BAJA TRAVESIA

December 6-9, 2005

This race started for me at Montrail E-camp in April at Big Bear Lake CA. I've know Paul and Karen, the directors, for some time since our company had been their title sponsor and wanted to check out first hand how the camps work and hopefully learn a little in the process. I learned a lot.

E-camp was awesome and I did well. Learning how to tow teammates and help keep them moving after they're already thrashed. It was amazing to see how much further people can go after they have surpassed their self conceived limits, I learned how to plan, transition and fuel for short and long races as well as really improved my navigation skills. The camp gave me a ton of confidence. It also provided the contact for my eventual Teammate Jorge Elage from Brazil.

Summer passed and I didn't race mush because I struggled to find team mates. I only did a couple of solo races with decent results. As fall neared I started working on a team for Baja with similarly poor results. It was getting close to race time and I was getting desperate. I started scouring lists of team finders and firing off emails. At this point I'm thinking any warm bodies that I can drag around the course will do, I just wanted to race.

Finally with about a month and one half to go Paul gave me the name of a girl, Mayte Arenalde, in Mexico that he thought might be a good fit. I contacted her and she was equally excited to have a teammate. Mayte mentioned that she had heard from a guy named Jorge. It turned out to be Jorge from e-camp and we had a team. Jorge had done 3 of the 4 Explore CA races and the final was the next weekend near Yosemite. We did the race together as a warm up and finished 4th which was good enough for 3rd place over all for the series and a free entry into Baja, hee ha.

Baja Travesia would prove to be absolutely amazing. Great paddling along the Mexican Pacific coast starting the day before practicing surf entries in 6 – 8 ft swells. These provided great entertainment for anyone on the beach.

The 50k paddle along the coast took about 8 hours for most teams and treated us to views of Dolphins and Sea lions all along the route under sunny skies. This was followed by a long Mountain bike ride along some road and some good twisting double track. The time estimate for this section proved to be a little optimistic and rather than 4 to six hours we were out there closer to 8. This meant that by the end of the bike it was getting very cold and we were all underdressed. After a strong paddle we began to slow down and were passed by two teams including Kings Crew with Tom Zidek who hails from Canmore Alberta which is about an hour from my home. Kings would eventually finish in 2nd. Team Endurance another Canadian squad from Montreal also passed us as we neared cp 8. By the time we reached CP 8 and the second transition my two Latin American teammates were frozen up and needed some time to warm up. At 4 AM we decided to take a nap by the fire and go again at dawn.

The next leg would prove a complete disaster as we headed out for CP 9 up the wrong Canyon and would be lost for about 12 hours. We finally intersected a road and ran into team Wild Burrows who had been short coursed and were on their way to CP 10. After hiking with them to CP10 we had the choice of continuing from there on the short course or running 8k and back to get 9 before moving on. We opted to grab 9 and arrived back at CP 10/TA 3 around 11:00 for a quick transition and left for the bike leg at around 11:30 on Tuesday night.

The bike stage was truly a monster with the first section being about 10k downhill followed by a 6000 ft climb straight up to near the El Diablo summit at 3000m. We did the bulk of this climb in the night, pausing for about a 2 hour sleep, before finishing up at CP 12 around 1pm. Here we would pick up our mountaineering and trekking gear before continuing on our bikes to CP 13 and the beginning of the canyoneering section. It was here that I had my biggest and only bail of the race. As I rolled downhill from the CP I was eating some of the best Doritos I have ever tasted. I began to gather speed and suddenly hit a washboard section of the road. This wouldn't have been a problem except that it started to bounce the nachos out of the bag and I was losing all of my precious nachos. I lunged forward in a desperate attempt to save the chips and inadvertently grabbed my front brake lever. You know what happened next as I went head first into the gravel. Mayte had been riding behind me and was very concerned that I might be hurt. All I could say was "I lost all my nachos." Then we continued on our way.

By the time we reached the TA we were pretty happy to be off of our bikes and set out on what would be a 48 hour hike. The hike up the wash to CP14 was pretty uneventful aside from a blowout between Jorge and I over route selection (we were both a little sensitive after being lost for an entire day) at which point grabbed the map and marched ahead. I didn't look back for about 3 hours. Jorge feeling a little offended ate the only good gummy snacks we had for the whole race. Upon reflection I guess that was fair.

We spent about an hour on a saddle that we believed was the location of the CP and eventually moved on to find it further up the ridge. That hour would prove to be very costly. We moved quickly past CP 14 to find the chute that would take us more than 1000m to the floor of the canyon. Because of the delay we arrived at the lip just after dark and could see only a very steep scree slope and total darkness below. After starting in and feeling uncomfortable tackling the slope in the dark we doubled back to take the "easier" route to the east. After a short nap back at CP 14 we headed out around 9:00pm believing that we would miss the 2am cutoff at CP 16.

The easier route turned out to be anything but and we would complete no less than 10 rappels before cliffing out in the dark at around 4am. At 6am we heard someone yelling at us from across the Canyon. It was Paul Ablett from Wild Burrows who had been asleep in CP 14 when we left but had taken the faster route down (the same route we opted not to take) and beaten our time by several hours.

After finally descending the gully we arrived in one of the most spectacular canyons I have ever seen with1000 foot solid rock walls rising up on both sides for miles. We would traverse over huge boulders, smooth waterfalls and pools before eventually taking an elaborate cable sling to swing out of the last big drop. This sling provided more than a few hilarious stories as well as lost gear and many good soakings.

Now we were on the final push for the finish. We checked in at CP 18 for the Auto Rally component as the last ranked team but with a very good shot at completing the course in regulation. We spent about an hour drying our gear and munching on hot casadillas provided by some of the very friendly locals we saw along the course. I have a pair of Sole Custom Footbeds in my shoes which until this point they had provided me with completely problem free feet. Since the dry shoes I had expected to find in the Transition bag were not there I decided to dry my shoes and insoles by the fire. What actually happened was that I melted my insoles in the fire creating a rigid misshapen lump under my foot that would provide me with a massive blister accompanied by a lot of pain.

I slept through the auto rally and went straight to the trek. Roughly 40k across the desert with a relatively minor climb up about 250 m over a saddle then down the other side to the sea of Cortez. Mayte had not been expecting this last trek and the abuse of 4 days finally caught up to her. She was in considerable pain and struggled heavily up the granite boulders that formed the route up and over the saddle. For me this was the most devastating part of the race. Because the climbing was very rugged and somewhat technical there was nothing that could be done to help as the hours screamed by and we crawled up the face at about 1 km per hour. Our window was closing.

We finally reached the saddle and much easier going as the saddle widened and provided us with a firm sandy highway that would lead all the way to the sea of Cortez about 30k down the hill. We had to go now or write off the race and ensure that we would miss the next cutoff. Our pace quickened somewhat but still we were moving too slowly. Then out of the twighlight came the Wild Burrows running hard trying to make time. They slowed to a walk and our pace quickened to match theirs until they began running again. At this point I nearly lost it, on the verge of tears and absolutely frantic as I urged Mayte and Jorge to run with me for the final 23 km to the finish. I then took off running on my own toward CP 19 about 2.5 km ahead. Jorge and Mayte followed. We had finally regained our pace but it wouldn't be enough.

At CP 19 we dumped everything but mandatory gear and continued our running pace toward the final transition and the paddle. With Mayte on the tow line and tears streaming down her face I dragged her toward the cutoff and she hung on without complaining. With about 10 k to go we slowed to a quick walking pace downed some energy and set out at an even faster pace in an effort to cover the distance in under an hour. As we approached the TA we saw the sight I had been dreading. A truck was coming up the road with the boats loaded heading for San Felipe. There would be no final leg, no paddle for us, our race was done. No one said anything as we hung our heads exhausted.

About 20 minutes later the Wild Burrows came up the road and we decided to walk together to the Sea of Cortez in order to at least complete the Trans peninsular journey. I'm glad we did.

Only 6 teams would finish the race in regulation with Team Hype paddling across the finish line 25 minutes after the cutoff.

While I was devastated to miss the last cutoff I look back on what was truly an amazing ADVENTURE race. We crossed some seriously tough terrain dealt with major set backs, had some good blow outs and in the end we finished strong as a team and pulled hard down the final stretch. We could not have made the final cutoff, that had been determined before we left CP 19, but I'm glad we didn't know. I feel better about the final push on blistered and bleeding feet than any other element of the race. As we approached the Sea of Cortez we looked back and took in the true scale of what we had done. In the distance you could see the menacing El Diablo rising up 10 000 ft above the desert floor complete with it's jagged deep canyons and I felt a real sense of satisfaction.

In Summary Baja Travesia was a truly phenomenal event. From spectacular ocean paddling to extremely challenging mountaineering and canyoneering, desert cactus and one of the toughest climbs I've heard of. Nice job Paul, Karen and Antonio. Save me a spot for next year I wouldn't miss it.

Thanks Sole Custom Footbeds for helping us get there in comfort and style.