Triangle Adventure Racing Team

Jeff and I drove up Friday afternoon to southern PA for the Michaux Memorial Day Rogaine. We were expecting a long drive, especially with holiday traffic, but we got there in about 6 hrs and with just enough time to set up the tents. We got up the next morning with not a lot to do…maps wouldn’t be handed out until 11 so we decided to cruise over to the nearest town for some breakfast. There weren’t too many choices for a quick breakfast so we finally decided upon a family restaurant with an all-you-can-eat buffet. Remarkably, I was able to restrain myself and only had a modest number of pancakes. We drove back, broke down the tents and started getting our gear together. Aside from compass, whistle and water, there was no real mandatory gear list so we were able to pack light. I only packed poles, a waterproof jacket and a bunch of food. Jeff, as it turns out in hindsight, made an excellent call of also packing a first aid kit…more on this later.

At 11:00am sharp the RDs held the pre-race briefing in which they mentioned that we may come across some “deer fences”. We were told that there would be gates in the fences every few hundred meters or so and that they shouldn’t pose any real problem for the racers. Ok…duly noted. Then maps were distributed and everyone hustled back to their respective cars/camps to start analyzing route selection. In rogaines each member of the team gets their own map…so navigation is truly a shared responsibility. Jeff and I pondered over the map for a few minutes and the strategy and route became clear. We decided on a clockwise route which would take us through a higher density of mid to high valued controls during the day and leave relatively fewer and more spread out controls during the night leg. The theory was that we could motor through the daylight hours picking up a fair amount of points and take easier routes (ie roads) to more distant controls in the dark. We would also assess our progress against our selected route every few hours and adjust as necessary.

We started off at an easy jog down a primary road toward a 73pt control and found ourselves in a modest group of teams who all had apparently decided upon a similar route. In addition to the 24hr course, 6 and 12hr courses were also offered…all of which started at noon… so it was a difficult to pick out the “competition”. Anyway, we found ourselves with a couple of 12hr teams who were also jogging and we soon separated from the pack. We started up a small mountain with a little bushwhacking, quickly found some logging roads that eventually petered out and then reached the ridge with a little more bushwhacking. Thinking that we had come around the point of the knob I immediately (ie without consulting the compass) took a right on a well defined trail on top of the ridge. After not finding the control in a few hundred meters, it became apparent that I had taken the wrong direction. I whipped out the compass and sure enough it confirmed my mistake. After apologizing to Jeff, we started running back the way we came, passing the 3 teams along the way, and found the control. Rookie mistake…never guess or assume anything…always check the compass. Good news was that the intention sheet showed we had only lost about 7 minutes or so.

In rogaines, teams must write down the time they reached the control and which control they intend on visiting next on “intention sheets”. This allows the RDs to “track” a particular team in case they become lost. It also has the added benefit of seeing how you’re fairing relative to other teams with similar routes.

After our inauspicious start, we continued with our route and over the next few hours hit the 53, 44, 72, 60, 45 and 54pt controls without difficulty. The next control had us coming down off a ridge and onto a small knoll. Unfortunately, there was no good attack point along the ridge, so we had to guestimate where to head down. Evidently, we turned off too soon or too late and we wound up looking aimlessly for the knoll for quite sometime. Since it was only a 30pt control we decided to bail and move on. In retrospect, after not immediately finding the control we should have continued down to a road junction several hundred meters passed the control and re-attack from there. Knowing when to re-orient/give up on a control is always one of the hardest decisions…you always think that you’re really close to finding that elusive control (when in fact you have no idea where you are) but you’re better off re-orienting or, if you’ve already wasted too much time, moving on.

We continued on our route catching up with and passing a couple of teams along the way. We had some significant trouble finding the 70pt control. Map and clue sheet indicated that the control was on the southeast corner of a pond. We used a road junction as our attack point, took a bearing and headed off. We came across a couple of ponds, re-oriented based on those and continued our pursuit. Unfortunately for us, this particular area had several ponds…hardly any of which were on the map. After wandering from pond to pond, we stopped and decided to head back out to the road, re-orient and attack from there. Our second attempt did not fair much better. We knew we went past the control when hit our catching feature, an open field. We spread out, headed back the way we came and stumbled across the control. This was a deceivingly difficult control to find…maybe that’s why it was worth 70pts.

By this time it was getting to be late afternoon/early evening and we desperately wanted to hit the next control during daylight if we could. The route to 63 was pretty straightforward…follow the road till it crosses a stream, follow the stream and the head up to a saddle in a ridge. I should also mention that we had a 12hr team following us at this point. Soon after we left the road, we came across one of those deer fences that the RDs had warned us about, except that there was no readily accessible gate. Jeff found a locked gate, took off his map case and pack, climbed half way up the fence and squeezed through a small gap at the top. I tossed his stuff over, then mine and climbed over too. Unfortunately, the other team saw us and followed. We found yet another fence a hundred meters down and quickly adopted the same approach to get over. The team behind us was having difficulty crossing the second fence which allowed us to escape up the ridge. It turns out that we had stumbled (or rather climbed) into a private shooting club. We made our way up the ridge by following some roads that led from shooting station to shooting station until our progress was halted by another fence. This fence was unlike any of the other fences we had crossed…think of the fence that kept in the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. This was definitely no deer fence. It was 8ft chained link with another 3 or 4ft of square fencing on top of that. We followed the fence for what seemed like a mile looking for any passable point. No luck. Jeff had the brilliant idea of going back to one of the locked gates we had passed where there was more support and then cutting through the top and climbing over. I remember looking at Jeff a little weirdly, thinking “how the hell are you going to cut through that fence”, until he broke out his leatherman. There was no way we were going to waste a couple of hours backtracking, so up Jeff went and started cutting. It was at this point that the team behind us finally caught up to us. Despite our efforts at concealment, the team came over and asked how we were planning on getting over. We told them that this was the only place we could find where the fencing was “down” and we were going to climb over it. Jeff climbed up and over, carefully avoiding the barbed wire that still lined the top of the chained linked part of the fence. I tossed the packs over and climbed up. As I jumped down the back of my thumb nicked the barbed wire. It wasn’t that deep or that long a cut but it was definitely more than a scratch and it bled like a mother. Thankfully Jeff had opted to pack a first aid kit. We spent a few minutes getting me bandaged up while the other team climbed over. With the drama finally over we continued on up the ridge and hit 63 with plenty of light left. Between the leatherman and first aid kit, Jeff definitely gets the boyscout award for being the most prepared racer.

It was now dark and we easily hit the next controls, 52 and 64, and started towards the highest valued control on the course, 75. From 64, it should have been easy…bushwhack north to a road, follow the road northwest until it dies into a creek, follow the creek aways and then climb northeast up the side of a mountain to a sizeable flat spot. We made it all the way to the creek and started climbing. During the ascent we noticed that the grade was not as steep as shown on the map. We decided to keep moving up the mountain thinking that we would use the flat area as a catching feature. We made it up to a flat area and started searching for the control. We wandered around for a long, long time, trying to find anything thing that would give us a clue as to where we were. At some point, don’t remember exactly when, we decided to bail and move on to the next control. We headed back down to the stream and came across a trail/road that paralleled the stream. The trail was on the map but we weren’t sure where on the trail we were. We headed north for a ways and hit what we thought was an unmistakable bend in the trail. We used this to re-orient ourselves and went off to find a draw on the western side of the mountain that would take us within a few hundred meters of the control. We crawled in and around thick rhododendron for awhile but never found the draw. During this bushwhack one of my trekking poles decided to liberate itself from my pack. (I had lost 2 poles last year in another rogaine). What was even more frustrating was that I did not even use my poles the entire race (I had left my map case at home I wound up having to carry the map in my hands for the whole race.) Anyway, we came to the realization that we needed to move on and so we headed out along the trail to a major road. We still cannot figure out when, where or how we got off track. I think we spent around 3hrs looking for 75. More than anything else…it was this missed control, and the time spent looking for it, that cost us first place.

Dejected, we started on the second half of our route that would eventually take us back to the start/finish. We had some problems with the next 41pt control but caught ourselves, thought it through and quickly recovered. On to 50 (no problems there) and then onto a deceptively tricky 71. 71 was on the top of a rocky outcropping but the grade leading up to it was so gentle that following it proved difficult, especially at night. Thankfully, Jeff was taking the lead on this one and we came across it relatively short order.

At this point dawn broke and we started on a lengthy trek down roads that lead to several moderately valued controls and eventually the start/finish. We had hopped to hit this stretch during the night because it was easy, mindless nav but our travails at 75 had put us behind schedule. We hit 65, 33, 21, 61 and 40 without incident and made it back to the start/finish with 2 ½ hours to left to go. Rogaines frequently have a hash house somewhere along the course where racers can rest and refuel (many times with hot food). The hash house on this course was co-located with the start/finish so as we downed hamburgers and cokes we got the skinny from the RD on how we were fairing. The RD said we were looking pretty good, which came as a surprise because we were sure we were out of the running. The rest at the hash house also gave us the opportunity to strategize on our last 2 hours of the race. Leaving a few controls near the finish at the end of a rogaine I think is always a good idea. It puts you in a position to get maximum points with however much time you have left. For us, we were able to put together a short route that could gain us another 150 pts.

Leaving our packs behind and carrying only our maps, we headed out on our last leg at a determined jog. We hit 24 and 51 easily. The long, rocky descent down from 51 really took a toll on our blistered feet. We eventually hit the road that would take us toward our next target 55. We started running down the road and hit a junction. Given where we were and the condition of our feet, we thought that heading back was the best decision…that and the severe penalties of missing the 24hr deadline. Rogaines must, absolutely must, be completed in the allotted or there’s hell to pay. In this case hell was losing your highest control for each fraction of a minute past the 24hr deadline. So, if we were to come in 1 second late, we would lose 73 pts….61 seconds late and we would lose 145 pts. Very, very severe penalties. Never ever be late in a rogaine. So, we started walking back to the finish line, knowing for certain that we would finish within the 24hrs and wondering about all the “what ifs”.

We got back to the finish with plenty of time to spare. After all was said and done, our efforts resulted in an overall 3rd place finish…1st in the all male team category. In retrospect, we did have enough time to get the last 55 and 23 controls but the additional 78 pts still would not have moved us up in the rankings. What killed us was that 75pt control and the 3hrs spent looking for it. We stuck around for the awards presentation and picked up some miniature stained glass orienteering controls (hand made by the RD) for our troubles. The race was a lot of fun. There was a lot of good teamwork in route selection, double checking one another, etc. Definitely can’t wait for the next rogaine.

Well, well, well….where do I start…it should be agreed that this beast was tough…no doubt about it. Brian and I set our goals at 10-12 hours based on last years times…by all indications it was going to be even tougher. The race started slightly after 8am due to a long Porta-John line….Brian and I quickly plotted all 5 points before heading out and agreed to skip CP5 which was optional. It seemed apparent to us and by the number of other teams that we needed to head up Black Mountain Trail, knowing we had a climb ahead we joined several other teams seemingly of similar riding ability and started the long climb up. In between riding there were periods of hike-a-bike, the pace of which was settled by the teams ahead. We cut across Turkey Pen Gap which seemed to undulate with periods of incredible singletrack riding and then mindless bike pushing up and up. Arriving at the Turkey Pen Trail Head we dropped down to the South Mills River and picked up CP1 (mandatory). We again headed up Mullinax trail and eventually reached the double track which resulted in a long uphill granny grind to top out at Yellow Gap. After a brief rest, map check and conversation with some Triangle Cyclopaths riders.

We started up Laurel Mountain Trail to CP2 at this point we were again grinding up toward our goal eventually hitting it after a long ride. With Brian starting to bonk we decided to head down Laurel Mountain which turned out to be an incredible ride….some serious hairy rock gardens which I cleaned only to look back, thinking I should have walked. After some high speed, hand numbing descent we dropped out onto the fire road and started rolling toward the pavement at HWY 276. After what seemed like an eternity we finally made the intersection setting out sights on CP3. We opted for another short break at the 276/475 intersection…while marveling at the two singlespeed riders that spun by us also on their way to CP3. It was a long downhill to CP3 with the main option being to get the point and turn around only to head back up. We flew downhill enjoying the free ride always knowing we would pay..and pay dearly…..after clearing the point we climbed back out…hitting the 9 hour ride mark somewhere in that time period.

Once back to the pavement we picked up the road leading to Club Gap trail which turned out to be another hike-a-bike up. At CP4 we ran into Jeff Thompson and his Charlotte Team-mate Clay…they were in good spirits though Clay’s bike seat post was broken and not fixable…they had decided to push on to get CP3 and ride to the finish on forbidden routes taking the 6 hour penalty but most important finishing. We decided that we had to ride down Avery Creek Trail to pick up Claw Hammer Rd. With both of us having ridden this biatch before we knew we had our work ahead of us….after a quick breather and gathering ourselves we started out riding up and up again…SEE THERE’S THAT DAMN WORD UP AGAIN…..anyways we cleared Clawhammer with a middle finger salute and started the long climb on Maxwell Cove Rd…the REWARD would be the killer..hand cramping…Ernie brake fluid smokin’…jeezus did I just clean that Downhill to the finish….Brian “I’m not much of a descender” took off like a bat out of hell….we had one heck of a run down….and hit the finish…our time was around 11hrs 48min good for 18th place..our route totalled around 72 miles and 12,000 feet of climbing..(thanks Jeff, cause I had no idea)….

Brian, Jeff and Bruce traveled to Lake Brandt, Greensboro to compete in the Flying Frog AR as team E-Caps.com. Jeff and Bruce had competed in the race in 2004 with Steve Sewell and come away with 1st overall. The race began with teams trying to piece together their race maps with tape, (the maps had been cut like puzzle pieces) they completed this task on the bottom of the boat while paddling the long out and back boat leg. The team was able to hold it’s own in the team category but were passed by Solo racers using kayaks. Coming out of the water in 5th the team started the 5 mile run to managing to pick up a few more places. As they arrived at their bikes, there was an option to throw horseshoes or skip the event and take a 5 minute penalty. Based on other teams struggling at the task, they wisely took the penalty and rode onto the approximately 10 miles of singletrack. During the short ride the team was able to move into 1st place and started the final run just minutes up on 2nd place. During a short orienteering course the second place team was able to follow them around the course gaining valuable time of not having to concentrate on navigation. Coming off the orienteering course the lead was down to less than a minute. The final trail run of approximately 5 miles took it’s toll on Bruce, who struggled with leg cramps. This soon led to the team being passed repeatedly and dropping into 5th. The final event turned out to be pull-ups, which required each member to complete 5 or face significant time penalties….despite the misgivings all three racers were able to complete the task and run on to the finish.

June 4, 2005
by Charlie Roberts

Fifteen racers comprising approximately 8 teams started this training event. Everyone was able to finish some variation of the course, but finishing the entire course proved to be an impossible feat and confirmed to everyone that I am the worst course-time estimator in the history of adventure racing.

Despite sending these folks out to attempt an impossible task, most said they enjoyed it - at least that’s what they said in front of me. I’m almost positive that other things were said when I was out of hearing range. Ernie expressed his opinions of the course by punching me during the QCP4 to OP5 hill climb. Luckily, it was only in the arm. Tim later admitted to creating a top ten list for ways to seek revenge on a RD during the same section.

The course started with a 7 mile “warm-up” climb to Club Gap, followed by several miles of downhill singletrack to recover on. Getting to OP2 required a bushwhack through rhododendron hell, but had some great views at the top. I heard that first-time racer and navigator Craig Martenson nailed that OP. Congrats Craig! From there, racers had the option to ascend the Pilot Rock trail to OP3 - another hour long hike-a-bike - or continue to QCP4. On the way to QCP4 racers crossed at least 3 streams or rivers. (That’s a requirement for adventure racing, right?) The following climb from QCP4 to OP5 was the most brutal of the entire course, with hour long hike-a-bikes up inclines so steep that my shoulder occasionally touched the bike seat as I was pushing uphill! The trekking section consisted of 5 orienteering points scattered across many miles of mountains.

I think a couple of teams had plotting errors that slowed them down, but it was most likely attributable to the scale of the map. 1:44,500 is a weird scale and probably didn’t provide quite enough detail for some of the points. In the future I think written clues on the passport to supplement the UTMs would be a good idea when using those maps.

Vernon (The Vern) and Toby decided to make a tough course even tougher by purposely making route choices that they “might not do in a race” just to see what happened! Those hardcore dudes finally rolled in from the biking leg around 01:00 at night! I’m sure the descent from OP5 took forever in the dark. Did someone forget to tell those guys that it was only a training race, and that it was supposed to be FUN?

Congratulations to everyone who came out and was able to complete any variation of the course. If I organize another training race, I promise that I’ll multiply my time estimates by two. Hopefully that will make the course somewhat reasonable.

See everyone at the races,

by Sean Butler

PHEAR

It’s going to be a bit difficult to write a race report for this race, but I’ll give it my best shot. Only two teams out of over 20 finished ranked, due to various difficulties along the way, so that gives you some sense of what I mean.

Brian, Charlie, and I met in Cary to load gear and then pick up Brian’s dad Ken, who would support us solo. It was a tight fit — getting all the gear plus 4 people into the Durango , but we made it. Bruce had left the night before and luckily Brian had given him some camping gear, or we would not have fit! That year spent working at UPS loading trucks certainly paid off.

We met Bruce at the Seneca Rocks campground and checked in. We got the maps and passport around 6 p.m. and ran over to the local restaurant for a quick bite to eat while we looked over the many maps. There was one large map which covered most of the national forest, and then some smaller maps with more detail for certain sections. All of the CP’s had been pre-marked, so there really was no plotting for us to do.

We ran back to the camp site for the pre-race meeting at 7 p.m. Folks from Nelson rocks came in and covered the Via Ferrata (cool rock climb with permanent cables and rungs) was covered, and then the owner of the boat outfitter came up to cover the white water paddle section. The guy made it sound like we better walk ½ the paddle or we’d be in a lot of trouble! Eventually Brad Hunt, the director, came back, and we went over the rest of the course.

After the meeting, we went back to our tent site and assembled the necessary gear and went over strategy for various sections. Since there were many CP’s and TA’s, where we had unlimited access to our support, we didn’t really need to carry much between each section. We finally knocked off around 11 p.m. I did not have a sleeping bag, and spent much of the night tossing and turning from being cold, even though I had two fleeces on and tried to cover myself with a towel!

We awoke at 5 a.m. , broke down camp, made final preparations, and made our way to the 6 a.m. start, a short 10 minute walk away. There were some folks who had not filled out all the release forms completely, so we had to wait for that to be done, and we eventually started about 15 minutes late.

Start - Big Bend

The first leg was a 9 - 10 mile trek that went up through Roy Gap and down the other side. The beginning of the ascent was a road, but that eventually disappeared and we were left scrambling up some steep terrain. I was a bit slower than the rest of the team, and as I struggled I was wondering what I had gotten myself into! After being sick much of the spring and not training a whole lot, I was worried. But once we got to the top I was ok and we began to run down a trail and eventually a long gravel road. At one point, we decided to bushwhack instead of taking the long switch back, but it was quite thick and in the end, it didn’t buy us any time. Teams right behind us when we went in to the woods were still right behind us when we came out, and they took the roads! At the bottom, we ran into the river, and just ran/walked that road the 4 miles to Big Bend . We arrived shortly after 9 a.m.

White Water ( Big Bend to Eagle’s Nest Outfitters)

We had a quick transition, grabbed our boats, PFD’s, and paddles, and headed out. Charlie and I were in one boat and Bruce and Brian in the other. I was nervous as I don’t have much white water experience, but I quickly began to enjoy it as I found a rhythm. We had a hand drawn detailed map of the river that was designed to alert us to all the danger points, and as hand drawn maps go, we quickly found that the scale was sometimes quite deceptive.

We came around a turn to the 1st “walk point” at a waterfall, but the fall was so small we thought it was just another rapid. Charlie and I made it through with no problems, but Bruce and Brian took on some water on the 1 st drop, more on the 2 nd , and slowly sunk. Charlie and I paddled to the shore and threw a throw line out, and pulled them in. They quickly emptied the boat and we were on our way in just a couple of minutes.

The next section that was supposed to be tough was the dam. As we neared it, the current really picked up, and it was on a blind turn, so we pulled over. I hopped out to scout the dam, which was a couple of hundred yards ahead. By the time I got back to tell the guys it looked runable, they already had the boats out, so we just carried them past the dam and put back in.

The rest of the river wasn’t really memorable, other than the fact that the section labeled “Crash and Burn” was not obvious as we went through it - it was that easy and uneventful. At the end, we pulled out and carried the canoes through a large drainage pipe and to the outfitters. We arrived around 12:30 p.m. We had a fairly quick TA as we changed from boat to bikes and again headed out.

ENO - Kline’s Gap - Bear Rocks

We had several miles of paved, rolling roads, until we reached the next CP (CP3). Here, we were given the choice of taking roads to TA4 or taking the gap. We chose the gap as it was 1.5 Km or so, compared to several miles roads. The 1 st part of this was ridable down a gravel road, but we eventually reached a point where we could not ride. We had to make a river crossing, and on the other side the stinging nettle was out in force! All of us got hit pretty good, but I did not have the same allergic reaction I’ve had in the past.

After some rough bushwhacking, we made it to an unimproved road, which led us to a paved road. A couple miles on that, including a long climb (that I struggled on), and we reached the turn for Dolly Sods. The sign said 5 miles, and we immediately began a steep ascent. I quickly dropped off the pace, and eventually Charlie towed me for a while. Then Bruce fell off the pace, so Charlie towed him and I made it the rest of the way up. What a long, tough climb! I think it would rival L’Alp Duez - one of the most famous climbs in the Tour de France! We checked in and were the 6 th team, but one in front was unofficial, so we were currently in 5 th overall.

Bear Rocks - Timberline

At the top, we transitioned from bikes to foot for an 8 - 10 mile trek. Dolly Sods is quite interesting. It has similar characteristics as parts of Canada , even though it’s just less than 4000 ft. It did feel very “Alpine” to me. Another interesting thing is that there are unexploded World War II ordinances all over, so there are lots of warnings to not leave the trail. Finally, most of the hike was a bog! It was quite beautiful, though, and we enjoyed this section (other than the wet feet!).

We eventually neared the end, and I figured we were supposed to come down one of the ski slopes at Timberline since we were given a ski brochure that showed the runs. However, the trail kind of petered out, so we just began to bushwhack down on the ridge before the slopes. We came out in a neighborhood, and took the road down (other than one bushwhack where we cut out a switchback). We checked in, still in 5 th overall, and began to get ready for a long bike section. We had some Pizza that Ken had ordered, as well as ramen, etc. We loaded up on food and water and headed out at 8:15 p.m.

Timberline (TA5) - Gladwin (CP6) - Alpena(CP7)

We were told that CP6 was now unmanned, but that we still should go there and then continue on to CP7. It was all paved roads to CP6, though there were some small climbs and some fast descents. We did go slightly past CP6, but quickly turned back and found it.

From there, we were to take the Allegheny trail to CP7. The passport said to watch out for washouts and down trees - what an understatement! And this is where the race began to fall apart - not just for us, but for everyone.

A couple of miles in, a team was coming back saying the trail ended and they could not go on. We decided to press on, and eventually came to where the trail ended in a rushing river, next to a cliff face. After some scouting around and not finding anything, Charlie scrambled down into the water. Near the cliff, the current was not that strong, but further out, it was moving at a good clip. Charlie found the trail on the other side, so we handed bikes down to him one at a time, he moved them to the other side, and then each of us shimmied down the cliff and waded through.

On the far side, the trail continued again for about a mile before dead ending in the river. We scouted for a place to cross, but there was no way with the current like it was. After going back and forth for a while, we finally did find a blazed trail going up. And up, and up, and around. It was obvious this had not been maintained in some time, but we kept pushing - over and under trees, along steep slopes, with loose rocks, etc. At times we really thought we were going way out of the way, but at this point we were committed and it would have been crazy to turn back.

After a long time, the trail crossed the river, which was now a stream, at a safe location. But then we had more of the same on the other side - an un-maintained trail that was more of bushwhack than a hike, and riding was certainly out of the question for much of the way. Towards the end, we’d be able to ride 15 or 30 seconds at a time, and then have to scramble over a tree, etc. At one point, there was a down tree I thought I could ride under. But my pack caught me and I was literally stuck upright on my bike for a minute, until I could wiggle my way out!

We finally came to the end of the trail, to an improved road, and took that up to CP7. We arrived at 1:15 a.m. They were quite surprised to see us come from the direction we had, as no one else had come that way. Apparently, the top couple teams had gone in at CP6 but turned back, and told the race director it was not passable/too dangerous. So he shut down that section. But since we were already in it, that didn’t help us! At any rate, we had dropped from 5th to 12 th , which was somewhat demoralizing, since we had done the course as designed and no one else had.

Alpena - Wildell

The staff at CP7 assured us the ride would become much easier as we set out. Boy was that wrong! The Allegheny picked back up just past the CP, and it wasn’t too bad other than the mud for the first couple of miles. But it eventually got harder and harder to ride. At one point, we came up on 3 or 4 teams where the trail dead ended in the river. Brian and Bruce fell asleep, while I started to scout further up river, literally wading up and around a cliff. Meanwhile, Charlie had found the ridge line trail just before where all the racers were congregating/sleeping, and was trying to alert us without alerting everyone else. That didn’t work too well with Bruce and Brian asleep, and me wading up river, so another team did get the jump on us (but we passed them pretty quickly).

We eventually began hiking this trail, pushing the bikes up and up and on and on. From here, for about 5 or 6 miles, the trail was not very ridable. There were only a few sections where we could pedal a bit, before we’d have to stop to climb a tree, or get through some tough mud, etc. After a long time - about 1/3 of the way, we came to a paved road.

Here was another decision point that would affect the entire race. It was clear to us that the passport said to continue on the Allegheny. However, we found later that many teams elected to take the paved roads out, rather then continue pushing bikes along this hiking trail. But we kept pushing and pushing. For many hours! At one point, we did stop to take a 15 minute nap, and Charlie and I also had to refill our water with treated river water. I was also low on food, and had to bum some Fig Newtons off Bruce and Wheat Thins from Charlie.

We eventually came to a small town, and took some paved roads to the rail to trail road. We took that for about 4 miles to CP8, where we arrived at 12:15 p.m. - 11 hours after leaving CP7.

Wildell (CP8) - Camp Pocahontas (TA9)

It was now obvious that the race was somewhat in chaos. The 1 st place team had skipped the 2 nd 2/3rds of CP7-CP8, and many other teams had as well. We were told it took the top teams 4 hours to go from CP8 to TA9, but it was rails to trails and paved road most of the way. We didn’t have many options here since our crew was still at CP9 (where he had been waiting since 2 a.m. ), though some crews had come to CP8. Luckily for some of us, there was a team there that had stopped and was giving a way food. I grabbed some balance bars, cookies, crackers and cheese, Gatorade, etc. What a life-saver since I was out of food!

We made it from CP8 to TA9 in about 3 hours and 15 minutes. At this point, it was 3:30 p.m. , and we knew there was no way we could make it to CP10 by the 5:30 p.m. cut off. I was all for going on the 10 mile trek anyway, rather than stopping, but in the end, the guys convinced me there wasn’t really any point. What really changed my mind was the staff at CP9 really couldn’t help us. He hadn’t seen the race director in 8 hours, and had no idea if there’d even be anyone at CP10 when we’d arrive, or if there was a shorter course we could start, etc.

So we bagged it. We grabbed a couple of hotel rooms, showered, ate, and crashed. In the morning, we went to the Via Ferrata at Nelson rocks, and at least got to do that, which was quite fun.

Epilogue

Since then, this is what we’ve learned. Team Odyssey was given a 12 hour penalty for skipping much of CP7 - CP8, but they still got 1st . NADS was given a 6 hour penalty for using an alternate trail for much of CP7 - CP8, which was apparently much easier than what we did since they completed it in just 6 hours. They were 2nd . No other teams were ranked!

What we can proudly say is that we are the only team that completed the entire course as the passport specified to CP9. In the end, though, that was our undoing. A couple of other teams did the entire course except the section between CP6 and CP7 that was shut down, and I agree that was justified. While not overly dangerous, I’m not so sure having slower teams attempt the river/cliff crossing after dark would have been wise. I do think it added a couple of hours to our time, and we would have been much close to making the CP10 cut-off without that. All the teams that did the complete section between CP7 and CP8 missed the cut-off at CP10.

In addition, we left CP8 just before the RD started sending teams direct to CP10, which would have allowed us to continue on a shortened course. Since our crew was at CP9, and there was literally no communications between CPs, I’m not sure this would have helped us anyway.

It’s disappointing to us that the only teams that got ranked were only able to do so by skipping some of the toughest sections, and therefore they were able to make cut-offs that we could not. No matter how you look at it, the race became a bit of a ‘disaster’ in that sense, and nothing the RD could do would make everyone happy.

However, we still had a great time, and the area the race was held in was phenomenal. There is a ton of potential and with a few tweaks here and there, better communications, and some pre-selected alternate courses, this could be one of the best races on the east coast.

by Brian Thompson - Triangle Adventure Racing Team

The race started at 6:00am with the distribution of maps and passports. Ernie, Charlie and I waited expectantly by our gear as Sean ran back from race HQ with the maps. The first leg turned out to be a small portage to the boat ramp on Blue Ridge Lake followed by a long paddle. Charlie plotted the CPs for the paddling leg while the rest of us got the gear ready. After about 15min we were on our way. We were using Charlie’s canoe, which fortunately was small enough for one person to carry on their shoulders. We rotated during the portage.one person carrying the canoe, one person carrying the paddling gear, one person checking the map. This worked well, but not as well as some of the teams that literally ran by us with their canoes on rollers. We’ll have to remember that little trick for the next race.

At the canoe put-in, you could barely see the light sticks of the lead teams already on the water. Apparently, they took off immediately after receiving the maps and plotted CPs while in the canoes…another useful trick to remember for the next race. We donned our paddling gear, put the boat in the water and quickly hit our paddling stride. All of the paddling CPs were just off the lake shore, giving us a chance to get out of the boat and stretch the legs every once and awhile. We crossed Blue Ridge Lake several times and were pretty much able to hold our position throughout.

After 4 ½ hours of paddling we reached the first transition area in a tie for 7th. Sean had everything ready for the next leg - mountain biking. Charlie plotted the CPs, Ernie fixed a flat, I helped Sean load the canoe on the truck. Pretty routine but we somehow lost 4 positions and left the TA in 11th.

Luckily the rain had held off during the paddle and appeared to be doing the same during the bike. We quickly hit an unmanned CP marking the start of a long uphill single-track leading to the top of Green Mountain. This is where things started to hurt. Ernie and Charlie are both strong on the bike and it ’s far from my strong point. I tried not to hold them back too much, but wound up having to walk several sections. After a short (too short) downhill ride to CP8, the trail headed upward again to Davenport and Rocky Mountains. Again more walking, but surprisingly, only a few teams passed us during this leg. We finally exited the single-track trail at CP9 and continued eastward on paved roads. After just a couple of miles, we turned onto a series of fire roads that seemed to go on forever. At this point I was really dragging. Thankfully, the night before, Charlie had rigged an improvised tow system using a carabiner, runner, elastic cord and, of course, duct tape. Charlie was strong enough to tow me up the hills for the remainder of the
biking leg. After a few of hours of riding we hit CP10, and then eventually CP11, and then finally we rolled into TA2 around 5:30pm and in 9th place.

Sean had snagged a primo spot at the TA and had quite the setup - a roaring fire, tarp to keep the rain off and a steaming pot of raman noodles. After a short rest we headed off on the trekking leg.

At this point our luck with the weather ran out and the slow drizzle had built into a steady rain. Dusk was turning into night and on came the headlamps. The first part of the trek was difficult, heading straight up the Benton-Mackaye Trail to Tooni Mountain. Little John Dick and Big John Dick Mountains soon followed. The elevations at the peaks and along the ridge lines were over 3000ft which made for a very cold, very wet trek. There were several teams leapfrogging each other along this part of the trek. We soon came to the point where we had to bushwhack to CP14. Charlie made an excellent choice of routes and we hit CP14 without any trouble. A short hike along fire roads led us to CP15 from which point we were to bushwhack to CP16. The passport suggested a route that appeared to take us miles out of the way, however the now infamous Mill Creek route offered a prominent hand rail that should have taken us straight to the next checkpoint. We headed off into the wilderness for what would eventually become a 5 ½ hour bushwhack. This particular part of the forest was a combination of thick rhododendron, slick deadfall, steep ravines and treacherous stream crossings. There were so many streams that picking up the one we wanted proved very difficult. We eventually came across Team NADs who was likewise having trouble navigating this part of the course. We collaborated together for maybe an hour and finally went separate ways.only to cross paths with them in another two. After 5 or so hours of stumbling through the woods, I
caught a glimpse of a distant headlamp. After some discussion we figured we would go ask this other team if they had any idea of where they were (because we sure as hell didn’t). As luck would have it, what we thought was a headlamp was in realty a stop sign. And beside the stop sign. CP16. Miraculously, we were in 8th place.

At this point I was really feeling bad.bad enough to want to drop out. Thankfully, Ernie and Charlie convinced me to push through it. Again, both were really strong. Ernie took my pack and Charlie helped me up some of the steeper hills. After a lengthy hike and some more excellent navigation on Charlie’s part, we hit CP17 and then more hiking and finally at 8:30am we hit CP18. The volunteers at CP18 indicated that we would miss the cutoff at TA3 (and thus be forced to drop out) if we continued on the full course to CP19, so the decision was made to proceed directly TA3 on an alternate course. A volunteer at CP18 indicated that it was a short, flat hike back to the TA. It was anything but short and flat. Two hours later, at 10:30am, we arrived at TA3.

Sean as usual had everything ready to go and made sure to keep us on schedule.we only had 30 minutes to transition before the cutoff. We swapped our trekking shoes for bikes and set out on the final biking leg, a short but tortuous ride back to the Start/Finish line. My tank was on empty the whole way. Ernie took up the towing responsibilities as we plodded along backcountry roads. We eventually crossed the finish line at 1:48pm.

All in all it was a very tough but fair race. There were only 20 official finishers out of the 78 teams that started. Of those, only 7 were able to complete the full course. Twelve other teams either missed the final cutoff or finished unofficially. The remaining 46 teams dropped out of the race at some point. We were fortunate enough to be the first team that finished the alternate course and placed 8th overall.

This was my first time racing as a member of a team and it was great having such strong teammates as Ernie and Charlie. A lot of thanks also to Sean for handling all the support duties by himself.

Here are the only two pictures we have from the race, right as the team rides up to the finish line.

October 11-12th, 2003
by Sean Butler

Brian and I raced as team Triangle Adventure Racing, and it was our 1st Rogaine for both of us. We are often found at the local orienteering races tackling the longest, hardest courses, but Rogaines are a bit different. A normal orienteering course has a set order that you follow to reach each control, and the best time wins. A score-o is a timed event in which each control has a different point value based on its distance from the start/finish and its difficulty. The top score wins (and time in is used as a tie breaker). A Rogaine is a 24 hour score-o (though sometimes 8 hour score-o’s are also called Rogaines).

We left Friday morning from NC and drove all the way to just north of Louisville, KY, to the very southern portion of Indiana. We decided to take a back roads highway instead of the interstate, to save about 100 miles, but this proved to be a mistake. The back roads of West Virginia slowed us down as we went through many small towns, got stuck behind slow moving coal trucks, etc. The 9-10 hour drive turned into an almost 12 hour ordeal!

We got up Saturday morning and were surprised to see it was still very dark at 7:30 a.m. as we went to breakfast! This would mean we’d have almost 12 hours of darkness during the race! After breakfast we picked up some groceries and drove to the park — Clark State Forest. We checked in, but had to wait a while to get the maps at 10 a.m.

Once we received the maps and studied them, we realized we would not really have an opportunity to come back to the car area until the very end of the race, so we had to pack enough gear and food for all 24 hours! There was a “hash house” on the far northern section of the course, where we could get drinks and food, and there were several water stations on the course. But I had hoped I’d be able to change shoes at least once!

Most of the big point controls were on the far northern section, so our strategy was to pick up a couple of controls on the way north, and then get as many of the northern ones as we could before heading back south to the finish. As the race started, we discovered that most other teams had the same strategy!

It’s not as easy to write about a Rogaine as an adventure race, since we were basically on our feet in the woods for 24 hours, so I’ll just summarize a few points:

* We should have worn gaiters or long pants. The thorns here were crazy, and we were both cut up very quickly. At one point, I had a very bad burning on my lower legs, which I had to douse with some of my drinking water. I’m guessing it was stinging nettle but I’m not really sure. I also ended up with some kind of rash a few days after the race, and I’m not sure what it was. It was perhaps remnants of the stinging nettle, though my research on that seems to indicate it should have been gone within 24 hours and this actually took 48-72 hours to appear after the race and has lasted for several days. At any rate, I did put on pants about 6 hours into the race, but it was too late by that point.

* At one point the 1st evening, before it got dark, we were 10 - 20 minutes behind a very good team for several hours. We had to sign in at each point, marking the time and the next control you were heading for, so we knew exactly how we were doing compared to them, and we were the 1st 2 teams on this section of the course. This team ended up 3rd, so we know that when we were on, were pretty good.

* We had lots of problems once it got dark. We need to be more careful, always keep pace counts or timing counts, and look at the map constantly. If you get lazy for one minute in the dark, it’s very difficult to keep exact track of where you are.

* We had a few sections that cost us several hours. Some of that was due to darkness, some of it due to laziness, etc. If not for those sections, where we wasted lots of time and in one case could not find a control, we would have done much better.

* My feet were toast by the end. As stated above, I had really hoped to change shoes at some point, but the course design didn’t really make that feasible. Part of the problem is that I’m not crazy about any of the shoes I have right now. My old reliable Salomon Wind Raids, that I used for several years, were just too old and I had to toss them. I haven’t found anything as comfortable since. I did change socks a few times, and that helped, but not enough!

We finished the course with about 10-20 minutes to spare, and Brian was right — we probably could have gotten 2 more low point controls on the way in and made it, but I was so worried that we’d miss the noon finish and incur high point penalties because I was not able to run at that point that we skipped them. We were totally amazed that 2 teams finished the whole course and got all controls, one in 22 hours and one in 23 hours, 59 minutes, and 30 seconds (barely beating the cut off). We got just over 1/2 of the controls, and skipped an entire quadrant of the course. A few days later Brian used a map wheel to show that we had covered around 40 miles, but the terrain in this park was quite steep, so our elevation change was probably very high!

We ended up 10th out of 15 teams in the open division, and about 20th out of 45 overall. It should be noted that this was the National Championship, so a lot of teams traveled a long distance to race. There were teams from CO, NY, NJ, WA, etc., that all converged on Indiana. For our 1st Rogaine, we are not really disappointed with how we fared. We learned a lot, learned what we need to practice, etc., and will be back for more.

After the awards the plan was to get some food, drive for a few hours until we got too tired, get a hotel, and continue in the morning. We ended up driving all the way home — all 10 hours, and got to my house around 11:00 p.m. By the time we got really tired, we were only a couple hours from home, so we made it somehow. Probably not very smart, but we did it anyway and lived to tell about it. I had not slept at all during the race (Brian only rested/slept for a few minutes), and I didn’t sleep in the car while Brian drove. I tried once, but we were on windy mountain roads, and just couldn’t do it. So I was up for about 41 hours with no sleep! Not quite my record but close.

I must say, for me, this has been one of the hardest races to recover from. My feet were pretty shot, and all my callous pads peeled off from my blisters. I got an awful rash on my legs and arms. I was very tired for a few days. I had a muscle strain/pull on the back of my left knee, etc. However, I still had a great time and will do more Rogaines!!

by Sean Butler

We formed team “Triangle - ART” this summer, and this was our first chance to race together. The team is a group of 5 guys that team up as possible in various races. Charlie and I raced the FL coast to coast with two Floridians this year, and Bruce and I raced the Triangle AR in the spring. But neither of those were under the new moniker. The other members are Brian and Ernie. All 5 of us helped put on a joint AR clinic with RAD for new racers a few weeks before this race. We had over 40 racers turn out, and we covered AR gear, very basic 1st aid with help from another Brian, paddling instruction, orienteering, etc. We also gave away lots of free samples of Hammer Gel, Sustained Energy, and Endurolytes — thanks to Hammer Nutrition!!

On race day, Brian raced solo and Bruce, Ernie and myself formed a 3 person male team. I was coming off a nasty summer cold, so I wasn’t really sure how well I could do. Ernie was leaving two days later for the expedition length Subaru Primal Quest with some Canadian teammates, which was his big race for the year.

The race started around 11 a.m., and it was EXTREMELY hot. We had a bit of a special test — to blow up a kayak seat, at a mass start, then had to run into the transition area (TA), put our bike seats and front tires on, and headed out on the 1st mountain bike leg. We were one of the 1st 10 teams or so out, and we took off. Bruce and Ernie are strong bikers, and with me still suffering from a cold, it was very hard for me to keep up with them, so they had to slow down for me. We held our own though, and passed a few teams as well as got passed by a few.

We got back to the TA which was mostly empty of bikes (which meant we were doing well), and headed out for a long run and orienteering section. There was some confusion as to whether we’d be coming back to the TA before the paddle so we grabbed our life jackets and started running. This turned out to be unnecessary as we did return to the TA. On the run, I really started having trouble to breathe due to my still congested lungs, and it was very hot. I walked most of the up hill sections, and we did get passed by a few teams. We ended up not doing too well on the orienteering controls. We had picked one up on the 1st bike section and did get two on the run (after a bit of confusion), but we ended up leaving one. We decided to get it on the 2nd mountain bike leg later rather than back track very far on foot to find it.

We got back to the TA and headed out on the water. The 1st two soloists were just coming in off the very short paddle, and we looked out on the water to see perhaps 10 to 12 boats (just a small number of soloists and teams), so we were still doing ok. However, it was not clear how many of these teams had all of the orienteering controls and how many would have to go back out like us!

We quickly paddled the out and back course and headed towards the special tests. At this point we realized the top 3 all male teams (including us) were within 1 minute of each other, but as Bruce got out of the boat, his leg cramped. We got through the two tests (Ernie had to carry me on his back for 1/4 mile or so while Bruce carried a pole, and then we had to get a center block across a gap without touching anything in the gap using a pole), and headed toward the TA for the last mountain bike section.

We were still within a minute or so of the other 2 male teams, but at this point, Bruce’s cramps took on epic proportions. I was amazed he could continue, but we struggled through the this section as best we could. At one point, we were going to go for the last control, which was much further away than we had anticipated, but I got a flat tire and Bruce was still hurting, so we decided to call it a day. I ran/walked my bike in the last 1/2 mile or so.

We ended up 5th out of 15 male teams despite all the issues we had. I quickly packed up my gear and head out to Fayetteville, where I was meeting Kelly. We were heading to the beach for our 1st weekend away without Riley, as my sister Donna was going to watch her.

by Sean Butler

I teamed up with Bruce Dale for this race, a local NC racer with a strong AR background. We had trained several times together over the past year or so since Kelly and I moved back to NC, but had never raced together. This race had a recreational division as well as a competitive division, the only difference being about 4 more miles of paddling for the competitive groups. However, we did find that the courses were actually much different as well on the morning of the race.

The race start was delayed, as there were some issues with the rented boats that were being brought in. Once that was resolved, the recreational groups got underway with some staggered starts, as they ran off towards the boats. They were to run to the boats, and paddle around to a boat drop, which is where the competitive races that did not bring their own boats could pick up the rentals. Bruce and I had already dropped off our boat, my Dad’s tandem kayak, at this point a little earlier.

The competitive 4 person division soon started, and then 5 to 10 minutes later, the competitive pairs started, followed by the soloists. We had a short 50 yard dash or so to our bikes, and then headed out on the bike course. Bruce was 1st onto the trails, and I had to pass one racer right at the start before I was behind him. We soon built a pretty good lead of 1 to 2 minutes, and eventually passed one of the 4 person teams.

Bruce looked like he was out for a Sunday stroll, while I struggled to keep up with his strong pace. But with about 2 miles to go, a stick caught his rear derailleur and bent it between his spokes. We had to use a stick and a lot of force to pry it out — I was worried it was going to snap right off! Meanwhile, one of the teams behind us caught up and passed us. We were soon back on the bikes, but Bruce had a few more problems shifting, and another team passed us. Once we got everything straight, Bruce was stuck with a single speed for the rest of the bike leg, but we were still able to catch the other teams, though we never did build a lead again.

Unfortunately, we missed the turn for the transition and probably rode 2 or 3 extra minutes before we realized it. One of the two teams was with us, while the other one did not miss the turn. Bruce and I headed back over the trails to the TA, while the other team must have jumped on the roads. On the way back, we saw the 3rd team, and knew we had lost several minutes.

We quickly dropped our bikes and ran towards the boats. Once we got under way, we could see the 1st place team ahead of us in a canoe. We knew we had a big advantage in the kayak. We paddled about a mile or so to a boat drop, and actually pulled in just as the lead team was taking off on foot.

This section was a long (6 or 7 mile) orienteering leg. The map was a 1:24,000 vs. a 1:10,000 like I am used to for orienteering, so it was not nearly as detailed. We had trouble with the 1st control and decided we’d get it on the way back. At the 2nd control flag, the lead team came up and had already found the 1st. We then ran with them towards the 3rd, and eventually caught the lead 4 person team. We then were all together as we ran through the woods finding the next two flags. We all had trouble with the last one, and even when we saw the four person team take off and we knew they had found it, we still couldn’t locate it! We eventually did, as other teams were catching up. Unfortunately, I was a few hundred yards away from the control and everyone else was closer, so the other teams did get a big jump on us.

Bruce and I made the decision to head back into the woods for more bushwhacking, even though the other teams headed out on the roads, which looked to be longer, though easier. We bushwhacked for some time as we tried to make our way back to the 1st control which we still had not found. We again had a lot of problems with this one, and this is when I decided the map scale must be off! We eventually found the control at a lake about 3/4’s of a mile in-land from the big lake, even though the map scale indicated it should only be 1/4 in-land!

After that, we ran back to the boat drop and jumped in, for the final 4 or 5 mile paddle. We were disappointed that we didn’t really see any other teams in front of us for quite some time, though we eventually did pass a soloist. We finished the paddled and had a portage of about 3/4 of a mile, which we knew was going to be tough with Dad’s heavy (88 lbs) boat. The fast kayak gave us a big advantage in the water, but was a big disadvantage on land! We struggled through the portage, and had a running sprint of a hundred yards or so to the finish line.

We came in 3rd in the competitive 2 man division, and probably 5 or 6th overall. The times on the board were time of day, not total time, so it was a bit hard to tell exactly where we were overall, because the start times had not been exact or recorded! Either way, we had raced for about 2.5 hours, and finished about 10 or 12 minutes behind the lead 2 man team. We were a bit disappointed in that we had mechanical and navigational mistakes, but 3rd place was enough $$ to cover our entrance fee. When we got the envelope and opened it, we felt better — it’s always great to race for free!