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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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!
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| Sorry, bike. I'll make it up to you |
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| Scoring some sweet swag from RD Troy Johnston |
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