climbed steeper and steeper grades now, sometimes on all fours in the wind and fog near the top of Gore, after gaining over 2000ft on the trek. I'm not sure if it's just me but I often struggle to navigate on USGS maps in these highly modified ski resort landscapes. There were enough clues, however, to eventually navigate to the first of the Gore CPs (CP13). Now that we knew exactly where we were, it seemed easy enough to stay on track to find the next 3 up here. What seemed easy ended up being fairly challenging, however, which became a theme during this race. We did not make great time up here, but we were ultimately successful in finding all 4 using adequate nav and plenty of determination. Highlights included a tough scramble up a very steep brushy knoll for CP 16 and a nice foggy lookoff from the Twister Cliffs.

Looking down the slopes of Gore Mountain

Deer in the mist

After the 4 high-elevation CPs, it was time to drop down off the mountain to find 2 more CPs in the woods en route to TA2. At this time there was a lengthy downpour and the sun was setting. We wasted a bit of time trying to find a trail that was incorrectly mapped on the wrong side of a power line cut and stream instead of just bushwhacking to it perpendicularly. Then it was a soggy trek on trails which became progressively more slow and technical as we paralleled the aptly named Roaring Brook. By this point, we were definitely feeling the trek. My lower back and knee were hurting but both responded nicely to a strong dose of ibuprofen. Reed, on the other hand, had developed worse and worse chafing and was having a lot of discomfort even at an easy walk. This was concerning, with only one major stage behind us so far.

We made our way downhill to TA2 via the now somewhat familiar slopes of the Ski Bowl and found, to our great excitement, a bunch of hot food waiting for us.  NYARA staff had prepared several food options and we both dug appreciatively into a steaming plate of mashed potatoes, meatballs and gravy. Reed painfully, belatedly applied chamois cream while I changed maps and geared up for a long bike leg.

After slamming a post-dinner coffee, we left on bikes. There was a mountain bike and road/gravel bike option at this point and we decided to tackle the road bike first. This way we could get a break from the wet woods and hopefully Reed could recuperate with some non-technical saddle time.

There were 6 CPs to find along a big gravel and pavement loop that would end up being 33 miles. Some of these were straightforward. Others seemed like they would be easy but then ate unnecessary chunks of race time. The rain came and went as we clicked off the miles. As dawn broke, we found ourselves nearing the end of the loop, approaching TA3. I was, uncharacteristically, having trouble remaining fully conscious in the wee morning hours, and Reed's chafing was progressing. 

At this point, there was no way for Reed to hike or mount a bike without major pain and there was a substantial chunk of each yet to come. So, we decided to call it quits here after 19 hours, 65 miles and 7k ft of elevation gain.

Although we were rendered unofficial for the 2nd straight TLD (broken pedal last year), we came away having had a solid race experience and were happy to have made the trip and experience the majority of the course which NYARA had created for us. We will certainly be back to give it our all for the next edition.

Post-race gear dry-out

USARA National Championship, 9/15/2023, Jeffersonville, VT

When we got word last year that USARA Nationals were nearby this year, we knew we had to get there somehow. The race was being held in the gorgeous northern Green Mountains of Vermont and organized by our long time friends Green Mountain Adventure Racing Association (GMARA). The open registration portion of the race sold out almost immediately, but we were thankfully able to wriggle our way in off of the waitlist, after a few tense weeks of waiting.

The race was based out of Smugglers' Notch Ski Resort, which is where we would be finishing. We spent the night before the race there, after dropping off our bikes and getting some rudimentary instructions for the next morning (we would be getting up at 4:30 AM so that we could be bussed to the unknown start location)

After getting our gear in order, we turned in for a night of truncated sleep and were boarded on the buses by 7:00.  We had gotten the maps at 5:30, so we now had a good idea of what the next 30 hours were going to look like. We were told that it was a BIG course with LOTS of elevation and to choose wisely how much of the course we were going to take on, so that we did not risk missing a mid-race time cutoff or finishing over time (3:00 PM tomorrow).

We hopped off the buses onto an old logging road with a charismatic red sugar shack, a bit south of the town of Hardwick. Here we would begin the first leg of the race: an off-trail orienteering loop to find 10 checkpoints (CPs) in the surrounding woods.

After a sweet Rib Mtn. rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, we were off, trotting down a short stretch of dirt road before disappearing into the thick woods. We spent the next 3 hours or so finding these points while ascending, descending and getting a bit wet. The navigation here was fairly straightforward. We found them all without major issue. We lost a couple minutes finding the correct logging trail at CP9 and we should have grabbed CP5 on the way to CP2 (instead of after). CP10, which we initially whiffed on (that's a knoll?) was an easy grab on the way back to where we began, and where our bikes awaited us.

We spent the next 3 hours riding on smooth pavement, smooth dirt, un-smooth dirt and some really rough stuff which was beyond anyone's ability or desire to ride - necessitating a lengthy hike-a-bike or two. There was lots of mud too. After this, we cruised on roads toward the canoe put-in on the Lamoille River. We stopped at a convenience store along the way for some drinks and shared a ham & swiss sub.

At the canoe put-in, we had access to our staged gear/supplies. This included an improvised middle seat (short milk crate plus Crazy Creek seat) that we squeezed into our little 2-man canoe, along with 3 backpacks and our bulky paddle bag. We had to tote all of this during a 1/2 km portage to get to the put-in from the TA and there were 2 other lengthy portages downriver. Luckily, the race organizers let us know this (a week) before the race, so we were able to source a small set of portage wheels. This meant that we did not have to laboriously heft all this stuff, but rather roll it along the roads. We still had to to maneuver rough trails by hand, but having the portage wheels really eased things. At the beginning of the second portage, we had to lift the canoe up an 8 foot bank to reach the road. Nick and I carried some stuff up first and turned around to see Rob, in beast mode, singlehandedly throwing the boat atop the slope. 

We covered about 25 miles on the river, including two portages (around rapids). This took approximately 5 hours. For us, paddling tends to gets pretty old after the 3-hour mark. This was no exception but there was a lot to like about the leg - a nice, flowing, winding river with some interesting turns and light rapids, good temperatures and pretty nice scenery. The sun set about 30 minutes before we exited the river and so we paddled the last, seemingly never-ending, portion in increasing darkness.

We got to the TA and we were very cold and wet, especially Nick, and quickly put on as many dry layers as we had prior to eating and packing up food and and water (this was the last time we would have access to our gear). Rick of team Chaos Required made our day by dropping off some leftover warm jalapeno poppers and chicken tenders (from a nearby store, which we would soon also visit for coffee and food).

A lot of teams came off the river right after us, but, despite a fairly long TA and visit to the store, we left the TA ahead of them, riding on some river trails and up a hill toward a trail system where we'd find the next 2 CPs. About halfway up this hill, we hear Nick yell an expletive. That rarely means anything good.

"I left the tracker at the TA." 

Since the tracker is mandatory gear, we definitely had to turn around and fetch it. Nick felt bad about this, obviously, but it could have easily been any one of us. I've forgotten my camera on my PFD at the end of many a paddle section. I forgot to even bring it to this race at all (hence the dearth of photos).

Ultimately, it took less than 30 minutes to get back to where we had been when we turned around. But...as I noted above, there was a big pack of teams right behind us. They all passed us as we were riding back to the TA, which was definitely frustrating.

We re-climbed the hill and headed into the trail system which held the next 2 CPs. There were a lot of teams here sliding around on the peanut-buttery wet trails. One funny moment occurred when I hadn't noticed Nick punching a trailside CP and Rob was confused why, afterward, I kept directing us back toward it rather than onward to the next target.

We soon descended onto the singletrack Brewer trail, which roughly paralleled the Brewster River, leading us back toward Smuggler's Notch resort. This part was...interesting. It consisted of fairly flat and rideable trails interrupted by ridiculously steep and unwieldy hike-a-bike sections which crossed river tributaries/reentrants. Consequently these trails were pretty slow going, but we passed through them and found the needed connections and CPs without much issue. We then emerged onto paved road (briefly) before returning to dirt trails on the wide bike/hike trails of Smuggler's Notch Resort. Here, we navigated accurately to 4 of the 6 available CPs, which were located on doubletrack and singletrack. We spent much of the time here riding near or with team Electric Mayhem. 

Here we decided, for the first time in the race, to skip some checkpoints - there were 2 more distant CPs which would require additional ascending. We had had some delays and there was plenty of race to bite off, as needed, in subsequent stages.  

Next we sped downhill out of the resort toward our next target. We had covered about 17 miles on this leg, mostly on trails. It was a little after midnight. Our next job was to bike up toward the lofty heights of Smugglers' Notch toward the next TA, which was about 1/3 of the way up the climb.

During the climb, I was closely watching the map, the terrain and my compass. The TA was not on the road and I was worried it might not be obvious from the road. We were following Electric Mayhem up the climb and Nick had started to gap us all, cruising up the hill with his excellent bike strength. We passed a few side roads which seemed like they could lead to the TA, but I wasn't 100% sure. Electric Mayhem was just cruising along like we weren't anywhere close. Very soon after, the road changed direction and then I was convinced that we had passed the turnoff. I stopped and expressed my concerns to the other team and Rob but by this point Nick had blithely ridden ahead out of eyeshot and earshot. I rode up the road aways but still no sign of Nick, so I went back to where the others were waiting and we sat there, chilling on the roadside for 10 minutes or so, until Nick returned to us and we could backtrack to the TA.

Here, at TA 4, we had a lovely surprise - pancakes, sausage and maple syrup shooters, courtesy of the VT Board of Tourism. These were delicious and definitely bumped the team morale up a couple notches. This TA was manned (is "personed" more inclusive?) by veteran AR volunteer couple Scott and Marlana, with whom I had spent several volunteer days during Untamed NE 2014, with my son Reed. We had seen them countless times since, volunteering at various races throughout the Northeast.

Here we got ready for a night trekking leg. There were 8 possible CPs here. We hatched a conservative plan of only getting 3 of them. The thinking was that we were not going to come close to clearing this epic course and that we should focus on making all the time cutoffs. From what we had learned, the final trek leg was really big and we could use that to burn through any excess time which we had, after skipping these points. Off-trail trekking at night (i.e., here) is not typically where one can accumulate a bunch of easy CPs in a short period of time.

We found our 3 flags without much delay here. We (like a lot of teams I saw) went down a too-early reentrant to get to CP33 but we quickly corrected. We scooped up the next 2 without issue and then attempted to beeline uphill back to the TA. I led us a little off-target (too far left) which cost a couple minutes. We were trekking with the Nicki-led Rootstock team here.

Now it was back on bikes to climb over the notch, followed by a lengthy road descent in the wee hours of the AM to reach TA 6.  This was a trekking leg with 9 available CPs mapped on 3 maps of 3 CPs each. The wrinkle here was that you could split the team up and work simultaneously - a potentially big time saver. The CPs here were also fairly close together - a good chance to scoop up some easier points.

We each grabbed a map and set off. My intent was to grab the most difficult map but, in retrospect, it was not. I was back in just under an hour. Rob returned after another 20 mins and Nick after another 20 mins. One of Nick's target CPs (C3) had given him some trouble. I grabbed his map to run off and find it quickly while he transitioned, but, attacking from the main trail, the terrain did not line up at all with the map. I was almost immediately lost and decided to just return to the TA emptyhanded, after wasting 20 minutes. Despite this minor setback, we had gained 8 CPs in about 2 hours - not bad.

As we headed back onto the local roads on bike, the sun was finally starting to brighten the eastern sky. This is always a welcome change in an overnight race, nudging your brain into a happier, more alert place. The next, penultimate leg was a long bike leg. There was an embedded optional trail section with a couple CPs which involved a lot of climbing and trails of unknown quality. We had already elected to bypass this and focus on getting to big final trek. So, we rode the scenic, hilly backroads of VT for the next 2 to 2.5 hours, slowly covering about 16 miles. I love AR sections where you can bike-tour the area on rural roads. They are typically comfortable and low-stress, compared to, say, trying to navigate off-trail in the dark.

We rolled into the final TA right at the 24-hour mark - 9:00 AM. This gave us 6 hours to complete the final trek - a big, off-trail hike over a ridge of the Green Mountains which would lead us to the finish line, back at Smugglers' Notch Resort. At this point, our friend and race maestro Chris Yager gave us the advice that we should probably focus on getting the 3 mandatory CPs for the leg, and not so much on the optionals, as time was starting to run a little short. He also reiterated that, as a local team, we needed to "Represent!" 

With this in mind, I hatched a route plan to reach the first CP (nearby) and subsequently to surmount the ridge and approach the 2 other mandatory CPs near the top. We would pass near some optionals along the way, and so we hoped to grab those, if we could without spending too much extra time.

After the short on-trail section to the first mandatory CP, we were off into the woods again. We would parallel a deep gorge uphill, reach a predetermined elevation and then strike due north, over a small saddle. This all went according to plan. It was tough climb at times but we made steady progress. At the top of the saddle we made a short brushy side jaunt to get optional CP40. This was followed by a brushy descent, which soon flattened out into brushy level ground. We would pass close to optional CP44, so we were keeping an eye out for the small stream it would be on; we found this without too much trouble. 

We were feeling really good at this point - we had found the first mandatory CP and scored 2 optionals  and we had only used up 2 of our 6 hours. We were nearing the top of the ridge and still had 4 hours left to get to finish line - solid.

We continued on our compass bearing to where the Long Trail traversed a soft ridge and where we would find the next 2 CPs - both mandatory. It took a lot longer to hit the trail than I was expecting and I was also distractedly inspecting the terrain a lot in case we stumbled across the "reentrant" which held our next target. When we finally hit the trail, therefore, I hadn't been rigorously keeping us on our bearing. We also hadn't passed the flag or any nearby teams. The terrain at the top was lumpy and didn't have any obvious features. There were also reentrants everywhere, which made the clue for this CP (47) fairly useless. We were also not allowed to hike along the trail for any significant distance.

We began to poke around in various reentrants south of the trail, finding no flag and also no evidence of recent foot traffic. Most of the teams were ahead of us on the course and this was a mandatory CP - the ground should be well-trodden around it. Eventually we ran into team BRF Barf here, who had also been looking for a while, with no success.

This went on for a disconcerting amount of time. We were stuck between a rock and a hard place; this was a mandatory CP (we would be "unofficial" if we didn't find it) but, on the other hand, the race time clock was ticking away - we definitely didn't want to go overtime futilely searching for the CP.

After about 50 minutes and no good leads, we had arrived at the conclusion that we needed to move on and hustle to the finish without having found this CP. Before we departed I decided to pay closer attention to the terrain on both sides of the trail one more time, to try to see if I could figure out where we were. Wondrously, the terrain started to line up fairly convincingly with the map, and suggested that we needed to look further east for the flag. While approaching it, we saw another team for the first time in a while, who confirmed that it was indeed right here. Whew! - A huge relief. We had burned over an hour on one CP, but if we could still get to finish line on time, we'd be good.

The next CP was close by and was an easy find (once you had found CP47). Now we had only 2 hours to cover the remainder of the course - about 5km (3mi). It seemed doable...until we started doing it. After CP48, the vegetation took a real turn for the worse - very slow and brushy with very little open terrain. The primary culprit was an old friend from many Vermont races - hobblebush. This member of the witch hazel family grows from about knee-high to shoulder-high and, at its worst, creates dense thickets of grabby, intertwined branches. This was the worst of it that I had seen. As we contoured along (bypassing a hilltop optional CP) west toward the finish, we were nearly constantly fighting through some level of hobblebush thicket. This plus the uneven terrain was really slowing our progress. I knew that we were averaging less than 2 mph - not necessarily fast enough to finish on time. 

As we continued grinding (now uphill) through this slow terrain, I was keeping an eye on the map and realized that we were pointing ourselves directly at an optional CP (50). While our focus at this point was simply finishing on time, we would certainly not pass up a free CP along the way. After a quick punch of this knoll-top CP, we reassessed. We were on track and knew exactly where we were (thanks to the fortuitous CP) but we had averaged just over 1 mph to get here - there were 2 miles left to cover and only 68 minutes of race clock left.

We quickly pointed ourselves downhill, continuing west, and discovered that, miraculously, the hobblebush and all other significant underbrush had virtually disappeared! We began eagerly running downhill though the open woods. I kept expecting the underbrush to reappear, but after several more minutes of running downhill, it hadn't. I knew now that we would make it.

As a bonus, as we were zooming west through the woods, there was a flag just ahead of us to the left (CP52). Another lucky score! We encountered team Strong Machine in the woods here, briefly, and continued west until we started to hit the resort trails, on which we trotted easily downhill to cover the last mile. 

Because of the unexpected massive improvement in ground speed, we actually hit the finish line with 25 minutes to spare. In retrospect, we could have gone after another CP or two (as Strong Machine had, we found out later) but after stressing so hard about just finishing on time for the last 3 hours, the thought never crossed our minds.

At the finish line, we were greeted by the GMARA crew and volunteers, feeling fulfilled with our race and so pleased to sit down with a beer for a minute and take our shoes off. We chatted with the other teams about their races and enjoyed not racing. We then headed inside for a satisfying meal and the awards announcements. Amazingly, 3 teams had cleared the entire course. We ended up 28th out of 60 teams - a satisfactory result. In all, we covered about 110 miles and climbed nearly 14000 ft, over 30 hours of racing.

The competition at this race was really stiff - definitely the toughest field of participants we had encountered. There were many teams who regularly win 24-hour races who finished well off the podium. The mid-pack was also stacked with quality teams young and old. It was nice to see so many women at the race - definitely a rising demographic in AR thanks to the inclusive efforts of many race directors and officials.

This was a really tough, big course. Three off-trail treks, including the epic finale, a sizeable physical paddle, and the punishing bike terrain really combined to make a wonderful beast of a proving ground for all of us - perfect for a national championship. Hats off to GMARA and USARA for making it happen.

All race photos courtesy of USARA.

NYARA The Longest Day, Warren, PA, 8/12/23

 With Reed being a busy guy this summer, working and becoming Wilderness EMT-certified, this event was our only chance to race together this summer. So, we undertook the 9-hour drive to the western PA/NY border to brave The Longest Day. This would be my 6th The Longest Day and Reed's second.

This year, we were based out of Warren, PA, nicely situated in the northern Allegheny mountains. We checked in, got our maps, turned in our bikes, gear bin and paddle bag and then headed out to Bent Run Brewery for a couple hours of eating and route planning while enjoying the nice outdoor brewery atmosphere in (for now) nice summer evening weather.

The race start was early. We would have a pre-race meeting and board buses at 5:00 AM. Like most racers (and race staff) that I spoke to, this meant that the night before this 26-hour race promised little quality sleep. For me, it's tough to sleep after having seen the race maps/route. My brain wants to keep returning to strategic minutia instead of staying asleep. 

We were, uncharacteristically, able to each grab a little nap on the (school) bus, which is notoriously difficult. Then we unloaded at Holiday Valley ski area in Ellitcottville, PA for the race start. We began at 7:15 AM and would finish no later than 9:00 AM the next day. The first (prologue) stage was to hike to the top of the ski area, on ski slopes and trails, while grabbing 2 CPs and gaining 650 ft. No major nav here. There was the usual thing of many teams starting at an unsustainable initial pace (jogging uphill); we were happy to slide to the back of the pack and "race our race". We made the unpopular decision do do this 2.25 mile trek in our bike shoes. We both have comfy hikeable bike shoes and, by doing this, we wouldn't have to carry wet damp trek shoes for the next bike leg (up to 40 miles). We did not see any other team adopting this strategy but felt that we had made the right decision.

At the TA, we quickly switched to bike mode (just put the maps on the bike board and donned helmets) and set off onto the first, and longest, bike leg on the trails and forest roads at the top of the ski area. I immediately made a slight but highly consequential nav error and started off on what seemed to the right road, heading in the right direction, but quickly things were not lining up on the map and we consequently spent the next 40 minutes riding around trying to find out where we were. Once we were "found" again, we were able to start finding the trail CPs. We found one after some nice flowy trail riding and headed to the next. On the way, I had an abrupt crash on the classic front-tire-on-wet-diagonal-root, which immediately slammed me to the ground. No worse for the wear, we continued on to our next target. Here, I left the trail too early and sent us on foot, without the map (total rookie move) to a local high point where I expected to find the CP. After not finding it, I directed us back to the approximate location where we had left our bikes and eventually hit a trail, which I misidentified and sent us on a rambling 45 minute trail trek to eventually find our bikes and, shortly thereafter, the CP we were aiming for an hour earlier. Gah.

After this ignominious start, I directed us, more accurately on the trails to find the next 4 CPs without issue. The trails thus far had been pretty fun, smooth and flowy, but soon, continuing down Porcupine trail, they became more bony and with many sections which were best hike-a-biked. At the end of Porcupine, we were face with a big uphill hike-a-bike section on "Growler", part of which we had to reclimb because of bad Dad nav. That's when I heard a call from Reed, behind me "Dad! my pedal fell off!" Hmm. Okay, no worries, we'll just screw it back tight onto the crank arm, right? Examining Reed's bike, however, we found that the clip-in part of the pedal had fallen off of the axle, spewing grease and ball bearings onto the ground - not a field repair. By loosely sticking the pedal back onto the axle, however, we could continue. In fact, we were able to get 4 more CPs in this manner - riding slowly and having to put Reed's pedal back on every few minutes. We switched pedals after a while so that I could take a turn with the bad bike but, by this point, the pedal had tightly seized onto the axle and no longer spun. This seemed workable at first but we soon discovered that, with the pedal rigid, it unscrewed from the crank with every bit of downward pressure. So, the entire pedal was falling off the bike every minute or so. We then hiked to the last optional CP of the section with the knowledge that there was no feasible strategy to complete this leg, which included 20 more miles of riding.

Mid-race, a good time to work on your single-leg pedaling drills.

As luck would have it, we were above 2000ft at this point and therefore had enough cell reception to call race HQ and report our misfortune. Vice race director Aaron was able to come and pick us us, transport us to the next CP, and also loan us a pedal. This way we could continue through the race and experience nearly the whole course. Having skipped about 20 miles of this bike leg, however, we were an "unofficial" team and would be racing solely for "fun".

Arriving at TA2 by car, we quickly installed the loaner pedal and got ready to paddle on the scenic Allegheny Reservoir. The first part of this was quite pleasant - partly cloudy and nice to be seated in a canoe. During the last 2/3 of this leg however, we observed storm clouds approaching and soon found ourselves in monsoon-like downpours and accompanying high winds. The former were more of a nuisance but the wind raised a substantial chop on the water, eventually enough so that little waves would break over the bow and dump a little water into the boat. It was also, of course, a headwind, which slowed progress immensely. Many teams pulled their boats off the water to wait out the storm but we just plodded along, weathering 2 separate downpours. At one of the CPs, we stopped on shore to dump several gallons of water of water out of the boat. The last raging downpour coincided with our arrival at the takeout (TA3), so we had to transition in the rain - never a joy. In all we paddled 8 miles on this leg, picking up 2 of the 3 available CPs. 

Mid-downpour, pre-waves

This TA (paddle -> trek) was our last chance to see our gear, so we loaded up food to last the rest of the race and refilled our water reservoirs. As we left the TA, the rain was basically finished. We walked on the road for a few minutes and then on a trail and then headed off-trail. 

Skies clearing (temporarily) leaving TA3

We had made a conservative decision to go for only 2 optional CPs on the leg, which were more-or-less on the way to the mandatory CP for this leg. This was a cool area for off trail exploration, but, unless you were a team planning on clearing the course, it was not an efficient place to spend time because the CPs were few and far between. Other legs of the race featured more densely-placed CPs, and so, if you wanted the most payoff for your time, this was not the place, sadly. Navigating to our first CP, we had some difficulty, as my compass bearing and my intuition were in conflict with one another. We were climbing too slowly and walking too far but I kept telling myself "trust the compass". Well, eventually it became obvious that trusting the compass was leading us astray and, after a few minutes of map scrutiny, we discovered that we had overshot the CP by quite a distance. After correcting, we found the terrain to match up nicely with the map and after 30 minutes of bonus bushwhacking, we were at the CP. From here it was not too difficult to find the next CP, before eventually reaching some trail, on which we would spend the rest of the leg. Anytime you're off trail in the PA/NY area, you worry about encountering vast evil stands of mountain laurel but we found none here. The forest was pretty open and although brushy saplings and deadfall slowed you a bit, there was no thorny or stiff underbrush. We enjoyed the off-trail travel. The trail hiking was straightforward - just keep trudging. A soaking downpour arrived and continued for 30 mins or so, further muddying the trail and generally adding to the sloggy-soggy vibe of the final trek. We covered almost 10 miles here and picked up 3 total CPs before arriving at TA4 around midnight.

At the TA we were in for a real treat - the RDs and volunteers had set up an awesome rest stop inside the back of a rental truck. We we could sit (ahhhh) out of the rain (ahhh) and enjoy a fresh hot snack of taco toppings spooned into a Fritos bag (ahh yeah). It was a unexpected moment of comfort and a serious morale boost.

Soon enough, we had finished our snack, transitioned, and it was time head back out into the wet night for some more AR. The first part of this would be a speedy descent on road, so we clothed our wet bodies as best as we could (i.e., put on a windbreaker) and headed down. After a few miles of this, we reached a section which RD John Courain warned us pre-race "sucks so bad". This consisted of a rudimentary skinny trail through chest high weeds/bushes in muddy terrain which went on for about 1.5 miles. At this point, the RDs had placed pink flagging tape to show us the "best" way through this tangle. This was monumentally helpful. After following several sets of flagging, we were led to a low-elevation CP.  After this, the flagging stopped and our job was to steeply gain 600 feet elevation in a roughly southern direction and hope to find one of the hilltop roads which were on the map. There were some historic trails/roads? marked on the map that could theoretically be used to get there but it was difficult to match the overgrown terrain with anything that could be considered a "road/trail". Luckily there were tracks ahead of us through the weeds - either made by teams ahead of us or the RDs. These roughly followed what seemed to be an old road grade, which was somewhat encouraging. There was really no option other than following these tracks at this point. The main issue, however, was not the blind navigation (which was quite concerning) but that the steepness of the terrain necessitated a wet hike-a-bike for the entire duration. Even when the terrain flattened out enough to possibly ride, there were enough fallen trees to prevent it. This sweaty uphill slog took a full hour, while only covering a little more than a mile of horizontal distance.

At the end, the trail finally flattened out for good on a recognizable plateau feature, but by this point we had lost our enthusiasm for this race. There were several teams together at this point and we worked together to figure out how to complete the final connection to the road system that lie ahead. This was thankfully downhill and we soon punched into an odd labyrinthine forest road system.

Almost immediately after entering this road system we discovered it purpose.

We encountered several oil wells and oil tank installations and there was a frequent odor of oil in the forest air. It was interesting and a little eerie riding through the silent, unlit woods among this unusual machinery.

These roads were well-mapped and after a few turns we were back on public roads. We had been racing for 19 hours at this point; it was about 4:30 AM. Here again, we needed to descend speedily on pavement to our next destination. Strangely, there was almost no uphill riding on this race. We gained almost all of our elevation on foot and via hike-a-bike.

The next destination was Jake's Rocks, a nest of trails designed for mountain biking. These were initially fun trails and we picked up the initial CP while riding generally level and flowy trails. Soon, however, in order to get the next mandatory CP, we needed to ascend 550 ft on these trails. We were able to ride a few short switchbacked sections but the trail got rockier and steeper as we went along. So, again, we found ourselves undertaking a long arduous hike-a-bike.

At the top, we punched the CP and headed on forest roads to the next section. I'm sure there would have been some better trail riding experiences to be had in here while going after some optional CPs but, at this point, we just wanted to be done with this leg of the race.

After a few miles of flat forest roads, we reached the final TA. Here there were 5 optional checkpoints to be had on foot, if time/desire permitted. At the TA here and at the prior (TA4), we noticed a more-than-usual amount of carnage for a 24-hour race: racers dropping out, racers camping out at TAs and, here, multiple teams sleeping roadside just a few hours from the end of the race. We weren't judging. Heck, we had skipped 20 miles of the first bike and were feeling pretty spent nonetheless. It definitely wasn't the longest or climbiest race but it was taking it's toll for sure. Whatever it was: storms, mud, bad pre-race sleep, soul-sucking hike-a-bikes or other hardships, the racers were definitely feeling it.

Here we elected to find a single optional CP on this leg, I think it was CP28. We hiked out to it's approximate location and, immediately, the small nearby road was not corresponding to the map (at least to my sleepy pre-dawn brain) and I was not sure where exactly to point us as we looked for a "Waterfall". With all the recent rain, any waterfall should be really gushing, and so we were seeking with our ears as much as our eyes. We found several small falls but nothing substantial, while my altimeter told me that we had already gone far enough. I really didn't have the mental energy to figure it all out and re-attack, so after 20-30 minutes of fruitless bushwhacking in moderately technical terrain, I called off the search and directed us out of the woods back to the TA.

We said goodbye to TA boss Jason and biked off to the finish line in Warren, 10 miles away. This was easy nav once I we realized that a road called FR160 was not the same as an adjacent road called F160. Reed and I rode side-by-side trying to keep each other awake. We each blearily saw lots of hallucinated bears in the trees flying by us. We were revived quite a bit when daylight finally conquered the fog of dawn, and rode to the finish line without further issue.

It was really nice to be done. It was not a highly successful race but we were proud to have completed a version of the course, albeit unofficially. Discounting the car ride, we covered about 80 miles while climbing about 9000 feet and felt satisfied with the results of our trip.

We would love to thank the NYARA team (Courain branch) and all of the volunteers and sponsors who helped make this happen. It will certainly be a long-lasting memory for this father and son team.

Deposit in calorie bank on the trip home, Bath, NY.

Maine Summer Adventure Race; Brunswick, ME 7/22/23

 This year's edition of the Strong Machine's MSAR was based out of a fresh new location, in the historic coastal town of Brunswick. The coolest part of this race was that we would be racing with original teammate Nick for the first time since the 2019 MSAR, as our original 3-man unit (Est. 2009). 

Pre-race, we picked up our maps and had about 2 hours to finish gearing up, map our initial legs and stuff a few more calories in the tank. It seemed like a lot of time, and it was, but we did not let that stop us from spending the last 10 minutes in the usual chaotic frenzy.

Tailgate mapping session

The prologue of this race, we then found out, was going to be a written quiz on topographic features. We needed to ace the test before we could begin the race proper. This went pretty well - after a quick correction of the quiz, we were off on bikes, 6 minutes earlier that the loser quiz-failer teams.

Race weather was much sunnier overall than predicted, but it was never excessively hot or extremely humid - it could have been much worse, given the jungle-like weather of the early summer so far.

We biked briefly on local roads to a Line-O on the local Neptune Woods trails. You just had to follow a course through the trails, marked on your map, and encounter the 4 unmapped CPs. This was fun and easy. The trails were smooth and dry and the CPs were obvious if you were on the right course.

Next, we spent a little longer riding roads around the Brunswick Air Force base to reach the trails of the Kate Furbish Preserve. Here we dropped bikes and spent an hour or so finding 10 CPs in the woods. We had no real problems here apart from wet feet and a few mosquito bites. We trotted back to the bikes at TA1 and sped off toward the next leg - paddling in the tidal Androscoggin River.

After logging more miles on road and smooth trails, with no major delays, we reached the put-in (TA2). At this point we were about 24 miles and 3.5 hours into the race.

Here we were reunited with our gear bin (food, fresh gear, sunblock) and we carried our 2 kayaks to the boat ramp on the Andro. There were 7 paddle CPs available. 2 of them were located together, quite a distance downriver. We had calculated that it would take 1.5-2 hours to get these 2 CPs and had previously decided that they were not worth it. You would only go for them if you were confident of clearing the rest of the course and we decided we weren't. Since the first legs of the race had gone so smoothly, we were second-guessing this a bit as we started the paddle. However, we soon realized that we did not even have the map for those 2 CPs with us in the boats, so it was pointless to debate. It ended up being the correct decision.

We enjoyed the paddle. With no competition nearby, we just clicked into a solid paddling rhythm and found the 5 island CPs without issue, while taking some time to eat and drink. It was a little sunny and uncomfortably warm but there were a few breezes (and hat dips) that helped. It was nice to hit the turnaround point of this roughly out-and-back journey and have the benefit of a substantial current for the last couple miles. We covered about 8 miles in about 2.5 hours.

Back at the TA, it was time to switch back into bike mode for a long (20 mile) ride to Popham Beach State Park on generally scenic rural coastal roads. There were lots of rolling hills and historic residences to add variety. The non-rural exception was a quick trip through the busier port town of Bath, early in the leg. We were with several other teams for a few miles after Bath, but soon outpaced them and got to pedal by ourselves for most of the trip, until catching solo Tom Martin near the end of the leg. 

Nick leading the train out of Bath

Sunset (and the accompanying mosquitoes) was looming as we transitioned at Popham into trek mode for a beachy and historic circumnavigation of the Popham peninsula. One cool feature of this section was that there was a CP on an offshore island which was accessible only during a 4-hour period at low tide. 

Island CP

Our arrival coincided with the beginning of that 4-hour window, so we grabbed that one first. We then continued walking along the scenic and expansive beach for 2 miles to pick up another shore CP before heading to a cluster of CPs that were within various historic forts/bunkers on the northern end of the peninsula (adding about 3 more miles). The last part of this was wooded and pretty full of mosquitoes. This left us a bit concerned about bug pressure for the many hours of woodland trekking that lay ahead of us tonight.

During this beachy section, we made the decision to maintain a fast hike, even though some teams around us were shuffling/jogging and outpacing us. The race was only about 40% over at this point and, none of us being big runners, we wanted to make sure we had legs to last to the end, even if it cost us 10-15 minutes in the short term.

After switching back to bike mode, the next leg consisted of another meandering road ride through the scenic mid-coast. These were really quite pleasant sections of this race. We spent much of this leg riding along with eventual race winners from Wisconsin, Rib Mountain Racing. 

We needed to find a couple CPs along the way; the coolest was a CP hosted by Maine Oyster Company. We had been forewarned about this CP, which would require each team to shuck and eat an oyster before continuing. Since Rob and Nick both do surgery, it was decided that my hands were least valuable and therefore I would be doing the shucking. It was trickier than it looked in the video tutorial but after a couple minutes, the oyster was open and I was happy to slurp it down (plus a bonus, professionally-shucked oyster). Its always a treat to get fresh food during a race.

Then it was back out onto the roads toward the trek. The only wrinkle here was that we accidentally overshot CP 42 and, by the time we realized it, we were quite a bit past it. So we decided to skip that one and use the saved time for the rest of the race (a long trek leg and a long bike leg remained).

When we arrived at the start of the night trek it was about 11:00 PM, a bit past the halfway mark in the race. We took a few minutes to change into dry shoes, get water and eat a few bites of much-appreciated food provided by the RDs (ramen and sandwich wraps).

In this night trekking section, there were up to 16 CPs to be found, on and off trail. The trails were of varying levels of quality/visibility, leading to some question as to which were on the map. I hatched a route plan which would direct us to 9 of the CPs and skip over the 7 which were on the other side of a paralleling highway and river. In retrospect, I should have been more aggressive here but I knew there were a lot of bike CPs waiting for us after this (which I wanted to get all of) and I played it conservatively (spoiler: we finished 1.5 hours early). Night navigation is no guarantee and 9 CPs and 10 miles of trekking could take us more time than budgeted. 

All in all, though, we did well on this section and found our 9 CPs without a lot of delay. We had several 10 minute snafus but never got too far off course. We moved well and were able to eat and drink a little in the small hours of the race - notoriously the worst period for maintaining mental focus and staying positive.

The best surprise during the leg was the near-total absence of bugs! After the wet, warm and humid summer we've had, we came into the race armed with multiple DEET options, adhesive deer fly patches and even full face/torso bug mesh jackets. We didn't need any of it for this section. We hadn't experienced any significant bugs apart from the dusk trek on Popham Beach. We were incredibly thankful for this unexpected level of Maine Summer comfort. 

As the trek and associated nav went fairly well, we got back to the TA at about 4:00 AM. So we had 6 hours remaining to complete the final bike leg to the finish. We saw that the leg was composed of a lot of road miles plus 2 embedded singletrack sections. After taking time to attire ourselves appropriately and grab some food/drink to go, we were off on the quiet local roads.

We covered 25 miles during this leg. The road miles were pleasant and straightforward. When we hit the first singletrack area, the Lily Pond trails, we were met with a sloppy rutted uphill muddy ATV track just after dawn. Ugh. Things improved a bit after this rough start; the trails were wet, rocky and rooty for sure but it was doable. Our main problem was not the trail conditions but staying in touch with the map - there were lots of confusing trail junctions and we found at least one inaccuracy. We ended up spending a lot of time with veteran family racers Scrambled Legs and Aching (including their 2 badass kids) and working through this dilemma with them. 

We eventually escaped by just riding singletrack until we found something that we could sort of locate on the map and then just work in the general direction we wanted until we were sure of our location. Once we found ourselves on the map, we made quick work of the CPs in here and were soon back on smooth roads. 

The next singletrack section (the Kate Furbish trails again) was much more user friendly. Rob directed us efficiently through the 3 CPs here and then we drilled it to the finish line around 8:30.

We had efficiently covered 111 miles and found every CP we looked for (58 total) without much trouble. We ended up in 7th place overall out of 39 teams, first in the men's division. 

I think this was my favorite MSAR (I've done all 6 previous editions). The coastal routes, the beach trek, the oysters, etc. kept reminding you that you were in Maine, rather than some random patch of forest. We'd like to give a huge thanks to the Kate and Cliff and the rest of the Strong Machine crew that made this happen, as well as the race sponsors and volunteers. We're so thankful that people choose to arrange these things in their spare time. We'll be back for sure.