DUE SOUTH HMIS

September 17, 2005

2005 was an Ironman triathlon year for me, so the season ending HMIS race was actually my first AR of the year. This was my fourth straight HMIS, they are always memorable, and this one was no exception.

About a month prior to the race, the FMIJ gang had put out an e-mail asking if someone wanted to join up with a bunch of guys from Alabama to do the race. That sounded like a lot of fun, so I said sure, and Brian got me in touch with the 'Bama boys. Based on our telephone conversations it sounded like they would be fit enough to complete the course, and so I hooked up with them to be their friendly native guide and navigator.

Florence, AL is a long way from Alberta, (2600 miles!) but with e-mail and a few phone calls we got ourselves and our equipment sorted out. Team Captain Conrad came up this way about a week before the race, while Brad and Mike flew in on the Thursday before the race. Conrad likes this part of the world enough that he has a condo in Canmore, and he and the boys stayed there on Thursday and Friday. It isn't that far from Canmore to race start, and so they planned to drive up leaving at 4 am on Saturday morning.

I headed up to Mountainaire Lodge on the Friday night, and found myself at 0600 still looking for incoming headlights which might be my missing team. 0620, no, 0640, still no, and then finally at 0650 they arrived, looking a little stressed themselves. Driving the not quite straight and unpaved Forestry Trunk Road at night, through copious ground mist, with a time deadline was evidently an adventure in itself.

We quickly introduced ourselves and got sorted out and kitted up for the first leg, a bike leg. The boys had lots of questions about clothes; it was still cool at that point in the morning, although the sky was promising a beautiful day. Eventually we headed up to the start line, Brian took a photo of the entire bunch of racers, and we headed off up the Forestry Trunk Road to CP1.

CP1 was on the Forestry Trunk Road, and we arrived there towards the back of the pack, waved at Tara, and headed off to CP2. The route to CP2 followed a pipeline right of way, with one minor route choice in the last mile or so before CP2. In contrast to some other races in this area, the route was very ride-able this year, perhaps in part due to the frozen ground conditions that early in the morning.

About a mile out from CP2 we reached our first route choice - either continue on the right of way through the muskeg, or track south on a somewhat drier cutline, and the head back west on another cutline. Given the still frozen ground, we opted for the 'skeg, and ended up passing a number of teams that had tried the drier route.

The route out of CP2 was straightforward, continue along the pipeline right of way and then pick up one of a couple of cutlines that headed to CP3 or CP3A. The terrain started to get a bit more undulating here, and the 'Bama boys started to notice the elevation as we pushed our bikes through the bumps. I tried to cheer them up buy pointing out the lack of contours on the map ("Look, we just go along the edge of this little plateau here") only to find that with the 100 ft contours on the map we were going up and down 150 ft in this "flat plateau".

After fording one stream and crossing another on a corduroy road, we reached our second route choice. Go south, off the Pipeline ROW, and take a series of cutlines to reach a line that would take us straight to CP3, or wind north and then west along the pipeline to the very top of the hill and then head to the CP3 or CP3A cutlines from there.

We chose the south route, and found the next cutline easily enough, only to follow it to a point where it disappeared down into a significant gully. On the map it wasn't that far to bushwhack before we would reach our next cutline, so we contoured the gully for a while before scrambling down and up the other side. The 'Bama boys were complaining a bit about this Canadian style mountain biking at this point as we fought the bikes up a 30 degree slope...

After pausing for a rest on the top of the west side of the gully, we headed out again, finding the cutline leading to CP3 easily enough. But by now the ground had warmed up, and we found ourselves pushing our bikes up 15+% slopes in the finest Sundre mud, in true AR bikewhacking tradition. There were a few curses for the ups, but the top of each hill did give us a great view as a reward too.

Finally we reached the big downhill to CP3, and gingerly slid our way down. (Turns out that not only were the ups different than in Alabama, we have slightly tougher downs too) We took it cautiously and reached the CP without incident, in 17th place out of 19 teams.

From there we slid down to CP3A and TA1, pausing for a few bike eating creeks and to admire a herd of Mountain Sheep that were on the hillside beside the trail. We reached the TA 5 minutes before the advanced course cutoff, but we were quite content doing the regular course, and so took a nice lazy transition.

When plotting up CP4, I had lined it up right in the Panther River, and thus decided it was on the far side. With that in mind, we headed out of transition and went down to the river fairly early. Spotting a possible crossing point we headed across, only to have Mike and Brad float off downstream as the current & cold water bowled them over. Conrad bailed and followed Mike and Brad on the south side of the river, I finished crossing and joined them on the north side. (which is where the river carried them)

After stopping for some dry clothes we then followed up the river (with Conrad on the other side) until he found a place to cross, and then on again until we spotted the CP back on the other side. So hi ho back again to get the passport signed (the boys waited without crossing) and back again to rejoin them. We then walked on up an obvious set of trails and cutlines to bag CP5. At transition there had been reports that CP5 had been taken down, but whoever went to reset it must have beaten us there, as it was right where I thought it would be, and easily spotted from 50+ metres away.

We then walked on to CP6 and nailed that one, and the boys rode the raft across to T2, not wanting to risk another swim. I forded it without too much trouble, but I suspect that fording our fast flowing and cold western rivers is another skill not easily learned in Alabama.

Yet another skill not used much in Alabama is whitewater canoeing. Conrad had some canoeing skills, but Mike and Brad were pretty much canoe virgins. We gave them a rudimentary briefing as we did our transition, and set off down the Red Deer River.

The whitewater was great and a real highlight of the race for me. Unfortunately we had neglected to mention gunwale grabbing when we did our briefing, and both boats were sunk in the same set of waves as Mike and Brad went reaching for the sides. Ours was a very gentle sinking, as I was able to brace and lean enough to not flip, but not enough to avoid the lee side slipping just barely underwater. We then slowly filled the canoe with water and had it sink out under us. I missed the other flip, being somewhat preoccupied with our predicament.

After a short swim we got out and emptied the boats, gave a quick lesson in gunwale grabbing and what to do if you did flip, and continued downstream. Despite some nervousness up front. we continued to run everything, but Conrad was a bit spooked and sensibly portaged where they weren't comfortable. Con did, however, execute a lovely front ferry where the Red Deer and Panther join so as to miss the resultant wave train - textbook style and line.

We finished the paddling just at the cutoff for the second advanced course, but we weren't planning on doing that one, (Con's quote was "I don't think they'll do it even if we had automatic weapons") so we didn't rush that transition either. Mike and Brad then headed us off to CP8, following the track and power line down by the river. Unfortunately that ended in a "plateau" which we then had to scale before dropping into the Mountainaire Lodge campground to bag CP8 and on in to the finish.

Everyone was very happy to see the finish, and I know we all enjoyed the day. (even if we might not have enjoyed every minute of the day!) The course was great, with lots of route finding options, with lots of reward scenery. The volunteers were friendly and encouraging (as always), and I know the 'Bama boys have a whole different appreciation of our lovely Alberta wilderness that 99.9% of Alberta residents don't see.

Thanks to Brian and Tara and Sarah and the rest of the gang at FMIJ for bring us this one, and thanks to Conrad and Mike and Brad for letting me do it with them.