The Prelude
The build up to this race felt different than in the previous ones. I felt calm, relaxed, no butterflies. It was the same sort of calm that I had felt for Full Moon in June prior to the date change. Physically, there were no surprises that Geoff and his course designer could through at our team that would prevent us from finishing. All of us were well versed in racing under harsh conditions. Finishing or not came down to whether or not we could eliminate the major navigational screw-ups that seems to plague our team in the early phases of every race.
The previous two weeks had been a whirlwind of reviewing maps and looking at various forestry and satelite websites. Now that we had arrived in town, I was spending my time prowling the various sporting stores, plying the locals with questions. Now with $100 of map info in my hands, I felt reasonably comfortable about going into the backcountry around Nelson.
The last anxiety producing phase was the check-in. Raid races are notoriously thorough with their gear checks and when your teammates show up with 'all' their gear at the parking lot and then proceed to empty out all their bins trying to organize it, it causes concern. I forced myself to relax by reminding myself that all of them had raced these sorts of races before and knew what they were doing, besides, they had all come straight from work to here, so having everything pre-organized would've been difficult for them.
The check-in went smoothly as I had hoped. I had to chuckle when the organizer was insisting on seeing our support team's tent. We had Wayne's battle wagon trailer back in the parking lot, but how do you bring that into the park to show them?
The CountDown
At the race briefing, a bunch of familiar faces showed up to hear the first cursory speech from Geoff. Wild Rose was ready for action, I'm with Stupid and Stadium Dogs were also there. Additionally, big names, Trevor Baine, Kevin Hakl, Scott Pennel had teamed up with Cindy Koo to put together an all star team at the last minute. Some of the other teams that I didn't know included heavy weights like Dirt World racing, Lawrence Foster from HoloFibre and Team Hurl. It seemed clear that with a field of this calibre of competitors, FAR was probably going to get their finish rate up no matter how hard the course was.
The start was in a town about 60 km north of Nelson called Kaslo. Wayne and I took a few minutes to drive up to the published turn off to be sure that we'd know where it was. It was going to be a slog to get up to the bench above, but from what we saw, it was going to be a fast first leg.
The FAR team had worked hard to pump up the race to the locals and there were a number of people that were out to cheer us on. Prior to the start, our team hung out in the pizzeria at the corner. While we ate, we answered a number of questions from a few people in the restaurant. I think I actually sounded like I knew what I was doing.
Eventually, we made our way back down to the start line. After a last minute panicky tire pump up, we were in the starting pack. The competitors were treated to a fire twirler and a percussion group while we all nervously bantered with each other.
The Fast Start
And then go. Once the teams choked through the start arch, the field started to spread out a little. Although we had seeded ourselves in the middle of the start pack, it seemed like we were getting passed a lot. Even when we were heading up the Wagon road, there were a number of teams around us. Don't get me wrong, we passed a bunch of people, so I'm pretty sure that it was a pass-then-be-passed scenario. The most dramatic pass back was at a little bridge over a creek. And in the creek was a racer slowly dragging himself up the embankment. I found out later that he had tried to ride the heavily rutted end of the bridge and had one of those off balance moments sending him rolling into the creek. yikes! Glad he was ok.
We rolled into the first transition in 6th place. Not bad. To top it off, our support team had scored a parking spot right next to the check in spot. Our tranny was done in 6 minutes and we were heading out in 5th place. This passing teams in transition was something that happened throughout the race.
The Trek
From this point, there wasn't much to look forward to. We knew that the road was going to climb and climb. In total, we had to gain around 1600 m over the next 12-15 km. Additional instructions had been given to everyone at the race briefing to watch for a left hand turn at about 800 m up the road. Lots of flagging, obvious turn, blah, blah. The only turn we saw was at about 1.5 km. And if we were to believe the map, it showed that it led to a bunch of switch backs that gained a heap of elevation before being caught up to by the lower road. "This can't be the one" So we continued along the road that went straight up the valley. Sure enough, after another 1 or 2 kms, the road petered off into a trail and then vanished. We bushwhacked a little and then found a trail. The trail would disappear and reappear until we finally decided to climb up for the higher road. In all, I suppose we lost about 30 minutes, assuming of course that the switchbacks we could've taken earlier did indeed continue as indicated on the map.
Eventually, everyone would have to do some bushwhacking. After the high road met up with the creek again, the suggestion at the race briefing was to tough out the bush whack in the valley bottom. The race course had been laid out in a somewhat rigid fashion. Contrary to the past where multiple route choices were evident and contrary to FMIJ's plethora of possible routes, this race had few options to get from CP to CP. That said, even when there were some small options, hints had been given (for safety reasons I suspect) to keep teams on the intended route. So everyone was going to end up going through the same sections of forest.
We had been playing leap frog with Trevor's team and it was intersting to watch their headlamps as each of our teams tried different lines through the woods. We tried high on the left for a while and low near the creek. Regardless, it seemed that the bushes would be thick for about 30 m at a time and then let up for 30 m. I actually found it kinda fun. I felt like I was seeking out some fortune deep in an unexplored forest. It felt like a video game, right Indiana?
At sunrise, we were walking around the shores of a couple of lakes that fed the stream that flowed through this valley. At this point we could finally see the saddle the marked the end of the valley. The next challenge was being sure which peak was which. It looked so simple on the map, but gobs of time could be lost if we focused on one peak only to find it was the wrong one. We decided on which one to attack and slowly clambered up the morraine to the saddle point.
We made it to the saddle only to find that our planned assault route to the summit was barred by a cliff that ran for about a km. We were going to have to traverse around the base of the cliff to get to the gentler slopes on the south side. While we were traversing, we heard the dreaded yell "ROCK!" A team was above the cliff and presumably heading for the summit and they had dislodged a rock. I froze in my tracks and looked up at the cliff. I could hear the rocks rolling and picking up speed, but I couldn't see anything yet. I flexed my knees to be ready for a mad dash left or right. It was at that moment that a large head sized rock flew off the cliff to my right. It landed about 50 m away from me travelling at about 80-100 kph. It was followed by another and another and then a double sized rock. That's when Sean yelled below 'Rock'. One of the lead teams was lower down and directly in the line of fire. I had visions of a repeat of Primal Quest last year as the rocks continued to pour over the cliff. In all, it took nearly a minute of steady rock fall before things quietened down again.
Our speed through the bushwhack was somewhat careful and crawling across a side slope was similarly slow. Not suprisingly, when we reached an apparently scramblable pitch we were eager to see if it would work. Testing out the lower few moves proved it would work, but without seeing over the side and with the previous display of rock fall, we were disuadded from using that route. We continued around the conventional way and then on up the rocks to the top of the peak. Part way up we chatted w/ Brent, Bart, Mike and Veronica of Wild Rose. They told of spectacular views awaiting us up top. Our efforts to the top were rewarded and if I had developed the film, I'd have scanned and included the pics. Awesome! Thanks Geoff.
The trek down was going to take us down an adjacent valley to a ghost mining town. In order to get to it, we started down a single track trail. Initially, it was rife with heel rolling pebbles that threatened to drop you on your ass with every step. Once the slope relented and the footing improved, numerous log falls slowed our progress. We did the best we could along this trail, but with safety at the forefront of our efforts, our speed was slower than we would have liked.
The organizers had hinted to the teams to reach the remnants of a rock slide and to 'pay attention'. Presumably, there was another trail to pick up. After passing one or two avalanche paths, Wayne had noticed a bomber logging road at the bottom of the valley. We decided that we couldn't wait for the rock slide area and we bushwhacked down the hill to this road. Smart move because as we passed the rock slide, we realized that descending the rocks would've been sketching and slow. After the race, we talked with Trevor and his team had continued to the slide area to descend and yes, it sucked.
Once on the road we jogged towards the town of Cody where TA2 and our bikes awaited. Along the way we noticed it heating up and we noticed the trail we were on rising higher and higher above us. Good thing we didn't wait too long.
The Grind
TA2 was a slow transition for us. Once we got under way, we quickly found the next town of Slodan and began making our way up to Idaho peak (another 1600 m of climbing) The first portion of the ride wasn't too bad because there was substantial amounts of shade. The only troublesome part was the fact that the road we were using didn't match anything on the map. At this point, I was taking a turn on the navigation and as usual, I felt the need to assure myself that I knew where we were. Eventually, I gave up and relied on the road signs. During the climb, a couple teams passed us. It seemed dangerous to hammer hard on the bike up this behemoth slope in such heat. We tried to keep pace with the oher teams, but eventually, we had to just let them go.
I kept checking my altimeter, so when we crested a bench area and saw the switchbacks ahead of us, it wasn't a total surprise. Unfortunately, it didn't quell the awe that I felt looking up at these huge, long, steep switchbacks cutting back and forth along the grassy and shadeless slope. It felt like the trek up Mt. Hammel in the Death Race. It was a slog, no doubt, but like everything in a race, just keep working at a sustainable pace and eventually, you will crest any hill presented to you. After a quick photo op and snack, we started the descent.
The Vertigo
The descent was not for the faint of heart. The trail itself wasn't that bad, but it was etched into the side of a very steep slope. The really spooky stuff was only for the first 100 m or so. Then it became more of a Moose-Packers like trail, but narrower. My mantra was 'Just look at the next 3m' Pity because the few glimpses of the valley below that I dared take were absolutely breathtaking. (Thanks Geoff!) Ok, I suck at switchbacks regardless. I haven't figured out the timing of weight transfer for them, so out of the 20 or so, I attempted about 6 and successfully completed 2 of those. The 'in-between' bits were great fun including some tech-ish roots and tiny drops. I love full suspension bikes.
The roads into Silverton were the usual fire road sort and we all took them a little easy to be sure we didn't get bucked by some ruts or something. Once in town, we took the long way to the transition and then into TA3 in 8th.
The Paddle
Again, we passed two teams in transition. Into the boats for an evening paddle on Slocan Lake into Slocan River. It took me a half hour to remember the finer points of paddling. Team Hurl was nearly caught up to us when we finally started making more of an effort to our forward progress. I have to say that our teammate, Sean was a machine in the paddle. Wayne and I were having trouble keeping up with him and Jen. And at one point, he decided to see how much of a dent he could make in the time gap behind the next team in the distance and the two of them were totally leaving us behind. Amazing!
We made it into the river before nightfall. That was good because there was a log fence preventing a nearby pulp mill's logs from floating down the river. Finding the entrance to that jam would've been tricky at night. The down side was that once on the river, the flies were flowing over my face like water! I was constantly brushing them off as they landed in my eyebrows and hair. And then, the bats came out and were eating the flies. That was helpful until they flew into Jen's head. Sorry Jen, but that's a little funny.
The final few bends in the river were sharp. In the dark, seeing the change in direction was impossible until you were within a few meters away. It was freaky to suddenly see grass tops appearing out of the blackness. Eventually, we wised up and followed the direction that the weeds in the water were pointing.
By the time the paddle was finishing, my back was rife with pain. It was clear that I hadn't done enough for the paddling discipline. The take out point was tricky. There was only enough room to pull up two canoes, the slope was very steep, everyone was hypothermic and to top it off, as soon as you were 'beached', the volunteers unloaded a storybook of instructions for what you are to do. Unfortunately, I was too cold to do much to help the team. I spent the first few minutes throwing on every shred of clothing I had. Wayne had caught the instructions and was pulling the load for us. Teamwork!
The Belay
Once we had gotten the canoes sorted out and once each of the team members had themselves straightened away, we climbed the embankment towards the zip line start. Along the way, we heard Trevor's team romping through the woods. It turned out that their team were the first to attempt to find the zip in the dark and spotting pink flagging tape was tough. Especially when they were told a distance to the zip that was way shorter that it actually was. We hollered out to them when we found the next bit of trail and then we quickly hiked up to the start of the zip. There were two parallel lines, so at least we wouldn't hold them up on the lines.
The traverse itself was pretty much a point to relax. We hooked up on a steep angled zip and were belayed over the river. Once on the other side, the team took off for TA4 which was close by.
The Decision
We had talked about what we would do if we arrived at TA4 in time to do the advanced course. I think that between how tired we felt and the past lessons learned of Wild Rose in Vernon, we assumed that if we were running close to the cut off for the advanced course, we'd probably just forego it. Combine that with the desire to just finish officially, it wasn't hard to say, 'Regular Course'. We packed up our stuff and once again left TA in 5th place.
The Zombie Bike
I knew that the bike was going to be a challenge to stay awake. I had no idea that I would be missing 20-30 minutes of memory while doing it. It's a good thing we had a bike computer to keep our timing in check. Trying to do distance estimates based on time would've been impossible.
Trying to keep a straight line was another problem. I was thanking my stars that the bike ride wasn't too technical or there'd have been a few crashes. We reached the checkpoint by the lakes without incident.
Then the descent. Again caution dictated over speed. Heading down the bumpy road, we kept a steady and reasonable pace. We stayed together way better than I've seen in the past. Especially when we hit the black top and proceeded to rip down roads at 50-60 kph. I couldn't stop thinking about the possbility of a deer popping out and one of use getting clothes lined. I wonder what the deer would do in that situation. Would it just run, or would it kick first.
The Bridge that Didn't Grow
The final paddle was about 10 km. Just over an hour and I'd be able to sleep. In fact, from the put in point, we could see the bridge that stood above the take out and that bridge stayed the same size for an hour. Gee whiz, everytime I'd look up, I'd say to myself, 'just a km to go, that's only 10 minutes of this tomfoolery' But it never grew until the last ten minutes. Exactly about the time that Sean decided he'd drafted off of me and Wayne long enough and he surged ahead. Well, I certainly had a new level of respect for that guy's paddling skills!
Then it was up the glow stick runway with the canoes in hand to the official finish line. We crossed the line in 6th (it would turn out to be 7th due to another team's accumulated time credits) at 4:45 am Sunday morning and it was done.
The Aftermath
The morning after was spent napping, packing, moving stuff around. The highlight was split between the giant nap under the shady trees in the park (mmmmmmm) and the dinner buffet (wow!!). The awards were short and sweet. We had a few tales regaled from various teams. The finish rate was very high. Well over 50% of the starting teams were ranked and all but one finished the course. This, I suspect, is due to the ideal weather conditions, the route hints given at the race briefing and the limited options for routes that were available given the CPs.
In all, the race was a fantastic course. The high views, adventurous terrain and the high success rate made for a good race. Although it wasn't ideally suited for our team's navigational strengths and there was some small regret at not having done the advanced course (it was later revealed that the cutoff for the advanced section was rather early, contrary to Vernon last year, to allow for a higher success rate of teams that undertook it), we still had a bunch of fun. And man, it feels good to finish one of these courses!